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Photography for Goods: A Skills for Good(s) Event Hosted by Mike DiRisio

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Photography for Goods: A Skills for Good(s) Event Hosted by Mike DiRisio

Friday, April 26th, 7pm @ CIVIC SPACE – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario

Photography for Goods, a Skills for Good(s) workshop hosted by University of Windsor MFA Candidate Mike DiRisio, will cover ways to light and shoot objects to white out the photograph’s background – methods similar to those used in product photography. However, we will be using very basic materials, like desk lamps and large sheets of paper, so that you can easily reproduce this at home. We’ll then do some basic edits using Adobe Photoshop software, to completely white out the background and make the photographs as sharp as possible!

Please bring a used object (preferably something no bigger than a microwave) to donate to the Common Goods freestore – we’ll be photographing these for the demo.

Please visit Common Goods to see examples of objects photographed this way, and to learn more about the project Common Goods.

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Exploring North Bay (prep for Surviving North Bay)

We’re in North Bay for a residency in preparation of an upcoming exhibition. White Water Gallery is our gracious host (and for the first half of the day, our introduction to North Bay).

Much of the day is on foot, with cameras.

We record what we can about the city’s history and get a read of the direction the city moves towards — though this movement, or lack thereof, already feels central to the things we want to take up here.

We break at the edge of Lake Nipissing.

Throughout our roaming, we documented a lot of the signage around the (very tidy) downtown core — trying to get a read of how residents, business owners, and the municipality itself negotiates communication strategies — and certainly, what they’re trying to communicate.

And on that note, the night winds down with some very preliminary sketching around ideas of emergencies (or, again, lack thereof) in North Bay. Tomorrow, more exploring as we prepare for the evening’s psychogeographic walk, starting at 8pm. It’s feeling late, but it’s early in the project — much more tomorrow.

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Nicole Dextras’ Ice Typography

Since we’re on the cusp of real winter here in Windsor, I thought I’d share this project by fellow Canadian artist Nicole Dextras. Besides admiring her gorgeous series of photographs, we might be able to learn from her method of construction. She seems to make molds into which water is poured and frozen. Imagine if we used the 3D ‘R’ prototype we made for CAFKA for this!

via: Designboom

Here is an image showing her process of creating such large ice letters.

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Homework: Call for Volunteers

Are you an avid photographer / videographer looking for some real work experience? Get involved and help out with the upcoming Homework conference and get free promo on our blog!

Broken City Lab is looking for volunteers to document the conference through video and photo.

Please e-mail Michelle@brokencitylab.org by Monday, October 17th and be sure to specify:

-your contact info

-your availability on Friday, October 21 from 9am-9:30pm and Saturday, October 22 from 9am-6pm (we’ll divide the days into shifts)

-the type of camera you use

-any career or volunteer related experience with photography/videography you may have

-3-5 photos or up to 1 min of video, content must include people.

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We’re also looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us out with Guest Services. This is a great way to network with local, national and international artists, scholars, writers, thinkers, and doers and learn about social practice!

Please e-mail Michelle@brokencitylab.org with your contact info and availability on Friday, October 21 from 9am-9:30pm and Saturday, October 22 from 9am-6pm by Monday, October 17th.

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Welcome to Pyongyang

Charlie Crane was faced with the task of photographing one of the most secretive and perhaps the most censored countries in the world. It took a year of trying to obtain permission to bring his camera to North Korea, and even as he got there, he was faced with incredibly tight restrictions. As digging deeper would be nearly impossible, Crane chose to go another route, and photographed exactly what he was permitted to see. As a result, this work is of the strongest I’ve seen.

The following images are from tourist sites around the city of Pyongyang, North Korea.

Continue reading “Welcome to Pyongyang”

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David Maisel’s American Mine

David Maisel‘s photographic series American Mine is getting on a bit now–he started it in 2007–but it’s one of those projects that become more relevant with age. To me his work highlights the paradox of admiring beauty in the organized destruction of something valuable. To be honest, all of David’s work is stunning; I suggest checking out his portfolio.

According to the American Mine project page, “Rather than a condemnation of a specific industry […] my images are intended as an aesthetic response to such despoiled landscapes. These sites are the contemplative gardens of our time, places that offer the opportunity to reflect on who and what we are collectively, as a society.”

Pictured above: American Mine (Carlin, NV 21)

Continue reading “David Maisel’s American Mine”

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Matthew Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs

I have recently come across a very gorgeous set of photographs from Los Angeles, California’s Matthew Brandt. Matthew took snapshots of various lakes and reservoirs in California and soaked them in water from each corresponding location. The results are pretty random and, in my opinion, all beautiful. What he ends up with are sort of “personalized” portraits of these lakes and reservoirs.

Image above: Stone Lagoon, CA (C-Print)

Continue reading “Matthew Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs”

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Immaterials: Light painting WiFi

Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

This project explores the invisible terrain of WiFi networks in urban spaces by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs.

A four-metre long measuring rod with 80 points of light reveals cross-sections through WiFi networks using a photographic technique called light-painting.

This builds on a technique that was invented for the 2009 film ‘Immaterials: the Ghost in the Field’ which probed the edges of the invisible fields that surround RFID readers and tags in the world. It also began a series of investigations into what Matt Jones richly summarised as ‘Immaterials’.

An interesting and quiet exploration of the city and one of its many infrastructures/interfaces.

via Julia Hall & nearfield.org

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Gagnon & Schott’s 12:31

Since the film-trailer-like synopsis of Croix Gagnon and Frank Schott’s project 12:31 is so epic, I think I’ll start by including it verbatim.

“In 1993, a convicted murderer was executed. His body was given to science, segmented, and photographed for medical research. In 2011, we used photography to put it back together.”

After the page break I’ve included a description of the process involved in making this happen.

Via: Today and Tomorrow

Continue reading “Gagnon & Schott’s 12:31”