Equine Photography Workshop in Jackson Hole with Tony Stromberg

I'm hoping to participate in this AMAZING workshop next summer, and pursue my dream of equine photography. However, it's a little expensive. If you can spare any money, I'd love your help!

• Tony Stromberg: http://tonystromberg.com/workshops/equine-photography-in-wyoming
• DONATE: http://www.gofundme.com/5hd4dc

Theoretical Positions Response

I liked the idea of doing this through bullet points rather than a paragraph. Consider it artistic liberty.

The following are theoretical positions within photography:

• Realism and conventionalism
• "Does photography get closer to the truth than do painting and other forms of representation?" Two answers: realism and conventionalism.
• Realism: Include Dominique François Arago, Daguerre, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. Photography is the best medium through which to portray reality. Photography gave credibility to writings (e.g. Life magazine). What is portrayed in a photo was really there at one point in time - it cannot be fantasy because it actually existed. Uniquely transparent.
• "Few people realize that the meaning of a photograph can be changed completely by the accompanying caption, by its juxtaposition with other photographs, or by the manner in which people and events are photographed." - Gisèle Freund
• Conventionalism: Include Joel Snyder, Ernst Gombrich, Nelson Goodman, etc. Photography is no more better than any other medium because of "our ignorance of the historical developments in the invention and refinement of photography" (Joel Snyder). The methods seem natural to us now, but each way of taking a picture has been invented. Viewers are unaware of the representational system within their own culture. In addition, nowadays pictures are constantly being edited and tweaked, then completely transformed with programs like Photoshop.
• When I first read the argument of realism, I was in full support. After all, a photograph is a photograph. It really WAS there. But then I read the conventionalism point of view, and it reminded me of all the things we do to alter photos. Even if they are small, insignificant tweaks - the fact is, they are still tweaks. More so than the invention of photography or refinement of it, I think it is the manipulation that I've seen and done myself that convinces me that photography is not as "real" as we may think.
• Modernism and postmodernism
• "Early modernity is characterized intellectually by a belief that science could save the world and that, through reason, a foundation of universal truths could be established." Includes: democracy, capitalism, industrialization, science, urbanization
• Postmodernity rejects modernism. Seeks a just and egalitarian society. Emancipation from poverty, despotism, and ignorance. It is much less positive than modernism. Deconstruction guards against modernism.
• Michael Foucault: "knowledge is power that is too often used by a powerful few to impose their ideas of what they consider to be right and true on the majority"
• Modernism: 'work'. Individual at the center of the universe. Postmodernism: 'text'. Self is merely an effort of language, social relations, and the unconscious.
• Not really sure which one I prefer, except I really do prefer to be more optimistic, thankyouverymuch.

• More specifically in photography
• Modern: fashion photography < art photography. Desire to keep photography pure. Symbolist over narrative, realism over instrumentalism.
• Postmodern: exemplifies the political, cultural, and psychological experience of a society. content over form. Possibilities for mass-produced image with the knowledge of mechanical reproduction. Readily adaptable.
• Marxist theory
• critical social documentary, ordinary cultural artifact. words are needed to go beyond what the photograph itself offers.
• "Photography deals with surface appearances, and surfaces obscure rather than reveal the actual complex social relations that underlie appearances."
• So, Marxist theory is all about exposing corruption, and Marxism believes that photography hides rather than exposes. Though why, I'm still a little unsure.
• Feminist theory
• "Instead of changing the system, get women access." 
• "Sex is different than gender." Sex is what you are biologically ascribed. Gender is a sociocultural (political according to the article) construct that is used to define what a man or woman should be. The article says this is because of a hierarchical model: it is always better to be one thing over another. This gender construct is commonly one of the obstacles for those with gender dysphoria.
• "Feminism is instrumental." The article says to be feminist is a political choice - to resist and change the status quo.
• Photography and politics can not be divorced from each other. I can't help but agree. What influences a person's thought is going to influence his or her art, because art is a representation, even abstractly, of ourselves. Barbara DeGenevieve points out that art shows what was important in that time. By leaving out women, we insinuate that women were not important in society. When they are portrayed, it is from what men desire women to be, and what place in society, culture, and ethics men have ascribed to them.

Why would you give us such a long reading right before break? For shame....

"Look Between the Ears"

Look Between the Ears by Lauren Thompson | Make Your Own Book

Final Artist Statement

“Look Between the Ears” is a body of work based off of my passion for horses. I’ve always loved horses, and photography is a beautiful and powerful medium through which I portray them. I enjoy everything about horses: their movement, personalities and intelligence, and their strength, grace, and beauty. I found similar purpose with Tony Stromberg’s and Irene Suchocki’s photographic work. They both captured photographs of horses still and in motion, portraying all the attributes that I hope to portray someday in my art.

With these images I sought to find something deeper within myself that is why I constantly desire to photograph horses. I sought to capture a feeling that I experience when I ride: a sense of power and freedom, the wind blowing through my hair as we move and conquer the world together.

One image in particular, “Flight”, captured these feelings, where you can truly see the motion and activity through his flying and swirling mane, which is just what I had aimed to capture. I believe that this image especially translates that feeling of freedom that may otherwise be inaccessible to people who do not or cannot ride horses.

I hope that with this body of work, viewers may experience the world anew from horseback, and see and feel what I do, what the horse does. Perhaps, then, a narrative can be created from the images within these pages.

Lauren Thompson

November 2013

Artist Statement I Like

Tony Stromberg
http://tonystromberg.com/

After successfully spending over 20 years as a high-end advertising photographer in San Francisco, I found myself disenchanted, burned out, and ultimately receiving no nourishment from the work I was doing.  On the outside, I had everything anyone would want, but my inner landscape was barren and I began “searching” for my lost spirit.

When horses came into my life in the mid-1990’s, I realized that I had found my teachers, and the connection that I have developed with horses has helped steer my life in a completely different direction. Horses have taught me so much in the time that I have spent with them. They have taught me about the power of authenticity, honestly, and integrity, and they have taught mew the true meaning of leadership and relationship. They have also taught me about living in collaboration and community, rather than the model that our society embodies, which is about competition and “getting ahead of the rest”.

I feel my work is an homage to the equine spirit, and to the archetypal role they play in our lives. This is why I always photograph them without riders, saddles, bits, bridles or any other device that would interfere with their pure essence.

After publishing my first 2 books “Spirit Horses” and “The Forgotten Horses”, I am working on a new book which is my latest collection of photography, but will also include text about the role horses play for us as teachers and healers, and the profound lessons they provide for us… if we are willing to listen.

"Who Cares About Books?" - Reading Response

Reading Response
"Who Cares About Books?" - Darius Himes

Himes's article is both interesting and easily digestible. One of my favorite parts was when he talked about whether or not books would disappear (the answer is no), and how he gave an example of a child talking about his or her favorite bedtime book: no one ever mentions their favorite PDF. The wonderful thing about books is that they are more accessible than exhibitions - they are portable, and be viewed in whatever order and multiple times, and are easily shared. Photography as a medium lends itself to book format: it is 2D, easily printable and resizable. Some photographs are taken with the intention of being displayed in a book, not an exhibition - which I find completely fascinating. I would think that many people would love to see their artwork in a gallery. But then, I guess you can reach more people through a book, and while the gallery may end, the book will always exist. Himes reminds us that books should enhance and complement the photos that are contained in it, so that it isn't just a book with photos in it, but that the book itself becomes a work of art. I think that this is something that should be kept in mind as we use Blurb for our books, because we have the opportunity to truly make our beautiful within the pages of a book. This article was really interesting, and I appreciated how relevant it was to our current work.

Extra Credit Assignment

I couldn't seem to get my aperture to be any greater than f11. Since I couldn't get to f22, I just used another aperture setting instead (f3.6).

Aperture Manipulation (Part 1)

Foreground - f3.6, Shutter Speed 1/250 s

Foreground - f5.6, Shutter Speed 1/60 s

Foreground - f11, Shutter Speed 1/10 s

Background - f3.6, Shutter Speed 1/80 s

Background - f5.6, Shutter Speed 1/40 s

Background - f11, Shutter Speed 1/10 s

Shutter Speed Manipulation (Part 2)

f3.6, Shutter Speed 1/250 s

f7.1, Shutter Speed 1/60 s

f11, Shutter Speed 1/15 s

f11, Shutter Speed 1/15 s - Moving with the Object