Once again, to see where the group mentality has taken us, I have grouped the best photographs from this critique into categories. This coalescence can also be attributed to the ‘Collective Unconscious’ first proposed by psychologist Carl Jung. [This is the kind of activity you should be engaged in for your Final Review post.] I am not sure how much of this has happened as a result of your interaction on the blog, or just by cultural similarities (21st Century, East Coast, American...) This is part of what the Department of Visual Studies Area of Tyler School of Art does when they not only learn about art-making but about visual culture. [note: This is a program you can transfer into if you have found this class stimulating.]
EXTERIORS
If we start with the exterior shots that can loosely be grouped as landscape, both industrial and natural, we get the following collections:
There are some nice geometrical considerations of doors and walls and fences
That open up into stranger spaces
There are three quite different ideas on chairs
Followed by odd patterns made by vertical and horizontal posts
That pull us to the beach
And then finally to the open landscapes.
This last photograph by Sam Spellman is really quite extraordinary.
INTERIORS
The next set of shots are interiors, this time moving from industrial to more domestic:
There is a fascination with corners and how those spaces contains certain kinds of activity (or lack of activity)
These end up with objects like a phone and some lamps/ light fixtures and other things
A series of door pix
To some larger more commercial interiors like bars and restaurants, etc.
And finally back to windows, light and the ambience created by these.
These personal spaces can also include personal objects, these two being presented by the shooter
And these almost describe their owner
PEOPLE
And, as usual, this class has done an extraordinary job with the portraits and self-portraits, without going into pretentious ‘Selfie-land’.
First are the more straight-on portraits
And some that play with multiple exposure
And others just about hiding from the camera
Some that exploit unusual lighting. These last few open up the space around the person to create some feeling of a situation, sometimes known as ‘context’.
A couple of partials
And a couple of reflections
And finally, those abstract shots that defy categorization
All in all another nice collection of photographs produced with our little pocket tools. I appreciate the work you have all done with shooting, framing and composing (pre-processing), then with toning, colorizing and altering (post-processing), resulting in the intimacy you have put on these pages. I feel that I have gotten to know some of you quite well.
I look forward to seeing the Final Collections from everyone.
