shadow chasers

12/31/2010

1/7/2012

notice the lack of snow...it was almost 60 degrees!

both photos were shot in the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation

I took a photo yesterday that was almost identical to one I took almost a year ago.  I didn't realize it at the time.  I take photos of shadows a lot.  It is actually one of the assignments I gave my students when I taught a photography class a few summers ago and I remember having been given the assignment in photo class myself many years ago.  Shadows are made from light and are things we see everyday, but there is something very intriguing about them as a photographer and artist.   Photographers have always paid very close attention to light and many noteworthy photographers have recorded remarkable shadows on film.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Kenneth Josephson

Lee Frielander 

Lee Frielander 

Andre Kertesz

Gilles Peress

Ralph Steiner

Henri Cartier-Bresson

For photo sources/links, please check out my pinterest gallery Shadows

the challenge

I shared this photo with Tom for his 1st photo...It 's a family portrait 9/25/11

There are many challenges in everyday life.  One I find I come across more often than not is the constant struggle to create art in my everyday life.  I consider myself a working artist, however most days I feel I work more than I make personal art.  Last year I did give myself the "challenge" of entering and completing The Sketchbook Project.  I had a great time participating and welcomed the challenge...however I have to be honest and admit, a little part of me has been missing my sketchbook.  I will definitely have to go visit it now that the books have returned to the Brooklyn Art Library's permanent collection.  While on vacation last week, my husband Tom was showing me one of  the latest i Phone apps he had downloaded called Photo365.  We are both photographers, he is as a professional photographer and I have a degree in photography where it has now become a favorite hobby more than a profession, but never the less, we are both usually snapping away with some kind of camera, and many times, it is with our i Phones.  So there we were looking at our i Phone photos of the day and decided, wouldn't it be a great challenge to do Photo365 together!  We decided to make the official "start" date our 7 year anniversary, and then go for a year and see what we each come up with.  I even added it to our "shared" calendar so each day at noon an alarm goes off  on our i Phones to remind us to take our daily photo.  Last night Tom told me it is much harder to "do this" now that we are no longer on vacation...I do agree.  However I feel that makes it even more of a challenge.  Maybe some days will not have a photo, and that is ok too. What I see is most important is to at least try to find some time where you can look, feel or find some inspiration to help create art for yourself, then the rest can all fall into place.  Sometimes just making the commitment is the challenge in itself.

This is my 1st photo...9/25/11

Katie, over at Adventures of an Art Teacher talks about setting goals in art as well and about the Project 365 in 2010.  I "googled" Project 365 and found that there are many photographers and Flickr sites out there where photographers have been taking daily photos and recording them, some better than others.  I think it is often a great idea for recording a pregnancy, aging of your children, progress of a garden,  or even the growth of animals. I am definitely looking forward to Tom's and mine.  

Has anyone else started a new and interesting challenge? 

my proud mom moment

This past Friday marked the end of my second session of teaching photography classes at SUNY Purchase this summer.  This session was a 4 week, pre college course for high school students interested in developing technical and aesthetic skills in photography, using both digital and 35mm cameras.  The kids did an amazing job during the 4 weeks learning to use their film and digital cameras.  They also learned how to develop film and print in the darkroom and edit their photos with Adobe Photoshop in the mac lab .  In the final days, they learned to edit, mount and hang their work for the group exhibit.  After all the work was up on the walls, I had a true proud mom moment and gushed to tell them how impressed I was to see the finished product.  They really did an excellent job from start to finish over the few weeks we spent together and it could most definitely be seen in the stellar exhibit they presented.

    students made invitations to invite their friends and family to the exhibit

each student had individual portfolio reviews with myself and the co-teacher for the class together, to help edit work for the show

exhibit space ready for guests to arrive!

a guest arrived with invitation in hand!

each student wrote an artist's statement to accompany their work...

they included digital and darkroom prints; as well as a book made digitally using Adobe Photoshop

people really liked looking through the books!

till next summer...

featured photographer

While I was researching and preparing for the summer photography classes I am teaching, I came across this astonishing photographer named Helen Levitt.  I included some of her photographs in the PowerPoint I was making for the students about documentary photography.  I can't believe I don't remember learning about her when I was a student at RISD !  Looking further for information about this notable artist, I noticed that Helen had a brilliant eye for photography and an overwhelming body of work.  I find so many of her photographs inspiring...I hope you do too - enjoy ♥