Sarah Weber- November 11

http://www.mscherrer.com/index.html

This photograph has an emphasis on framing. The off center mirror adds another dimension into the photograph by showing more space. The frame inside of the mirror adds a third dimension that directs the viewer's eye. Inside the mirror one can see there is a bed that is messed up. The colors are analogous to colors outside of the mirror. There also is a hand that comes in between the frame of the mirror and the frame of the painting leaving more clues of humanity inside the photograph. The purple floral print wallpaper boarder activates the purple flower in the forefront of the lefthand side of the photograph. Also, the floral print on the bedspread and the flower in the glass vase are diagnol from each other activating a dialogue of similarity. The common themes are wood and floral. The colors that repeat most often are the purple, brown, blue and white. The colors and decorations remind me bed and breakfast place in New Mexico or Arizona. The light switch on the right hand side also leaves more clues of humanity because one switch is off and the other is one. A flash was probably used and located to the right of the animal skull telling by the direction of the shadows.

Sarah Weber- November 4

www.caseymcgonagle.com

The subject of this photograph has this distant look in her eyes as she looks off camera. She has two small cuts on the inside of her top lip. Her expression, to me, reads of loss or grief. The use of color is minimal and I would say that color is not something that is super important in this photograph. Mainly, if it was in black and white I think it would still be as affective if not more. That being said the use of color adds warmth and realism into the photograph. The viewer can tell the subject is in her home by the subtle pattern on the back of the door in the right background. There is some wood paneling along the window on the right. The light source looks like a combination of natural light and strobe because the subject's shoulder in the left corner is well lit, there is a strong shadow created under her hair onto her cheek and her right cheek is well lit also. The grey of her shirt is cool while the wood paneling and her hair and skin tone is warm.

Sarah Weber- October 28

www.erinjanenelson.com

This color photograph has a relationship with painting, abuse and the coloration of bruises. The colors inside of this photograph become as important as the rest of the missing form. We, as viewers, are given a limited pallet to observe and draw conclusions from. The darker colors in the right bottom corner of the portrait are reminiscent of what true shadows would be on the human form if in fact the light source is stemming from the top upper left. The paint adds this level of texture making this piece look more like an object or a painting than a photograph except that the duplication of it is a photograph. The black eye reminds me of Nan Goldin's self portrait in which she also has a black eye. The use of the paint covering the rest of the figure feels like a mask. People often hide their emotions and issues behind makeup, clothes, color, false smiles, etc. I think the paint functions the same way. An exterior bruise like a black eye is not something one can hide easily and the rest of the "mask" is chipped away letting viewers see in. An interior perhaps metaphorical "bruise" is not something others can see. The dilation of the pupil in the eye suggests a low light perhaps with a flash. The color relationships I see are red/blue, and green/yellow.

November 4th, Naomi Yorke

Sandy Skoglund - Revenge of the Goldfish

Colour truly is a character in Skoglunds work. Since I was a small child I have loved the images of Sandy Skokland. They are visually striking depicting other worldly scenes with a minimal yet vivid pallet. Objects surfaces become the focus of the work with this image in particular. Much of the scene has been dyed to match, all objects that do not contain life are forced into a single shade of teal, thereby turning this simple bedroom into a fishbowl. Surprisingly the d.t.m technique applied by Skokland does not flatten the scene as one may think it would, but gives depth to each crevice of the room, this services the image by making no part of blue more or less important than another. Depth is created in goldfish with striking and varied shades of orange, the fish pop out of the image making it seem as if the world created in the image is forcibly being taken over by the fish.

November 4- Jessica Jokhi

This image was taken by Scott Stulberg. This photo is a deadpan portrait of a woman with her head wrapped in a red cloth. The contrast of the stark white of her face against the red of the cloth is striking. The red is translucent showing just a hint of her face underneath, causing the viewer to take a closer look at the image. The subject's eyes are soft yet focused and hold the viewer's gaze.

Jen Swanson - November 4

In Richard Renaldi's photo project "Touching Strangers," he pulls two strangers together and asks them to pose with some sort of physical contact. The expressions and body language in his series of photos are great, but his photos also show some vibrant colors. This photo, "Carlos and Alex, New York" from 2007, shows two subjects standing against a neon-green wall. One of the people holds a lighter, but similarly green, sweatshirt at his side. His pants are dirty, and muddled with several dark colors in stark contrast to his bright white shirt. The other subject is wearing more muted colors - a light blue and tan - but they contrast with the bright green wall. The metal wall is full of texture, which adds visual interest.

Marie Weston - November 3

Peter Funch's series "Babel Tales," addresses "human interaction (or lack thereof)." Funch compiles hundreds of photos taken over a long period of time into one image that the viewer assumes is one location. The images are strangely funny simply because the frames are so full of people who don't "notice" each other. But the result, from such an overt representation of the concept, is that the viewer feels the most ostracized. The way we are used to people in street photography or candid shots reacting to the presence of a camera is completely missing, which feels strange based on how close the people are to the camera's lens. (It feels like the way people would be behaving if the camera was very far away and unnoticeable, like in Gursky's prints.)

Most of Funch's photographs use dramatic lighting or very contrasty/vivid colors, but the effect is still due to realistic, rather than expressive use of color. It seems that most of the color control in his photos are based on what color clothing the people in his image will be wearing, but the backgrounds feel unaltered; he doesn't remove seemingly extraneous text (street signs, pesky ads, etc.). The result, especially in this image, seems to be to trick the viewer into believing, if only for the shortest second, that everything was the result of a quick shot; the garish American flag bus doesn't seem like something included in a decisive moment. Even though the image feels very crowded and chaotic, the colors do relate: the shades of blue on the bus match the people wearing blue and the view people wearing yellow relates to the umbrella and text on the bus. The orange-wearing people and lone woman wearing green create an allied spectrum. The strongest aspect of the photo might be the clash between enormous chaos, but at the same time a complete order.