Final Blog Post and Artist Statement

My images seek to explore the interactions between childhood imagery, innocence, and a storybook aesthetic contrasted with out adult perceptions of our environment. Through the use of constructed sets and children's book illustrations, my hope was to evoke sentimentality for the past, and alter these feelings through destructive processes and darker compositions.

Photographer Presentation #8

Ed Templeton

Beautiful Losers

Ed Templeton was born July 28, 1972 in Orange County, California. He is a pro skateboarder and artist who did graphics for TV and now Toy Machine skateboards. Ed was featured in Beautiful Losers, a street art and photography documentary and touring exhibition.

Most of his work falls within the street photography aesthetic. His subject matter includes youth, skate, and drug culture. Many of his pieces have a political or social message and sexual undertones. His imagery seems raw and as if it were captured in the moment.

He installs his photos in installations that fit together and cover large areas of space.

Sinister Kid

Artist Presentation #7

Wangechi Mutu

Wangechi Mutu is a collage artist who was born in Nairobi, Kenya. She studied at the New School for Social Research, Parsons, Cooper Union, and Yale.

Many of her collages are made from images cut from fashion magazines, National Geographic, and books about African art.

Most of her pieces reference colonial history and African politics, as well as womanhood and female sexuality. Her images tend to feel beautiful and simultaneous grotesque. Most, if not all of her collages, carry political themes.

"Mutu uses materials which make reference to African identity and political strife: her dazzling black glitter is an abyss of western desire, which allude to the illegal diamond trade and its consequences of oppression and war. From corruption and violence, Mutu creates a glamorous beauty; her figures empowered by their survivalist adjustment to atrocity, made immune and ‘improved’ by horror and being victims."

Her process is almost surgical. She uses many medical illustrations, most of which deal with childbearing or female anatomy, cuts them apart, and brings them back together in mutated compositions.

Blog Post #26

For me, my work is most closely related to the concepts of time and human behavior or psychology. I feel that my photos are most closely related to time and human behavior/psychology. When I say I feel my work is closely related to time, I mean that I intend to link changes over time in our perspective of the way we view the world. I want my photographs to capture both innocence and something darker or destructive. The images with projections are intended to elude to a sense of vulnerability. The imagery of the wolf is intended to reference Little Red Riding Hood. These stories of our childhood reflect on innocence as well as a darker entity (the wolf) whose intentions are to destroy or harm these characters. As we grow, our thinking changes with time, and tends to leave us with a far less hopeful view of our environment. I feel like these ideas are also closely linked to human behavior and the cycles of thinking we are pulled through as we age and our frame of mind changes.

Projector Fun

Blog Post #25

I think it would be really interesting to hide my photos by splicing them into frames of children's movies, Tyler Durden style. I wonder if anyone notice it or get anything out of it at all, but it would be a fun experiment. I think conceptually it could work as well in that there is an innocence in children's movies and a fall from that in some of my photos. If I couldn't experiment with this, I think it could potentially be interesting to set up an installation by projecting these photos on a wall or relevant building. I would want this structure to either be a place of innocence or one of corruption. If I could have the burning images create a stop motion document, this installation could be particularly interesting. 

Blog Post #24

I thought Deon's work was particularly interesting. Initially, I was not incredibly interested in his piece, but when he explained his concept, I gained a stronger appreciation for it. It was apparent that he had put significant thought into his concept and the technology behind it. I agree that, as a culture, much of what makes us human (interaction, conversation, etc.) is being replaced with digital media. I'm not sure that I agree that we'll just become brains to machines at some point, but I do feel more technological advancements will be made in the future and we will lose even more of the physical and social interactions on a person to person basis. I thought the interactive aspect of his work was extremely interesting. His use of technology, movement, and sound to bring the viewed into the piece is fascinating. I'm not sure I would have the first idea about how to even begin a project like that. Although we did not see the artist talk about the screen prints on transparent fabric, I got a strong sense of connection to memory with the bits of thread linking the textile to the bronze figure. I feel that I would relate to the process and thinking behind this piece although I did not speak with the artist. I wish I could have heard more about this piece. I feel that hearing about the pieces were a good look into the artist as a person. Overall, I was more interested in the concepts of most of the artists than the appearance of the work itself. 

Photographer Presentation 6

Wendy McMurdo


Wendy McMurdo is a British photographer who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Pratt. She works largely with the relationship between technology and identity.


Many of her images seem surreal or slightly off. In her images, children are generally isolated and are interacting with the environment or each other. The subjects of her images are without supervision and are usually at play. These children are curious, yet easily influenced. 


McMurdo is known for her use of technology. In the image where twins appear to be interacting, The subject are, in fact, the same girl. The idea of this imaginary twin is both curious and unsettling.

Simen Johan

Simen Johnan was born in Norway in 1973 and studied at the School of Visual Arts, NY and Lugnetskolan, Falun, Sweden, Film/Video/Photography degree.

Johan's photos are a combination of digital elements and straight photographs. Many of them have a darker feel and explore what is fabricated and what is reality. 

In his series "Until the Kingdom Comes" Johan uses imagery of animals to mirror the behaviors and emotions of animals.  Johan has also explored children and their seemingly unlimited imaginations. These images either feature children at play or the remnants of their mischief. 

Some of these images seem haunting or ghostly.