Canta's Cover

The students at my university are back to lectures this week.  We had a three week break, and it demolished what little rhythm I had accumulated in my studies.  Having said that, I am a mere first-year student and I have not yet been introduced to the concept of hard work, and I imagine some other students would have welcomed the respite.  Time off did give me the opportunity to begin researching artists who take group portraits.  To start with, I have been looking at the work of Thomas Struth.  I enjoy the objective style of some of the current German photographers, they can be impersonal at times, but this can be compelling, and gives viewers the opportunity to view the subjects without too much of a prior discernment by the photographer.  In later posts I will discuss some ideas that I have learned about in my research.

This week, I allowed Canta magazine two options for their cover picture, for their 80th birthday issue.  They used the first photo, I'm glad, I preferred it.

From a flat last week:

Flat-Profiles - It's Official

This year, Canta magazine (from the students association at my university) started to conduct short interviews with student flats, and I'd take a photo to go with the text (the photo being the highlight, with a double page spread).  We're there for an hour at the most, and I'd take between 5 and 10 pictures.

I'm officially starting to take a more serious and consistent approach to these flat profiles, because the opportunity is quite neat, and I could have some really cool pictures in a couple of years time.  I'm starting to take extra photos of things around the flats that catch my interest, during these fleeting visits.  People are distracted by the interviewer so the feeling is quite natural.

From the Archives

This is part of a small body of work I produced last year at art school.  I exhibited 10 captioned photographs on kodak metallic paper (captions on watercolour paper put through photocopier).  This was complemented by a presentation of 80 mounted slides, which was programmed to show every 15 minutes (which was often left running overnight when I forgot to turn off the slide projector and computer controlling it).

I asked the people posing for these photographs to complete a short quiz that would identify their personality type.  This idea came from the flurry of quizzes and tests that appeared on Facebook, which were dubious in quality.  The results were surprisingly accurate, though I rewrote them to be a little more fitting, and to balance the positive and less positive aspects of the sitter's personalities.

I was quite proud of the lighting, these were taken in a studio with white walls.  It took hours.

INTERROGATION

Andy J. Tan

Intrigued by the way a person's appearance in a 

photograph can reflect their character, the artist has 

asked his subjects to complete 20-question quizzes to 

determine their personality type.  By doing this, the 

artist hopes viewers will draw their own conclusions 

regarding the results of the interrogation, deciding 

whether the subjects' character is reflected in their 

outward appearance.

Idealist

Idealists put time and energy into developing 

personal values that they use as a guide through life.  

They may seek fulfillment by helping others to 

improve themselves and often want to make the 

world a better place.  Idealists only share their inner 

values with people they respect.

They are typically easy-going and flexible, but if 

their values are challenged they may refuse to compromise.

Self-Portrait

For lack of someone else to photograph, I started to take pictures of myself, last year:

From the Archives

Architecture is one of those subjects that I enjoy, but don't understand.  I often take photos of the inside and outside of buildings, and I like them, but it's difficult for me to figure out why I like the pictures.  Buildings have lines and shapes that make them interesting, with symmetrical and asymmetrical aspects that change with our differing perspective, depending on where we're standing.  Buildings can be appreciated in reality and in pictures, but often in pictures we isolate certain elements of interest, and we can eliminate the context that is the surrounding area.

HSBC Building (under construction), Christchurch

2008

From the Archives

From a short project at art school

Erskine & Commerce buildings, University of Canterbury

2009

Inception

More than a decade ago, blogging was the way of the future - it still is.  I've had a few blogs that flamed out as soon as they were ignited, but this one is going to stay.

So here's my blog.

Wish me luck!