Lee Friedlander

Interesting character. I'm really intrigued by him because of his career in photographing musicians and his documentary style - two areas I'm really interested in career-wise myself. Anyway, here is what I have learned:

Friedlander was born in 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington. He studied photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and then moved to New York in 1956 to work for Atlantic Records photographing jazz musicians for album covers. He's photographed the likes of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and later Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and most infamously Madonna (which recently fetched $37,500 at auction). Friedlander was often known as a "street photographer." He had a documentary-style approach to taking photos and was greatly influenced by Robert Frank and his book "The Americans." Friedlander's first solo exhibition was at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York in 1963, after which he produced photo essays for Harper's Bazaar. Friedlander also incorporated himself into many of his photographs - whether these were straight-on self portraits, his shadow, his reflection, or his hands or feet. He became housebound because of health problems and had to take a break from 50 years of working in 1994, after which he produced the book "Stems," the inspiration of which came from flowers his wife placed around their home and he said reminded him of limbs. A good resource for viewing all of Friedlander's gallery exhibits (and there are a lot) is Artcyclopedia. And I'm absolutely loving his stuff that I'm finding at the MoMA, by the way.

(Self-Portrait, Haverstraw, New York, 1966)
(Count Basie Band, MoMA, 1956)
(Lake Louise, Canada, 2000)

Angelic Hell: Day 1

In an attempt to start my project today, I went to visit The Wizard of Ink, the tattoo shop I talked about in my last project post, which was an utter fail. There was no one in the shop except for the one guy who worked there who said to come back on Saturday - not even possible for me, as I'll be in Germany (and London the next two Saturdays after that... see, utter fail!). I decided to go into town and try the other tattoo parlor I've passed quite a few times and that looks pretty cool, Angelic Hell. Went in and told them about my project and they were very nice about it (the artists in the back were messing with me the whole time about never being able to see pictures girls promise them they'll come back and show them, so they wanted "favors" from me as a price for my taking pictures). They let me take pictures today and told me to come in on Friday before 4:00 when it's busier (Saturday as well, but I'll be out of town). I'll be going in then as well as next week sometime. Got a good feel for the place and how I can specifically focus my project's theme. Here are some of the shots from today. There's really only one I'm considering using at the moment, but I guess we'll see when I'm all done after (hopefully) three days of shooting.

These are just a couple of photos I took at the Brighton Pier at sunset while just walking around on my own. Unedited.

Photography Project Ideas

For the past few weeks, I have been training for a 5km charity race in London. I've been running past a tattoo shop on Lewes Road, which made me think about the theme "place." I think as an actual location and as a metaphor for where someone is in their life - why they get certain tattoos when they get them - this would be a very interesting topic to cover (as long as permission is granted to take pictures in the tattoo parlor, whether it is this one or another one in Brighton. There are plenty to choose from). I think I could work in a lot of different shots and angles in order to make it a comprehensible, fluid project. I think this would also be really good to work a soundtrack in with. Tattoo guns have a very distinct sound and I could get both artists and willing participants (who are being tattooed) to describe their reasons for getting tattoos, the feelings, etc.

If I can't find a tattoo parlor that would be willing to let me photograph inside and all else fails, I will try to find a record store that will let me photograph in their shop.

Second Field Trip: Stanmer

Our second field trip was into Stanmer. Got a lot of pictures this time around the old church there. One of my friends told me once that the church is preserved and is taken care of my two women, but it is not functioning as an actual church anymore, which is interesting. Anyway, got some good images of that area and then had a really funny encounter with an old woman, some cows which the woman referred to as "gorgeous", and the woman's dog which was named Rasputin (had to take a picture of it - didn't get one of the woman, unfortunately). So many pictures to choose from that were actually good this time, I wasn't sure which ones to put up! Also, for your viewing pleasure, my name spelled out with random objects:






(This one was just funny)

Field trip into Brighton & learning Photoshop

After learning a few things in the first workshop and practicing a bit with my camera, I got some much better shots after going into Brighton for our field trip. I also went on a little walk to Stanmer with some of my hall mates and brought my camera along and got some good shots as well. After learning about ISO, I knew when going on that cloudy, rainy day into town that my ISO needed to be turned up pretty high, usually around 800 or 1600. When I went into Stanmer, however, it was a really sunny afternoon, but we were walking through the woods at points, so I was occassionally switching from a range of 1600 to 400. We also learned how to use photoshop today, which I have been wanting to learn how to use for a while, so I'm quite happy about knowing how to fix lighting and tones and things now.

As far as my project goes, I know I want to center around a general theme of music, but I'm struggling with place. I had a good idea in my head, but I don't think it is enough in the direction of documentary-style. This is just me brainstorming, but maybe I can find a cool record store and focus that and the people there.

First week of photography class...

... and also first week of ever using a camera on manual. Very interesting, slightly distressing and disappointing, and most definitely a learning experience. I went home and practiced and then brought my camera out with my friends over the weekend. There was a clear improvement, but the images were still fuzzy.