Mehmet Ozgur Smoke Art

While looking for inspiration for some of my own work I came across the work of Mehmet Ozgur and his work. As you might know his work is some what like the smoke art that I created in Photoshop some time ago. 
His work is magic, creating a serial and dream like state with in his images. What drew me to the work was the second image, this was the first that I ever saw. From here I looked into more of his work only to find that each image become more and more complex with new and exciting ways of capturing smoke in different forms. 
You can find more of his work here

Jules Ober Textured Landscape

While taking in part in an Adobe on-line course I have been able to read and take part in the weekly forums. While looking through I came across these images by Jules Ober. 

His images are cut into long rectangles are the area of the detail in the image. What makes these images is the way that you focus on one area of the image, the bamboo or the grass. The work really is more aesthetic then meaningful, but the way that your attention is captured works for the images very well. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004

A persons memories and mind it web, a tangle of good and bad, but what would happen if you could remove the pain and the sorrow from your thoughts, only keeping the things that made you smile or laugh. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film full of twists and turns that you would have never seen coming, tangling the idea of memory in it non chronological order confusing the viewer into falling into traps where they believe that they know what is going on. 
The film stars Jim Carrey as the main character Jole Barish, an man with little going for him self, and not much too say. However his whole life changes when for no reason he skips work and finds him self on a beach in Montauk, New York where he meets Clementine Kruczynski (played by Kate Winslet) From here on the film begins to twist and turn through out Jole and Clementine's relationship. After a while their relationship breaks down, and Clementine finds her self going to Lacuna, Inc. a New York company that will remove the bad memoires from your mind leaving you with no recollection of what you once knew of a place, person or a dead family member. Jole then finds this out and has the same procedure from this point on the film then is set inside Joles mind and memoires. As we walk through them in reverse we see Jole fighting to hold on to the very last few good day that Clementine and Jole spent together. In the last few moments of his first memory of Clementine she whispers 'Meet me in Montauk'  
Jole awakes in his bed the night after the procedure to find his car damaged but no recollection of how, we then see Jole at the train station (where we see him at the opening of the film). On impulse Jole leaves his platform and runs for the train to Montauk - 
'Random thoughts on Valentines day 2004, today is a holiday created by greetings card companies to make people feel like crap. I ditched work today took a train out Montauk, I don't know why I'm not an impulsive person'  

This film honestly left be with out any words, was a breath of fresh air to watch. I would honestly recommend it. Just stunning!! 

Ikea's Digital Camera

Ikea have just realised their own Digital Camera. The Kanappa as it has been called is almost entirely made form cardboard and has no digital back, thus bring back this idea of not knowing what you have taken till you upload the images onto your computer. The camera is powered by two standard batteries, has a memory of up to 40 images and a USB port for easy upload to your computer. 
The idea behind this whole project is the climet that we live in, Ikea are really looking into ways of sustainability as well as reusing all the card packing that they use for all their flat packed goods.  

The camera its self is really a point and shoot, but has brought back the days when film was widely used, however this does not mean that the waiting is long once the 40 shots are taken you just go to your own computer and see them straight away, so it could be argued that this camera brings back nothing that film once gave to us. 

Here is a video of the camera in action.

I would love to know what others think of this idea? Is photography becoming less and less of an art? Or do you feel that the idea of photogrpahy be accessible to every one is a good thing, alowing people to express them selves easier them before?

Explosions 2010 - Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr

Explosions is a highly complex body of work created by the duo artists Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr. 
The sets each have specially made explosions with in them that detonate when the shutter is released. The organisations allows us to see the moment of impact. The concept of the work is to evoke the feeling of unrest and anxiety, thus the work is set in a home environment, an area that the viewer can relate to.

Private Moon by Leonid Tishkov

The Private Moon series is a huge body of work that looks a indoor and outdoor insulations, that illuminate the surroundings. The work its self a a visual poem, explaining the idea of   and thoughts of Chesterton a writer who explained the idea that there is no personal faith, in the same way each person can not have their own private sun or moon to them self's. 
The visual poem tells a story of a man that met the moon her self, and stayed with her for the rest of his life. Each image that you see in its self is another section of the story. 
In the start the moon was hiding from the sun, hidden away in a tunnel, she came to a man house and stayed in his loft, he cared for her and covered her with blankets. 
"Each photograph is a poetic tale, a little poem in its own right.
Therefore each picture is accompanied by my own verse" - Leonid Tishkov. 
The work has been accompanied by seven Haiku's short Japanese poems that in a way sum up the work. Haiku's wirrten by Leong Liew Geok 3 October 2008

Moon at window sill,

Smiling crescent parked outside,

Unwilling to budge 

On flat roof with me

Silent witness of lit rooms:

Unknown company 

Bent over with you

Piggyback-rider,

to gauge—Water below bridge! 

My yoke of white jade,

Sole passenger to ferry

Wherever I row 

Your Brightness on sled

I lug across waves of snow.

Why can’t You float home? 

At this opening

You’ll wait, light at tunnel’s end,

Anticipating 

I’ll come to take you

Home to your usual table ….

Here—eat these apples! 

Stuck on snowy roof

You’re prostrate, an empty stage

I’ll shovel upright 

You’re there, attic moon,

Before I end an antique

Trip to count cobwebs 

Side by side we lie—

Keep your whole self covered, else

I won’t get to sleep!

Has digital photography devalued the photograph?

Quote taken from the interview with photographer Ricky Adam, Digital Vs Analogue photography - Full Interview http://digbmx.mpora.com/photo-ops/ricky-adam-destroying-everything/


"What role does post production play? Is there a difference between working with chemicals and working in a 'Digital' darkroom as fer as the 'Legitimacy' of the final image?" 
"So long as the image hasn't been manipulated in any way a good photo is a good photo, regardless of what short of camera was used to take it. You have to be a lot more resourceful when shooting film. For one you shoot fewer photos, but in doing so I think you learn a lot more about composition, lighting, ect. I often wonder how many more photos I would have if I could have shot digital when I first started out? Would I even have pursued photography? Possibly not...." 


My Response 
Film and digital photography have been competing for quite some time now , the digital world has taken over our day to day lives from how we cook to the way we read a book. 
Analogue photography fought to become an art form, and once it finally did it became more and more popular, this in the long run lead to more efficient ways of making a photograph, leading up to now the DSLR and to mention the printers.    
Having only ever really used Digital photography before university I liked the ease of being able to take as many images as possible, however now that I have used both 35mm and 120 film I feel that digital was not teaching me anything other then how to press a shutter. with analogue you have to arrange the shots and think about what you are taking. 
However this is not to say that digital is not to be congratulated on its cheep and easy ways of making your own photos, but this does not mean that they will be the beast out there.  
It is a hard question but I do not feel that analogue will be over taken as of yet by the digital world due to the quality and thought process that goes into making an image with the use of film.