Four Contemporary Artist

Brian Schutmaat

This well known artist recently added his own commentary to the forgotten towns and mining communities of the American West. His images of portraits and landscapes tell the story of neglect and the underprivileged. His treatment of the images reflect his own personal taste and helped me to recognize the need to own my images and that the act of acquiring the image was just the beginning of my work as an artist.

Martin Schoeller

When I first encountered his portraits in his book Close Up: Portraits 1998-2005, admittedly I did not like his work. I Thought the images were harsh, commercial and not very interesting. About a year later I looked at his work again when I was searching for either a technique or idea to help with what I was doing at the time. I view quite a few more of his images online and to my surprise, I enjoyed seeing them again. Either something in me changed or the prints in the book looked just awful to me.

Ash Thayer

Thayer is the professor of photography at NYU and recently completed a series called Home. In this series she took a short sabbatical to live with the squatters in the lower east side. This intimate and incredible look into a community shows what a little bit of hard work and willingness to get to know your subject can produce.

Jay Goodrich: Human Elements

Goodrich wanted to capture image of where humans have left their mark or that involve people or their traces both permanent and temporary. Aside from his beautiful images, his was the first artist statement that I found truly inspiring. He wrote, "There is an indescribable urge in my gut 99% of my waking hours. It is almost an unrest. A tension. There is something inside that needs to come out, and no I’m not talking about needing to use the loo. I see things, feel things, and want to show my world vision to others, because the reality of life is that no one sees this place exactly the same. Some people just have more of an urge to convey their unique vision to others."

My Eight Hours

I began the selection process of both images and music for the video idea we discussed in class. So far, the music is the hardest part. Not that I can't find the right song, but I end up listening to it, sometimes over and over again because I loved the arrangement so much that I find myself mesmerized by it. I tried posting one of the songs. I'm not sure if it will work. If it does, you'll have to turn up your sound because it's kinda soft for some reason.