Continuation of influential artists

I am posting these images by Jeanne Dunning because the first time I came across her was last semester and I stared at her images in awe. I could not figure out why and what that "thing" was on this womans body. So I researched her a little bit more and gradually began understanding Dunning's thought process and the way she views the human body in general, female or male. These images above almost portray the female body as a burden or something we have to deal with. It gives me a sense of destruction or something that we are always going to have to live with. After I discovered Jeanne is when I began my self portrait series in which I dealt with female identity and accepting you for who you are. So many of us are unsatisfied with our physicalities, most of which are women. I was inspired with Dunning's work because I feel through her series "The Blob," she expresses how women feel, more specifically, "Jeanne Dunning's work in photography and video investigates the body and its physical boundaries as a metaphor for psychological transgression. She initiates simple interventions with the body that blur the distinction of interior and exterior self. The body becomes landscape, food repository and corporal layering of flesh and fluids." (http://www.ktfgallery.com/artists/jeanne_dunning/?show=home) Through her work, I interpret the body as just an outer physical "thing" made up of flesh, whereas most of us think of it as who we are and what differenciates us from the person next to us.

Francesca Woodman

I am researching and looking at Francesca's work tonight and I have fallen in love with her work and the style of her work. Her aesthetic really draws me in to her photographs, partly because I feel like I practice the same aesthetic. Her black and white photos are striking to me because they are not the typical black and white print...they are a little washed out and maybe overexposed, but still hold emotion which i can not take my eye away from. I chose the five photographs above because I could personally relate to them, not only because I feel like they deal with women and identity but because I feel like I have experienced what these women are. The most recent self-portrait series I did reminds me alot of her last image, which I can not stop looking at. I am overwhelmed with not only the models emotion, but also the photographers. I feel the way Francesca portrays women and uses the female body as her central theme has enlightened me and inspired me to push the boundaries which I have yet to break and explore the environments around my subject.

Fridayy

After attending first friday this month, amanda and i came to the realization that there is rarley ever any photography in any of the galleries. I do not know if it is the lack of entries or if photography is just not really considered a true art here. I remember when I was in AFO my freshman year, I was the only one out of all of my classmates in any of my classes that wanted to apply to the photo department. Everyone just thought i was crazy for not wanting to go into sculpture or painting. Tommy White was the culprit for really deterring me from the photo department. He would always tell me that photographers do not really go anywhere and that i could do anything with a sculpture or painting degree. So now when i look back on that year and apply it to the present day when i attend first fridays and only see simple line drawings, paintings, or sculptures, I think about what Tommy said to me. This makes me wonder what art is and what people consider photography, since now anyone off the street could be considred a photographer. So what distinguishes me from them?

Guest Lecture