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....

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

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

"Remembering and Forgetting Conceptual Art" - Reading Response

"Remembering and Forgetting Conceptual Art" by Alex Klein

Alex Klein explores what place photography holds in the world of conceptual art. Traditionally, a photograph has been a means of documentation, and is almost always used in a way that it is an image that stands in for an idea. Klein draws from Jeff Wall's description of conceptual photography as "images [that] are consciously employed and constructed as the antithesis of the highly skilled modernist photograph." That is to say, when conceptual art first started becoming popular, it was seen as lacking of style, dry, and boring. However, over time the artists who once had their work described in such a way have become very famous and revered in the art world. Ultimately, we must look at what a photo is "about" versus what it may be "of", and we often have to look outside the photograph itself to find its true meaning as the artist intended.

Final Project Progress Report 10/15/13

Jackie and Eli

(c) October 2013

Three Inspiring Artists

Irene Suchocki
http://www.irenesuchocki.com/486427/wild-horses/

Natural Selection Craig Tuttle
http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/royalty-free/42-17631969/wild-horses-running-in-field?popup=1

Sheila Rock
http://www.sheilarock.com/

Panorama Composite

Using Bridge to stitch a panorama together (photos by Brooks Dierdorff), composite image created with images found from the almighty Google!

Cartoon Network - in a field

Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I would like to photograph while I am horseback riding. I tend to wear the camera around my neck and use a timer to take pictures while I ride (full auto settings), hopefully taken so the horse's head is still in view. One thing I love the most about horses is their motion. It's hard to capture from the ground, because many times horses would rather just graze and sleep. On horseback, I can capture the motion and the feeling I get when I ride. I hope that through this project I can share those feelings. I intend to photograph from a walk, trot, canter, and maybe a gallop depending on the environment. In addition, I'd like to photograph the horse tacked up beforehand as part of the series.

Exploratory Images:

A Picture You Already Know: Discussion Questions

1. Do photos have more meaning in a group? (When photos are shown, are they usually part of a collection or one photo? Does the repetition take away from the photos?)
2. Are there any purely objective art forms? (How the viewer brings their own perspective to the image)
3. Does this new knowledge of repetition put photography as a medium in question?
4. Will there ever be a new photograph?
5. If there was a new photograph would we recognize it as new, or would it not be considered art because it is not in the realm of what we already know and accept as photography?
6. Is there a way to make the technology of photography your own, or is photography doomed to be the easiest medium to master and the hardest to have personal vision?
7. Do you agree that repetition is a defining aspect of photography? Why?
8. Is there an image that can stand on its own, or do you crave to know more about the photographs that were taken with the one shown/displayed?
9. Do you find yourself always comparing your art to other artists, or do you compete against yourself and your own work?
10. Can you stand on your own morals or must other artists define whether your art is good or not? Is that necessary?

Project 2

Five Rules:

1. Photo must be taken outside.
2. I must use "Auto Color" during the editing process.
3. My finger/thumb must appear in the peripheral of every photo.
4. Photos must be taken between 11am and 2:30pm.
5. My hair must be down by my face in every photo (potential to blow in front of my eyes).
6. Pictures will be of whatever subject I choose at that moment.

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

(c) Fall 2013
Lauren Thompson

Project 2: (Preliminary) Five Rules

My five rules.

1. Photo must be taken outside.
2. At least one object/section of the photo must be black and white, and at least one object/section of the photo must be in color.
3. My finger/thumb must appear in the peripheral of every photo.
4. Photos must be taken between 11am and 2:30pm.
5. My hair must be down by my face in every photo (potential to blow in front of my eyes).

Wet Scan Negatives

These aren't all my favorites, but are some of them. The last one is one of the ones I used in my final project portfolio for this class. I definitely enjoyed scanning these and editing them in photoshop, rather than just printing with traditional development. I'm much better at photoshop!

Oreo
(c) Spring 2011

Stormie
(c) Spring 2011

Stormie and Slick
(c) Spring 2011

Reading Response: "Too Drunk to Fuck"

In this article, Mark Wyse dissects the 'feelings of anxiety' that accompany photography - anxiety regarding the confrontation of the desire of photography. What do we desire to do with our photography, what makes you want to take that photograph? He examines repression in the art of photography, using two main examples: Nan Goldin and Christopher Williams. Goldin's photography is all about the connection she has with her subjects, her desire for them and her fascination. On the other end of the spectrum, the desire that Williams holds is much more removed and hidden. He makes his photography more about the camera, the photograph itself, the process, as opposed to the subject being photographed. Though clarifying that he is not saying that Goldin's style is better than Williams' or vice versa, Wyse is clearly more intrigued by the lack of transparency of Williams' photographic style. Wyse ends with the following:

Photography has shifted from being a discourse on trying to understand the world to a discourse on trying to understand ourselves. This has always been the case, only now it is more transparent--or less so. This is how the neurotic writes.

New Artist Discovery: Rob Prideaux

Just found out about this new artist through a little Yahoo! article. This artist, Rob Prideaux, has a new body of work called "Smoke & Fire". He lights gasoline on fire midair, then takes the photo. I love fire and think it is beautiful and fascinating, and like to depict it often in painting and photomanipulation. Check him out!

Rob Prideaux

Photograph That Isn't a Photograph

Bedford Reading Response

Bedford argues that authorial intent is still very important and that in photography it is sometimes very hard to identify. Artists such as Demand that put a long and arduous process into their work, with photography only as a concluding document that signifies the work, get more recognition than those who do many 'invisible' adjustments. No framework for understanding photography currently exists, so many art critics do not understand exactly how to critique a photo. They must look at it superficially, which does not necessarily show the edits and thoughts and process that the artist put into it, because photography is inherently lacking in what often is revealing about the artwork - the handiwork. Without the ability to understand the authorial intent behind the artwork, photography will continue to be viewed harshly and without true understanding by art critics. Upon development of this framework, it can receive the recognition it deserves and take its place among the other mediums of contemporary art.


Dear Mizter Bedford,

I wuld liek to offer you a nice toasted bagel wif creem cheez

Luv Batman

Old and New

'Waiting', Spring 2011

This photo was part of a project for Introduction to Photography titled "Secret Object". This black sphere was my object. I more or less just tried to find interesting places to put this fairly ordinary sphere. This was taken outside of Morgan in the winter. The contrast of the black and the white snow is exciting for me, and I enjoyed the amount of detail I could get in the snow, and the action of the falling snow in the background.

"Fierce Grace" by Tony Stromberg

I'm strongly interested in domestic and wildlife photography. I am a hardcore animal lover, and capturing the life, beauty, animation of animals is something I strive toward. This photo immediately caught my attention. I love horses, and this profile is gorgeous. It captures the movement of the horse's mane in the wind, out in the field, or on the prairie. This is beautiful to me - elegance and life even in the horse's still posture.