This is the start of my final for my basic studio class...Halloween costumes. Barbara is going to hate me...

next semester.

Monday
Major Artists: The Brothers Quay - 1:00-3:50
Narrative Cinema II - 4:00-6:50

Tuesday
Junior Photography Workshop - 8:30-3:50
Digital Photography Workshop - 4:00-9:50

Wednesday
Basic Studio - 8:30-3:50
Narrative Cinema II - 4:00-6:50

Thursday
Critical Issues in Photography - 4:00-9:50

Friday
NO CLASSES




ughhhhhhh

Please let me clean for you. No one else can love you like I do. My hands are spotless please let me clean for you. When you go away.

Now that I have actually been doing digital work (as much as I hate it) I can upload a couple things I have been working on. This is a project called "My Room" from my Junior Workshop class. I tried to focus on the organized and tidy spaces of my room.

Thank God for the clone stamp. I had a terrible reflection of the camera in the window.

I need more polaroids to fill up my door :(

This was the first time that I ever heard "this print is perfect."

You'll learn to hate me, but still call me baby...oh love, so call me by my name

I can't believe that I took the bus by myself to King of Prussia, sat there for 5 hours by myself, was just a few feet away from Robert Pattinson, and then took the bus home by myself. It was wonderful and depressing, but mostly wonderful. I wish Lola was there with me....


But I did get some free gifts including a twlight poster, bracelet, and stickers! haha

When you can live forever, what do you live for?

I just bought this:




oh lord.

But every now and then I feel so insecure, I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

I hate the lack of posting that has been going on lately :/

So, school has already been up and down. Basically, all of my assignments are weekly so I have zero time to actually create something I'm proud of or want to put in my portfolio. We are allowed to re-shoot or print any assignments but I just prefer having enough time to come up with an idea and execute it to the best of my ability and not feel rushed.

Hopefully I will be able to get into the computer lab sometime soon so I can post what I have done so far....

we've taken it to a whole new level...

RPATTZ ADVENTURES

BECAUSE ME A LOLA KNOW HOW TO BRING THE LULZ.

Stuck between the burning shade and the fading light.

School has finally started.
Hopefully I'll actually be able to update this thing now with my work throughout the semester.

Tomorrow I have to go to the darkroom to print a portrait of myself taken by David Graham...too bad its not going to look like one his professional portraits haha.

Then on Sunday I will be making my first exposure with a 4x5 camera! I'm so so so excited about that! I won't be able to develop it until Tuesday during my studio class, I don't know if I can wait that long.

The skies become kaleidoscopes with no two turns the same.

This is what most of my summer consisted of.

I know I haven't been keep up with this blog, but I'll post some pictures soon. I sadly didn't really take any while I was home except for ones of my niece, she is so darn cute. I just got back yesterday and I have already been spending my time back job hunting/cleaning/organizing/etc.

I had an interview with Buffalo Exchange today that went pretty well and I have another at Banana Republic later in the month. I actually went out and bought a nice grown-up outfit for the interview, yikes! I got an email from PhilaPets (after I had applied there about 4 times in the past 6 months) asking if I was still interested in position, but I don't know if I want to go through the hassle of their application process (according to a friend). Anyway, wish me luck on finding a job before school starts!

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

thank god for this movie.

Blind as miles and quiet as time. I'm over and out. Loud and I'm clear.

I can't sleep so out of boredom I went through a lot of my work from last semester, most of which I never posted. So over the next couple days I am going to try and post whatever I can.

My great-grandparents wedding photo. Gum Bichromate, print, approx. 8x10, 3 layers.

It was tough trying to get a lot of the detail to come through, but I got it the best I could from a thick negative. I sponged on the chemicals to give the print an antiqued look. As usual, it looks much better in person.

I have a block on my brain and a clock in my mouth and I'm tasting each second.

So, I said I would post some polaroids...they're just a little late. I decided to just wonder around Philadelphia and came across this decorative little house:







I took my Holga along with me too, but I was caught up in the joy of using my polaroid and forgot I had it.

So, expect Holga pictures soon!

When anything that's anything becomes nothing that's everything and nothing is the only thing you ever seem to have.

Tomorrow I am going to splurge on polaroid film. What is it going for now? 10 pack for 20 bucks? so sad...

Expect scans tomorrow.

I need to prepare for next year. It is going to be a long, scary, stressful ride.

This is how we'll dance when, when they try to take us down.

This weekend has been long, tiring, and so much fun.

On Friday my mom, grandma, and aunt came to visit and we went to Cirque de Soleil: Kooza. It was so good! There were so many different acts and in between each one they did a little comedy skits that were hysterical. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, so I didn't take any :/

Yesterday me and Lou made the 3 hour trek to New York (3 hours each way) to visit Lola. We brought the kitten with us so she can stay in NY and I am going to miss the little monster dearly. I was so excited to finally see Lola and she looks really good and she is getting a lot of strength back in her leg. Her family (who I absolutely LOVE) put together a little surprise party for her birthday and me and Lou didn't know about it until we got there. It was nice to finally meet the friends she always talks about, they are really great people and hopefully I can meet them again sometime.

There's Lola in her recliner with everything she needs. haha


I also got to be reunited with her precious pup, Pooh.

Today I just cleaned up my room a little and applied for 2 3 more jobs ( i just applied online for a H&M stock room job ha). I'm really getting frustrated with the fact that it is impossible to get a job in Philadelphia....someone please hire me.

So retire the ships, the final voyage was his.

Jamie Livingston took 1 polaroid a day from March 31, 1979 until his death on October 25, 1997 at the age of 41. The series of 6,697 photos chronicle his life including his battle with cancer. I don't feel the need to tell you his biography, just please look at his photographs and let them tell you his story. I included one of his polaroids that was taken on my birthday.

Here is the online gallery of every polaroid he took: Photo of the Day

photo taken july 15, 1988

Face up in a field, flowers at our heels. Quickly comfort finds us And takes us away from here.

Yesterday was just to nice to spend indoors. I wish the weather in Philadelphia would be like this more often.

Feeding pigeons. Lou creepin' into the picture.

My favorite pigeon of the day. The little awkward runt of the group.

My favorite part of the day. Big Poodle vs. Little Poodle.

She's laughing like a choir girl. When she doubles over sounds like Hallelujah.

I was just told by Julie to photoblog more. Now that summer is starting, I will hopefully update this a lot more with my adventures. And why not make a post about an adorable kitten?

Since Lola has been back home in New York I have been staying at her apartment on the weekends, and stopping by on and off during the week, to help take care of her precious kitten. Today I managed to snag a picture of her when she wasn't gnawing my hand off or running around like crazy. Just flat out adorable.

Fauxtography

"Only boring people are ever bored" 

-Duane Michals

I had the pleasure of going to see one of my favorite photographers, Duane Michals, speak this afternoon at school.  There is so much I could talk about, but it would probably take days. Without a doubt he was the most entertaining lecturer (if you could even call him that) that I have seen.  He is a 76 year old man with a mouth like a trucker, a sense of humor bigger then this world, and a knack for the narrative.  He was unbelievably motivational and opinionated, and I can honestly say that my life is forever changed.  I bought his book Foto Follies: How Photography Lost Its Virginity on the Way to the Bank and he signed it saying "To Jamie with the lightning LIGHTNING RODS IN HER MOUTH, Dr. Duanus"

This is a series he did titled "Grandpa Goes To Heaven." It's a perfect example of his mixture of story telling and humor.  Sorry for the tiny tiny pictures, it was the only online source I could quickly find with the whole series.

I am I am running in my head. I am I am lying on my left. I am I am growing in my bed. I am I am.

After a very long day and night in the darkrooms I managed to finish 4 prints for my altered reality assignment. I decided to shoot with 120mm film and then burn the negatives to give it a "creepy" feel. During the critique today I didn't get any negative comments, but I didn't really get any positive ones either.

Today during my break took one of my work prints and stained it with watercolor pigment then ripped it up and stitched it back together. I don't have any scans of it yet, but when I get my project back I will be sure to post.

Always I carried your heart. Married deep in my own.

This is what I love to come home to after a very long morning. Makes my life so much better.

I am waiting for the day when I will finally know surrender, and the weak will not be weak anymore.

These are photographs by a UK artist, Mike Stimpson. He re-creates famous photographs only using lego people. I just love them.

She cuts her diamonds so they look like a decoy lover.

We just got our next two assignments for Intro to Photography II and I am so excited to start them. Both assignments are based on experimental photography. The first assignment can carry over into our final or we can do a completely different technique. My teacher wants to teach us the importance of technique and the relation to the subject.

I decided to do two different techniques, the first being burned negatives. I'm still not sure of the subject matter I want to use, but the images come out so interesting.

For the second experimental technique I wanted to try distressed photographs by decaying them. It's kind of gross, but the results are amazing. It's done by having micro-organisms eat away your photo. Here is an excerpt from a book I checked out of the library that explains this further.

"To work prints, choose well-washed fiber based materials. Resin-coated papers are protected by their outer coating, which is difficult to penetrate. An east way to create a humid environment for decay micro organisms is to enclose a print with organic material inside a plastic portfolio sleeve. As micro-organisms grow, they will start to physically break down the gelatin and paper fibers, causing damage to the image on the print. Waste products are produced that further enhance the changes, and the micro-organisms themselves will probably cause distinct color changes."

Like I said, it sounds gross, but here is a before and after image.

I think that this is such a different idea for my final project and I can not wait to experiment with it further.

I just stumbled across this blog while researching for my photography final. It's nice to to scroll through and look at the photos. Film is not dead...

Some day I'll find the one with eyes that say those words I cannot find.

So, I finally took pictures of Wednesday lunch with Julie. The one above is of the back room in the cafe we go to. It was the first time in maybe 2 weeks that it was nice and empty. I took pictures of the delicious food we got (and we get the same thing every week) but they came out pretty blurry, so next time I'm going to bring my digital to get better pictures. Julie mananged to snap a picture of me, but I forgot to get one of her :(

I have been crafting like crazy the past couple days. Pearl has made some good business off of me (I've gone there 4 days in a row). I'm trying to sell a lot of my jewelry on my Etsy page. So far I only sold one item to someone in Iowa. But I have the same feeling as Julie (http://www.juliepeach.etsy.com)that I probably won't sell anything for another month.

I know it's sad that I never gave a damn about the weather, and it never gave a damn about me.

Spring break officially started, and I don't have any major plans. I'll most likely spend most of it cleaning & doing homework. My main goal is just to shoot some film for color and continue doing non-silver work. Last class I took one of my van dyke's and printed a cyanotype over it. I did a really uneven coating of the chemicals so when it was printed it would come out kind of messy and I really liked the outcome. Where the chemicals were really thick there was practically no exposure made and vise versa. My mom sent me a picture of my Great-Grandparents wedding photo so I'm going to make a negative from it then use that for my final 3 prints at the end of the semester and apply the same technique.

The weather has been so crappy today and I just want it to be nice out for Spring Break, that really is all I want. Just one nice sunny warm day that I could spend outside and cramped in classroom.

...and you may find that we're alright.

I ranted about this on myspace, but never posted it here, so here it goes...

So about 4 or 5 months ago I was asked to do a photo shoot for a massage therapy place in Philadelphia that my neighbor was making a website for. I did it for super cheap, a whopping $75, but never got paid. A few weeks after the shoot my neighbor told me the owner didn't like the photos and refused to pay. Which is not right, even if she didn't like the outcome she would still have to pay for the service.

Out of curiosity a few nights ago I decided to check the website just to see how the re-shoot, that someone else took, came out. Come to my surprise, my pictures were being used on the website with no photo credit and of course no payment. I was furious and immediately tried to get in touch with my neighbor. I talked to him about the situation and he took all the blame for not putting the photo credit up and corrected it right away, but he said he hasn't talked to the owner of the business and had a difficult time getting in touch with her in the first place. I explained to him that earlier I had spoke to my mom about the situation and she was about ready to call an attorney and that if I wasn't paid by next week I would have asked for an amount that was way more then $75. Then magically he got in touch with her the next day! So I'm still only going to get 75 bucks, but that's a lot better then nothing. That is the story of my first paid photography job, and now I already have something extra for my resume.

Here is a sample of the photos I took:

This is just the main waiting room, I also took pictures of the massage rooms, steam room, the owner and one of her employees, the front desk, and then details of the decor.

Live your life with a compassion you can be proud of.

We had a party at our house on Saturday night for BJ's birthday. He was an immature dick. We got in a verbal brawl. I won. He apologized. I apologized. I would type out the details but it's really not even worth it. But the cupcakes I made were delicious and our house was full of pink and black balloons, which is always a good thing.

The sky is gray. The sand is gray. The ocean is gray. And I feel right at home.

I went to Lisa's birthday party tonight and really only stayed for about 10 minutes. I felt so bad but I was tired and really didn't feel like being around big crowds of people. Instead I used up more polaroids to take pictures of my cats and roommates. Lame Lame Lame Lame Lame.

Tomorrow Steph is having a party for BJ's birthday and I'm sure it will be fun since I will actually know the people and I won't be standing awkwardly in the corner by myself. But we'll see since I plan on spending late night in the color darkrooms, I just might be very cranky when I get back.

It's a nervous tic motion of the head to the left.

Today we had our critique on the portrait assignment. Everyone did so well on their projects and it's rewarding to see the improvements you're making after such hard work and long nights in the darkroom. Everyone gets along so well and my teacher is amazing, she has taught us so much already and I look forward to each class to see what we are going to learn next. She noticed I had my polaroid camera with me today (I was DYING to take pictures with it right after i bought film) and she actually gave me 2 more packs of 10 count polaroid film. I was surprised she gave them to me since the price is up to $20 for a 10 pack since they're going out of business :(

Chelsea thought of the clever captions.

Kate added the nice little doodles.

This is what my class does while we're suppose to be flattening our fiber prints and spot toning. I really think our graduating class is going to be so much fun. Today me and Chelsea were talking about how our class doesn't seem to be full of assholes. And if you go to UArts you know exactly what I'm talking about haha.

Have you seen them, the words cut open? There's somthing living in these lines.

I finally finished my portraits. These are the other 3 I'm using, as mentioned before in this blog (and probably every time for now on) the scans SUCK. It's really starting to make me mad how shitty all my prints look they have been scanned.

for some reason this scanned crooked?

that little curtain in the window had a 40 sec. burn.

I did this print of Melissa about 2 weeks ago for Color Concepts. I got a couple lomo cameras for Christmas and I have been dying to try them out. This one was a double exposure on a fisheye camera, and I was really happy about the result.

Late night starts in the darkrooms this Friday. I think I'm going to go to work on Color Concepts work since that is the only class I'm behind in. I think I'll be able to get my 2 still lives and hopefully another 2 plaid self-portraits. Then if I feel like staying super late then I'll try to get one more fisheye portrait of Melissa done.

Lou joined the Wednesday lunch club today. Julie and I are going to bring him more so that creepy old guy leaves us alone haha. It was also another Wednesday lunch that I forgot to bring my camera with me. Next week I am bringing my polaroid, no doubt.

Wednesday is becoming my favorite day of the week. I get to sleep in, enjoy the company of friend for a couple hours, and still manage to get school work done later. It's the perfect balance.

When I die 1,000 birds will fly out of my mouth.

self portrait. the color of plaid.

annoying cat.

Yesterday night my cat had me in a frenzy because she couldn't open her right eye. And me being me I started to worry, so i basically stayed up even longer then anticipated (until about 4 or 5am) to wait and see if she got any other symptoms. Of course, she had only got something in her eye and was fine a few hours later. 

This is basically how I have to sleep every night because my cat is up my ass 24/7 and HAS to sleep directly on top of me at night.  It's also the reason why I will probably be single for the 14 or so years.