Inglourious Basterds

soooo excited for this movie :)

Stephen Althouse, Photographer of the Day

Stephen Althouse is a photographer that I've blogged about before when I was researching graduate school professors.  His work is best described on his website :  "Althouse collects or makes objects that relate to significant life events. Experiences and interactions with other people, which are founded upon the extreme positive or negative attributes of humankind, often serve as catalysts for his visual expression of life. He combines found or fabricated objects into cryptic assemblages and then photographs the assemblages onto large format film. He now scans his film, subtly enhancing and modifying his images on the computer in preparation for large scale digital archival printing. Lacing his images with visual autobiographical narrative themes that recur and criss-cross throughout his images, Althouse creates a unique enigmatic visual language of personal symbols and metaphors."

From his Tools & Shrouds series:

Shoe, 2006

Bridle, 2003

Bridle detail

I can't get over how perfect this detail shot is.  I used to work on a horse farm and this image captures the actual way an old, used bridle feels.  

Clamps, 2003

I think these two clamp images work beautifully together.  

Clamps & Shroud, 2003

Rake I, 2003

From the Shrouds series:

Chartres, 2002

Dart, 2001

Mask VI, 1999

These photos are gorgeous- the crisp, sharp details are completely seductive.  And I adore his subject matter.  I think this comes heavily from the fact that he and I were both raised in rural Pennsylvania and many of his subjects display that.  The textures add a lot to that as well.  

Kiwi

i heart gorgeous animations :)

In the spirit of Ash Wednesday...

I've been posting a lot about tattoos lately; I can't help it, I've just got them on the brain. I want my next one to get started so badly- it's definitely going to be the Virgin Mary one down my side. I'm pretty sure I know what I want, but I don't have it drawn out yet- I'm waiting to meet with the artist and have them draw it up. However, each of the images below have parts that I would want in mine.

Mine, like this one, is going to be based off the Miraculous Metal, a symbol heavily worn among Catholics.  The metal is based off of an apparition of Mary that occurred in 1830 when she was seen wearing an ivory gown with a blue mantle and a white veil.  She stood with her arms out like she is above but had light radiating down from them.  She was also stepping on the head of a serpent.  The blue used above is waay too bright and overall I don't really like how the tattoo is done, but you get the idea.

In the one above and below I really like the radiating lines behind her.  Mine's gonna be all done in color but I do love the clouds in the one above.  I like how the one below doesn't used black lines to outline the radiating parts; could do without the stars though.  I also really like the roses at the bottom of it.  I want mine to be a full-body image, not cut off like these, and I want the serpent to be seen at her feet.  Between the roses at her feet and the radiating lines above and behind her, I want the overall tattoo to be in a oval shape with Mary in the center.  

I love the overall composition of this one and its really well done.

These last two are just gorgeous.  Not really at all what I'm going for, but they're extremely well done and I had to share them.  

All images are from Religious Tattoos.

BMORE 09

This was my latest project for my photo book class- original photographs were taken by Erick Sealfon, design by me.  Its about 10 inches tall by 4 feet wide so I worked it into an accordian style book.  Lemme know what you think.

Photographer of the Day

So I'm thinking of trying this whole "Photographer of the Day" thing on my blog.  I love posting and I love finding new photographers so I think its something that I could do and keep up with.  At the very least, it'll be like the photographer of the week.  Anyway, first photographer is Jerry Spagnoli.  A lot of his work is in daguerreotypes, which I have a small obsession for, but his are contemporary and some are abstract and I love combining the old process with new ideas.  All of his work is great, so go check out his website to see more of it.  Below are my favorites.  

Brandon Boyd

Brandon Boyd's illustrations are amazing. He's published two books, White Fluffy Clouds Vol. 1, and From the Murks of the Sultry Abyss. I have White Fluffy Clouds and I adore it. There aren't too many images online for me to post on here besides the ones I have listed, but if you go to his website you can get a much better idea of what he's capable of. Oh, did I mention he's also the lead singer/song writer of Incubus? Looooove it :)

I'm so ready for my next tattoo

I've been craving a new tattoo lately and because of this I've been looking through a bunch of different artists' work and I stumbled upon Rob Conroy, the guy that did my first tattoo.  He's come a long way from when he tattooed me about 2 and a half years ago; he was more or the less the low guy on the totem pole back then and now he's the senior artist at Wizards World III (he originally tattooed me at Wizard's One).  His strengths are definitely in his color work, but his black and white is gorgeous too.  Everyone should go check out his myspace for more pics.  

Love the placement of this one, love how the lines of the hand interacts with the tattoo.

Jack & Bev's

Last week, in my Photo Book class, we took a "surprise" field trip and ended up at Jack Wilgus' house.  To say the very least, the entire class was extremely excited.  Jack has one of the best and largest photography collections imaginable.  You name it, and he has 4 of them, all in perfect condition.  Books, camera, photos, novelty items, everything photo and camera related.  Not only does he own these things, but he can talk about each item for an hour.  The man's a genius.  Everyone should go check out his website, Bright Bytes Studio.  The images below are my favorites from his website.  

Family & Racing

This is the very start of my newest race car series.  I went through all of my old negatives and pulled out the ones where the driver's family's presence was really noticeable.  These are definitely not going to be seen in the final series cause I'm planning on shooting that in color medium format, but they open the door to what I'm going to be showing in the final series.  

Soledad Salame

We visited Soledad Salame's home and studio today in Professional Practices and I loved her work.  Not only was it impressive and beautiful, but to hear her talk about how it connects with nature as well as how the process of the pieces means so much to her made it that much better.  Go check out more of her stuff here.  You won't be disappointed.  

PP4VA Week 3

Ok, ok, I know the picture of me isn't the best but I completely forgot I needed one so it's gonna do for now.  Tell me what you think of the bio- it's just a rough sketch for now.  

Jess Kemp is a photographer that currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland. Born in 1988 in Reading, Pennsylvania, her strong love of her home can be seen in the majority of her work. She'll be receiving her BFA in photography from Maryland Institute College of Art in the spring of 2010. Jess photographs just about everything but prefers broken-down, overgrown places in nature as well as people and places close to her home in Pennsylvania. From November to December 2008 Jess had a solo show at the Gateway Gallery on MICA's campus titled Fricks Lock. In her spare time, she works in book arts as well as fibers and textiles.

Stevie Monie

Stevie Monie out of Pinz & Needlez Tattoo & Body Piercing is an absolute sick tattoo artist.  Justin showed me his site earlier- love his work.  He has over 140 tattoos on his site, so go check it out.  The shop isn't too far away either, so keep that in mind the next time you want some ink.

Plaza

Awesome graffiti behind Plaza.  I was surprised and happy to see it.