Poolside Shots

Discover Photography at MSU

2012-02-29T10:42:00.000-08:00

Discover more about the new

Photography Concentration in

the Department of Art.

WHERE: 215 Briscoe Hall [PH Lab]

WHEN: Tuesday March 6th at 12:30.

New PH curriculum sheets will be explained.

Learn about the changes in program and how what “to”

and “not to” registrar for in the Fall.

Learn about professional opportunities in the

photography.

Learn about Maymester and Summer PH Classes.

Learn how you can be a part of next year’s regional

Photography conference being hosted on the MSU

campus.

And much more………

Spontaneous - see - shoot - exhibit

2012-02-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

Spontaneous

CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS
DEADLINE February 22^nd 2012 Midnight EST
Juror: Nikos Economopoulos

Spontaneity is the hallmark for great documentary and street photography where the moments of life, often ironic, poignant, emotionally charged, tragic or absurd are frozen.

Photography provides the means to capture a moment but which moment makes all the difference. Well known masters include Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith with recent discoveries such as Vivian Maier and Frank Oscar Larson adding to a long list of great photographers.

Many of the scenes captured by practitioners of this art, with the possible exception of war and extreme sports documentary, pass before us every day, but we do not see. This exhibit is dedicated to those who strive to see, realize and then manifest vision and moment into an image so that we can all see what is right in front of us or inaccessible in some other way. Showing us the remarkable moments that make up the, often unconscious, Human Experience.

Competitions, Fellowships, Internships and more...

2012-01-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

Upcoming Competitions:

http://www.c4fap.org/cfe/2012BW/index.asp

http://www.c4fap.org/cfe/2012AlternativeProcesses/index.asp

http://newspacephoto.org/gallery/call-for-entries

http://www.silvereye.org/Fellowship12.htm

http://www.visitcenter.org/competitions

http://shotsmag.com/shotssubmission.htm

http://www.vtphotoworkplace.com/id159.html

http://www.darkroomgallery.com/ex25

http://linusgallery.com/call-for-entries.html

http://blackboxgallery.com/ColorShow.html

https://sites.google.com/site/undphotography/

http://www.ssac.org/pdf/WhiteBlkShds_prospectus_w.pdf

http://www.mdfedart.com/exhibits/2012_focal_point/Focal_Point_2012_Prospectus.pdf

http://www.stacarts.org/uploads/File/Juried%20PhotographyProspectus2012WEB.pdf

http://www.kiernangallery.com/3/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=108091&AKey=8JMSW35S

http://www.kiernangallery.com/3/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=109568&AKey=8JMSW35S

http://www.kiernangallery.com/3/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=111603&AKey=8JMSW35S

Fellowships:

http://www.fawc.org/fellowships/index.php

Internships:

http://blogs.nppa.org/visualstudent/2011/11/30/jasper-herald-fall-internship-apps-due-february-1st/

Other:

http://www.pinholeday.org/participate/

http://www.artshow.com/juriedshows/index.html

For Members ONLY -Purchase an 8x10 Polaroid from of Poolside

2012-01-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Here is your Welcome 2012 Special Deal - Original Polaroid Prints of the Poolside Series. You can have the original but I do retain reproduction rights of the image. These are one of a kind and not available to the general public. Images are the original 809 Polaroid Film images. They are the RAW photographs with all the personality of what makes a Polaroid special. Once the image is sold it is gone and only Digital Reproductions would be available. This exciting deal ends on Jan. 6th.
Go to Maritagooteephotographer.com to order.

Become a member of Marita Gootee Fine Art Photographer on Facebook and learn how you can get this great deal too - here are some sample images below.

Members get great deals!

2011-12-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Become a member of Marita Gootee, Fine Art Photographer on FACEBOOK and you will get connect with some great deals!! Not only will you be able to stay up to date with where my work is show but also be the 1st to learn about my new projects. Members will also get unheard of discounts on selected images. such as the one running now! Join now and get in on these great deals at Maritagooteephotography.com

This deal is over $100 in savings! But time is running out!

"Thank you for being a part of this group. To show my thanks I am posting for TODAY DEC 29 on of my Sand Shadow images at Maritagooteephotography.com at a special LOW price of $30. This image will be printed on 5x7 paper, hand tinted for each order. Print will be un-matted and unframed. All orders will be shipped by the 1/20/12. This is only good for members of this group. This is only good for the next 24 hours. Thank you! Please encourage your friends to join this group!"

Elizabeth and Mallory FACTOR PRIZE for Southern Art

2011-12-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

The Prize

Established in 2007, the Elizabeth and Mallory Factor Prize for Southern Art honors an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of the South. The Prize is accompanied by a cash prize of $10,000 and is administered and presented by the The Gibbes Museum of Art.

A panel of judges considers artists who are from, reside in or work in the following Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The Factor Prize is also designed to create an archive of information about Southern artists that can be used by curators, collectors, academicians and the public. The repository of artist information that this Prize process creates is available online as a resource for anyone interested in the current state of art in America.

The Process: DEADLINE 2/28/2012

Submissions are accepted via this Web site throughout the year. Submissions for the 2012 Prize should be posted by February 28, 2012. A panel will convene in March to select a Short List of Finalists. The Gibbes Museum of Art chooses the winner and then announces the winner at a celebration at the museum in May.

Artists may nominate themselves and may update their records as often as they see fit. Third parties are also free to nominate eligible artists.

The Donors

Elizabeth and Mallory Factor are devoted collectors and patrons of the arts. The Factors relocated to Charleston from New York City in 2006 and maintain a family home in Gastonburg, Alabama. Elizabeth Factor, an attorney, served on the board of the Drawing Center in New York City and on the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Photography Committee. Mallory Factor, a merchant banker and consultant, serves on many corporate and not-for-profit boards including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Theatre Wing and the TONY Awards Administration Committee.

According to the donors, “we are establishing this prize to focus on the artists working in the South or on Southern issues.” The donors hope that the establishment of the Prize will increase awareness across the country for the depth of creation in the visual arts that occurs in the South.

The Gibbes Museum of Art

Located in Charleston’s historic district, the Gibbes houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works, principally American works with a Charleston or Southern connection and presents special exhibitions annually.

“The museum’s support of living artists dates to 1858 and this award builds upon that 150-year tradition,” says Executive Director Angela Mack. “The Gibbes Museum of Art is honored to administer this Prize which so closely matches our core mission.”

Heidi Robinson is Published!

2011-12-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

Heidi Robinson has had two of her recent images accepted in a daily calendar project titled POLADARIUM 2012. This was conceived by a German Company. So she is internationally published!! How Cool is that!! Editors are: Lars Harmsen is designer and publicist, editor of slanted magazine and weblog, Member of ADC and Raban Ruddigkeit is designer and editor, especially the founder of »Freistil – Best Of European Commercial Illustration«. He is member of ADC and boardmember of CREATE BERLIN. It is published by Seltmann+Sohne.

Format: 88 x 107 mm, 365 polaroids, 368 pages (only sx70 / 600!)

Another project Heidi has been asked to be involved with Polaboy from Lightboys. The company out of Germany has developed a one meter high luminous Polaroid frame. It is made of a high quality white wood for the picture frame in a SX70 1:10 format. In this frame they backlight the scanned original Polaroids (80 x 80cm / about 230MB ) and expose it on a special slide film material.

Must admit from the website these are enchanting! I want one!!

Nate Trott in National Exhibition!

2011-12-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

Nate Trott had his holga image which was lith developed, Untitled Church 3 juried in to 5th Annual Juried Plastic Camera Show at Rayko Photographic Center in San Francisco. The exhibition dates are January 18th-March 6th, 2012 with an opening reception on January 18th from 6-8pm which, by the way, is open to the public. If you are in town go and see it!

This is Untitled Church 3

Way to Go Nate!!

MSU IN SAN ANTONIO, TX...part 2

2011-11-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

From the last post you know that the conference was going great. We were experiencing some new sights, sounds and tastes. This was expanded as we explored.

I am proud to say the Wyatt was the only undergraduate that received a SPESC [Society for Photographic Education South Central] travel scholarship! That was so cool! MSU students ROCK!!

We had the great experience of seeing the prints from the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim Collection at the University of Texas in Austin. It was a very special experience. To see the 1st photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras a Heliograph by Niepce was so AWESOME!! Plus seeing Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz was amazing. This was private viewing for MSU students. It will be something everyone will remember for a long time.

The students agree that Austin is a place to return to in the future. Here Nate poses for me with the infamous UTA bell tower in the background.

Once the conference ended we took an extra day to explore the area. I have to say that it is very dry in Texas is an understatement. Pond and lakes water levels are extremely low. The grass looks like kindling. It is natural that fires are popping up everywhere. We drove up to Bastop, TX to view the destruction from the recent forest fire. I could not photograph the charred remains of the homes and the burnt shells of the cars. I am saddened when I think about the lives that have changed. We left once we were informed that we were not in the Lost Pines Bastop State Park but on private property. All signs and fences were totally gone.

Learned later that the fire regenerated and crossed a nearby freeway... one I am sure we were driving one just the day or so before. You could smell the smoke on the interstate.

Another interesting location we traveled to was a vacant suburb of townhouses. The Tundra Village is a depressing site as you view homes that range in level of completion. Again, we left once we were asked by a neighbor. Frankly I think more images should be shown of this location so there is a clear understanding of the waste of the land developers fraud.

We then traveled to Medina River Natural Area and walked by the river. But there we knew what was public and private.

From there it was lunch a Whataburger and on to the next adventure. We swung around the town and ended up at Guadalupe River State Park. It was a nice relaxing way to end the day of shooting.

This was a great trip. I need to develop my holga film and see what else I saw while in Texas. This was great group of students would travel with them anytime!

MSU IN SAN ANTONIO, TX

2011-11-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

October was very busy for I traveled to two conferences, presented a workshop, picked-up artwork and dropped off artwork. Early in the month I travel with a group of students to San Antonio, TX for the Society for Photographic Education [SPE] South Central regional conference. It was a great event with lots of adventures.

1st we took the wrong bus and ended outside of San Antonio and had to find enough change for everyone to get a ride back. But we did make the evening event but did come close to missing the last trolley back to the hotel. Good news all was fine and it was an interesting start to the conference.

Dominic Lippillo who works with me at Mississippi State gave a great presentation on his work at the conference. Both students and I loved it and were impressed by the research.

If you go to San Antonio - go to the campus and have lunch at the red taco truck! It is awesome! Never stopped at a food truck before but will be looking for them now as I travel.

Tables were few and far between so we eat in the comfort of the van. Yes, we rode in this van from MS to the far reaches of TX for tacos! ... and the conference.

There is more stories from the this trip but will have wait for another posting. Must say it was a mix of seeing thoughtful / creative artwork, seeing new places and getting to know each other.

Poolside Film and Camera

2011-11-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share with you a shot of my last box of Polaroid 809 film and the camera that I used to make the POOLSIDE series.

As you can see each box held 15 exposures which is a combination of 15 negatives and 15 paper / pods for the negative to be transferred too. I hope the Impossible Project will come out with the 8x10 version of this before the end of the year. Note that I added the 85A filter - you can tell by the fancy tape job.

This is the camera I used to make all my POOLSIDE series. It was created by Eric Renner the Director of the Pinhole Resource. It is called Leonardo. This is the best large format pinhole camera that I know. I have tired others but always come back to this one.

So now you know some of the basic elements that I used to create the POOLSIDE series. Each exposure was about 2 minutes. This series is available for exhibition and monographs can be found on Blurb [search Gootee].

Check out this Great work!

2011-11-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is a combination different approaches to the landscape. It has digital work to hand tinted images taken with a pinhole camera. It is a great way of seeing how different Wendy Roussin and I photograph nature. The show opens on Monday NOV 7th at 4:30. If in Meridian drop by......

Atlantan's mission: Put photos in America's viewfinder | ajc.com

2011-11-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Atlantan's mission: Put photos in America's viewfinder | ajc.com

Work for the Impossible Project

2011-09-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Apply! I would if I knew Linux! All I know about programing 'software' is that I like flannel PJ's.

IMPOSSIBLE

IS RECRUITING

Impossible is currently looking for a PHP programmer with experience in Linux server maintenance to join us part-time or full-time in our head office in Vienna.

If you know your way around PHP, know the difference between an Inner and an Outer join in MySQL, can maintain a Linux server and are willing to help us keep our Macs in the office running smoothly, please send your CV and some work samples to jan@the-impossible-project.com.

GET GEAR from THINK TANK

2011-09-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Need New Gear! Go to THINK TANK and get what you need. The photography area at MSU will benefit too.
Go to Think Tank and use the code EP-384
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/affiliates-validated.aspx?type=education

Portfolio Reviews

2011-09-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

PHOTOJAX 2011 Jacksonville Photography Festival – September 16-17, 2011

Photography Portfolio Review at MOCA10 a.m.-noon & 1-3 p.m.
$50 for professionals; $25 for amateurs/students

Portfolio Reviews

This one-day event connects photographers with potential mentors and industry professionals. Photographers (professional and student) will engage in one-on-one meetings with industry professionals for a focused review of the photographer’s portfolio of work. Each review session will last for 15 minutes per reviewer and each photographer can expect their total review to last an hour. MOCA Jacksonville’s Portfolio Review will be held at the museum, located at 333 N. Laura St., Jacksonville, FL 32202.

*******************************************************************************************************

PHOTONOLA

PhotoNOLA is an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with galleries, museums and photographers citywide.

The 2011 festival will take place from December 8-11 with broad ranging photography exhibitions on display throughout the month. Events include portfolio reviews, workshops, lectures, alternative process demonstrations and a kick-off gala. Many events are free and open to the public.

Portfolio Review registration will open on September 1 at 10am CST.

"Lets Play" on Display

2011-09-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

‎"LETS PLAY" is presently on display in the "2011 Faculty Exhibition." It is a 37"x48" digital enlargement of 8x10 Polaroid Film taken with an 8x10 pinhole camera. It is from the series POOLSIDE. This image was made possible by the Mississippi Arts Commission. ........ and yes it is available for sale.

The MSU Department of Art is proud to host the "2011 Faculty Exhibition." This year, the faculty exhibition was opened up to the entire College of Architecture, Art, and Design.

Exhibition dates: August 30-October 28, 2011
Exhibition is held at the Visual Arts Center, 800 University Drive, Starkville, MS
Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri, 10-4.

http://www.nea.gov/news/news11/Research-Art-Works.html

2011-08-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.nea.gov/news/news11/Research-Art-Works.html

Lobster at Art By Choice

2011-08-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Plan you Bid SOON: "Lobster" [37"x48"] from the POOLSIDE SERIES will be in the Art by Choice Event at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

Art by Choice exhibition opens at the MMA for public viewing August 26, 2011 6:30 p.m. sale opens (5:30 for V.I.P. ticket holders); 7:30 p.m. live auction begins. Participating artists are invited to attend and receive complimentary admission. Art in the sale remains available for purchase through September 11.

Art by Choice exhibition is Free admission and open to the public.

Mississippi Museum of Art
380 South Lamar Street
Jackson, MS 39201

April Wallace Landscapes

2011-08-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

"the first two were taken late one evening a week or so ago... headed back from a long day of farm work with my mother and daughter... we saw the feelds full of fog iluminated dimly by the setting sun and pulled over to try and capture it." writes April.

April reflects on this image ..."christmas tree... was a lone tree in a feild we spotted on the way to christmas dinner.... is struck me as the most beautiful 'christmas tree' i had ever seen."

"snoe!... was my attempt at combiling motion with the still amd symmetrical scene of winter fields.... i enjoy the contrast." says April.

April has a great eye and wonder use of negative space. She has a creative eye and can work in a variety of photographic mediums.

You can find more about these works and more by contacting her at April Wallace <aprilgailwallace@gmail.com>

Poor Frog

2011-07-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

This toy frog was found in a parking lot. It seemed lost and alone. It could have stayed there for some time to come with strangers walking by and nature taking its toll. So I picked this guy up and will let him have a new life in my photographs. I often look for lost memories like these. I am drawn to the discarded. Those items that others have used and left. They become my treasures.

AWESOME SUMMER PHOTO CLASS THIS SATURDAY

2011-07-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Summer Photo Workshop being offered by Blake McCollum on July 30th this Saturday.
This should be a great workshop. Blake is very talented and approaches photography with fun.
He is very skilled in photography so expect to learn a lot!

Contact him for more info - discounts for students.

Blake McCollum
Blake McCollum Photography
http://www.blakemc.com/

My dog wished she had a camera and thumbs so she could take his workshop!!

New Photo Challenge - Best Friends

2011-07-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

New Photo Challenge - Best Friends

Enter CliQ Photo Challenge - Best Friends

Who is your best friend?

Your pet? Your sibling? Your spouse? Your teammate? Your imaginary friend? Whoever or whatever your best friend is, we want to see how you visually represent that friendship! Grab your camera phone, your point & shoot, anything that takes a photo and get shooting now.

To enter the Best Friends Photo Challenge, just follow these three steps:
1. "Like" our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/CliQworld
2. Click the "Contests" link on the left navigation
3. Click "Enter Contest"

That's it. There is no cost to enter, and the first place prize package is worth over $1100. Contest ends July 31 and winners will be announced on August 8, 2011.

Good luck!

The CliQ Crew

Camera and Rockwell at the Eastman House

2011-07-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

NORMAN ROCKWELL: BEHIND THE CAMERA

Norman Rockwell. THE RUNAWAY, 1958.
©1958 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.
Reference photo ©NRELC: Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.
Norman Rockwell Museum Collections.

Experience the iconic paintings and illustrations of artist Norman Rockwell alongside the meticulously staged photographs on which he based his work. Beginning in the late 1930s, Rockwell adopted photography as a tool to bring his illustration ideas to life in studio sessions. He served as the director and carefully orchestrated the photographs, hand-selecting the props, locations, and models. Rockwell created an abundance of photographs for each new subject, sometimes capturing complete compositions and other times combining separate pictures of individual elements. For the first time, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera presents these study photographs with his drawings and related tear sheets from magazine covers, offering a fascinating look at the artist’s working process. Organized by the NormanRockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in collaboration with guest curator Ron Schick. The Eastman House exhibition is sponsored by M&T Bank with additional support provided by The Robert Lehman Foundation.

From June 25, 2011 through September 18, 2011 in the Brackett–Clark Gallery.

Still Time with Trees

2011-07-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Taken last year in Indiana. There is a silence with in this image. I feel I want to pass between the trees once they complete their conversation.

Job Posting:2nd Studio Photographer and Digital Imaging Editor

2011-07-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Job Responsibilities

2^nd Studio Photographer and Digital Imaging Editor

o Second shooter – Schools, Day Cares, Seniors, Weddings, Families, Babies, Pageants

o All aspects of studio operation, including scheduling.

o Order pickup for schools – mileage will be recorded daily and paid at the U. S. Government mileage rate.

o Once orders arrive in studio – order opening and flagging and all aspects of ordering products.

o The three other studio assistants will be available to assist with this part of your responsibilities.

o Retouching of all photo files using Photoshop before ordering.

o The two student photo assistants will be available to assist with this job function.

o Placing of all orders using Picture Packages software or other software provided by the lab that may be needed.

o Primary work hours will be Monday – Friday from 9:00 – 6:00. (Preferred – can be negotiable on start time)

o Normal rate of pay for primary work hours will be $8.00 - $10.00/hour. (Depending on experience)

o When you are acting as a photographer for the studio during your regular work hours, your rate of pay will be increased to $15.00 - $20.00/hour. ((Depending on experience)

o Early Mornings – Mon. – Fri 6:30 – 8:00 am.

o With the nature of school contract photography we need to be on each campus the day we have photos when the doors open at 7:00, so we meet at studio on these days at 6:30. We do this twice a year in the fall and spring semesters.

o I would say with the Starkville City and Starkville Academy schools this will happen 30 – 40 times in a given calendar year.

o During 2010 – 2011 school year we were in schools 25 days, and we currently have more schools under contract

o Nights: Monday – Friday from 5:00 – midnight.

o During certain times of the year the studio must shoot photos in the late afternoon and into the night. During some of these times your help will be needed, primarily with events including Balls, Beauty Reviews, Dances, Jr. Miss., Homecomings, Pageants, and Youth Sports.

o During the last year July 2010 – June 2011, we worked 34 days past 6:00:

§ School sports – 5

§ Youth sports – SAY & SBA – 16

§ School events – balls, dances, homecoming – 3

§ Senior sessions – proofing – 6

§ Misc. GSDP events - engagement session – 4

o Rate of pay for these events will be vary depending on experience.

o Weekends (Saturday and Sunday)

o With us being a retail portrait studio, and Weddings and other large events take place during these times; there will be times when you will be needed to work on weekends. I try very hard to not schedule things on Holidays, but that truly would be at your discretion. Weekend work will include but not be limited to: Balls, Beauty Reviews, Dances, Homecomings, Pageants, Weddings, Babies, Families, Family Reunions, and Senior Portraits.

o During the period of July 2010 – June 30 2011 we worked a total of 9 Saturdays and 1 Sunday.

§ Weddings – 2 – need to increase to 6 - 8

§ School dances, prom – 3

§ Jr. Miss – 1

§ Seniors – 2

§ Youth Sports – 1

§ Sunday – SHS Graduation - 1

o Weekend work will be scheduled at least three weeks in advance of the dates you are needed. If three weeks advance notice is not given, dates will be offered to you to work but will not be mandatory dates and you will have the option to say no.

o Weekend pay will be increased commensurately based on your experience). For any weekend you are asked to work, you will be paid for a minimum of 3 hours of time. If time off is needed in the next week to make up personal time Monday will become your day off, or other day of our mutual agreement when the weekend work is scheduled.

§ Wedding pay will be based on the package the couple chooses:

· $ 200.00 – Bronze

· $ 250.00 - Silver

· $ 300.00 - Gold

· $ 400.00 – Platinum

· $ 500.00 - Elite

o Freelance Work:

o You will not be allowed to do your own personal freelance work in your spare time,

[ not sure how this applies to FINE ART work - I suggest you ask]

MediagraphixPhoto.com

Apprenticeships - interesting

2011-07-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

Higher state: Photography apprenticeships as an alternative to traditional degrees

Into the forest, out of the house © Jonny Briggs, who is graduating from RCA this summer.

Further education for photographers is changing, with apprenticeships and work-based learning taking an important role alongside the traditional BA and MA courses. Miranda Gavin surveys the options.

Author: Miranda Gavin

20 Jul 2011

A Skillset survey carried out a few years ago put the number of students leaving degree courses with photography or photo imaging in the title at around 5000 a year. Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries, concluded that workers in this sector are highly qualified, stating “more than two-fifths have a degree and over a fifth have a technical qualification, including a quarter of all photographers”. The value of these qualifications isn’t universally recognised, however, as a recent Russell Group report showed. A survey of 20 universities, including prestigious institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge, found that most colleges consider photography A-level to be a “soft” option.

In reality, qualifications in the photographic industry differ widely. New photography and photo imaging courses, plus drives to supportapprenticeships and work-based learning, mean there is a growing range of vocational and academic paths to choose from. But with Government plans to increase tuition fees from the next academic year, vocational approaches could boom as budding photographers seek out affordable ways to learn, get work experience, make contacts and gain qualifications.
Foundation Degrees
Foundation Degrees in Arts (FdA) were set up in 2001-02 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and DfES as an alternative to the traditional three-year degree. A vocational qualification of “academic and work-based learning through close collaboration between employers and programme providers, usually universities in partnership with further education colleges”, it typically takes two years full-time and is equivalent to the first two years of an honours degree.
Skillset developed a guidance document for colleges offering photo imaging courses, summing up industry views on the most important topics to be included in the curriculum. For those who want to keep up with professional development, Skillset has also developed flexible training with its ‘Build your own MA’ short courses. These are industry-focused and offered individually or in combination, with credits being used towards a qualification ranging from a Postgraduate Certificate to an MA in Professional Media Practice. Of particular interest is a course in Digital Video for Photographers, which is under development at University of Gloucestershire.
The Photography FdA at City College Brighton and Hove has been running for two and half years, and has seen a steady rise in the number of applicants for just 15 places. Head of photography Graham Hulme, who has worked at the college for nine years, says, “After the first year, word spread and numbers have tripled from when we started the course. I also think there’s been an influx this year before tuition fees go up next year. If a student gets on a course this year, the tuition fees will stay the same for the duration of the course.”
Hulme researched the FdA qualification nearly three years ago, and at that point found “perhaps, no more than 20 or 30 courses”, a fraction of the number of degree courses. He believes the short duration of the FdA is one of its selling points – the fees are the same as for a degree, but students have to pay for two years, not three. But the flexibility of the qualification may also make it attractive, as students can progress to the final year of an appropriate degree if they decide they want to take it further (although in practice, this depends on matching the student’s previous two-years’ study to an appropriate course).
This doesn’t have to be done straight away – students “can wait about six years and still turn the FdA into a BA later on”, explains Hulme. Students also gain from studying in an institution, as they can use its facilities and equipment. City College has in-house studio space and “a HD Hasselblad medium format camera and scanners”, high-end kit that would be beyond most students’ budgets.
On the job
At the start of 2010, Skillset redeveloped its Advanced Apprenticeship in Photo Imaging for 16-25-year-olds. A Government-funded, modular scheme, it was developed from a similar (and successful) programme delivered by the MoD and the Defence School of Photography to train photographers in the Forces. The idea is to “raise competency standards to an apprenticeship level of confidence” and the apprenticeships are kept deliberately broad to give them “as wide an appeal as possible, as jobs are not as clearly defined as they used to be”, according to Skillset’s photo imaging sector manager Pippa Walkley.
Successful apprentices get a nationally recognised Level 3 qualification, and “hopefully future employment”, which could be as anything from a trainee social photographer or minilab printer to a picture library keyworder. Apprentices are paid no less than £2.50 per hour by the employer throughout, but the exact sum depends on their age and the number of hours they work. An apprentice aged 16 to 18 when they start can work a 37.5-hour week, including the time they spend training, for example, and earn a minimum of £2.50 per hour. Once the apprentice turns 19, they can work up to 40 hours a week including the training, which has an incremental effect on their wage.
If the apprentice is over 19 when they start, they can work a 40-hour week including training, and have an hourly minimum wage of £2.50 per hour for the first year. For the second year they will earn the national minimum wage, which is currently £4.92 per hour for a 19 or 20-year-old, and £5.93 for a 21-to 25-year-old. These are minimum rates, and there is nothing to stop an employer paying more, but the levels have led some to brand the scheme little more than undervalued, cheap labour.
Even so, it could prove popular. Getting into the photography industry is difficult because the market is saturated and competition is fierce, and young image-makers are often badly informed about the kind of work available to them. “One of the most difficult things is when someone says ‘I want to be a photographer’,” says Walkley. “There are so many sub-sectors in photo imaging and there’s no right or wrong answer to the question, ‘Should I go to college?’ It’s all about trying to provide as much information and guidance as possible so that they can make informed choices about careers in the industry.” With this in mind, Skillset also provides information on its website, at  www.skillset.org/careers.
“Apprenticeships wouldn’t suit everyone, some people need space in college to find their way and explore, others want to be in employment,” adds Walkley. For the rest, she’s been sourcing employers willing to take part in the Advanced Apprenticeship, and has had input into the creation of a new apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media, which offers units in web design, interactive media and production, as well as photography and image management.
In tandem with this, the National Apprenticeship Service, a separate entity has developed a database in which photographers can submit information and search for vacancies.
Foundation Degree interns
Skillset is also working on industry-led Foundation Degree Internships, combining Foundation Degrees with unpaid, work-based learning. Pitched as a vocational, work-based route through Higher Education, these qualifications will feature on-the-job training and structured academic teaching. The student interns will be taken on full-time, two to three days a week for a minimum of 25 weeks per year by the host companies. The businesses are encouraged to commit to taking on interns for two years, and should allow the students to attend regular tutorials and study blocks at the Skillset Media Academy. The University of Westminster has already agreed to provide one such internship at its Harrow campus.
The host companies get the interns’ help free of charge, though they’re encouraged to provide travel or subsistence support; the students pay 50 percent of the college fees. At the end of the two years the student intern will have earned a Foundation Degree qualification, which (as with other Foundation courses), they can top up over a third year to gain an Honours Degree. So far the programme is only targeting picture libraries and agencies, but there’s potential to expand it, Walkley explains.
“Student fees for UG courses rise considerably from September 2012,” she says. “Many media courses will cost £7500+ and students will want to be sure they have selected a course that the industry values. A course that allows you to combine the rigour of a degree programme with the opportunity to develop workplace skills as well as good contacts will become increasingly popular, and this programme is such a course.
“Students will leave with a high level of professional skills, honed by working alongside media professionals, complemented by academic and theoretical understandings and excellent interpersonal skills. They will be creative, responsible, reflective and effective young professionals ready to slot straight into creative teams when they start work.”
Academic route
At the other end of the academic spectrum are courses such as the full-time two-year MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art(RCA), which has provided many young photographers with a route into the highly conceptual art world. “The MA is not about careers and professionalism at all, but personal development,” says Olivier Richon, professor of photography of the RCA course. “It’s for people who want to develop their own practice and explore how to think about images.”
For Richon there’s no direct, vocational qualification for art photographers, because being ‘an artist’ sums up so many different skills. “It is quite ambivalent as to what one means by a practising artist,” he explains. “Some students may have shows in good galleries, but don’t end up making any money from it, and so do other things to make money. Others may use their skills as a photographer to take pictures of sculptures for galleries, or of architecture, for example.” Around 85 percent of former students end up “doing photography in various forms”, though, with some going into teaching or taking up artist residencies.
One of the most-respected courses in the country, its applications have remained stable at around 200 for 20-22 places, but Richon says student fees have already made a difference over the last few years. “I think the students are different now,” he says. “If they decide to study, they usually commit themselves more. Our students are much more prepared to borrow money, be in debt and work at weekends. It’s a different attitude.”
Personal choice
With so many options available, young photographers need to do their research and work out what suits them best, Nick Sargeant, head of the art and design department of the University of Gloucestershire, points out. “The decision regarding going straight into industry, taking an FdA or getting a degree is one that prospective students must make.
“Like other universities, we are looking at the possibility of two-year fast-track degrees. Whether that would be appropriate for photography courses is something we need to decide. Alternative study methods are bound to be on our agenda but the bottom line is that it’s important we deliver courses that help students acquire a range of skills to enter employment.”

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© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093.

Screens make good neighbors

2011-07-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Just a fun image taken of a lizard on the pool screen. I find the simple observations are the most interesting.

Checkout this site

2011-07-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

artgrad.net | Affordable artwork by modern graduate artists

Here is some information about them from the website:

About Us

Welcome to ArtGrad.net!

All the work you see on this site is done by people that have studied art or design at an educational establishment: they are all professionals in various stages of their career development.

We have some of the most contemporary, interesting and affordable artwork pieces that can be found anywhere – at the click of a mouse.

Artgrad.net is a global marketplace for all art graduates to exhibit and sell their work in a professional environment, teaming with buyers, collectors and enthusiasts - all searching for contemporary art from emerging artists.

Our website is free to use.

If you’re an artist, please click on the Artist link to the right to find out how we can help you sell your artwork, and help you develop your art career

If you’re a buyer - or "just looking!", please click on the Buyer link to the right to see a huge range of affordable artwork, and more information about how you might decide to use art as an investment

There are times to GIVE and times NOT.

2011-07-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

4 Questions to Ask Before Donating to a Charity Photo Auction

JUNE 29, 2011

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Auctioneer Denise Bethel of Sotheby's leads the bidding at inMotion's annual Photography Auction & Benefit, April 2011.

According to the gallery owners we interviewed in “Benefit Analysis: The Pros and Cons of Donating To Charity Auctions,” the explosion of fundraising auctions in recent years has not been a boon to artists who donated works. Many auction organizers say that the auction sales, and having work in a prestigious auction catalogue, can be good exposure, particularly for lesser known artists. Gallery owners, however, believe that at many auctions, buyers are looking for bargains. If a print sells for well below market price, it can confuse buyers about its actual value. Worse still, with so many auctions selling so many prints, some works won’t sell at all.

As we note in our July issue, gallery owners have different ideas about how to prevent prints from selling at bargain basement prices, such as setting a reserve price and issuing special editions just for the auction. Gallery owners have also become more selective in choosing which auctions they want to participate in. To make their selection, they ask a variety of questions to size up the quality of the auction. Here are some of the questions they ask.

How many prints will be up for sale? (And how many people are expected to attend?)
If an auction includes a large number of lots up for sale, at least some of the prints may go unsold. “If it doesn’t sell, people will maybe think that it is not worth buying,” says David Fahey of Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. “As we know, this is not really the case, but often times perceptions carry great weight.”

Toronto gallery owner Stephen Bulger estimates that only ten percent of the crowd at a charity auction attendees is seriously interested in bidding for something. He prefers to see the number of bidders outnumber the auction lots by a ration of two-to-one, to ensure bidding competition and higher prices, he explains.

Some well established auctions have cut back the number of prints for sale. For example, Center for Photography at Woodstock cut its benefit auction lots by 75 percent, from 200 to about 50 a few years ago. At its annual auction gala last year, Aperture Foundation held back lots to match its audience size. “We want each piece to get enough attention,” says Yseult Chehata, manager of the individual giving program at the Aperture Foundation.

Who is attending, and who are the organizers?
The charity inMotion, which provides free legal aid to low-income victims of domestic abuse, is in the fortunate position of having to turn down photographers who want to donate to its annual auction. Its board is comprised of attorneys and investment bankers who attract a well-heeled, big spending crowd. The auctioneer in the past few years has been Denise Bethel, senior VP and director of the photographs department at Sotheby’s, who has experience in stoking the crowd to spend big.

But attendees who buy prints to support a worthwhile cause may be less interested in collecting photography. Los Angeles gallery owner Paul Kopeikin notes, “Is this someone who’s going to come to the artist’s next show? It’s difficult to say.” Non-profit organizations like the Center for Photography at Woodstock argue that their auction attendees are primarily interested in the Center’s mission, which is to support photographers. The relationships that are forged between photographers who donate to their auction and the people who buy auction prints, “can continue for years afterwards,” says Ariel Shanberg, executive director.

What information about sales and buyers will be available after the auction?
Julie Saul, owner of Julie Saul Gallery in New York, asks auction organizers to agree in writing to disclose after the auction how much each print she donated sold for, and to whom. “Particularly if it’s a unique work, you want to know where it is, and secondly you want to know what it sold for to evaluate, for example, if you want to donate to that cause in the future,” she explains.

The organizers of the inMotion auction inform donors of the price their prints sold for, and also provide contact information on the buyers. “Our goal is to help galleries and photographers build new relationships with collectors,“ says Carol Lindley, inMotion’s director of development and marketing.

Not all auctions will disclose their sales figures. But it's worth asking before you donate what the average sale prices have been for past auctions, and whether you'll be told the sale price of your prints after the auction so you can generate publicity if your work fetches a good price for a good cause.

Is the auction supporting a cause you believe in?
This question sounds obvious, but according to gallery owners we interviewed, photographers tend to think that if they help support an arts organization or museum now, the relationship might someday lead to an acquisition or exhibition down the road.

Paul Kopeikin of the Paul Kopeikin Gallery of Los Angeles says that when museums call him for donations to their auctions, he’s often very blunt. “Listen, in 20 years you’ve never taken an interest in any of the artists I represent, so I’m just curious, which artist is it that you’re interested in?”

When you understand what you can and can't expect from participating in charity auctions, you can donate out of generosity, not in hopes of publicity.

Something to think about on Independence Day.

2011-07-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

July 4, 2011 @ 7:03AM

Photographing in public: When the police gets it wrong

By Haje Jan Kamps

When they start reaching for handcuffs, something's gone a bit wrong.

+ enlarge gallery

A few days ago, I received an e-mail from a reader who had been through an interesting ordeal by the hands of UK police. They wanted a bit of advice, and I figured more of you might like to learn a little bit more about what happens when you are given a stern talking to by police about taking photos in a public place.

Also, let me point out right at the beginning that I'm not a lawyer, and that nothing in this post must be construed as legal advice - I'm merely a photographer who has a (probably more than healthy) interest in the aspects of the law pertaining to photographers.

Tim writes:

"I've been an amateur snapper for a while. I favour street photography but will snap most things if I find them interesting. I tend to visit events like steam rallies, street parades, music events and such as they are a good source of fun street shots, as a rule. At the weekend I decided to attend a car rally with the intention of snapping some old cars and bikes, and the people there to see them, plus the bands playing."

"All was well and good, it was nice day. I'd been there maybe a couple of hours and was thinking about leaving when I was approached by a police officer, who asked if he could have a word. Of course, I said. He told me, rather apologetically, that they'd received a call from a member of the public who was concerned I might have been taking 'inappropriate pictures'. I had to push him for him to add 'of children'. I wasn't overly shocked. I know numerous people this has happened to. There is a lot of suspicion among the ill informed, particularly stewards at such events. Officer asked if I'd have any objection to showing him the photos on my camera and I said no, of course not, feel free. He took camera and handed it to colleague who was in the police car which had drawn up."

Comments: A lot of people at this point feel they have done nothing wrong, and are more than happy to help police along. The thinking goes as follows: Police are people too, and if they take an interest in my photography (even if they have just accused me, indirectly, of being perverts), then it can't harm to show them the images.

Do remember, however, that a police officer demanding to see your photos is almost certainly on shaky grounds. There are a few laws under which they can do so, but the application of these laws is generally restricted to high-risk areas.

Tim writes...

"I was entirely confident I'd be on my way in a minute or two, once the images had been viewed and it became obvious I'd taken none, inappropriate or otherwise, of kids. First officer continued to be friendly and apologetic, and I assured him I understood the situation. I didn't point out that it's in fact entirely legal to take pictures of anyone in a public place, irrespective of age, as I do understand the genuine concerns some people may have in this modern world. However I was somewhat miffed as to how someone might have thought my behaviour was suspicious enough to call the police, considering I go out of my way to avoid taking pictures of children and am always entirely open about what I'm doing. Having taken tens of thousands of street snaps, I am yet to have my first run in with a person I've photographed, largely because I use my common sense don't go poking my camera anywhere just because I might have legality on my side."

Comments: There are a few important things to keep in mind here: If it's in public, you have the full rights to take photos of anything you can see. Police (or, indeed, anyone who so pleases), can ask you very nicely if you pretty please, with sugar on top, won't stop taking pictures.

It may be, for example, that you are at the scene of a horrific traffic accident, and a 9-year old boy has been badly maimed by a car. If the parents are present, and clearly deeply in shock and in discomfort about their son being photographed, police might walk over and say something like "Hey, mate, if you don't mind awfully, you're upsetting the parents a lot by taking these pictures, it'd be great if you could move along". It's up to you whether you decide to stop taking photos or not, but as a human being, you are, in my opinion, being a bit of a douche if you don't.

Tim writes...

"Anyway, driver gets out of car and I had a sinking feeling when I saw he'd left my camera in his car. I asked him if there was a problem and he replied, incredulously, that yes, of course there was a problem. 'There are lots of pictures of people on your camera. PEOPLE! Do you know them all?' I admitted the no, obviously I didn't. 'Then you don't take pictures of them, simple as that. You can't just go around in public taking pictures of whoever you want!' I was astonished by his obvious ignorance of the 'public places' law but remained polite as I pointed out that yes, I could, because photography in a public place (car show was held in a public place, not on private land) was entirely legal and street photography was an increasingly popular niche - and one of my street snapping buddies is himself a serving police sergeant."

Comment: Okay, this is where the police officer is quite clearly completely wrong about the law. You are, as Tim says, fully in your right to take photos in a public place.

This is where you realise that you are fighting a losing battle. Police officers, like everyone else, are some times wrong. If they mis-perceive a situation, it might be that you get arrested for something that you should't ever be arrested for. However, remember that the main reason why you get arrested in the UK is to 'allow a prompt and effective investigation'. At this juncture, you probably have three choices:

Delete the photos off your memory card
Encourage the police to contact their sergeant ('skipper') or inspector ('governor')
Get arrested, explain the whole situation at the police station.

Now, to go through these options in order:

Deleting the images is something you should only do as an absolute last resort. Police officers on the ground have no right to tell you to delete anything; any 'destruction' has to be result of a court order. That it's relatively easy to recover the images once they have been deleted is a separate matter, of course: If you are confident in your skills in image recovery, go ahead and delete them (don't format the card - just choose 'delete all'), and then recover them later; but this isn't something you should ever have to do.

In the UK, if a police officer tells you to delete something, simply refuse. If they make motions to delete something from your memory card for you, tell them to stop right away, and tell them that it would be illegal for them to do that. Technically, a police officer deleting images from someone's computer would fall either under criminal damage (a common law offence) or under "unauthorised modification of computer material" under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990. If they do delete your images, make sure you don't touch that part of the camera (fingerprints!), take their shoulder number, and go to the nearest police station. At the front office, make a formal complaint, and don't leave until you have a crime reference number. You'll probably have to hand over your camera, but make sure that the officer who takes it knows what has happened, and that the camera will need to be forensically analysed.

Encouraging them to seek advice is something you have to do carefully. Telling someone "you don't know the law you bastard, how about you call and ask your boss" will obviously come across differently than "Uhm, I think you may be mistaken, but it's a complicated piece of law. Is there any chance I could wait here whilst you call your superior for some advice?". If you do manage to convince them to call the boss, you'll probably be sheepishly let go, pronto; most sergeants have the sense to either know the law or to seek advice from the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), at which point you'll be sent on your way. If you subsequently want to make a formal complaint (you probably should - formal complaints are taken very seriously, and cause a huge machinery to roll into action. At the very least, all the police officers in that borough will be given a stern reminder of the rights of photographers), that's up to you.

Get yourself arrested... Finally, if it all goes wrong, then tell them that you aren't going to give them your camera, and that you won't delete any images. Most importantly: tell them that you won't tell them your name or address. This means that they will have to arrest you to take it any further.

Now, in the UK, arresting someone is a long, drawn-out procedure, which makes police officers think twice about arresting someone, at least if they aren't completely sure if they have valid grounds for arrest. Once you make it to the custody suite, the custody sergeant will probably not even authorise detention, which means that you'll never see the inside of a cell.

Tim writes:

"The first, more civil, officer had by this time also viewed the pictures on the camera. I am pretty much certain if he'd been alone I'd have been on my way with an apology for the inconvenience and a thanks for cooperating at that point. But the driver was clearly determined to continue his tirade and not just let it go. He indicated to the first officer to take my details. I asked why they needed my details when I'd proved my innocence of the non-crime (I didn't actually say that) of snapping kids. Driver asked me if I wanted to be arrested. I have responsibilities and couldn't afford to be out of commission for hours or more so just gave the first officer my name and address and DOB, knowing I had no record of any kind and nothing to fear."

Comment: If this were me, at this point, I would have just let them arrest me. It'll be a few hours of inconvenience, but ultimately, if you're sure that you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. It's worth remembering that 'getting arrested' sounds dramatic, but isn't punishment in itself: It is simply one of many tools in a police officer's toolbox. Getting arrested won't get you a criminal record.

Tim writes:

"People had been gawping as they passed by and I was now 'invited' to get into the car. 'Don't worry, you're going to be arrested,' said first officer. Of course I wasn't, I'd done nothing wrong, but the continuing detention was making the onlookers think something iffy was going on, when I should have been on my way long since."

"Got in car and first officer remained outside, on radio, checking details. Driver then said he'd show me what he had a real problem with. He brought up a picture of a woman sitting on the grass watching one of the bands. 'You've obviously seen her showing a bit of leg and decided to take a picture, haven't you?' I told him I was taking pictures of the audience in general. He repeated the question almost word for word, and I did likewise in reply, to which he said that I was really starting to annoy him with my 'innocent act'. He said I'd clearly come out with the intention of snapping young ladies. He brought up another picture of a young woman - this one was giving a sweetie to her dog. He laughed at the suggestion that I was focusing on the dog taking the sweet, not the girl. He ignored the obvious fact that around 300 of the 324 images featured elderly men, young men, middle aged men, singers and bands (male), some dancers (mixed sex, mostly middle aged), some people dressed in Roman costumes, about 130 pictures just of vehicles, some pictures of the sun on the sea, boats, a plane etc. None of the pictures were of things such as bums or cleavage close ups. There was nothing on there that I wouldn't have been happy to show anyone, including kids or nuns or the people who appeared in the snaps."

"There then followed a 15 minute lecture from the driver about how wrong taking pictures of people was. He again said people had a right to privacy in public places. He made a big deal of a picture I'd taken of a woman drinking champagne on a balcony of a house overlooking the rally site. He said her husband would be within his rights to 'fill me in'. Her husband (or partner) had in fact raised a glass cheerfully to me when I'd taken the shot, though he wasn't actually in the shot. I could still see them up there and said he could ask them if they objected. He completely ignored me. Finally the other officer got back in the car and confirmed that I didn't have record, wasn't a known danger to the public/kids, wasn't on the run or wanted etc."

"But the driver wasn't done yet. He said that image of the woman sitting on the grass 'showing a bit of leg' could amount to indecency. If there had been 'three or four' such images in a series, I'd be under arrest and would be placed on the sex offenders register. Did I want that? Did I want my life ruined?"

Comment: Oh, wow, that's showing another pretty grim misunderstanding of the law. The Indecent Photographs thing the officer is speaking about in this case falls under S1 of the Protection of Children act 1978 as amended by S85 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order act of 1994 and s45 of the sexual offences act of 2003. It states that it is an offence to "take, make, or permit to be taken; Show or distribute; Possess with a view to distribution; Publish any indecent photograph (i.e. an image in any form) of a child (a person under the age of 18)". The discussion as to whether the woman was acting 'indecently' is irrelevant if she doesn't appear to be under 18 - and I think most people would agree that anything you see on an average beach (with the exception of 60 year old men wearing Speedos) cannot reasonably be argued to be indecent.

Tim's e-mail continues with several more thinly and not-so-thinly veiled threats, but it all ended well:

"Eventually I was driven back to my motorcycle and told that they'd wait over the road and make sure I left the area 'for my own protection'. Which I did."

Comment: Obviously, I have only Tim's side of this story, as I haven't been able to speak to the officers in question. If everything happened the way he perceived it, it appears that he has run into a copper who was having a ludicrously bad day - and a formal complaint may be in order.

There are a lot of lessons to be taken away from this encounter, however. A good exercise for photographers who take photos in public places, for example, would be to go through the account above, with the thought 'What would I have done in the same situation' - in the knowledge that this could very well happen to you.

You could do a lot worse than reading up on your rights of taking photos in a public place in theUK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US (and those of your local country, of course), and to be aware of the rights you have to your own images.

Finally, if you do get 'hassle' from the cops, stay calm, but stand your ground. There's nothing wrong with taking a few deep breaths and giving an eloquent reply instead of blurting out whatever you are thinking. Ultimately, police have more important things to worry about than a photographer minding his/her own business, but it could be (like in this case) that the odd police officer have their own axes to grind. The best way to dodge out of that is by asking them to take advice from their bosses, and to stand your ground.

How about you?

So - have you ever had any nasty experiences whilst out taking photos? Leave a comment below and tell us about it!

One Photographic Path Taken - Part 2

2011-06-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Journey

Images by Marita Gootee

The series Sand Shadows was created using the 6x9 multi-format Zero Image pinhole camera. The images were exposed at the 6x4.5 format. Exposure times ranged from 6 seconds to 15 seconds using both Ilford Delta 400 and HP5 120 film. The subjects were located on a beach and moved with the pull of the surf. The camera was on a mini tripod braced on my hip as I stood in the surf or it was placed on the sand and removed as the tide hit the shore. The combination of both the subject and the unstable human tripod being pulled by the force of the tide created images that are mystical and dreamlike.

The final prints are small. They are 2 1/4 inches by 3 1/4 inches and

printed on 5x7 Agfa Multigrade FB118 surface photographic paper. Each image is delicately hand tinted with Prismacolor pencils with a touch of quick drying linseed oil. The use of color adds to the formation of the dreamlike quality of the Sand Shadow imagery.

The terms such as dreamlike, memory, mystical and more have been used to describe these images. They are not images frozen in time as are so many other photographs. Rather they are a blending of time and self-reflection. Sand Shadows with its blurred imagery and hints of color are fragments of the moment. They have a touch of romance for a memory or an emotion.

The images permit travel within a memory as the viewer is swept by the visual motion and timeless quality. The images are much like the subject as it blends with the ocean and is drawn out to the sea. The surf cannot be stopped or held back by man. Neither can time.

The images span the length of time beyond the experience of the moment. This is the drama that merges with the senses that challenges the memory. Every fragment of a given day can be re-interpreted and re-examined by the mind to re-create the event being recalled. This is a dynamic mental activity that one should embrace for the experience of creating new imagery.

These images are available in a Blurb Book: SAND SHADOWS
Original Prints are available by going to my website: maritagooteephotography.com

One Photographic Path Taken - Part 1

2011-06-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Journey

Images by Marita Gootee

Journey is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as ‘to travel from one place to another’.

Everyday one wakes to see meet a new day continues the personal journey through life. It is a both personal and public experience. It is filled with dreams, visions, memories and reflections – so many that subtle nuances flash by without recognition.

The flicker of time and how one presents this fleeting memory has always been a major aspect of my work. It does not yield exactness of imagery rather the impression of a moment. I do not portray the chaos of dreams nor the non-representational design of the total abstract thought, rather I search for the mental visual; tags that convey the emotion for location and the feeling for the moment. I search to express visually the quite moments of the memory. The journey from the present to the past as one moves through the reality of the day. It is my goal to bring the moment back to the surface so others may share the experience of the mountain trail or the child in the ocean. Still it more than the obvious – it is the mood created that we all share untied to the location presented. It is the spiritual quality of nature and the whimsy of play.

Memory is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as 1. The power or act of remembering 2. All that one remembers 3. Something remembered 4. The period of remembering 5. Commemoration.

Upon reflection of these definitions it seem one should go to the Webster’s New World Dictionary and define ‘remembering” for it seems one cannot define memory without a true understanding of this term.

Remember is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as 1. To think again 2. To bring back to the mind an effort; recall 3. To be careful not to forget 4. To mention to another as sending regards, -vi, to bear in or call back to, mind.

The journey I have undertaken is to have the viewer to ‘think again’ about the quite moments that are lost by the sounds and actions of the present. This is a personal journey through abstracted thoughts and emotions that I bring to the public. These are reflections of moments that should not be forgotten or lost. Although created by a single individual these images are not to be owned by one but shared by many through a reflection of the private moment.

The journey progresses through the ethereal quality of the Shifting Landscapes Series

to the dynamic energy of the later series titled Sand Shadow. Both series could stand-alone but each draws upon the viewer to become active with the imagery and enter the page. To not permit the soul to feel the expression is to limit the experience. The use of the pinhole camera and the soft hand tinting further accents the memory and dreamlike further guides the viewer.

Images from Shifting Landscape Series

Often I am confronted by the concept of beauty in this work. This work is meant to be comforting for the viewer. Yet unlike the soul-less sofa art this work draws upon the past and present dreams of the viewer for success as a work of art. It requires the imagination of the viewer to capture the moment and create life in the images.

The landscapes were the start of the project. Each image was taken with a pinhole camera and delicately hand tinted to add to the mystery of the location.

From Nevada

From Mississippi

From North Carolina

As time progressed I became extremely interested in the recording of motion and the exaggeration of scale. The use of an 8x10 pinhole camera provided new perspective and new technical challenges. The mire processing of the large sheet film was a learning experience. The images were worth the effort and the many failures.

As I was exploring the larger format images I was still very active using the smaller pinhole camera. The smaller camera permitted more mobility that after the larger camera provide more freedom for movement. By re-experiencing total movement the thought of motion triggered new creative freedom. I will explore this more in a later post.

The Future of Photo?

2011-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2011/06/22/lytro/

A Camera That Could Care Less About Focus: Introducing Lytro

11 hours ago by Chris Taylor posted on Mashable.com

Remember cameras that would have to focus themselves before taking a snapshot? And how that could lose vital seconds, making a mockery of the term “point and shoot”?

Oh, right — that would describe every digital camera currently on the market. But if one Silicon Valley startup has its way, the very idea of focusing, or adjusting light levels, or having to wait before you click the shutter, will be a relic of the early 21st century — along, perhaps, with photos that only exist in two dimensions.

Lytro is the brainchild of Dr. Ren Ng, a Stanford Ph.D whose dissertation on light-field technology five years ago was showered with awards. Now, with the help of $50 million in funding, most of it from Andreessen Horowitz, Ng has built a company that’s preparing to launch a focus-free digital camera later this year.

The basic premise of Lytro’s technology is pretty simple: The camera captures all the information it possibly can about the field of light in front of it. You then get a digital photo that is adjustable in an almost infinite number of ways. You can focus anywhere in the picture, change the light levels — and presuming you’re using a device with a 3-D ready screen — even create a picture you can tilt and shift in three dimensions. (I got a demonstration of the camera’s 3-D photos on a laptop and was blown away.)

You might think that this would produce unfeasibly large digital files, but Ng insists that the files will be roughly comparable to the average size of a digital photo today. The heavy lifting is being done by the camera’s on-board processors, he says. And because its light sensor is incredibly sensitive, you can capture low-light situations like restaurants a lot more easily — even without the flash.

Although the camera itself isn’t due out until late 2011, Lytro on Tuesday unveiled a carousel of demonstration snapshots — all of them embeddable, available in Flash for the web and HTML5 for your smartphone. Here’s an example. Click anywhere on the picture to change the focus, double-click to zoom.

Remind you of Instagram‘s tilt-shift feature, perhaps? Sure — except when you realize that Instagram can only focus on one area of the screen at a time. See how the chain link fence snaps in and out of focus? That’s how you know it’s a picture with a whole lot of light field information in it.

And the cost of this camera? Ng says it will be comparable to other consumer-priced digital cameras on the market. If the end result is anything like these demonstration photos, the $40 billion camera market is about to meet a whole lot of disruption.

Santa Fe Workshops -Checkout this contest

2011-06-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Our-Next-Photo-Contest-Now-Open-.html?soid=1101524380020&aid=ncavtWDLxYI

Fashion Photo Competition

2011-06-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Photo credits: Yulia Gorbachenko, Lauren
Greenfield, Neil Snape.

One Grand Prize and will receive:

A Sony A850 DSLR ($1999.99 value)
+ SAL-2875 Lens($699.99 value)
A $500 B&H Gift Card
A Milk Studios Prize Package worth $5,000.

The package includes: one rental of
Milk's formula studio, an equipment
and lighting rental and one day of
Milk Digital Capture Services

A PDN HDSLR Video Workshop Class

at the New York City session;
October 29-30* during PDN's Photoplus
International Conference + Expo,
October 27-29, in New York City
* or a workshop session of their choice
Six first place winners will receive

A Sony NEX 3 camera
A $100 B&H Gift Card

All Winners will receive:

A PDN Photoserve portfolio ($860 value)

A page in the October 2011 issue of PDN,
which has a distribution of over 25,000
including over 5,000 influential art buyers,
photo editors and art directors

Exposure in The Look contest online gallery hosted byClickbooq and a
Clickbooq annual plan ($588 value)
Advertising
Editorial/Celebrity
Still Life/Accessories
Personal Work/Fine Art
Runway/Street Scene
Beauty
Debut [Student/Emerging]

Enter the Contest

www.pdnthelook.com

I am a photographer who wants to be a photographer not a computer technician!!

2011-06-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/much-longer-photographic-film-hold-162516670.html

How much longer can photographic film hold on?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — At Image City Photography Gallery, Gary Thompson delights in pointing out qualities of light, contrast and clarity in one of his best-selling prints — a winter-sunset view of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan peak shot with a hefty Pentax film camera he bought in 1999 for $1,700.
His wife, Phyllis, a latecomer to fine-art photography after they retired from teaching in the 1990s, favors a Hasselblad X-Pan for panoramic landscapes, such as a time-lapse shot of a harbor in Nova Scotia.
Of 11 partners and resident artists at the private gallery in Rochester — the western New York city where George Eastman transformed photography from an arcane hobby into a mass commodity with his $1 Brownie in 1900 — the Thompsons are the only ones left who haven't switched to filmless digital cameras.
But that time may be near.
"I like the color we get in film, the natural light," says Phyllis Thompson, 70, who married her high-school sweetheart 50 years ago. "But digital cameras are getting much better all the time, and there will come a time when we probably won't be able to get film anymore. And then we'll have to change."
At the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. This year, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras — the beach-resort staple vacationers turn to in a pinch, according to the Photo Marketing Association.
Eastman Kodak Co. marketed the world's first flexible roll film in 1888. By 1999, more than 800 million rolls were sold in the United States alone. The next year marked the apex for combined U.S. sales of rolls of film (upward of 786 million) and single-use cameras (162 million).
Equally startling has been the plunge in film camera sales over the last decade. Domestic purchases have tumbled from 19.7 million cameras in 2000 to 280,000 in 2009 and might dip below 100,000 this year, says Yukihiko Matsumoto, the Jackson, Mich.-based association's chief researcher.
For InfoTrends imaging analyst Ed Lee, film's fade-out is moving sharply into focus: "If I extrapolate the trend for film sales and retirements of film cameras, it looks like film will be mostly gone in the U.S. by the end of the decade."
Just who are the die-hards, holdouts and hangers-on?
Among those who still rely on film — at least part of the time — are advanced amateurs and a smattering of professionals who specialize in nature, travel, scientific, documentary, museum, fine art and forensic photography, market surveys show.
Regular point-and-shoot adherents who haven't made the switch tend be poorer or older — 55 and up.
But there's also a swelling band of new devotees who grew up in the digital age and may have gotten hooked from spending a magical hour in the darkroom during a high school or college class.
Others are simply drawn to its strengths over digital and are even venturing into retro-photo careers.
"In everything from wedding to portrait to commercial photography, young professionals are finding digital so prevalent that they're looking for a sense of differentiation," says Kayce Baker, a marketing director at Fujifilm North America. "That artistic look is something their high-end clients want to see."
Kodak remains the world's biggest film manufacturer, with Japan's Fuji right on its tail. But the consumer and professional films they make have dwindled to a precious few dozen film stocks in a handful of formats, becoming one more factor in the mammoth drop-off in film processing.
Scott's Photo in Rochester finally switched this year stopped daily processing of color print film because fewer than one in 20 customers are dropping off film. A decade ago, "we could process 300 rolls on a good day, and now we see maybe 8 or 10 rolls on the few days we actually process," owner Scott Sims says.
For the hustling masses, there's no turning back the clock.
"There's so many digital images taken every day, especially with mobile media, that never will hit a piece of paper," says Therese Mulligan, administrative chair of the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Even at major photography schools, film is an elective specialty.
"Our entire first two years' curriculum is digital in orientation," Mulligan says. "Those that follow a fine-art option are the first to gravitate toward film. Other genres we teach — photojournalism or advertising or biomedical — have a stronger digital emphasis because of the industry itself."
In a rich irony, film's newest fans — not unlike music aficionados who swear by vinyl records — are being drawn together via the rise of the Internet.
"The technology that enabled the demise of film is actually helping to keep it relevant with specific types of users," says IDC analyst Chris Chute.
But with the film market shrinking by more than 20 percent annually, most other signs point downhill. Analysts foresee Kodak offloading its still-profitable film division sometime in the next half-dozen years as it battles to complete a long and painful digital transformation.
Kodak will churn out a variety of films as long as there's sufficient demand for each of them, says Scott DiSabato, its marketing manager for professional film. It has even launched four new types since 2007.
While digital has largely closed the image-quality gap, DiSabato says a top-line film camera using large-format film "is still unsurpassed" in recording high-resolution images.
"The beauty with film is a lot of wonderful properties are inherent and don't require work afterward" whereas digital can involve heavy computer manipulation to get the same effect, DiSabato says.
"In the extreme, they call it 'stomped on,'" he said. "But a lot of photographers want to be photographers, not computer technicians. And some prized film capabilities — grain, color hues, skin-tone reproduction — can't quite be duplicated no matter how much stomping goes on."
Gary Thompson, who's been exhibiting his best photos for 32 years, captured his Yosemite picture on medium-format slide film — which is 4 1/2 times bigger than 35 mm film — during one of many weeks-long photo jaunts with his wife.
In the digitally scanned, 24-by-30-inch print, the shadow from a dipping sun has climbed halfway up El Capitan. The wooded, black-and-white foreground with its lacy snow patterns stands in stark contrast to the golden glow on the granite cliff face under a blue sky.
"I don't know if I could have gotten this print that large with that kind of detail" using a digital camera without "shooting several images and blending them together in Photoshop," he says. "What attracts me to shoot in almost all instances is the quality of light and there's something about film and working with it and the way it records that I just like."
Thompson feels acutely that he's reaching the end of an era.
"As people's film cameras break down, rather than purchasing another one, they move to digital," he says. "Eventually, we'll probably be doing that. There's a certain nostalgia involved, particularly when I'm working with one of my big husky cameras. That will be sad. But hey, when it happens, I'll adjust."

Photo Competition

2011-06-01T06:22:00.001-07:00

Everyday Lives photo competition - $6k Prizes

We are very excited to announce the launch of the Everyday Lives photo competition.

This brand new competition from photoartgallery.com asks you to submit your

photos of 'people doing what people do'.

Enter your portrait shots - candid or posed and you could win a slice of the $6,000 prize pool.

Prizes include a Manfrotto studio set & tripod, the newly released Corel Painter 12 software,

vouchers to print your shots at photoartcentre.com and many more prizes

from Kata Bags, GPS4cam App and Corel.

You can enter up to 5 of your Everyday Lives shots until the 1st of July 2011.

Winners will be chosen by a panel of professionals AND by public choice!

So get your friends and family voting for your entry and you could walk away a winner!

Enter Now! http://tinyurl.com/everydaylives

Help Blake - help the students of Smithville MS.

2011-05-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Took this from Blake's Facebook post - but I feel is it a great thing he is doing and we all should support him as much as we can!

He makes me proud that he is one of my students! Support Blake and give Smithville a prom to remember!
Email him at: blakemccollumphotography@live.com
Use Subject line: Smithville Prom

Or send him $$ via Paypal using the address above. I just sent him some funds -- it is for a very good cause!

Blake McCollum
This coming Saturday I'm photographing Smithville High School's prom. For those who don't know Smithville High was devastated by an F5 tornado last Wednesday. They were going to build their backdrops for the decoratoins but I told them to not worry about it, they have bigger things to worry about than a background! So i'm building 2 of these. If you wanna help build, sew, or whatever! Let me know! I am sure I could use some help! ALSO all my profits are being donated back to the high school. If you want to help but physically cant but want to help with a donation. Let me know and I'll add it all in!

Smithville HighSchool as of last Wednesday April 27,2011 and photo of the tornado that hit the town:

If It's Hip, It's Here

2011-04-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

If It's Hip, It's Here

20 More Interpretations Of The Last Supper. New For Easter 2011.

iPod Last Supper by Travis (axb500)

This is one of several versions that you can see if you go If It's Hip, It's Here. Now this would be a fun class assignment!

Happy Easter!

I really love this - remember my Birthday is May 7th!!

2011-04-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

Got to have one! Go to: Go to http://www.etsy.com/listing/72284747/choice-of-35mm-film-2gb-usb-flash-drive

Oh, the irony! Film and digital photography finally unite!

This re-purposed canister of 35mm film now houses a 2-gigabyte USB flash drive.

A perfect gift for any digital or film photography enthusiast.

Handcrafted with name-brand USB flash drives and recycled 35mm film canisters.

Items are carefully packaged and promptly shipped after purchase.

4-gigabyte capacity available for $23.99. Please see our other listings.

Please view the second picture in this listing to see which film types are available. Specify your desired film by number when ordering.

* * * NOTE: The "Kodak Ektar 100" drives are currently out of stock. * * *

Reflections on POOLSIDE Large.

2011-04-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

These are images were taken by the Gallery Director of the installation of POOLSIDE that was exhibited at ARTPRIZE: International Exhibition, Kendall College and Design, Grand Rapids. 9/22-10/14. The original 8x10 Pinhole Polaroid was scanned to 37x48. It took 3 full days of retouching to clean up all the particles of dust and uneven development that is natural in the Polaroid process. I had them digitally enlarged, mounted and then placed in a black wood floater frame by Metroframe. The images are impressive at that scale. At the present I have only 6 images but any of the POOLSIDE series images can be enlarged if I have the original print in the collection.

These are available for exhibition and purchase.

Mary Ellen Mark Workshop - Looks GREAT!

2011-04-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

"Mary Ellen Mark’s workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico is a 10-day intensive workshop for photographers of various levels. It’s a very successful and productive class that Mary Ellen has taught for 14 years with the help of a talented local photographers, Selma Fernandez and Cristina Llerena. Many students have taken the class multiple times—and some have come back more than ten times!"

Now this sounds like it would be great! I have always admired her work. It takes a special person to do the work she does. It would be interesting to see if I have what it takes. I encourage you to learn from the best in the field and checkout this workshop.

Find out more: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=jolukqcab&oeidk=a07e3758urf43bb06ff

2011 Wyatt Williamson selected for The Jefferson Clarke Wilson Memorial Award

2011-04-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Jefferson Clarke Wilson Memorial Award was presented earlier this year to Wyatt Williamson for the body of work he submitted. I want to share that work and the other GREAT work that was submitted.

Background:

Mr. Stuart Herring of Starkville, MS is sponsors “The Jefferson Clarke Wilson Memorial Award for Excellence in Photography” which carries a cash award. Born in Gulfport, MS, Jeff Wilson was an accomplished photographer and woodworker in addition to being a computer programmer and employee of Mississippi State University for 35 years.

The Award is given to students in

the Department of Art

at Mississippi State
University for excellence in nature and/or portrait

photography

.

The Award Winner: Wyatt Williamson

Other entires which were also very good - so selection was not an easy task.

Mary Katherine Blackwell

Kelly Brady

Katie Douglas

Heidi Robenson

Blake McCollum

Andrew Yerger

Alyce Calkins

Alex Smith

L E N S C R A T C H: Lenscratch Exhibition Opportunities

2011-04-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

L E N S C R A T C H: Lenscratch Exhibition Opportunities: "Lenscratch is creating exposure opportunities for photographers with group on-line exhibitions. Photographers will be allowed ONE entry per..."

David Holland Talks to Photo Students

2011-04-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

David Holland visited with some photography students last Friday [4/8/11] and talked to them about how he developed an exhibition and a book of images he took while in Iraq. David has created an exhibition of fine art photography from the thousands of images he captured while on active duty in Iraq. They were exhibited at The University of Southern Mississippi and the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum earlier this year. The collection will be coming to Mississippi State University September 3rd to October 30th 2011. The body of work is also included in a book published by Skarlet Press titled Bagdad Beyond the Wire: Faces from the Fair Garden. The book will be available soon on Amazon and other locations.

David talked to the students about how he started creating the work while in Bagdad. He talked about the importance of editing, cropping, and selecting the right scale for an image. He stressed the importance of being aware of the people around you so you can be in the right place for the best photograph. He reminded the students that one must respect others cultures as you are photographing. The camera can open doors but one must not overstay a welcome.

Students were able to see how a project went from idea to product. They heard how important it is to make personal connections. And most of all carry that camera with you whenever possible - never know when the 1st image of your book will be taken!

David took several photography classes with me while he was at Mississippi State University.

4x5 Lego camera

2011-04-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

It is real and it works!! What a fun camera!! Check this out: http://carynorton.com/legotron-mark-i
Cary Norton gives you all the info so you can build one on your own! Thanks Cary!! This came to my attention by Jennifer Copp. Thanks Jennifer! These are both great photographers to checkout! Do it now!!

Always wanted a Hasselblad!

2011-04-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

DIY of the Day: Kelly Angood’s “Pinhole Hasselblad” — a screenprinted, corrugated cardboard pinhole camera designed to resemble a classic Hasselblad.

Make your own (pdf)!

[pinholehassleblad / notcot.]

This is from The Daily What.

Thank you Renee for sending this link to me! If anyone makes one please send me your photos and photos of your camera!

Galerie Huit Open Salon 2011 is an International Photographic Competition

2011-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Galerie Huit Open Salon 2011 is an International Photographic Competition designed to showcase cutting-edge contemporary and emerging photography from around the world and promote new work by talented artists, enabling them to exhibit and receive exposure during and alongside the renowned international Photography Festival ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ in France.

Galerie Huit Open Salon 2011 is seeking creative photographic talent to showcase critically and aesthetically challenging innovative work.

Awards will be granted in recognition of the photographer’s contribution to the art of photography in the areas of creativity, conceptual strength and technical skill. The applicants can be at any stage of their career.

Selected artists and their winning images will be given a valuable opportunity to exhibit their work in a prestigious international gallery, Galerie Huit Arles, where their work will be printed by the Galerie Huit Open Salon and offered for sale, during one of the world’s leading photography festivals over a period of three months (4th July – 18th September 2011).

The overall Winner of the competition will also be offered a one month Artist in Residence 2011/2012 with Galerie Huit and be accommodated within the beautiful, centrally located gallery building.

The exhibited artists will be given the opportunity to have their work seen by the many prominent industry professionals who attend Les Rencontres d’Arles every year. The festival has very much an international following attracting prominent collectors, curators, gallerists, artists, publishers and photography enthusiasts from around the world. In 2010 attendees were estimated at 73,000, including over 5,000 journalists.

In addition, the winning images of the Galerie Huit Open Salon 2011 will travel from Arles to South East Asia and will be exhibited in Galerie Huit Penang, Malaysia in January 2012.

We are inviting images that evoke and relay the concept of transience – references that relate to change or the process of changing. How do we relate to a permanent state of transition, impermanence and the passing of time? Genres and inspiration relating to change and transition can be wide-ranging and relate to any aspect of our lives – personal, historical, environmental, cultural, global, political, social, geographical or seasonal. The theme encourages the exploration of any number of observations, concepts, emotions, experiences and beliefs.

Find out more at: http://www.photographyopensalon.com

My Students in Best of College Photography 2011

2011-04-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Department of Art at Mississippi State University is please to announce that three students who are majoring in Photography will be published in the Best of College Photography 2011 hosted by Photographer’s Forum magazine.

Steven Joshlin from Tippah, Mississippi,

Heidi Robinson from Madison, Mississippi

and Ioana Demian from Romania [with two images]

all placed as a finalist in the 31^st Annual Student Photography Contest sponsored by Nikon, USA.

Over 3500 students participated Worldwide. The jurors for this years competition were Andrew Davidhazy from School of Photo Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institue of Technology; Steve La Voie from the Art Center College and Design, Pasadena; and Marcia Rubenstein who is the program director for the MFA degree in photography at the Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara.

“I am not surprised that these students were selected as finalists. They are all exceptional students and extremely talented.” States Professor Gootee. Professor Marita Gootee is the Area Coordinator for photography in the Department of Art at Mississippi State University.

Learn more about the Best of College Photography 2011 and Photographer’s Forum magazine at http://pfmagazine.com.

Want to Fail as an Artist - no worries- Great tips on how to not to succeed.

2011-04-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

How Not to Succeed in The Art World

Artists everywhere work hard to sabotage their careers, compromise their reputations, make sure they never get shows, ignore the advice of dealers or advisors or coaches or consultants or anyone else knowledgeable about how the business works, all in order to maintain art world statures of consummate anonymity. In order to help streamline the process of failure, and as a public service to all artists who cherish oblivion, I hereby offer the most expedient means of attaining and solidifying lifelong positions among the ranks of the unknown. So are you ready to go nowhere? Excellent. Here's all you have to do:

* Spontaneously introduce yourself to anyone you think has any standing in the art world and/or any ability-- real or perceived-- to buy, sell, broker, critique, review, advance, or otherwise represent you or your art. Make no attempt to explain why you're introducing yourself, how you know who they are, what the purpose of your introduction is, why you or your art is relevant to what they do, what you expect to accomplish by speaking with them, or what they can expect to accomplish by speaking with you.

* Pay no attention to how disinterested anyone might be in either learning about your art, hearing your life story, or continuing any type of conversation regardless of the content. Just keep talking.

* Whenever and wherever possible say the following: "Hi, I'm an artist. Would you like to see my art?" You can do this in person, by phone, by email, by mail, etc.

* Whenever and wherever possible, ask people to look at your art, and then once they're looking at it, say the following: "So what do you think of my art?" You can do this in person, by phone, by email, by mail, etc.

* In case anyone expresses interest in seeing your art or visiting your studio, make sure you have fewer than twenty pieces of finished work. The less you have, the better.

* Even though you have less than twenty finished works of art, continually contact dealers and galleries everywhere and ask for solo shows.

* Whenever you finish a work of art, wait for at least two weeks before you start a new one. This technique not only keeps your oeuvre low, but also assures that you're continually out of practice.

* Even though you may be relatively early in your career, have had few or no gallery shows, or have not yet established a reputation where you live or make art, email random requests to dealers and galleries all over the world asking them to show, buy, broker, or represent your art.

* Even though you're not yet well known where you live or make art, present your art to the best galleries in your area, or better yet, to the best galleries in the world. Make sure these galleries exclusively represent nationally and internationally renowned artists.

* Buy mailing lists of art dealers, collectors, critics, curators, and galleries for hundreds of dollars. Then spend thousands of dollars printing up promotional materials and doing impersonal mass mailings to introduce yourself and your art.

* Pay to show your art at galleries that charge to exhibit your work. The more expensive they are, the better. Not only does nobody take these galleries seriously, but you'll also sell nothing... and... you'll go broke faster.

* Pay to be included in so-called books, magazines, or directories of promising artists, international artists, whatever. Not only does nobody take these publiciations seriously, but combined with paying for shows, you'll go broke faster yet.

* When you contact a dealer or gallery either in person or by mail or email, simply say you're an artist looking for representation. Make sure they have no idea why you're contacting them (other than that they're an art gallery and you're an artist). Also make sure you have no idea why you're contacting them (other than that they're an art gallery and you're an artist). Have no idea what kind of art they show, whether they sell the kind of art you make, whether your art is priced comparably to the art they sell, or whether your resume compares favorably with those of the artists they represent.

* Begin all mail or email correspondences to dealers or galleries with salutations like, "Dear Sir or Madam, " "Dear Gallery Director," or "To Whom it May Concern." That way, the recipients can be sure you either have no idea who they are, you don't care who they are, or you don't think it's necessary to know who they are.

* Send out random emails to galleries, dealers, etc. that contain only the URL of your website and nothing else.

* Send out random emails to galleries, dealers, etc. with nothing but 10 megabytes of images of your art and the text, "If interested, please email me," however to really do this one right, leave out the word "please."

* When you present your art, make sure you have no coherent or unifying explanation for what you do, why you do it, or what your guiding principles are. Also make sure you're totally disorganized. Show everything you've ever made, no matter what it looks like, whether or not you think its any good, whether or not it relates to what you're making now-- and make sure it's not in any order. Make no attempt to point out any connections, similarities, or continuities between any examples of your work.

* Even though you're not that well known, spend thousands of dollars building a website. Ignore the fact that finding you, your art, or your website on the Internet will be almost impossible except for people who already know you. As soon as your website is finished and online, believe that sales will just roll in, and make no further attempts to show or sell your art anywhere in the physical world.

* Make sure you provide no contact information for yourself on your website, only one of those forms where you fill in fields and click a "submit" button. The less personal information you provide, the more reluctant people will be to contact you.

* Make sure your art is not priced on our website. And in case anyone is interested in buying anything, provide no instructions about how to do it.

* Think that all you have to do to get known is stay in the studio, create art, show that art to no one, and make little or no effort to meet anyone in the local art community. Instead, believe that someday you'll be discovered.

* Make sure you have no artist statement, no explanation for why your art looks like it does, what it represents, how it's evolved over time, or why you make the kind of art you make.

* Make sure you have no idea how to price your art. If someone asks you how much a piece of your art costs, tell them you don't know. Or you can ask them how much they think it's worth. If they suggest a dollar amount, stand there and say nothing.

* If your art is priced and for sale and someone asks you why a certain piece costs as much as it does, either tell them that's how much it's worth, that's how much you want for it, or that you don't know.

* Never ask for feedback about your art. If anyone gives you feedback, ignore it. This way, you'll have no idea what people think about your art, whether they understand it, whether they like it, whether it comes across as effectively as you think it does, or why anyone would want to show or own it.

* Complain about dealers, other artists, your lack of being recognized, ignorant collectors, and as many other aspects of the art world as possible.

* Whenever you have an appointment to show your art, make sure you're late. Better yet, cancel the appointment once or twice first; then make sure you're late.

* If you've got a deadline to have your art ready for a show, miss it. If you've got a deadline to have your statement, bio, or resume ready for a show, catalog, or website, miss it.

* Assume that everyone understands your art as well as you do. Assume also that understanding your art is the viewer's responsibility, not yours.

* Answer "no" to as many questions about your art as possible.

* Correct people's "misconceptions" about your art as often as possible.

* When someone asks a question about your art, instead of answering it, ask a question right back.

* If you get a show, contact other "better" galleries as soon as possible and tell them about your show, but then say you'd rather show with them.

* Make sure that dealers who currently represent or show your art are aware that you can hardly wait to blow them off and move on to someone better.

* Make sure not to cultivate or respect any business relationships or agreements, especially ones that work.

* Believe that if one gallery or dealer can sell your art, that all galleries or dealers can sell it.

* Believe that your art sells itself, not the gallery or dealer who's selling it for you.

* Talk about attorneys, suing people, your legal rights as an artist, what happens if someone crosses you, that you don't want anyone reproducing images of your art, that you don't want anyone photographing your art, that you keep names on file of everyone who gets sent images of your art, and so on.

* Try to figure out as fast as possible whether the person you're talking to is worth talking to. If you decide they're not worth talking to, leave immediately.

* Ignore any suggestions anyone makes about any aspect of how you present yourself or your art.

* And last, but certainly not least, never do anything for anybody unless there's something in it for you.

There you go-- your first class ticket to pfffft. Good Luck!!

Found this at ArtBusiness.com

Blake McCollum Giving a Demo

2011-03-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

I often let my advance students come into my classes and try their hand at giving a demo or lecture. Today Blake McCollum came in and talked to the Studio Lighting class. He covered some basic lighting techniques and talked about how he approached his work. The studio is small but it functions pretty well all facts considering. Blake make the whole process look easy - maybe too easy! By the way he is barefoot due to having the background paper down earlier - not due to "thats how they do it in Mississippi".

Pool Shadows

2011-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Pool Shadows is an idea for a new Blurb book. I think this one may have more of a story told to you from a perspective of a faded crab. The crab is now bleached yellow - it was originally bright red but sun and pool chemicals faded the red to yellow. I see this being a photographic story with fun text reflections as the crab remembers friendships and the passing of time at the pool. Okay a touch goofy but I think it could be a fun project - so I will let you know when it is done so you can pick one up!!

Japan Needs Our Help.

2011-03-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Japan is in great need of our help. The recent events are beyond my ability to comprehend. I know they supported MS following Katrina and now it is time for us to return the favor. These are some organizations that are safe to donate to and the funds will get to those who need it!

From CNN:

Follow World Vision's blog for updates, and visit its website or text "4JAPAN" to 20222 to send a $10 donation to the group. It will show up on your next mobile phone bill.

The American Red Cross sent a disaster expert from Washington to Japan on Monday, and the Japanese Red Cross has dispatched dozens of response teams. To aid the Red Cross efforts, you can text "REDCROSS" to 90999 and make a $10 donation to the organization.

Globalgiving.org, another aid organization that allows donors to select the causes they want to support -- including climate change, economic development, human rights and disaster relief -- has established a Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Globalgiving will disburse funds to organizations providing aid and relief to victims. Text "JAPAN" to 50555 to donate to the fund.

MAKING A COLLECTION OF FACULTY / STUDENT WEBSITES

2011-02-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

I am creating a collection of Mississippi State University Department of Art faculty / student websites both past and present. If you have website or a blog send me the link and I will add it to my list on my blog. This is for any MSU department of art student or faculty. It does not matter if you were in the department for just a semester or never left I am collecting as many listings as I can! So help me out and send me your info.

Please contact me to be added to the list!!