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Chicano Art & Inspiration

Chicano art is not a well-known genre, perhaps because the form is usually viewed as political, folklore, too vibrant, unrealistic, and abrupt.

However; to me, that just sounds like a lot of fun. To experience Chicano art at it's fullest, one must know the heritage of people of Mexican ancestry. I lived in Corpus Christi, TX, briefly with some family, some of whom are of Mexican-American descent. This is probably where my love for chicano art has sprouted from. Some believe that this type of art started when our war with mexico started and thousands of Mexicans became U.S. citizens overnight. Their art was created to confront discrimination, racism and exploitation. This type of art, also expressed inspiration from hereos from their indigenous, Mexican and American past. One of my favourite Mexican artists, an inspiration to Chicano art is Frida Kahlo. Many people do not like her because of the disturbing imagery she portrays in her paintings. She creates many self-portraits in which she has a unibrow, a well-defined feature of her culture. My Uncle, Joe Peña is a very talented Chicano painter. View this video featuring Cheech Marin dedicating his house to be a shrine of Chicano art, and when you get to the 4:46 mark and you will be viewing Joe's meat still-lifes.

Here are some of Peña's artworks...

Peña & his piece, "Lengua" (cow tongue); after photographing the meat, Joe prepared the tongue for dinner & then painted the work below...

 

Here are some artworks that serve as inspiration to our Chicano artists, today...

I really love Frida Kahlo's self-portrait of "The little deer," I feel there is a humorous aspect to her work. Here it is below, with a few others.

Don't Be Fooled, Household Items Can Be Used As Film Developers.

I have been doing a lot of research on whether household items can actually be used for developing film or not. There is a large debate on this topic for alternative process photographers. Below is an article written by Roger K. Bunting, who argues that you can use Coffee, Tea, or Vitamin C in the Darkroom, to successfully develop film. Soon I will be putting this to the test, and will post any results from the instructions below. Stay posted.

Love,

Dana Rogers

 

 

Coffee, Tea, Or Vitamin C
Kitchen Chemistry In The Darkroom

By Roger K. Bunting • Posted: Sep 1, 2003

Description: http://www.shutterbug.com/images/archivesart/0903sb_coffee_01.jpg

The negatives for these photos were developed with the recipes given in the article. The photo of the chemistry students was processed in the coffee developer, and the negative for the old mill was made with the vitamin C formula. Both films were fixed in regular Kodak fixer, and the prints were made with conventional materials.
Photos © 2003, Roger K. Bunting, All Rights Reserved

A century and a half of research and development in photographic processing technology has given us some mighty fine materials to work with. The ease and speed of processing high quality black and white photos with today's materials is truly amazing. Developing agents with a wide range of capabilities are available from many different manufacturers. Could we ever manage without these commercial chemicals?

It may surprise you to learn that there are a number of common household materials that can serve as developing agents, and they can produce surprisingly good photographs. In fact, developers, stop baths, and fixers can all be concocted from products found in a typical grocery store. Will the results be as good as those produced with Kodak's fine line of chemicals? Not a chance. But it's interesting to experiment with these alternative formulas, and the results are often impressive.

Description: http://www.shutterbug.com/images/archivesart/0903sb_coffee_02.jpg

Robot Star 25, kindly loaned by Stuart Heggie.

Developer Components
The two most essential ingredients of a photographic developer are a developing agent (a reducing agent) and an activator. Caffeine, that magical component of coffee, tea, and many soft drinks, is an excellent reducer and can work well as a developing agent. Vitamin C can also do the job, as well as vanilla extract, iron supplement tablets, and a number of other common materials when properly applied.

Brew A Pot Of Developer
Caffeine is one of the best, and it's simple to use. Coffee or tea can be the source, but coffee may be preferable because of its higher caffeine content. So if you want to try your own skill at kitchen chemistry processing, here's a plan: First get a jar of instant coffee crystals at your local supermarket. Next head to the laundry detergent aisle and pick up a box of washing soda. That's the stuff that will activate the developing agent, the caffeine in the instant coffee. With the wide variety of laundry materials available today, washing soda isn't the big seller that it once was, but the larger chains will carry it. (Baking soda just won't do.)
That's all you need. And here's a recipe for making a half pint of developer, enough to process a roll of 35mm film in a typical developing tank.

8 oz of water
4 teaspoons of instant coffee crystals
2 teaspoons of washing soda

Stir the ingredients until uniform, then develop film for 25 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds.
This simple formula will develop any silver-halide emulsion, but for best results you'll need to experiment to determine the optimum composition and development time for the particular film and exposure level you use. I used only Kodak T-Max 400, exposed at ISO 100.

If the idea of working in a darkroom with the pleasant aroma of fresh-brewed coffee sounds appealing--don't count on that. The activator degrades some of the components of coffee, and the solution will soon take on the odor of the coffee pot you forgot to turn off the night before. Not the most pleasant sensation!

Developing With Vitamins
If you're not into coffee all that much and want to still try another alternative process, think vitamin C. Citrus fruits and fruit juices immediately come to mind as good sources of vitamin C. Unfortunately, though, that vitamin is not in high enough concentration in these juices to serve as an effective developing agent. You'll need to turn to the medicine cabinet and get out the vitamin C tablets. Vitamin C can nicely replace coffee as the developing agent, but because vitamin C is more acidic than caffeine, a larger quantity of activator will be required. Here's a workable composition:

8 oz of water
8 vitamin C tablets (1000mg each)
5 teaspoons of washing soda
Develop for 30 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds.

Film development with either of these concoctions--the coffee brew or the vitamin C mix--is straightforward and simple. And what will you have in the end? A strip of negatives with all the requirements for producing good prints. The negatives may not have as clean and crisp an appearance as you're accustomed to seeing, but don't be deceived. A remarkable level of detail is there, and with a little effort you can generate prints of surprising quality. Try it and see.

Simple Stop And Fix
Now what about the stop bath and fixer? The local grocer has these, too. Many photographers (including this one) use only a thorough water rinse as a stop bath for film development. But if quick-stop action is desired, a dilute vinegar solution works well.

For fixing, ordinary saltwater will do. In fact, seawater was long ago used as the very first successful fixing agent. The process is slow, however, and very inefficient compared to the action of modern fixing solutions. It takes a lot of saltwater, but it can be done.

It's quite a satisfying experience to produce a good photograph from a film developed with only common household materials. And it's a thrill those guys with their digital cameras can never know!

Roger Bunting is a chemistry professor at Illinois State University. He is author of a book entitled "The Chemistry of Photography" (www.photoglass.com), and has taught a course in photographic chemistry for many years.

 

Hive Portraits

Last week the creative content/social media functional team of Hive, presented work-flow to other Hive team members. The podcasters created a demo interview featuring Christain Ecker called “On the Spot.” The social media writers showed their interactive pages created through facebook, twitter etc. connected to the A&S page. And to show what I do in terms of photography here at A&S, I took portraits of all Hive team members at the meeting in yearbook style! Brian and I provided everyone with funky clothes from our closets and everyone had a lot of fun, because the creative content/social media team has a lot of fun doing what they do.

 

I have chosen the best dressed out of our portraits at the meeting, your prize is pride. Here you go…

1. Brian Connors Manke

2. Dustin Mays

3. Luyi Su

4. Adrian Booker

5. Scott Horn

6. Cheyenne Hohman

7. Christina Buckner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool London Transportation Cool.

Here are some photographs that are themed in someway with London’s transportation. Some are photographs that I took a photograph of inside a museum, or photographs that I took while using their transportation, such as the tube system, walking on the streets, riding double decker buses, and coaches, bridges etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

curious about what those images are? read below...

The first image was found in the Wimbledon Tennis club's lunch room.

The second image was found in the actual London Transport museum, in the futuristic historical content.

The third and fourth image is a photograph from the plane. Which is actually of Atlanta, but it counts because i was on my way to London, in the middle section on the overseas flight.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh photographs are walking in London at night.

The eighth photograph was found in the imperial war museum, during WWII, they used the underground tube system as a bomb shelter, so this is London's civilians sleeping in the tunnel with their most cherished objects.

The Last photograph is of the Millenium bridge which was shown being blown up in the Harry Potter films.

Photographer Cindy Sherman at the Tate Modern

A museum I visited in London called the Tate Modern had a series of portraits in the “States of Flux” exhibit, created by Cindy Sherman. This series stood out to me among the other pieces of art, and I thought I’d share it with all of you. This work of art is a series of portrait, black and white photographs, in which Cindy Sherman is the subject in each image. However, it seems like the subject of each image are different people. Sherman changes her makeup and facial expression in each portrait so much that each portrait looks like people of different ages and gender.

According to the “cindysherman” website, her biography says, that or a work of art to be considered a portrait, the artist must have intent to portray a specific, actual person. This can be communicated through such techniques as naming a specific person in the title of the work or creating an image in which the physical likeness leads to an emotional individuality unique to a specific person. While these criteria are not the only ways of connoting a portrait, they are just two examples of how Sherman carefully communicates to the viewer that these works are not meant to depict Cindy Sherman the person. By titling each of the photographs "Untitled", as well as numbering them, Sherman depersonalizes the images.

Wikipedia says: Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress—and, of course, model. Bus Riders (1976/2000) are a series of photographs that feature the artist as a variety of meticulously observed characters. The photographs were shot in 1976 but, like another series entitled Murder Mystery People, not printed or exhibited until 2000 and are among the artist's earliest work. Sherman uses elaborate costumes and make-up to transform her identity for each image, but is photographed in a sparse, obviously staged setting with a wooden chair standing in for the bus seat. In her landmark 69 photograph series, the Complete Untitled Film Stills, (1977–1980; although the 1997 traveling MOCA retrospective included five straight-on head shots dated 1975) Sherman appeared as B-movie, foreign film and film noir style actresses. When asked if she considers herself to be acting in her photographs, Sherman said, “I never thought I was acting. When I became involved with close-ups I needed more information in the expression. I couldn’t depend on background or atmosphere. I wanted the story to come from the face. Somehow the acting just happened.”

Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like the 1981 Centerfolds, call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television and magazines. When talking about one of her centerfold pictures Cindy stated, "In content I wanted a man opening up the magazine suddenly look at it with an expectation of something lascivious and then feel like the violator that they would be. Looking at this woman who is perhaps a victim. I didn't think of them as victims at the time... But I suppose... Obviously I'm trying to make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation."

 

 

 

 

Alright. Okay.

I went to London, England; as some of you may already know.

I’m speaking in past tense, since I was not able to create blogs in London when I was actually there. This is because they are behind America when it comes to most technologies by 2 years approximately, as said from experience of using their Wi-Fi and being told by their advertising agencies.

Anyhow, I studied in the UK so that I could expand my knowledge in global advertising, and purely just to use my passport, finally for the first time in my life. London was the perfect place to go, to be immersed into the world of advertising and business; being home to many award winning advertising agencies such as DDB (having clients such as Volkswagen, Harvey Nichols, Marmite; also claimed to be the start of creative advertising), and McCann Erickson (whom are creating all work for the upcoming Olympics campaign). However, London was not the best place to travel for a first experience of being out of the country, only because it’s really not that different or shocking, aside from the accents and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Differences that I did notice; the obvious money change: british pounds and pence, and currency right now is .74 or something, for example: 5 british pounds converts to 8 American dollars. Instead of using “EXIT” they use “Way out.” To direct you to an exit they use a sign that shows a green square and then a green man drawn to run towards that green square. Instead of “Restrooms” they say “Toilets.” There is no such thing as refills on drinks in restaurants, and you are given no ice (most of the time). You must order a tap water if you would like free water or else they will give you bottled water and charge you millions. You are not supposed to tip when in London; this is because their system makes sure to have higher wages within food service industries or else they include a service fee on your receipt. When crossing a street, look right before left; this is extremely important, pedestrians do not always have the right of way, unless they are in a zebra crossing or the green person is showing; drivers will not stop if it’s their right of way, (this means if you want to reenact the album cover of Abbey Road, you have to fight with the traffic, it’s still a road in use.) The sun never comes out. Yes, they drive while keeping to the left side of the road, as well as having the driver’s side on the right side of the car. However, this doesn’t mean that they also walk on the left side of the sidewalk; some may or may not. I’ve found that there is not a standard for what side to keep to when walking on a sidewalk; everyone just walks everywhere, causing a lot of pedestrian-to-pedestrian collisions. Most of London’s population consists of 30% multi-cultural locals, and the rest most likely is split into tourists and the British. This could be the main reason behind no standard followed, chaos is what it is, but understandable, so who cares.

I think that’s enough for now.

Here are some photographs on random London phenomenon.

Below: Knightsbridge at night

 

Below: Harrod's on Knightsbridge

 

Below: Piccadilly Circuis

How to Download Photographs of You and Your Friends on the A&S Website!

Have you found an image on our website that you love, and must have a copy of?

Here is how you can download and print that photograph and then charish it for the rest of your life!

 

 

1. Go to Univerity of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences website home page at: http://www.as.uky.edu/

2. If you haven't already taken a look at our recent photographs, take a look by choosing the Photos option on our homepage.

3. After you have made a decision on any photographs that you would like to have, return to the A&S homepage to find the FLICKR button. This link will bring you to our photostream on flickr, called UK College of Arts & Sciences. Below is an image of where the flickr button is on our A&S website homepage.

 

4. When you have successfully surfed to our flickr website account, UK College of Arts & Sciences, find your desired image by searching through the photostream, or more efficiently by clicking on the sets link shown here...

 

 


 

 

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5. After you've found the photograph you want, select the photo and open the actions menu, then click the '"View all Sizes" link inside the menu.

Here is where you can find the actions link...

 

 

 

6. On the next page, choose the size you want to download and click the link in the "Download" section. Now print it, if you have ink and paper, and a printer...

ENJOY YOUR WONDERFUL IMAGES, be sure to come back to the A&S website to find more photographs for you!

Love,

Dana