Life of The Average Joe
who is Colette? she’s an ‘addition’ to the project.
this will help out the project immensely. with more than one head out there in the world, we can get more and more people involved in the project in MUCH less time than it would have taken with just Gaylord.
so…. Colette will spend some time with
this is going to take some work (on my part) to ‘rebuild’ parts of the site to make room for any work that is created with Colette… but i’ll get it done.
that’s all… off to class.
this may spark a huge debate… but.. i still want to ‘create art’.. i just don’t want to be an artist.
and i realize that SEEMS to break the laws of definition, but.. i think i can make it happen.
so. i think i can still be an artist. i didn’t see anything up there about ‘concept.’ :p
actually. i was looking around in dictionary.com and i noticed that even their definition of ‘fine arts’ didn’t really touch on concept.. it stated:
fine art
n.
1. Art produced or intended primarily for beauty rather than utility.
if we take that one step farther…
SO.. even though i’m taking this a little too far… this all has helped ME to realize that my teacher can go fuck herself. i’ll produce conceptual work for the class.. and i’ll care about her critique of things like my print quality.. but beyond that.. i’m still an ‘artist’.. and i will still create ‘art.’ and even if the ‘art world’ (which i don’t actually see myself being involved in since i have other plans) doesn’t like me… i’ll still be fine.
i don’t want to be an artist… i want to be someone who takes pictures.
looks like i should think about changing my major
i may be dealing with the SoBig Virus…
should i be safe and get everything that i want backed up… OFF my computer?!
(i have no idea how i would have gotten since i don’t open ’stupid’ e-mails that i’m not expecting… but… ??)
i can tell already that this semester is going to ‘make or break me.’ i spoke with my photo teacher for this semester. we talked a lot about the travelinghead project actually. a friend from school that i saw today told me that i should let my teacher know about it. we also talked about my work… or… whatever the FUCK you want to call it.
i pulled up my lj on her computer and showed her some of my more recent night work. what she said was… “well.. honestly? that’s not an interesting image. and.. that one really isn’t. or that one.”
it hurt a lot. not that i thought my photos were fantastic in any way… but…. that’s RIGHT along the same lines to what Vicki (my photo1 teacher) told me. and i just don’t get it. maybe this is the ‘tampon in a teacup’ scenario (for those of you that are familiar with the movie Ghost World… but it makes me wonder if i’m really cut out for the whole photography thing.
it seems that you CANNOT escape ‘concept’ in any of your work. it’s ALL about concept actually (as far as the art department is concerned).. and if there’s one thing that i HATE… it’s ‘concept.’ i take pictures of things that are pleasing to the eye.. to MY eye. i don’t take pictures of things (or set up ’scenes’ on film) that represent my status as a white middle-class american heterosexual male. that just doesn’t interest me.
in my photo1 class, i started taking pictures of things like my friend Ambrosia at the railroad tracks… with her head cropped out of the shot. why?! because i felt like i HAD to. because i felt like if i didn’t… and if i didn’t make up some ridiculous reason as to “why i really enjoy that sort of thing in my work”… i was just going to hear the SAME shit over and over again.
i just don’t get it.
by the end of the semester, i’m either going to be ‘molded’ (or will have actually FOUND some ‘concept’ to pursue in my work).. or i’m going to end up hating photography and the art world in general… neither of those sound terribly pleasing, but i don’t know if i’m capable of finding a happy medium in there.
on another note. my photo teacher was actually MORE interested in the travelinghead project than she was in my photography work (which made me feel GREAT, let me tell you) on Thursday, we’re supposed to bring in some of our older work. guess what she suggested i bring in?! not my prints, but some printouts of the travelinghead.com website to share with the class. i’m bringing in some of my prints anyhow.
ONE neat thing…well…sort of. she is actually ‘interested’ enough in the travelinghead project that she even suggested that i write an e-mail to The Society for Photographic Education… to see about presenting the project at their next conference in Orlando.
the idea is scary as shit… but… the conferences consist of HUNDREDS of well known photographers. the project would get A LOT of exposure… possibly even support funding etc. that would obviously just cause me to laugh my ass off (since when thoughts like this arise, i can STILL only chuckle at how entirely ludicrous the whole idea is). but yeah. so… yeah. i’ll be making a presentation to my class and a few of the other photo/art classes on Thursday. scary shit.
as far as the rest of school is concerned… shouldn’t be TOO bad. just another semester.
but really…this whole ‘conceptual photography’ thing has REALLY gotten under my skin.
i got the 126 film back that i had sent out to Ohio for processing…
there was nothing on the negatives. shame.
i’ve got one more roll of it to send out. maybe i’ll get lucky.
my scanner (actually my dads) is leaving weird red streaks on the images. bleh.
 
