Daniel Suarez

Daniel Suarez

Ed Templeton "Teenage Smokers"

1994

Edward "Ed" Templeton is a professional skateboarder, company owner, photographer, and contemporary artist. The image I selected was from Templeton's book titled teenage smokers. I selected this image created by Ed Templeton because it reminds me of where I come from. When I look at this picture I instantly think of my neighborhood and all of the young kids I know. This photograph is a reflection of what goes on in my community. This image also represents the bad things that the youth does behind their parents back. Lastly, this image can disappoint a lot of people, but if no one photographed this then no one would see what young kids think is cool.

Alexis Ping-DiFiore

Alexis Ping-DiFiore

Tim Walker, "Like a Doll"

Vogue Italia- Jan 2012

Tim Walker is a famous fashion photographer who creates ads and images that intrigue the viewer with his wonderful world of fantasy. He is perhaps most well known for his Juicy Couture ads where the juxtaposition between classic femininity and pastel tones contrast with hard tattoos or neon hair of its subjects. He has so many intriguing series with exciting subject matter. I chose this particular image because it reminded me of a doll I had as a little girl whose name was in fact Big Doll. To me the image's subject is an exaggerated depiction of a memento from my childhood. In this image the doll grabs my immediate attention, but if I was flipping through a fashion magazine seeing the peculiar doll would stop me at this page and due to the sharp contrast of the dolls bright blue dress and the models pink coat both subjects are very visible against the dark forest background. Everything about this image flows as my eyes drift from the odd doll,  to the sad model, and follow the fallen tree trunk back to the initial starting point.

Jake Dobbs

Jake Dobbs

Lynn Goldsmith, "Neil Young"

1995

This is a photo that should never have been taken. Neil Young is difficult to photograph outside of concert. For Lynn Goldsmith he was impossible. Goldsmith made photos with countless music acts from the 60s to the 90s, but Young was seemingly unattainable. After a decade actively trying she decided to drop the desire. Goldsmith went to a secluded California desert health spa to help quash it, only to run into Young, in the flesh. Call it fate, random chance, universal forces, Divine Intervention, etc. However Young went by an assumed name, clearly wanting to keep his anonymity safe. Goldsmith couldn't break that by asking for a session. After days of photographic desire brewing, intensified by proximity, on her way to leave the spa she creeped up on Young, made this photo from around a corner. 

This photo displays how engrossed and obsessed a photographer can become with their subject. What lengths one may go to fulfill said obsession.

Caroline Laudon

Caroline Laudon

Annie Leibovitz

"Golden Gate Bridge", San Francisco, 1977

Looking at the world through the frame of the car – is how Leibovitz describes her life of growing up, always being on the road in a car with her family, heading somewhere – a new journey and a new place. In her third year as a student at Art Institute in San Francisco, her own journey began to take place and also her carrier – staring to work with The Rolling Stones. A long her journey she got new knowledge, did mistakes and learned from them.

This picture reminds me of a lot of my different travels in my life – to look at the world through a window of a car or an airplane, heading somewhere else. This photo makes me feel motivation and urge of moving on to new adventures. My move across the world – was a whole new type of journey for me, while leaving friends and family behind. Explore the world of my own, somewhere that was unfamiliar for me. I bought my first real camera just before the journey. I wanted to capture and share every moment with the loved once at home. I had no idea what to expect out of this more then it would be a beginning of something new. This picture for me symbolizes a beginning of something new, a beginning of a life journey – a new path. Where one path ends, another begins!

Chris Bell

Chris Bell

Daniel Reiter, "WelleVI"

2015, Lambda Photographic Print

I chose this image because as soon as I saw it, I connected with it. It took me back to a time in my childhood on the beach with my family, and when looking on the horizon, nothing mattered. It was a time without stress, without homework. A moment of complete meditation. The blue water and sky are so calming, and the whole image seems so relaxing even though it is very simple. Now that I live in California, this makes me want to go to the beach much more often as an escape.

Emily Pierce

Emily Pierce

Steve McCurry, “September 11, 2001”

2001, digital

 

Steve McCurry was one of the first photographers allowed access to the wreckage of the September 11^th bombings in 2001. The images he created convey the solemnness of the event, giving respect to the tragedy that was faced. This image shows a solitary staircase, enveloped in a soft golden light coming in from the windows. The color and quality of the light gives it an almost angelic feeling, as if the building itself followed the people that were in it into the afterlife. The debris left everywhere adds to this feeling, adding a more somber tone to the almost happiness created by the light.

Megan Lysholm

Megan Lysholm

Francesca Woodman, "Space2"

1976, gelatin silver print

I chose Francesca Woodman's "Space2" primarily because the image reminds me of the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story of a woman who goes crazy after being restricted to bed rest as a cure for her hysteria, she begins to see a woman hiding within the stripes of her yellow wallpaper. Woodman's image speaks to the insanity a woman experiences when she is confined by her gender. By covering her face and a portion of her legs, Woodman minimizes her body to a mere shape, accentuated by the floral pattern of her wallpaper covering. As such, the image becomes a study more of form than of sexuality, simultaneously commenting on and minimizing her femininity. Shot in black and white, and in an aged and rundown house, the image strikes a timeless chord.

Valeria Zevallos-Guizado

Valeria Zevallos-Guizado

Martin Chambi "Cuzco Llama"
1934

This photograph seems very forward, man with a llama, nothing really out of the ordinary. But when I see this picture I see my culture, where I came from, and something that reminds me a little bit of who I am.  I am Peruvian, born and raised, and that is what inspired me about this photograph. I go to Peru once a year but last year was the first time I was able to visit the famous wonder of the world, Machu Picchu. Martin Chambi, the photographer, is also Peruvian and all of his photographs are from the city of Cuzco, Peru. He grew up taking pictures by the mine that his dad worked for and eventually discovered his passion for photography and decided to photograph the most beautiful parts of his country. That is what really caught my attention from this photograph, it could be a man a llama, but to me it means way more.

Anna Sellhed

Anna Sellhed

Dorothea Lange, "Hands" (Maynard and Dan Dixon)

1930

Love. The unbreakable bond between a man and his son.

This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I see this image.

The composition of just seeing the tiny body of the child, and the hands of the man without seeing their faces creates a more intense image. Because then you are able to create your own vision of what is really happening. Are the child crying and the man comforting him, or are they laughing together?

This is one of Dorothea Lange specialties, documentary photography.

The image was shot in 1930, during the Great Depression, and therefore it is shot in black and white, which enhances the feeling of the desperation that people were living in during this time. Even if it had been shot today I think that it still would be a stronger image in black and white, than if it had been in colors.

 

John Bedikian

John Bedikian

Hiroshi Sugimoto, "Lightning Fields 236"

2009, Gelatin silver print

"Ultimately, we know deep inside that the other side of every fear is freedom," Marilyn Ferguson.

It is overcoming that fear of failure that creates success. It is allowing what brings many misfortune, to bring you prosperity. To most photographers, negatives destroyed by static electricity are undeniable failures. To others it breeds thoughts of revolution. Using that very failure, not to destroy artwork, but to create it. To use the stormy waves Life hurls at you and steer your ship towards safety. For one to look not at what happened, but what can ultimately happen.

They say life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. So it's never too late to begin turning the tides in your favor.