Due to the current COVID-19 Pandemic situation affecting everyone’s day-to-day lives, my final project had to change significantly since it was originally conceived. Due to travel restrictions between Ontario and Québec, I was limited to what I could shoot.
I decided to focus on a theme combining shapes, lines and architecture, while including a few shots that included vehicles as a reference back to the theme of my midterm project. I wanted to try something different for this and try to capture a different tone from my previous work. To do this, I used a combination of filters in Lightroom as well as trying one of the ‘Creative Modes’ in my Canon 80D camera.
All of the images were captured in Montebello, Québec on our property located just outside of the town. I think the intended dark and vintage tone worked very well for the locations that were captured.
My artwork, whether it be
photography or film, often looks at nature and wildlife photography as well as aspects
that revolve around the world of motorsports. In my nature work, I often use my
drone to capture both photographs and videos from unique and interesting
perspectives that would not otherwise be an option. Growing up in a small town
in Northern Canada, I spent most of my childhood outdoors which gave me an
appreciation of the world we live in. When working within the world of motorsports,
I often try to focus on the individuals involved in the action rather than the
vehicles and setting itself.
While originally wanting to
focus on the individuals associated with the CU Boulder Racing Team for my
midterm assignment, the pandemic that is the COVID-19 virus threw a wrench in my
plans as the team is no longer meeting to work on the vehicles. As a second
option, I decided to focus on and photograph different aspects of the three
current vehicles associated with the CU Boulder Racing Team. Despite not being my
first choice of main subject, I hoped that I would be able to show more than
just what a person sees of the car from the outside by photographing things
such as different motors, frames, and internal brake parts.
I plan on building upon this
project for my final assignment once I return home by continuing to photograph
different aspects and disciplines of motorsport, including karting and stock
cars (COVID-19 restrictions permitted of course). I am surrounded by go-karts daily
as I both work at a local kart track and race them competitively back home and
will be driving a NASCAR stock car soon which will give me access for
photography.
I intend to continue using the
same equipment as I typically do for photography work which is my drone and
GoPro to give unique angles.
For my first attempt at my evidence
assignment I wanted to focus on what is left behind by us as humans and college
students, specifically the messes and garbage we see around us in everyday
life. I shot at four locations; my house, our race shop, a church parking lot,
and my girlfriend’s house, although I only used the photos from the two apartments
as they fit best with the theme.
After reviewing all of my photos, I made the decision to narrow my theme down to solely interior shots as those turned out the best and were the most consistently lit and coloured. If I was to do this again, I would spend a lot more time planning out my shoots to ensure that the weather and natural lighting outside worked to my benefit and not against me.
I often like to include some form of progression in my photo series but did not in this case, each photo (minus the last two) are unrelated from each other. In doing so, I tried to include at least one photo from each distinct area of a college student’s typical apartment – i.e. the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. I think this idea worked well.
I would like to continue this project and series over Spring break and the upcoming summer when I return back home to Canada and shift the focus towards abandonment. On our ranch there are a number of interesting and now abandoned old buildings, barns, and even an old cult headquarters, that would make extremely interesting photo subjects if given the time they deserve.
I really enjoyed watching and interacting with the story of Pine Point. It was by far my favourite of the reading response articles this semester. From a technical standpoint, I really liked the way the information was presented in this interactive story fashion, which allowed the viewer to progress through at a pace that felt right to them. Another aspect I really enjoyed was the choice of soundtrack, it works perfectly for the pace and type of content and really added to the story. I also really appreciated the selection of photos used for the project, they all felt very natural and unedited, which I really enjoyed. It felt like I was going through an old family photo album.
For me, there was a lot of personal connection with the story and photos from Pine Point, as I spent a lot of my childhood in a small Northern Quebec town called Kipawa (population 474), which bordered the slightly larger mill-town of Témiscaming (population 2,385). The town was small; it had a hockey rink, a Tim Hortons, and a main drag (grocery store, bank, Canada Post, and a Home Hardware). Despite being on the decline with the mill downsizing, the town has mostly stayed the same. While the younger generation has all moved on and out, the older generation remains, to the point where everyone knows everyone. The photos I included were all found online of the small town of Kipawa and its neighbouring Témiscaming, Quebec. Next time I return home I will go through our old family albums and scan and upload our photos of the towns.
Old photo of Kipawa main drag. Only the very square white building with the angled dock and the farthest right building remain.Témiscaming main drag. The bank still remains.
The Tembec pulp and paper mill.
KIpawa Bait and Tackle – Still around today. I’m pretty sure (not 100%) that the farthest right boat with the red top was my grandpa’s old boat. I spent many nights on that thing. They sold it after a nearby heart attack / drowning incident that they were present for (I don’t remember the whole story).Hunter’s Point. An old village on Lake Kipawa that was originally set up in the 1800s by the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company as a trading post. Has long since been abandoned but is seasonally occupied by Wolf Lake First Nation’s people. When the damn was built to create the lake the area was all sent underwater.
Beginning with the
interview featuring Devin Allen about life in Baltimore, I really enjoyed reading
it and learning Allen’s story. From this very short interview, it is extremely
clear that Allen’s work in his photobook A Beautiful Ghetto is very
close to his heart. While the photos included in the interview transcript do
not necessarily tell a continued story, it is obvious that each is worth well
over 1,000 words. Despite being such simple photos, looking at the small
details tell a huge story, which I find really interesting. One thing I find
intriguing about Allen’s work is the fact that it is super raw in a sense. By
that I am referring to the fact that he is not the type of photographer who
goes out and takes a thousand photos of the same subject, and instead tries to
set-up each shot to only need to take it once, which is very difficult to do
with how fast-past his subject matter is.
Moving on to the article about Chip Thomas’ work in Arizona, the main interesting takeaway I found was the fact that his project was a collaboration of many street artists, not just his own work. I feel doing this helped the project gain greater respect by both the locals and critics as it is the combined work of many minds, and not that of a single one. I’m not entirely sure what the text on the artwork is, but if it is what it I think it is (story of the individual), that is a really nice touch and gives a name to the face, which I feel is very important to tell the story that Thomas and crew are trying to tell.
The photos I included this week all go along with the theme of Allen’s work in A Beautiful Ghetto as they are natural feeling single shots (albeit with a little more happiness and joy then in Allen’s work) that I took last summer while working in India. (Side note – these photos were not all taken on the same day, our luggage got lost in transit so the group wore the same two outfits for nine days)
For my lighting and colour assignment project I took portraits of my girlfriend Kelley. My goal for this project was to use a single artificial source of light and place it in different locations around a dark room to emphasize different directions of split lighting. Overall, the photos could have turned out better if I had used a better light source and if I had the ISO turned down lower.
Starting first with the behind the scenes article by Lauren Greenfield, I found it very interesting how Greenfield did not start her photographic career shooting her own culture considering how she wanted to shoot other cultures. Another aspect I found very interesting about this article as well as photography as a hold is how very simple photos often have a greater impact than photos with a large production value. The photo of Mijanou and friends gives the aesthetic as if it was just randomly shot, rather than a planned shoot or series.
Moving on to the second article, Toni Morrison’s
The Fisherwomen, the biggest and first question that comes to mind is
who exactly was the fisherwomen? Was she an imagined being by the writer, or as
suggested, was she completely lying about her identity and character? In my
opinion, the answer to that debate is the first option, the fisherwomen being
an imagined character. I feel that way because even if she had lied about her
identity, there should have been at least a single individual who recognized
her description rather than not one having ever seen or heard of a character who
would appear to be unmissable.
For my photos attached to this reading response
I wanted to focus on the National Geographic ‘foreign’ aspect of the article by
Greenfield. Nature and wildlife photography is something I really enjoy doing. Each
of the five photos I uploaded were taken on past trips to Africa. Some were
taken in Kenya while the others taken in South Africa:
As landscape and nature photography are two disciplines I really enjoy
shooting, I really enjoyed reading these assigned articles. Looking first at
the transcribed interview with Bryan Schutmaat and his photo-series, Grays
The Mountain Sends, I really enjoy and appreciate the work that went into
telling his story. I find it really interesting how Schutmaat used a wide
variety of photography styles such as nature and portrait to capture the
emotions wanted in the series. Relating this reading back to the work we’ve done
in class to date, I really enjoyed the workshop and demo on single light
portrait photography. Portraits are always something I’ve wanted to learn how
to shoot well using artificial light and I’m glad I now know how to. The
reading also reminded me of home slightly as I grew up in a farming community
in small-town Northern Ontario in a village that is past its glory years as the
towns shot at in the series.
Looking at the second article about Reshaping Robert Adams’ Landscape, I once again really enjoyed the variety in his photo series. I am most likely incorrect, but I feel like it is not very often you see a single theme photo series with such variety. You have portraits, landscape shots, nature shots, civilization, etc. Another aspect I like about this photo series is its proximity to our location. A majority of the photos were shot in Colorado and in places that I have visited. One thing that would be very nice would be to know the exact locations of where the photos were taken in order to compare them to what we would see today.
The photos I included are all photos (and two videos) that I have either taken or are related to me in some way that these readings reminded me of. I couldn’t decide on five so I included a few more.
For my first assignment, the Motion Assignment, I wanted to focus on a theme surrounding cars and the CU Boulder Racing Team as it is something I am passionate about. As this is a theme I enjoy working on, I plan on continuing this assignment throughout the semester to try and better learn how to work with long exposure photos and timelapses.
