Momentum: May 2011

May 31, 2011

Gaining Momentum

I've been using this blog strictly for my own original images, so I've started taking advantage of tumblr as a place to post things that other people have created that inspire me. I have always kept my sketchbooks so jammed full of loose pages from magazines, photographs, and various bits of interesting art/imagery/typography that the spines would start to split. This is where I would turn when in need of a little inspiration, and it worked like a charm. With tumblr, I'm taking a similar approach. This is where I keep links to: art that I wish I had made, photos I wish I had taken, fashion I wish I had designed, blogs I wish I had written, architecture I wish I had built, comedy I wish I had thought of myself, and anything that I admire and think will guide my own creativity in the right direction.

click to open link

May 24, 2011

May 23, 2011

Windows, Framed

35mm black and white film. Silver base print, developed and printed by hand.

To The Window...

It dawned on me recently that a recurring theme has been popping up all over my photography - windows. I'm not sure what attracts me to these delightful architectural details, but I can venture a guess. I'm a big sucker for symmetry. However boring it may sound, I find it soothing and satisfying when everything is in perfect order. The other thing that really gets me going in a composition is repetition. This could be the source of my love for all things symmetrical. After all, symmetry is about repetition; the same thing happens twice, only the second time it's in reverse. That being said, you can imagine that the following blog sends me into uncontrollable fits of artistic arousal:

click image to open link

It does occur to me that a camera's viewfinder is also a window in it's own right. Like a window, it is a frame through which you can see a little bit of what exists beyond. As in the theory of painter/printmaker/mathemetician Albrecht Durer (who coincidentally happens to be an ancestor of mine), any kind of composition is comparable to a view seen through a window. Perhaps it's in my blood, but this theory really resonates with me when it comes to photography. My whole philosophy revolves around composition. I try to show the world in ways that it isn't normally percieved, by finding pattern and design where it is easily overlooked and capturing it within the photo's frame to create a composition. The blog 'Patternity' says it all in this quote:

"Treasure what might often go unnoticed, look up when you should be looking down, find beauty in the banal, and stop to wonder when you should be walking past."

Although Emily Bronte still has a home in my 'yet-to-read' list, I am nevertheless aware of the symbolism of windows in her writing, as well as in numerous other pieces of literature and art. Windows represent the barrier between inside and out, and the balance between public and private. This is an issue that grows more and more relevant to me as I continue to maintain this blog. 'Momentum' came in to existence when I caved to the pressure to get more involved in social networking, which is becoming an increasingly important tool for those in creative industries. I had considered starting a blog for some time, but being an incredibly private person, I was always too nervous to go ahead with it. For that reason, you still won't find me anywhere on Twitter, but I'm in the process of working myself up to it. It's interesting that this symbol is so prominenent in my work at a time when I'm struggling to find a balance between public and private, creatively and personally, with the immense influence of the internet and social networking on the world right now.