End of the Year

Now that the end of the semester is upon us and the last few days of classes are coming to an end, I am finally coming into the mind set that i will be a senior in a matter of months. I get the always pressing question of "what will you do after graduation?" and frankly, I don't know what i am going to do after graduation. Ideally every art student just wants to have some rich guy fund them throughout their lives so that we can all live in a fancy upper east side loft and just make art all day, but the reality is that most likely isn't going to happen. I am hoping in the next few months of my life, that I have a revelation as to where I am going or what I am doing, or that something will happen and the path will become clear but as of right this moment I am completely clueless. It's scary but exciting. life doesn't always have to be planned out.

Frank Langella

Over the weekend I was asked by the VPA dean's office to photograph Frank Langella, who was coming to Syracuse for the day to work with acting students. There were some concerns about him being photographed, but we all agreed I should go just in case he changed his mind. When I got there, the environment did not appear to be open to photography but I allowed myself to enjoy, something I can only describe as, a performance. For the 2 hours I was present, Langella pushed 3 acting students to present their monologues in ways they never have before. The first was a young man reciting an extremely intense part from Macbeth. Langella asked him to speak his monologue, no acting and then slowly had him act each line until it was perfect. The second student was a young woman presenting a piece about a wife confronting her husband on an affair and the third was a young man whose piece was about a man who had fallen in love with a prostitute. All three of the pieces were extremely well done and evoked pure honesty and truths about the words they were speaking. They all took on the bodies and minds of the characters. It's the kind of thing that makes Syracuse special, being able to attend a big basketball game and feel the intensity of the players and the crowd but also to attend something as small as this and feel the same amount of intensity.

Performance Art is Completely Relevant

About a month ago I went to the MoMa with my mom, mainly to view the widely popular Tim Burton exhibit, but upon entering the museum there was a performance piece taking place entitled "The Artist is Present." Marina Abramovic is a performance artist from Yugoslavia who has conducted a number of performance pieces throughout her life, including one which ignited great controversy in which she placed several items on a table and without resisting, allowed viewers to place the objects on her. Some were interested in the unprovoked and unresisting assault that would take place, and others were after her well being. Like the piece done by Yoko Ono, in which she invited her audience to snip away pieces of her clothing, Abramovic confronts the themes of feminism and dominance through becoming an object for audience interaction. In performance art, the artist is almost always the main conductor of the viewing conditions and set up, but it is the audience that creates the mood and progression of the piece. My first attempt at a performance piece involved a picket style photograph of a young man moshing which I brought to several places on campus, in hopes of attracted a large audience in which to photograph their reactions. I found that viewers were not interested in my project and that gave the piece a whole new direction. From there I worked with the theme of isolation and people ignored by and in society. I think performance art is completely relevant to not only photography but video, film and all forms of art. It evokes an on location reaction and emotions that may not be conveyed through another method.

Finding the Perfect Model

This past week has been very hectic. I have been trying to gather male models together to be in portraits for my junior seminar class. I have never actually sought out models before to use for something like this, in most cases as undergrads we mostly shoot our friends or family, so this was an interesting experience. It is really exciting when a model works out or has the look you are going for in your photographs, but I have been blown off by people saying they would help too, which has been very stressful. All in all I am ready to print this project and have it critiqued and hopefully have something usable for my portfolio. My advice for anyone who puts ads out on craigslist or facebook looking for models, inquire multiple people so if one person does not work out you can have backups, always do this a week or two in advance and never go somewhere alone with someone you don't know.

Introduction!

Hey there,
I am an art photography major in the transmedia department of VPA. I transferred in from psychology a little over a year ago and have loved it ever since. Photography has given me the ability to truly find my place at Syracuse. It can be the ultimate ego booster or it can be the harsh critique needed to push your work to the next level. In this, I have found myself becoming more open minded to constructive criticism, more motivated to accomplish my photographic goals than ever before and slowly but surely becoming an expert on what makes art "art." It is more than just a pretty sunset or a nice portrait of your mom, it is premeditating an entire image to not only be aesthetically pleasing but also have a deeper meaning, to make a statement and to change the world. Photographers are said to be relentless beings only out to capture the moment at any cost, and yes this can be very true, I will do whatever it takes to get my image, but we do have hearts (despite popular belief). In my life I would love nothing more than for my photos to have an impact of change on the conditions in which animals live under in slaughterhouses, for something I photograph to incite more women's health rights, or to help progress change in third world countries. These are very ambitious goals but goals none the less. I think that Syracuse, the professors I've met here and especially my classmates will help me most of all in achieving what I hope to achieve.
-mary kate