By Claire Cain Miller
Published: October 25, 2009
The New York Times
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers
Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers
By Claire Cain Miller
Published: October 25, 2009
The New York Times
By Claire Cain Miller
Published: October 25, 2009
The New York Times
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
x025 . The Gift-Card Economy
The Gift-Card Economy
For some people, spending just doesn’t come naturally—especially in a recession. Behavioral economists have a solution
by Virginia Postrel
May 2009
the Atlantic
For some people, spending just doesn’t come naturally—especially in a recession. Behavioral economists have a solution
by Virginia Postrel
May 2009
the Atlantic
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
x016 . where to find the best deals in the... supermarket
moneywise . WALLET MATTERS . LOCATION, LOCATION
where to find the best deals in the... +supermarket
March 2009
Real Simple
"Look up, look down - basically look everywhere except at eye level. Some companies pay a slotting fee to place their products where consumers can easily seen them, says Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy (Simon & Schuster, $15). So expensive brand names are usually promoted on midlevel shelves, special displays, and end caps. More affordable store brands and private-label items are usually placed above or below."
where to find the best deals in the... +supermarket
March 2009
Real Simple
"Look up, look down - basically look everywhere except at eye level. Some companies pay a slotting fee to place their products where consumers can easily seen them, says Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy (Simon & Schuster, $15). So expensive brand names are usually promoted on midlevel shelves, special displays, and end caps. More affordable store brands and private-label items are usually placed above or below."
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
x005 . Andrew Bush
Andrew Bush
Prop Portraits 1999-2000
"Bush has worked in a variety of formats, subjects, and mediums for more than twenty years with a concentration on the theme of identity as defined by possessions."
"The Prop Portraits series, shown in 2000, was shot with his usual large format camera in the flea markets of Los Angeles. Produced as large-scale Epson color prints, his subjects were selected from the market crowd and shot posed before a semitransparent scrim holding the objects they selected. These people are thereby situated temporarily in a private space, their purchases or props becoming a trophy of their identity and passage through life."
Prop Portraits 1999-2000
"Bush has worked in a variety of formats, subjects, and mediums for more than twenty years with a concentration on the theme of identity as defined by possessions."
"The Prop Portraits series, shown in 2000, was shot with his usual large format camera in the flea markets of Los Angeles. Produced as large-scale Epson color prints, his subjects were selected from the market crowd and shot posed before a semitransparent scrim holding the objects they selected. These people are thereby situated temporarily in a private space, their purchases or props becoming a trophy of their identity and passage through life."
pigment prints on Somerset paper
16 x 11" editions of 20
45 x 34" editions of 6
x004 . Brian Ulrich
Copia
Brian Ulrich
COPIA
Plenty, a plentiful supply: now chiefly in L. phrase copia verborum abundance of words, a copious vocabulary. Cf. COPY n. 1c.
I. a. Plenty, abundance, a copious quantity.
b. Fullness, plentitude. Obs.
c. esp. of language: Copiousness, abundance, fullness, richness.
copy of words : = L. copia verborum. Obs.
II. A transcript of reproduction of an original.
"In 2001 citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live. Through large scale photographs taken within both the big-box retail stores and the thrift shops that house our recycled goods, Copia explores not only the everyday activities of shopping, but the economic, cultural, social, and political implications of commercialism and the roles we play in self-destruction, over-consumption, and as targets of marketing and advertising. By scrutinizing these rituals and their environments, I hope that viewers will evaluate the increasing complexities of the modern world and their own role within it."
"Copia is composed of several chapters, currently Retail, Thrift, and Backrooms. These further document notions of social class, excess, and corporate ideologies. By combining photographs taken candidly with a medium-format film camera outfitted with a waist-level viewfinder, and studied compositions taken with a large format camera in thrift shops, I can capture lost excitement and overwhelmed, subsumed moments. The large-scale prints allow the viewer to stop and notice with a distanced perspective familiar places and things. Over time these images take on new meaning, ones anthropological and historical of an affluent society at the dawn of the 21st century. What we buy and what we use up becomes the evidence of our experience of this time."
Brian Ulrich
COPIA
Plenty, a plentiful supply: now chiefly in L. phrase copia verborum abundance of words, a copious vocabulary. Cf. COPY n. 1c.
I. a. Plenty, abundance, a copious quantity.
b. Fullness, plentitude. Obs.
c. esp. of language: Copiousness, abundance, fullness, richness.
copy of words : = L. copia verborum. Obs.
II. A transcript of reproduction of an original.
"In 2001 citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live. Through large scale photographs taken within both the big-box retail stores and the thrift shops that house our recycled goods, Copia explores not only the everyday activities of shopping, but the economic, cultural, social, and political implications of commercialism and the roles we play in self-destruction, over-consumption, and as targets of marketing and advertising. By scrutinizing these rituals and their environments, I hope that viewers will evaluate the increasing complexities of the modern world and their own role within it."
"Copia is composed of several chapters, currently Retail, Thrift, and Backrooms. These further document notions of social class, excess, and corporate ideologies. By combining photographs taken candidly with a medium-format film camera outfitted with a waist-level viewfinder, and studied compositions taken with a large format camera in thrift shops, I can capture lost excitement and overwhelmed, subsumed moments. The large-scale prints allow the viewer to stop and notice with a distanced perspective familiar places and things. Over time these images take on new meaning, ones anthropological and historical of an affluent society at the dawn of the 21st century. What we buy and what we use up becomes the evidence of our experience of this time."
x003 . Martin Parr
"Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels. In the process, he examines national characteristics and international phenomena to find out how valid they are as symbols that will help future generations to understand our cultural peculiarities. Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. In this way he creates his own image of society, which allows us to combine an analysis of the visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences. In his photos, Parr juxtaposes specific images with universal ones without resolving the contradictions. Individual characteristics are accepted and eccentricities are treasured."
"Martin Parr sensitises our subconscious and once we've seen his photographs, we keep on discovering these images over and over again in our daily lives and recognising ourselves within them."
Luxury
Martin Parr
"This series of photographs shows the different ways people display their wealth."
"Traditionally the portrayal of poverty has been the domain of the "concerned photographer", but I photograph wealth in the same spirit. When the new emerging middle classes demand and receive the luxury goods that so many of us take for granted, it will put considerable pressure on the world's resources. We are seeing the first manifestations of this: soaring oil prices brought on in part by exceptional demand from China and India; food prices escalating as crops are diverted into biofuels."
"When the photographs are exhibited these things are not always stated, but I am happy to share the ultimate political motive behind the new body of work."
"Martin Parr sensitises our subconscious and once we've seen his photographs, we keep on discovering these images over and over again in our daily lives and recognising ourselves within them."
Thomas Welski
Martin Parr
"This series of photographs shows the different ways people display their wealth."
"Traditionally the portrayal of poverty has been the domain of the "concerned photographer", but I photograph wealth in the same spirit. When the new emerging middle classes demand and receive the luxury goods that so many of us take for granted, it will put considerable pressure on the world's resources. We are seeing the first manifestations of this: soaring oil prices brought on in part by exceptional demand from China and India; food prices escalating as crops are diverted into biofuels."
"When the photographs are exhibited these things are not always stated, but I am happy to share the ultimate political motive behind the new body of work."
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Week 019: a b and c
Whenever I take the #15 bus at night and get off in front of Smiley's, I'm fascinated by the goings-on within the laundromat. These are a few of the snapshots that I took recently as I was looking in. I'm kind of interested in making a photographic body of work that documents the after-dark activity that takes place at Smiley's, which happens to be open 24-hours a day. Are people there at 3 and 4 in the morning? The people are just doing their laundry, but does their laundry say something about them? What does the laundromat culture say about the larger, neighboring community?
"Smiley's opened sometime in the early '50s, when Colfax was the cultural epicenter of Denver. The only laundromat for miles, Smiley's was expanded to allow hundreds of loads at once, and it wasn't long before doing laundry at Smiley's was kind of a social event. Smiley's has changed right along with the demographics of the area, through the recession in the '80s and the influx of migrant workers to the neighboring apartment houses."
A:
B:
C:
"Smiley's opened sometime in the early '50s, when Colfax was the cultural epicenter of Denver. The only laundromat for miles, Smiley's was expanded to allow hundreds of loads at once, and it wasn't long before doing laundry at Smiley's was kind of a social event. Smiley's has changed right along with the demographics of the area, through the recession in the '80s and the influx of migrant workers to the neighboring apartment houses."
A:
B:
C:
Monday, February 2, 2009
Week 018: one two & three
ONE*
Michael Corridore: Angry Black Snake
January 30, 2009 - March 7 2009
Australian Centre for Photography
"While their bodies struggle to deal with the uncomfortable conditions, their faces remain transfixed by the events going on just beyond the frame. For Corridore, the race itself is unimportant: 'I did not wish to document or comment on those events. I was interested in the spectator's responses to the shifting conditions of their environments, their moments of unease when they lose connection to a tangible landscape.'"
*I'm realizing that I like this type of "honest" photograph of the human experience. I like the underlying humor captured by this photo: people not having fun having fun.
TWO**
Sanja Pahoki: Cub separated from spooked polar bear
January 23, 2009 - March 21, 2009
Centre for Contemporary Art
"Cub separated from spooked polar bear is Sanja Pahoki’s latest investigation into mother-child relationships, mental illness and language. The exhibition is based on media reportage of two polar bear cubs that were hand-reared by German zookeepers after being rejected by their mothers."
**Immediately, this images seems both funny and stupid. I like that this exhibition deals with a controversial subject in a light way.
THREE***
Beyond the Familiar: Photography and the Construction of Community
September 20, 2008 - March 8, 2009
Williams College Museum of Art
"Beyond the Familiar: Photography and the Construction of Community provokes dialogue about the role of photography in the construction of cultural identity."
"This exhibition draws together the work of 10 artists from throughout the history of photography who have endeavored to reveal the character of an entire population through images of representative individuals. Included is work from the 19th century by Felice Beato and Peter Henry Emerson; from the 20th century by Edward Curtis, Robert Frank, David Goldblatt, Barbara Norfleet, August Sander, and Aaron Siskind; and recent work by Tina Barney and Zwelethu Mthethwa."
"Each of these artists have defined a group–whether by race, class, occupation, or neighborhood–and depicted individuals in a manner that moves beyond portraiture. Instead, each artist explores personal identity in the larger context of social groups."
***Because I'm currently exploring collective cultural identity in my work, I was immediately drawn to the concept behind this exhibition.
Michael Corridore: Angry Black Snake
January 30, 2009 - March 7 2009
Australian Centre for Photography
"While their bodies struggle to deal with the uncomfortable conditions, their faces remain transfixed by the events going on just beyond the frame. For Corridore, the race itself is unimportant: 'I did not wish to document or comment on those events. I was interested in the spectator's responses to the shifting conditions of their environments, their moments of unease when they lose connection to a tangible landscape.'"
*I'm realizing that I like this type of "honest" photograph of the human experience. I like the underlying humor captured by this photo: people not having fun having fun.
TWO**
Sanja Pahoki: Cub separated from spooked polar bear
January 23, 2009 - March 21, 2009
Centre for Contemporary Art
"Cub separated from spooked polar bear is Sanja Pahoki’s latest investigation into mother-child relationships, mental illness and language. The exhibition is based on media reportage of two polar bear cubs that were hand-reared by German zookeepers after being rejected by their mothers."
**Immediately, this images seems both funny and stupid. I like that this exhibition deals with a controversial subject in a light way.
THREE***
Beyond the Familiar: Photography and the Construction of Community
September 20, 2008 - March 8, 2009
Williams College Museum of Art
"Beyond the Familiar: Photography and the Construction of Community provokes dialogue about the role of photography in the construction of cultural identity."
"This exhibition draws together the work of 10 artists from throughout the history of photography who have endeavored to reveal the character of an entire population through images of representative individuals. Included is work from the 19th century by Felice Beato and Peter Henry Emerson; from the 20th century by Edward Curtis, Robert Frank, David Goldblatt, Barbara Norfleet, August Sander, and Aaron Siskind; and recent work by Tina Barney and Zwelethu Mthethwa."
"Each of these artists have defined a group–whether by race, class, occupation, or neighborhood–and depicted individuals in a manner that moves beyond portraiture. Instead, each artist explores personal identity in the larger context of social groups."
***Because I'm currently exploring collective cultural identity in my work, I was immediately drawn to the concept behind this exhibition.
Week 018: a b & c
I'm realizing that I like looking in and out of windows. These photos were taken looking-through the peep hole in a front door. I like the hidden/private nature of these perspectives.
A:
B:
C:
A:
B:
C:
Monday, January 26, 2009
Week 017: a b & c
These are images of my living space. I don't particularly like these pictures, so I'm having a hard time describing why I've posted them. Essentially, I must like that the pictures show clutter and chaos with a lack of attention to composition, which is not what or how I usually shoot.
A:
This 1st image seems quiet, and I like that. I also like how the mirror features rectangles within a rectangle.
B:
I like the bike in this picture. It's somewhat hidden, but the reflectors on the spokes draw my attention.
C:
I keep trying to identify objects on the two tables, and, because this is my mess, I like thinking about why and how these things have been strewn about.
A:
This 1st image seems quiet, and I like that. I also like how the mirror features rectangles within a rectangle.
B:
I like the bike in this picture. It's somewhat hidden, but the reflectors on the spokes draw my attention.
C:
I keep trying to identify objects on the two tables, and, because this is my mess, I like thinking about why and how these things have been strewn about.
Week 017: one two & three
ONE*
Julie Blackmon - Domestic Vacations
January 22, 2009 - March 7, 2009
Fahey / Klein Gallery
"Her photographs blend autobiography and fiction to create surreal yet plausible scenarios that reflect contemporary everyday family life with acumen, humor, and insight."
"'As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos.'"
*Many of the images in Blackmon's Domestic Vacations exhibition show signs of extreme alteration in Photoshop, but I kind of like them anyway. Even though the scenes couldn't have possibly existed in reality, I still try to work out the scenarios in my mind. Photography, as a rule, is believable.
TWO**
United in Nima: Bay Area and Ghanaian Youth Share Lives Through the Lens
January 8, 2009 - March 25, 2009
SF Camerawork
"...a new exhibition featuring photographs by low-income youth from SF Camerawork’s First Exposures photography mentoring program and teens living in the notoriously poor Nima slum of Accra, Ghana who spent three weeks together last summer in Africa sharing their lives, culture and art."
“'They made photographs that explore what it means to be misrepresented and misunderstood,” says [Erik] Auerbach, [Program Director of First Exposures]. “They brought these concepts to Ghana to explore the same issues with the African youth.'"
**As a future K-12 art teacher, I was immediately interested in this exhibition featuring the work of youth from the US and Ghana. It will be interesting to see if any of the youth, featured in this exhibition, go on to become professional photographers.
THREE***
Jeremy Kidd - Fictional Realities
January 22, 2009 - March 7, 2009
Fahey / Klein Gallery
"Fictional Realities combines a series of digital, time-lapse photographs that have been stitched and blended together to create a panoramic view that transcends time and space. Assembled from the hundreds of frames taken of each site, each construction creates a unique vision of a familiar place, one that is wholly recognizable and utterly alien at the same time."
"As with the Futurists, Kidd’s images defy imagination on many levels simultaneously, yet retain a close approximation of reality that both confounds and amazes.'"
***I like the intense color of this composite image as well as its surreal believability.
*&***The Fahey / Klein Gallery is featuring these two bodies of work within the same exhibition and rightly so. They both address the believable-unreality so common to photographic work.
Julie Blackmon - Domestic Vacations
January 22, 2009 - March 7, 2009
Fahey / Klein Gallery
"Her photographs blend autobiography and fiction to create surreal yet plausible scenarios that reflect contemporary everyday family life with acumen, humor, and insight."
"'As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos.'"
*Many of the images in Blackmon's Domestic Vacations exhibition show signs of extreme alteration in Photoshop, but I kind of like them anyway. Even though the scenes couldn't have possibly existed in reality, I still try to work out the scenarios in my mind. Photography, as a rule, is believable.
TWO**
United in Nima: Bay Area and Ghanaian Youth Share Lives Through the Lens
January 8, 2009 - March 25, 2009
SF Camerawork
"...a new exhibition featuring photographs by low-income youth from SF Camerawork’s First Exposures photography mentoring program and teens living in the notoriously poor Nima slum of Accra, Ghana who spent three weeks together last summer in Africa sharing their lives, culture and art."
“'They made photographs that explore what it means to be misrepresented and misunderstood,” says [Erik] Auerbach, [Program Director of First Exposures]. “They brought these concepts to Ghana to explore the same issues with the African youth.'"
**As a future K-12 art teacher, I was immediately interested in this exhibition featuring the work of youth from the US and Ghana. It will be interesting to see if any of the youth, featured in this exhibition, go on to become professional photographers.
THREE***
Jeremy Kidd - Fictional Realities
January 22, 2009 - March 7, 2009
Fahey / Klein Gallery
"Fictional Realities combines a series of digital, time-lapse photographs that have been stitched and blended together to create a panoramic view that transcends time and space. Assembled from the hundreds of frames taken of each site, each construction creates a unique vision of a familiar place, one that is wholly recognizable and utterly alien at the same time."
"As with the Futurists, Kidd’s images defy imagination on many levels simultaneously, yet retain a close approximation of reality that both confounds and amazes.'"
***I like the intense color of this composite image as well as its surreal believability.
*&***The Fahey / Klein Gallery is featuring these two bodies of work within the same exhibition and rightly so. They both address the believable-unreality so common to photographic work.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Week 016: one two & three
ONE*
Michael Wolf: The Transparent City
November 14, 2008 - January 31, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Photography
"While it has been common for photographers to glorify Chicago’s distinctive architecture and environmental context, Wolf depicts the city more abstractly, focusing less on individual well-known structures and more on the contradictions and conflicts between architectural styles when visually flattened together in a photograph. His pictures look through the multiple layers of glass to reveal the social constructs of living and working in an urban environment, focusing specifically on voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. Wolf explores the complex, sometimes blurred distinctions between private and public life in a city made transparent by his intense observation."
*
TWO**
WORK/PLACE
November 14, 2008 - January 31, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Work by:
Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom
Thomas Demand
Lars Tunbjörk
Karen Yama
"...Work / Place looks at the idiosyncratic personal routines that individuals perform inside their offices. The photographs and video in this exhibition use as their raw material the highly ordered but often banal and absurd activities of office life. "
"In each of the works on view, the artist strikes a balance between the personal attributes brought into an office and the homogeneity of office etiquette and behavior. As the popular television show The Office so cleverly depicts, the great challenge of the workplace is the implausibility of drastically distinctive personalities having to function toward the same goals—under the same roof."
**
THREE***
Gabrielle Basilico: Intercity
January 7, 2009 - March 6, 2009
Cohen Amador Gallery
"Pooled from his most recent bodies of work, the exhibition articulates Basilico’s lifelong fascination with the city as a densely collaged environment."
"This character of spatial isolation and urban indifference persists throughout the work and speaks to the state of the post-industrial—post-modern—city. In their indifference, architecture and industry are shown to aggressively reject human access."
***
Michael Wolf: The Transparent City
November 14, 2008 - January 31, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Photography
"While it has been common for photographers to glorify Chicago’s distinctive architecture and environmental context, Wolf depicts the city more abstractly, focusing less on individual well-known structures and more on the contradictions and conflicts between architectural styles when visually flattened together in a photograph. His pictures look through the multiple layers of glass to reveal the social constructs of living and working in an urban environment, focusing specifically on voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. Wolf explores the complex, sometimes blurred distinctions between private and public life in a city made transparent by his intense observation."
*
TWO**
WORK/PLACE
November 14, 2008 - January 31, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Work by:
Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom
Thomas Demand
Lars Tunbjörk
Karen Yama
"...Work / Place looks at the idiosyncratic personal routines that individuals perform inside their offices. The photographs and video in this exhibition use as their raw material the highly ordered but often banal and absurd activities of office life. "
"In each of the works on view, the artist strikes a balance between the personal attributes brought into an office and the homogeneity of office etiquette and behavior. As the popular television show The Office so cleverly depicts, the great challenge of the workplace is the implausibility of drastically distinctive personalities having to function toward the same goals—under the same roof."
**
THREE***
Gabrielle Basilico: Intercity
January 7, 2009 - March 6, 2009
Cohen Amador Gallery
"Pooled from his most recent bodies of work, the exhibition articulates Basilico’s lifelong fascination with the city as a densely collaged environment."
"This character of spatial isolation and urban indifference persists throughout the work and speaks to the state of the post-industrial—post-modern—city. In their indifference, architecture and industry are shown to aggressively reject human access."
***
Monday, January 12, 2009
Week 015: one two & three
ONE*
Katharina Bosse: a Portrait of the artist as a Young Mother
January 10, 2009 - March 7, 2009
galerie anne barrault
"This new series by Katharina Bosse, disquieting and daring, reveals, with humour and boldness, this multi-faceted, extremely complex, underestimated process : the birth of a mother."
*
TWO**
Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography
November 4, 2008 - March 22, 2009
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"This installation of works from the permanent collection—the third in the Museum’s new gallery for contemporary photographs—surveys the ways in which artists exploit photography’s fundamental illusionism to create a sense of ambiguity about what is real and what is not. Among the works featured are photographs of staged scenarios or constructed environments that appear to be real, as well as real scenes or landscapes that appear strangely artificial. Artists include James Casebere, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Gober, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, Stephen Shore, and Taryn Simon, among others."
**
THREE***
***
Katharina Bosse: a Portrait of the artist as a Young Mother
January 10, 2009 - March 7, 2009
galerie anne barrault
"This new series by Katharina Bosse, disquieting and daring, reveals, with humour and boldness, this multi-faceted, extremely complex, underestimated process : the birth of a mother."
*
TWO**
Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography
November 4, 2008 - March 22, 2009
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"This installation of works from the permanent collection—the third in the Museum’s new gallery for contemporary photographs—surveys the ways in which artists exploit photography’s fundamental illusionism to create a sense of ambiguity about what is real and what is not. Among the works featured are photographs of staged scenarios or constructed environments that appear to be real, as well as real scenes or landscapes that appear strangely artificial. Artists include James Casebere, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Gober, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, Stephen Shore, and Taryn Simon, among others."
**
THREE***
***
Week 015: a b & c
A:
B:
C:
I don't typically take snapshots like this, but I like these. Even though the subjects are clearly posing, they still appear natural to me. These photos serve as memory prompts for a work holiday party and may eventually be reminders of other things entirely. I like that aspect of snapshot photography.
B:
C:
I don't typically take snapshots like this, but I like these. Even though the subjects are clearly posing, they still appear natural to me. These photos serve as memory prompts for a work holiday party and may eventually be reminders of other things entirely. I like that aspect of snapshot photography.
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