C.R.I.T.: 2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Max & Oscar: by Traverse Day Robinette

Most of my pictures so far of Max and Oscar are from winter. In these pictures the Earth tilts back to more favorable temperatures and the boys and I are freed of our jackets to get lost in the splendor of Griggs Park. Spring showers made for many indoor adventures yet this hardly slowed down our camping and lighting storms we created due to the weather.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Summer Heat: by Peter Leavitt

School ended in May of 2009, and I’ve been suffering an artistic existential crisis ever since. Suffering may be too strong a word, but that’s beside the point.

Art school is all about helping you improve your skills by killing the love for art that made you apply. Once that has been sufficiently beaten out of you by numerous projects that you can only now see the point of, hopefully you find your voice and recover the joy that brought you there in the first place. At least that was my experience.

So now what do I do without weekly critiques, deadlines, and countless hours to spend in the darkroom or out in the streets/fields/whatever?

For the past two-and-a-half years I’ve been back to “just taking pictures.” I try to keep a camera on me all the time, and sometimes I even have something specific in mind. I develop the pictures in spurts when I have the money, and I scan and edit them when I have the energy. My wonderful Linhof 4x5 spends a lot of time in its bag while I make use of an old friend, the 35mm SLR or rangefinder. The big old guy (around as old as my father) taught me a lot, and he’ll stay in my arsenal, but his pictures are views, and I’m after something a little more personal.

Looking at the last few months of pictures incredibly briefly summarized here, I see again what drew me to photography is the first place: The ability to snatch a moment away from time and share it with people forever, a chance to appreciate the small miracles of wherever we find ourselves that we take for granted every day.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Laura Miner: Fear and Indifference

The new direction in my current project, (in which I am actually going back to older interests) takes the blood and terror I intended from my previous images, and gives it a context with miniature sets.

Thinking of the philosophical query, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" one might reason that there must be other living things besides humans, and of course, those things would hear it fall. I ask in my current series, "If something bad happens to you in the woods, do the other living things care?"
After trying to come up with subtly gruesome scenes, I came to the realization that a huge stimulus for fear is the idea that if you were in trouble no one would be able to help you. I admit, it's one facet to my own issues with bodily integrity. There is nothing scarier than knowing that the only living things around you are indifferent to your situation, and may even munch on you. Thus is the inspiration for this series which depicts random pools of blood being curiously investigated and casually co-existing with animals.

Blood, being a tried and true catalyst of fear, and animals, being symbols of peace but also savagery, the images evoke an eerie feeling of dread, but could also contain a twisted and blunt expression of acceptance and returning to the Earth.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Memorial Drive: by Kendra Adams

These images are the rough draft for the beginning of a project on Memorial Drive in Atlanta, GA. Memorial Drive is a poor, rundown, 20+ mile road running from the outskirts of Atlanta into downtown. It is also one street away from my house so I am faced on a daily basis with the constant sprawling empty parking lots, cracking paint, and kudzu engulfing abandoned buildings. These pictures capture shells from a life once lived now empty and lifeless.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Working Title: Vital Fluid, by Laura Miner

Using fruit punch concentrate and chocolate syrup, I made another attempt at representing blood in my photographs. As promised from my last post, my subject matter is less reality based. My instinct as a macro photographer was to go for the David Levinthal route.

Photographing small objects and toys, essentially playing with them, but creating a very sinister game out of it; that's what a majority of my photographs are about. Making sets and manipulating the common associations of objects get's me amped about photography.

These images are creepy in an obvious way. The blood is in your face, and the deer's plasticity is unavoidable. Now that I've gotten these images under my belt, the next step for this project is to continue to use the figurines, make realistic sets, and use "blood" (whatever that may be) in a way that will be unsettling without throwing it in the viewer's face.

I also made some sculpture boxes with phlebotomy paraphernalia. The needles and such were given to me to mentally prepare for an imminent blood test. I had my blood drawn, -- it went well -- and to truly represent my conquest, I sculpted the tools into art objects.

Come to my website to see more of these images and a really tasteless animated GIF.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Max & Oscar: By Traverse Day Robinette

My time with Max and Oscar was out of this world. We went to the far reaches of our imagination and back. For nine months I documented their adventures, which I was lucky to take part in. I’m still in the editing process and it has been hard for me to part with certain images for most are filled with great memories. The selection of images is from the winter months, where we go sledding, make robot puppets and explore the zoo. By the next post I should have my edit down and finally start work on sequencing. The final product of this project is a book, which I plan to hand deliver to the boys and their family in Chicago.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Bad Dudes: Samuel Quinn and Eddy Pula

On October 1st from 2-6pm, come see the works of Samuel Quinn and Eddy Pula at The Lilypad, presented by the artist collective, Bad Dudes Productions.
This is a map to find your way.
Please enjoy these videos featuring Mr. Quinn and Mr. Pula. They're all-around impressively spoken and shot interviews. This is going to be an awesome event. Get pumped!

Bad Dudes X Eddy Pula from Bad Dudes Productions on Vimeo.

Bad Dudes X Samuel Quinn from Bad Dudes Productions on Vimeo.

Monday, September 19, 2011

C.R.I.T.'s First Group Show!

For the first time in C.R.I.T.'s history, we will be having a group exhibition! The gallery is in an amazing old silverware factory turned studio space in East Boston. We are so lucky to have such a diverse collection of styles and formats in this show. The exhibition runs from now until July 31st, with a closing reception on July 30th.

Hours:
The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm via the main entrance with the label "175 McClellan" there is also a large wooden ramp at this entrance.
Weekend appointments available with Traverse Robinette.

Directions:
175 McClellan HWY East Boston 02128
The building is a brown warehouse in the same complex as Planet Fitness. It is near the Courtyard Hotel, you can cut through the parking lot. The entrance for the night of the reception is the one closest to the highway, with the label "Executive Offices" just above the door.
We will have balloons marking that entrance and signs guiding guests to the gallery.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Kitty Ethridge 8/19/11

The images you see here are the results of an ongoing personal project I’m working on and an assignment Ben G and I occasionally give our selves. The one thing they have in common is all were taken at night, one of my favorite times to shoot, and all without a tripod. The artificial lights moodily reflecting off the shiny surfaces, the cool shadows on the streets, sidewalks and the exterior of the buildings, especially after or during a rainfall can make for some pretty interesting photos.

The first image here is from a project I’ve been working on down in DC. The second was taken that same night but randomly. Both are examples of me trying out particular styles, a photographer trying to find her way. Am I more interested in photo essays/documentary or architecture? Or all the other subjects I like to shoot? Why pick and choose when it could be ultimately beneficial to my craft to try as many different styles as possible.

Both of these were shot with the same zoom. I wanted to pack as light as possible and the zoom just gave me more flexibility without having to lug around several different lens.

For the photo essay.

Something more formal.

These next 3 images are from the night ride assignments. They seem random and the subject matter is more or less but I’ve made decisions that I don’t ordinarily make. One is I’m only shooting with a 50mm 1.4 lens. Secondly, I’m trying to create more abstract images. It’s a first time for me for both. Lastly, one rule of the assignment is we have to make exactly 6 images we’re happy with so actually I’m not shooting randomly at all.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Laura Miner 7/17/2011

As the readership of this blog knows, my current project has involved using food products to represent blood. Since February I have been attending therapy sessions for a phobia of blood and injuries, and things have been going well. I set out on this project to do two things. One, to make my audience uneasy, and question the juxtaposition of food and blood, hunger and danger (like many other projects of mine). Two, to explore my own feelings about blood in staging the scenes.
I produced some "sketch" photos using bandages, chocolate syrup, and wet chili powder that were not shown on the blog, and then the shots from the last post of red frosting and raspberry jelly on my hands. After weeks of contemplation, I realized that my methods were not working out. I felt my images were not compelling, and I was not having fun coming up with new ideas. My project guidelines were too rigid. I found myself shooting off most a of a roll of film, that I had planned to use for this project, on Portabella mushrooms.

In order to keep this project alive, I decided I cannot restrict myself to food. While the concept of using food is interesting, it should not be holding me back from using something awesome-looking because it is not edible. The new images are going to be more surreal, and intense. I want to express the idea of something screaming out for help.
I am very excited to show some new and improved photographs. Until then here are some serene images of mushrooms.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Ben Gebo 7/17/2011

In mid June, I went on a three week road trip across America. It's something I've done a few times before, but never as extensive and rigorous. We traveled 7,500 miles with stops in Louisville, Denver, Los Angeles, Fargo, and many other places(See the map http://goo.gl/9989q) with a lot of unscheduled stops along the way. I didn't plan out the route or destinations, just tagged along knowing I could have this be the start of a project or an addition to my travel portfolio. I think it's both. The only rule I gave myself while traveling was to photograph two people a day and have a camera around my neck whenever possible. Here are four portraits I took during my trip with a moleskine entry accompanying each picture. America is nicer, weirder, and more beautiful than you think.

Ben Gebo 2011©

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

C.R.I.T 6/5/11

Sam Quinn is doing a study on space with industrial landscapes in 4x5 black & white Polaroid and color negatives. Sam likes the instant gratification of Polaroid, but has the intention to primarily shoot this project in color. He also showed portraits in a deadpan style, and his signature typewriter shots which involve photographing a typed message and the machine.

Eddy Pula has been shooting with a twin lens medium format camera. He wanted to change up the format from his usual 4x5 aspect ratio. Quickly after switching to digital, he concluded, "Digital equals instant disappointment". Eddy's next logical format was the square, so he could have more shots than a 4x5 camera would allow, but still not the disappointment of digital.
Eddy... critiqued himself, and also accepted others' feedback of course. He has been shooting portraits, his muse as of late being Puffer's Pond in Western Massachusetts. Eddy said that he has been trying to divide his space in the photographs into thirds, and focus more on the background and foreground. An avid street photographer, Eddy has usually stuck to photographing centered subjects, with most of the focus on the individuals.

Eric Dietrich is enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and is a documentary photographer for them. He has been photographing Naval events as his day job, photographing a list of required shots. Once the list has been met, he shoots photos that express his artistic expression. The Navy has strict rules about no editing. Some of his photographs were changed from color to black & white, which is considered editing to the Navy. He did this for his own personal use. The photographs he shoots for himself are images that the Navy may not desire because of aspects that are imperfect; i.e. motion blurs, creative cropping, shooting from unconventional vantage-points. This all caused us to question the ownership of his photographs, and what that means for his work. The Navy owns his work, but he gets credit for it. Eric is shipping off to Afghanistan at the end of July.

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