Assignment 9/27

The Gallery I chose was Manjari Sharma's "Darshan" exhibit, the reason being is that I really enjoy her ability to mesh and blend photography with photo editing together.

I really enjoy and am fascinated by her ability to create scenes that look like they came straight from the passage of a book or something about different deities.  The colour in all of the images are so bright and vibrant that it fills the photo with life.

My favourite photo is this one because it's so beautifully set up and photographed. You can tell how much time and consideration went into her work because every single piece of the background was perfectly places to create a world for this "goddess'.  In the background are beautiful flowers, a pair of graceful white elephants and what I can tell, panels painted to have a very painterly image and to make the photo look more like an illustration.   All the detail in her dress and accessories really builds up the ability to believe that the girl in this photograph is a goddess.  

In this photo here really sets a good tone to how I feel about this gallery as a whole.  It is very hard to tell if this image is a photograph or if it's an illustration.  The lines have been beautifully blended in this photograph.  Right off the bat the background has this blurred paint like appearance to it which sets off the sense of realism.  But to further push it along, leaves and plants in the foreground have this painterly like quality to them as well - making the whole image mesh into this fantasy like quality and maintaining what I think is an idea balance since the subject matter is about Hindu gods and goddess - having this deluded sense of what is real and what isn't in this gallery helps maintain the sense of believably about the existence of these gods in these photots.

Sharma's ability to create this breath-taking worlds, filled with colour and magic are captivating.  Her ability to blend the line between photograph and illustration is something that I find very inspiring and charming about her exhibit and her use of Hindu gods and goddess was a spectacular idea for this exhibit and shows how much thinking and planning went into the whole thing - making her exhibit truly stand out to me.

6 Favourite Photos

The first photo I selected was this one right here because there's always something interesting about how water works and looks and how it reacts on the human body.  When thinking about this in the context of rain or a shower it tends to have either two emotional appeals; either it's relaxing and calming or it's depressing and destructive.  Given the dark mood of this photo I would have to go with the later.  The reason why I chose this photo is because I feel it gives off a feeling that I'm sure many of us have felt before when we just stand in the shower with this looming cloud over head.  It's that feeling that no matter how much "cleansing" rain falls on us, we can't shake the negativity we feel inside.  The harsh contrast of light and dark on the figure make it clear that she is in a negative state of mind and feeling that paralysis of what is foreboding her.

This image was chosen because I felt it had a very powerful visual of how man-kind overruns nature.  It's a typical display of man vs nature done in a very simplistic but powerful way.  Behind the man you can see the road stretching off far into the horizon, covering over any plants of living things that once flourished beneath it.  In front of the man as he pulls is a large patch of grass, soon to be demolished by tar.  It is something to be noted that the man's expression is lethargic - this paints the scene as mankind being careless or unforgiving to the earth and just wanting to cover it with a tarp of its choosing.

 This photograph I found strangely interesting.  There's a couple of different imageries that come to mind when I see this photo.  The first off being the vast amount of streamers spewing from the girl's mouth onto the floor as she's hunched over - this would be a common indication for someone vomiting - but instead of acids or fluids it's streamers.  The Second is the burst of confetti scattered above her head, and to me this come across more as someone's head exploding.  The reason why I find this photo so interesting is because despite the grim first thought reaction there's all this colourful paper scattered about and the scene itself is bright and cheery which leads me to believe that it's not anything along the lines of body fluids coming out of her but leads me to believe the photographer was trying to insight that perhaps it is her imagination coming out of her (given that the model is a small child and not an adult this come as a quicker train of thought to me).

This image here speaks great volumes to me and is something that all of us are very aware of.  The image of a woman slumped over a line of coffins and the fact that the news is hot on the issue of Syria right not makes it easy to understand what this photo is trying to convey.  The amount of war and innocent lives being slayed each day is a dizzying amount and it's tragic that such a thing is happen and that people who've done nothing wrong are suffering and this photo here portrays that lost, that despair perfectly.

I find myself often drawn to fashion photography and this one is literally a black and white of symbolism.  In the foreground is a white figure which tends to symbolize innocence, purity, hope or any other arrangement of positive feeling, while in the background there is a black figure - commonly portraying hate, perversion, despair and so on.  The black figure has it's hand clamped around the white figure's mouth - which would show that she's trying to silence her, keep her from speaking, or suffocating her.

This last photo here I find as a very grim reminder of things going on in the world that we - as Americans - tend to be unaware of and struggle to full understand the feelings of grief and despair that others have gone through.  In this photo a group of men walk down the street; in arms their children wrapped in plastic or clothes signalling that they are dead.  It's clearly written across their faces the sense of turmoil they are all feeling and the sense of lost within them, just trying to figure out the next step.  The photo clearly points out the earnest feelings of death and lost.

Introductions

Hello, My name is Jennifer Edgerton, I'm a senior here at MSU. I'm mostly interested in illustration, I've been drawing since I was little.  But my parents are both wedding photographers (my dad has also done photography for a lot of other clients as well) and I myself have always had an interest for photography and so now I want to get better and learn how to properly use a camera to the best of its abilities - and mine.

Things that I hate the most mostly follow along the lines of doing things wrong - knowing they're entirely wrong - and somehow being proud of that.  I like many other people have pet peeves as well, but I think something that bothers me the most is being two-faced or hypocritical and not owning up to it.  Perhaps some other things I dislike are people refusing not to be open to others ideas (plain stubbornness) and not accepting that everyone has different thoughts and feelings on things - that their opinion is right and no one else's can be.

As mentioned before, my parents are photographers (which does not in any means necessary make me prime-cut or better) I've grown up watching how they set up shots, how they pose people, learning what's proper lighting, what's flattering on people, etc.  While I regretfully have not pertained all of this knowledge, I'm still somewhat aware of it.  I've done a bit of photography on my own, but it's nothing to hang in a gallery or anything - I still have a lot to learn and work on - a lot that I wish I knew and understood better.

My major is Animation / Illustration, I'm hopefully planning down the road to either do character design or storyboarding for movies or tv shows.

The camera I have is Nikon D70. Yeah.

My favourite genre of music is industrial rock and metal (of all kinds), I do also love a good techno song (or however people are defining it these days - dubstep, I guess? But that's sometimes VERY hit or miss to me) but I also am an eclectic listener; I like classical, rock, a bit of pop, a bit of r&b. 

Favourite food? Who isn't a fan of Italian food?  And sometimes I enjoy a good plate of sushi or other oriental dishes.

My favourite movie is a hard one to answer - I have a lot of films that I've really enjoyed over the years, but I think one that has stuck with me is Ink (2009).  It's currently on Netflix and I highly recommend it if the summary sounds like it's your fancy.

Currently my favourite tv show is hands down: Game of Thrones. 

I don't really per say have a favourite photographer but I tend to like fashion photography the most.

I chose this image located above (created by Kristian Schuller) because I really liked the use of lighting and the colours of the image.  I loved how the butterflies lead your eye around the guy and then straight up to the girl in the dress.  To me this image tells a very simple narrative about a guy trying to catch a butterfly - or a girl in this scene - and this image is all about the chase and the moment of capture.  Plain and simply it speaks to me about a guy in love with a girl and trying to "catch" her.  Even though the imagery is so complex, the subject matter is simple but can invite and infinite amount of theories about what is going on.