Picture of the Day 4-29-9

©2009 Martin B. Cherry

I went outside after a rain and photographed flowers. Then I saw this leaky gutter and I wanted to see how fast is my shutter. purty fast

100 days of photographs

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

Callie Shell has photograph Barrack Obama since 2004. Above, is part of a photo series of the Obama administration's first 100 days in office.

In this video documentary, Shell describes how she captured behind-the-scenes images of the Obama White House.

Picture of the Day 4-28-9

snolga

photographs ©2009 Martin B. Cherry

I shot these a few years ago with my holga. i've been digging in my photo boxes to see past projects. These shots were scanned from the print. I'll have the negatives scanned in so they can be printable and possibly be gallery/portfolio worthy. They will have the same color correction as well.

Picture of the Day 4-27-9

Picture of the Day 4-26-9

Let's monitor the progress of this bulging bulb.

I went to a real awesome ice cream place on Charlotte Ave. with my sister, but I completely forgot my camera. DO'H. I almost never do that. Lesson learned - It would be hard to a "photo of a day" without my camera.

I found this flower in my backyard. I'll photograph it in a few days. Or whenever I forget my camera again and need a quick shot something nearby.

Picture of the Day 4-25-9

Marathon

Photo of Day 4-24-9

photograph ©2009 Martin B. Cherry

Metz tunes his mandolin in Chattanooga

Photo of Day 4-23-9

photograph ©2009 Martin B. Cherry

Opie Swings Like a Pendulum Do

This is AMAZING

So this guy got a Polaroid camera in 1979 and from that date until his death in 1997 he took one picture a day with it. Then so his efforts wouldn't be in vain, two of his friends digitized all of them and posted them online.

I like to thank my friend ruth for this link.

There is so much you can say about these photographs - how some are great photos and some are just fun snapshots. Some are very personal and some I can relate. One of the friends in the 1979 series looks like my friend Chuckles. (click the hyperlinks to compare) Also i love the instant film format. The unedited rawness.

I have been basically doing this with my D300 when I first bought it. I think I'll starting doing this myself, while also including my normal posts of whatever I have been posting about. This is also similar to my friends (Vanessa, Lauren and Pang) recent commitment of taking a self portrait everyday for one year. Peep them out as well.

Editorial Portrait Photography

photo by Richard Avedon

This is an article from an excellent WNYC radio show called On The Media. They do a great job covering the media and asking questions about media coverage and it's roles in society.

In this episode, they interview three controversial photographers: Platon, Jill Greenburg and Martin Schoeller.

take 15 minutes to listen

also here is an accompanied slideshow

This podcast probably may cause some political arguments, but what I get from this article was the artistic interpretations of these contemporary photographers. The three photographers mentioned all have very different styles and each have an editor to stand behind their work. Risky/ provocative art doesn't exist if we don't have curators and editors willing to show and defend these artist's work.

I do not considered these photos as "gotcha" journalism. Photographing people within 15-20 minutes can be frustrating, especially the hours of work you put in before and after the shoot. Making them relax or express a natural emotion is essentially what everyone want, including the photographer. Avedon and Platon would talk to their subjects, but others would like to go to other lengths to get the proper photograph that is ascetically pleasing and, in this case, would coincide with the featured article.

I really have great respect/ admiration for platon's work. I'll do a blog post on him soon.

Harley

I usually don't like dog/cat photography. But my sister's dog is the only model I have to work with here so far.

Major Influences - Mark Romanek

Nine Inch Nails - Closer

This video is one of the biggest influences in my life. It inspired my into a world of art, film and photography. I was twelve years old when this video came out (1994).

Romanek's "Closer" also set a new standard in music video and you can see its influence even today. Throughout the 90's, bands like Prodigy, Marlyn Manson and even tv commercials used this style(basically ripping it off). Even today, music video directors still do it, but now it has diluted to pop singers like Rihanna.

NIN: The Making of the "Closer" Video from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

In the commentary, Mark Romanek is very knowledgeable artist, funneling several artistic influences (Man Ray, Joel Peter Witkin and Brothers Quay) to set the tone/ theme of this video. You could say he ripped these artists off the same way the videos I mentioned earlier, but he's placing these influences into an entirely different media and genre.

I really like it that he wasn't just doing it because "it looks cool." He meticulously made this elaborate set and took great risks to make this possible. I think this one of the most important things an artist (or anyone) must do to be successful. Take well planned and executed risks. Some of these risks will fail, but you will never know or learn unless you try them.

Here are other amazing videos by Mark Romanek: Janet Jackson, Fiona Apple, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lenny Kravitz to name a very few. They a few similar themes he carries in most of his videos (silhouettes, floating, fun with various forms of lighting)

Sorry for all the hyper link. hope you will enjoy them.

Diptych

My senior show in 2005 was a series of Diptych Photographs of people. Two or three people who were connected in some way. All next to each other on a roll of film. It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Last one was a triptych of children jumping into a pool for The Journal.

I've been wanting to get back into black and white as well.

This is a photo of my friend Katie. I photographed this about a week before I left WV. These two photographs were actually in sequence. When I saw them in my camera shortly after, I felt these shots had nice flow. It seemed like a glimpse into a story that the viewer had to start and finish themselves. Which is natural and, i guess , the point of making di(tri)ptychs.

Also I feel its a nice portrait of my friend.

Nabil

Nabil Elderkin is one of my favorite new directors/ photographers. The more works by him I see, the more I like. He recently did Kanye's "welcome to heartbreak" and up and coming artist Mr. Gordon, "there will be tears"

I really like the video distortion look.

MR HUDSON "There Will Be Tears" Directed by: NABIL fx: weirdcore from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Slightly Updated

I have iLife '09 on my macbook now. Therefore, I update my website with some changes.

• larger thumbnail photos
• better slideshow UI without distracting reflections
• a counter on homepage
• update links

I do like this current site, but it's a little bland and template-ish. I plan to completely change the website this summer. Re-organizing the photograph; lower the amount of clicking; ridding thumbnails are some the changes I plan to make in the future.