C.R.I.T.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

City Living: By Jamie Spear

These photographs are from a series called City Living. They explore notions of personal space and compromise in experiences in the context of crowded urban areas.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Plastic in Vital Fluid: By Laura Miner

Continuing with my project titled, Vital Fluid, which features miniature sets of ominous gore, I decided to experiment with changing the subject of the terror. In the previous series animals were casually living amongst puddles of blood with an unknown origin. In this series I took a couple of the most dynamic looking animal figurines, and inflicted them with bloody wounds.

The running boar could have harmed someone, be harmed, or both. The rooster has an alarmed look, yet does not spread it's wings.

In between shooting the last series and this one, I photographed details of the animal figurines simply to explore their texture. How did the manufacturer represent common animal skins in plastic? It was fun to find the failures, like the plastic mold knot on the back of this reclining dog below. But it was also interesting to see the skilled workmanship, such as the detail in the crane feathers pictured above.

The way the blood reacts to the imprints of fur and feathers highlights the plasticity, which may or may not be working for this project. It was worth a shot.
My next move will be to add more inanimate objects such as cars, and explore terror without blood.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Israel - Scarred Land: By Beth A. Gilbert

Beth A. Gilbert's photographs are primarily landscape based, dealing with the environment and the ways in which human beings affect it. One major influence reflected in the subject matter of her photographs is her interest and background in political science. Her images have also been inspired by the work of Jem Southam, whose photographs capture a balance of the natural landscape and the intervention of man within it, following the cycles of decay and renewal, documenting the changes over days, months and years.

Since the focus of Beth's imagery relies heavily on society and civilization’s impact upon the environment, she is sensitive to her process being as non-invasive as possible- staying true to the unaltered landscape. She has a desire for her photographs to be ‘pure’, as in true to the original medium. Beth's employment of a traditional tool of landscape photography, the 4x5 camera, and using minimal alterations to compliment her ideology fits in well with her artistic expression and vision. In 2010, she decided to take her ventures in photography further, and extended her vision to Israel.

The photographs in this series entitled Scarred Land, which were all produced in Israel, deal with war, the damage it inflicts upon the terrain, and the natural recovery over time. The battle sites and military training zones depicted have not memorialized or preserved by human beings in any way, and are now naturally recovering from the inflicted trauma as well as being reclaimed by the earth.

Beth has chosen to focus on war zones to show the viewer that this is how we, as human beings, treat each other and the planet that we inhabit. We view ourselves as a species better than the rest because we have a level of consciousness that allows for individuality and creativity. These attributes, among many others, enable us to create/invent ever growing ways in which to better our lives.

In Beth’s opinion, it is due to this consciousness that we should know better than to wage wars against one another based on land, power, ideology, or even religion. Through our technology and the methods in which we implement it to harm each other, we are in turn destroying our planet. Eventually, we will be the means to our own end.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Dressing Up, Acting Out: By Kitty Ethridge

In 2009, I was photographing performers at a local cabaret called Jacques, and around the same time, local events, funerals, celebrations, and protests. For some reason mostly men, gay and straight, became my subject matter. I didn’t notice the connection at the time, but I became struck by the similarities between the two groups. Almost every occasion involved costume or dress. Similar in a ritualized way, each actor had an acute sense of theater and purpose. Demeanor. Intensity. Courage. Face it. If you’re a man, whether you’re putting on a uniform with a badge and a gun, or a dress with full makeup and jewelry it takes courage.

These images of course are all of drag queens. Regardless, without the dress (or the uniform) the intensity, the effect of instilling or inspiring emotional reactions would not be as effective. Dressing up is transforming. Mild, meek mannered weaklings become super heroes, boys who identify as feminine become women. Escapism? No. I think it allows people to be who they really are, sometimes with abandonment.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Sea Glass: by Katherine Bennett

These three cyanotypes are a start to something bigger. Having graduated college recently, I've found a shortage of inspiration to make art. These cyanotypes are photograms of sea glass. My thought process being if I combine the two things I like most - art and the ocean - I will find some sort of path. I'm still looking.

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.

About Us