Final Project: Defacement

1. To mar or spoil the appearance or surface of; disfigure.
2. To impair the usefulness, value, or influence of.
3. To obliterate; destroy.

Project 4: Critical Mass

When initially starting this project, I didn't have a set goal of what I wanted to shoot. I just started walking around shooting whatever seemed interesting. Through this, I realized that for a project dealing with mass quantities of images, randomness of everyday objects was the perfect subject matter for the book. These are a few of my favorite images from the project.

Project 4 Contact Sheets

Project 3: Photograph as Map

Project 3 Contact Sheets

Project 2: Singular Image

Reflection

re·flec·tion [ri-flek-shuhn]

1.	the act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.

2.	an image; representation; counterpart.

3.	a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.

4.	a thought occurring in consideration or meditation.

5.	an unfavorable remark or observation.

6.	the casting of some imputation or reproach.

7.	Physics, Optics. a. the return of light, heat, sound, etc., after striking a surface. b. something so reflected, as heat or esp. light.

8.	Mathematics. a. (in a plane) the replacement of each point on one side of a line by the point symmetrically placed on the other side of the line. b. (in space) the replacement of each point on one side of a plane by the symmetric point on the other side of the plane.

2. an image; representation; counterpart.





3. a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.






2. an image; representation; counterpart.

Lexicon Contact Sheets

Influence

Edward Weston


Kelp, Monterey Coast, 1930



Potato Cellar, Lake Tahoe, 1937




Oceano, 1938

Singling out one photographer that has been the most influential to my own work is not a simple task. There are many great artists from whom I've found inspiration. The one photographer who has most impacted my work is Edward Weston. One of the co-founders of Group f/64, Weston focused on precise and sharp presentation of natural forms such as landscapes, plants, and the human figure. Primarily concentrating on straight photography, Edward shot objects for what they were without subjectivity. His amazing attention to formal detail has made him recognizable, by many, as one of the greatest photographic artists of the 20th century.

Through my own photography I strive to view the formal subtleties of my surroundings, as Weston did. A lot of my work seems to deal with formal details of common objects that often go unnoticed. It's not my intention to solely focus on formal elements of objects, but I believe to become a great photographer, it's an essential skill to have.

"The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh." - Edward Weston