Tim Hetherington: Sleeping Soldiers lecture

The Tim Hetherington exhibit has closed, but the lecture still lives in my head. The lecture took place at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2012. It was a last minute find through a friend, and it was a closed event that required the attendee to be on a list. The lecture panel took place in the school's main lecture hall. The lecture panel consisted of Hetherington's three friends and colleagues, who exhibited private lectures, home movies, and never before seen footage of Hetherington's travels to Libya. The lecture also exhibited selected works from his current exhibition at the museum, "Sleeping Soldiers". It showcased the effects of war on soldiers currently in the Middle East, and how it effects them psychologically. It breaks down the walls that are placed due to symptoms, such as post traumatic stress disorder. His photos also exhibit the civilians, and the effects of war on children. The discussion panel also spoke of Hetherington as a friend; it was almost as if this were a eulogy at his funeral. His friends spoke of how Hetherington died doing what he loved; he was killed in Libya while shooting the civil war. They talked about how he would not have it any other way, and dying in a fashion that is not as dramatic as his would not have justified his life and his work. He spent most of his early life traveling around the U.K. and made it his life's mission to discover foreign places and people. In a sense it was his way of discovering himself.
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Art work and the creative process...in my mind

Chinatown Spring In this piece I created a black and white print in the darkroom, and colored it with food coloring. I was introduced to alternative processing through my advisor and I have been stuck ever since. What I really like about alternative process photography is that it takes the art of photography and printmaking out of its element. It allows the photographer to experiment in painting, sculpting, performance art, etc. It pushes the photographer to think outside of the comfort zone of capturing the perfect light, the right angle, and the exact moment that will make or break the photo.

Black Rock This photo was actually taken 5 years ago over summer vacation. Black Rock is a local hide away that my friends and I would frequent to cool down. I took a chance with my digital camera and captured a serene moment; my friend sitting on a floating log taking in the water and it drifts by. Now a days it seems like everyone is a photographer, hobbyist or professional. During this period I was still trying to discover myself as a photographer, trying to find my niche. I would carry my camera everywhere I went and constantly shoot everything I saw. This moment was one of the moments that allowed me to grow as a photographer, and allowed me to discover what my camera could do.

The 99% Last semester I made it a mission to locate one of the Occupy D.C. camp sites, more so the main location in McPherson Square. After progressing past darkroom processing, digital was still a bit foreign to me. I was still struggling with Photoshop and how to use it with digital photography, so I decided to create a a fantasy world in which the Occupiers really took over D.C. I traveled around D.C. for a day shooting, and spent countless hours working in Photoshop to create clean lines, correct exposure, and the most realistic scene one will ever see.
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Self Portrait Artists

Cindy Sherman Cindy Sherman began as film photographer and progressed into digital photography. She is known for using herself as her own model, disguising her face with make up and costumes and creating a whole new persona. What I like about Sherman is the fact that she takes the idea of how women are today and produces an image of how she views us as a whole. Her images consist of everyday women who dress in sweat pants and wear thick layers of blue eyeshadow, or the middle age mother who is trying to act like her 21 year old daughter. Her photos are a commentary on the pressure women face in our current society to adapt to the social trends. Sherman uses the idea of "limited resources" by using only herself in her photos, and constructs a new world. She shows the budding artist that even though we may not have all the resources to our disposal, we can still create amazing art with a little extra imagination. The Starn Twins Mike and Doug Starn (a.k.a. the Starn Twins) are photographers and installation artists who are identical twins. Their work mostly consists of self portraits that are deconstructed and then reconstructed to "form one entity". After becoming introduced to their work in an alternative process photography class, I became inspired to deconstruct photos of my own and then reconstruct them on various types of canvases. The deconstruction process alters the photograph, and creates an entirely different image from its original. What I especially like about the Starn twins is their use of crude materials to reconstruct the images. The pieces are often ripped apart and simply glued back together, or sometimes stapled together but always creating a fusion as if the subjects in the image are one. Francesca Woodman Francesca Woodman, like Cindy Sherman, used herself as the model in her photographs. She strictly shot black and white film, and her scenery would often be abandoned . desolate areas. What I like about her photographs are the fact that she never really took a straight portrait of herself. Her images are always ambiguous and provided a haunting vibe. Woodman would insert herself within the walls of an old house, only allowing certain body parts to be shown, or she would use a slow shutter speed and created ghosting images. What I like about her images is that it is open for interpretation. To one person her photos could speak about neglect and abandonment, which could explain the uses of abandoned buildings. To another person her photo could mean that the subject is trying to connect with her surroundings and environment, like they are becoming the environment. The images are so vague that they force the viewer to think about their own interpretation, how it makes them feel and why they are developing those feelings.
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The Grand Re-Opening!

The purpose of this blog is to showcase photos taken by me, and to serve as a kind of working journal. It'll contain mostly images with a couple of posts of random thoughts and interesting links that I feel may benefit others.
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