Dan Ross Buettner

My friend Dan Buettner just scanned his experimental final and put it up on his website. Check out this project and others at www.danrossbuettner.com

A Vast Wasteland

In Ancient Roman times, the furniture within the triclinium, or dining
room, were carefully arranged in order to aim the guests' view towards
a certain direction. On the opposite wall, grandiose paintings and
murals were displayed for the enjoyment of the guests and host alike.
These paintings were not only a means for the owner to flaunt his or
her wealth, but were also intended to stimulate conversation by
encouraging the discussion of the art and its possible meanings.

In today's world, television has taken its place as the focal point
within the typical American household. Unlike the engaging nature of
the art or intellectual conversations of the Romans, television lacks
the interactive quality that stimulates the mind. A viewer becomes
passive and surrenders his or her senses to the perpetual flood of
information and images. Satisfaction is never achieved through
television because the viewers are lulled into a perpetual state of
boredom, despite television's promises of eliminating the humdrum of
everyday life. It is not uncommon for people to switch on the
television even though there is nothing of particular interest being
broadcast. Television has become the ultimate distraction from the
world before us due to its constant demand for attention. Rather than
engage with one's company, society has created a fallback plan for
those to avoid human interaction while simultaneously creating the
illusion of bonding with those sharing the screen.

This series, entitled A Vast Wasteland (a phrase coined by the FCC
chairman, Newton N. Minow, in 1961) is inspired by a personal
awakening to the alienating and time-consuming nature of television.
The images act as visual representations of television's power to
drain the emotion and vigor of those willing to submit to it.

Saturday Night Live

Without a Trace

The Real World

The Bachelorette

The Bachelor

St.Elsewhere

Glee

Curb Your Enthusiasm

www.danrossbuettner.com

Sam Reinsel

This week I am showing a series by Sam Reinsel. The series entitled What Lies Dormant was shot with a 4x5 camera, then the negatives were distressed and printed in the darkroom.

What Lies Dormant

This series is a project I undertook to explore what separates conscious life and subconscious thought. I wanted to come to terms with what guides our decisions and emotions beyond rational thinking—at a purely emotive level, but below what we might perceptively feel every day. The ripple effect of thought and decision often has unrelated and uncontrollable repercussions, stretching far beyond what we start and pointing back past where we began. I tried to capture this through the photographic process by hand-manipulating negatives with methods I had limited control over. As a physical aesthetic, it illustrates my heavy-handed touch with a much more complex aftermath resulting from uncontrollable variables. As a visual aesthetic, the manipulations create a storyline between suggestive gestures and their fictional counterparts. Which, then, causes the other? We may never know, but the evidence and questions will always be there to suggest our own conclusions.

www.samreinsel.com

Parker Hilton

This week I am happy to show the work of my good friend Parker Hilton. I am showing his final project from our experimental class from the fall 2010 semester. For these images, he cut, burned, and encased the final prints in a brick of wax.

print encased in wax

It is a very personal project and i am very glad Parker was willing to share it on this blog.

After a series of failed relationships a few years ago I turned to my Dad for

advice, not because I was left heartbroken but because “I canʼt figure you out” was the

most common verbal nail in the coffin that ended whatever relationship there was left. I

needed some sort of clarification. Was it some kind of Hilton mystique I was gifted with

or was it something deeper? After a long talk my Dad ended with, “when your mom

died there is probably a very real fear instilled in you that the important woman in your

life will disappear. It makes sense that you hesitate to let girls in.” I began to think

about the major female figures in my life, and how the majority of those relationships.(be

it an aunt, grandma, or a potential mom replacement) all ended with death or distance.

Since then I have come to terms with my trust issues, and have mostly become

comfortable with them. That acceptance however has left me in a twisted purgatory of

sorts. My comfort zone usually develops an expiration date around the twelve hour

mark and any hopes of a serious relationship usually fall victim to my own subconscious

sabotage.

The ensuing consequence is a perpetual failed attempt at rebuilding trust. Under

a curtain of cigarettes, alcohol, and a humorous lack of self restraint; I welcome women

into my life, but with a hangover and an awkward morning I realize that Iʼm not quite as

available as I thought the previous night. As the physical manifests the emotional the

personality of these girls becomes irrelevant. With the morning, and the nearing

expiration date, the walls come back up and I find myself haunted by another road not

taken.

Parker Hilton

Collin Avery

This week I am very pleased to show the work of my good friend Collin Avery. This body of work entitled Vend is a series on the street venders in New York City. Collin is currently a junior at Montana State University and received a grant through the school to do this project last summer. All of these images were shot on his 4x5.

Union Square was once home to a dizzying array of street vendors and artists who congregated and set up shop in the park daily. In years past, the state of New York neither encouraged nor disrupted the vendors, but recently, there has been action put forth by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cease vending in Union Square park limits. State ruling has banned vendors from using the park as a means of profit. However, in conjunction with this vote, Bloomberg tried to make amends by allowing vendors twelve designated spots on the far outside perimeter of the park to use for selling their goods and promoting their work. These recent rulings have had local residents and vendors in an uproar because Union Square had once been a destination for tourists to bring home original artwork from New York City.

As I explored Union Square and its surroundings, I was immersed in a culture that would imminently be forgotten. These photographs befriend the artists of Union Square while providing a visual record of place and time.

www.collinavery.com

Ryan Kirk

Ryan Kirk is mostly an action sports and commercial photographer, but for his last semester at MSU he went a different direction. These images were produced by putting paint on a speaker and photographing the way the paint moves during different songs. The results were quite beautiful.

This abstract adaptation of art encompasses how sound waves are perceived. Bob Marley once wrote “The one good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. Each song was brought together with a corresponding paint scheme to dance for the camera. The intended purpose of this project is to purely entertain, and give the viewer a new way of looking into the vision of sound.

The Lonely Island-I'm on a Boat

Forence + The Machine-Cosmic Love

Mike Posner-Cooler Than Me

Kid Cudi-Cudi Zone

www.ryankirkphotography.com