kalina Posted April 17, 2009 Share #1 Posted April 17, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) We had a critique yesterday of student work at the University of Pennsylvania and Alec Soth (Photography by Alec Soth) was our guest critic. My B&W work in my clublife gallery was mostly done with my Leica D-Lux 4 (and Panasonic LX3 when I owned it prior to my D-Lux 4) and my color work with a Nikon D300. He wasn't particularly drawn to the B&W work because I was limited to showing him one image, which was this one... http://www.transvamp.com/gallery/clublife/waiting.jpg ... but he very much liked my color work, especially this image... http://www.transvamp.com/gallery/clublife/entertainers.jpg Here's a summary of what I wrote in my blog yesterday: "I was really fooled by the seamless transition between the two images," he said of my image. "It has a cinematic quality to it and I love the expression on the guy's face and the way he's looking at them." I mentioned my involvement with the trans community, including the fact that I was trans. "These two girls are good friends, but also rivals and I wanted to capture that. I cropped myself out of the picture," I said. "Why did you do that?" he asked. "It's good to have yourself in the picture sometimes." Aha, so a pro is okay with me being in my own pictures! (One of my professors discouraged me from being in my own pictures saying it reeks of narcissism.) "If you're passionate about something, just go with it," he said. "There are a lot of photographers who do this kind of photography, but it's always interesting." He was actually pretty harsh towards others, saying to one student, "I don't want to dash your hopes of becoming a photojournalist, but..." and to another who had a series of collages, "I think you should take a graphic design course." He summed up his views on the world of photography today: "Go digital." One of the other professors took a group pic of everyone in the critique, so I got to stand next to Alec. Yayyyy!!! (picture will soon be in my gallery) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 17, 2009 Posted April 17, 2009 Hi kalina, Take a look here Alec Soth got to see one of my Leica images.... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Steve Ash Posted April 18, 2009 Share #2 Posted April 18, 2009 Interesting story. I think it is best to keep the eyes open but to find your own path. Your colored pic is the stronger one in my point of view. Looking forward for your next post. Regards Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrblanchard Posted April 18, 2009 Share #3 Posted April 18, 2009 I like the entertainers image as well, but since I prefer black and white, the first one really drew my attention. How about a happy medium? Convert the entertainers one to bw, lighten it up a pinch with PS CS4 curves, then increase the medium dark tones a bit, boost the contrast up about one notch, unsharp mask. it looks pretty awesome in bw and very powerful. yes, i cheated and had to try and see it myself. i always convert my color people photos to bw to test it out. i always end up sticking with bw. its just so striking. love your gallery btw William Blanchard http://www.modelmayhem.com/blanchard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalina Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share #4 Posted April 20, 2009 Thank you, Steve and William and <name withheld>, for being the three out of 281 viewers to actually respond to my thread. Most people just aren't comfortable with the subject matter, although that's changing with all of the media attention. I would've thought more people would've looked beyond the subject matter to comment on the fact that Alec Soth, a world-renowned photographer, reviewed my work, but oh well. I do believe that many of these images are more powerful in BW. My first series of transgender entertainer photographs were all in BW (done in film) for my Photo 2 class. I should scan them all in and put them in my gallery sometime. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon_hughes Posted April 20, 2009 Share #5 Posted April 20, 2009 Kalina, Good for you. Being critiqued is one of the best ways to learn. Learning to then self-critique your own work is difficult but very rewarding. I've done workshops with Jay Maisel and Art Wolfe and both were very straight forward with not only their judgement, but explanations as to why something might not have worked, as well as suggestions to what may work the next time. A pro develops a practiced eye about what works (and sells) in a composition and getting access to that knowledge is priceless. It's also a great big pat on the back (and a kick in the pants) to have a pro look over your work and comment on it! WRT subject matter, don't let lack of response (or perhaps the kind of response) you might get bother you. There are plenty of liberal-minded people about these days, and the LGBT community has made great strides. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalina Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share #6 Posted April 20, 2009 Kalina, Good for you. Being critiqued is one of the best ways to learn. Learning to then self-critique your own work is difficult but very rewarding. I've done workshops with Jay Maisel and Art Wolfe and both were very straight forward with not only their judgement, but explanations as to why something might not have worked, as well as suggestions to what may work the next time. A pro develops a practiced eye about what works (and sells) in a composition and getting access to that knowledge is priceless. It's also a great big pat on the back (and a kick in the pants) to have a pro look over your work and comment on it! WRT subject matter, don't let lack of response (or perhaps the kind of response) you might get bother you. There are plenty of liberal-minded people about these days, and the LGBT community has made great strides. Thanks, Simon. One of the things Alec said at the outset was that all of his criticisms were just his opinion. I've taken five courses with three photo instructors at Penn so far and they all have different opinions on different aspects of my work. If they all got into a room together, all hell would break loose and I wouldn't even have to say a word. I trust one instructor more than the others because he has a lot of real-world gallery experience and it was his eye that pointed out which of my images to include in our undergrad juried exhibition and that image ended up being included in the gallery. My second instructor just doesn't like any pics with me in them as she believes that photographers shouldn't be narcissistic and the third liked my landscape photography more than anything else ("you could make money doing this" my instructor said; I replied "this stuff is easy and not challenging to me; I want to do documentary work"; Alec said "there are enough Germans doing this kind of photography" ). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Promethus Posted April 22, 2009 Share #7 Posted April 22, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Very nice! I like both images very much. There is a sense of bustling life going on in them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Thawley Posted April 22, 2009 Share #8 Posted April 22, 2009 I actually popped into your gallery yesterday. I too was taken by the "Entertainers" shot. To be blunt, while I like the black and white from a technical standpoint (I think they're excellent exposures), I felt they cast your subjects in a less than flattering light. Where as the color shot in Entertainers seemed more celebratory in it's emotion. Everyone is bustling around... seemingly enjoying themselves... even though there's a sense of tension. The nudity is matter of fact, yet your subjects are sexy and beautiful. It's a great photo... and one that provokes the viewer's curiosity. I don't think one needs to apologize for being curious, and your photo made me realize that a situation where I thought I might feel uncomfortable, doesn't feel uncomfortable at all. Thanks for posting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalina Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted April 23, 2009 I actually popped into your gallery yesterday. I too was taken by the "Entertainers" shot. To be blunt, while I like the black and white from a technical standpoint (I think they're excellent exposures), I felt they cast your subjects in a less than flattering light. Where as the color shot in Entertainers seemed more celebratory in it's emotion. Everyone is bustling around... seemingly enjoying themselves... even though there's a sense of tension. The nudity is matter of fact, yet your subjects are sexy and beautiful. It's a great photo... and one that provokes the viewer's curiosity. I don't think one needs to apologize for being curious, and your photo made me realize that a situation where I thought I might feel uncomfortable, doesn't feel uncomfortable at all. Thanks for posting. Thank you, John, for your open-mindedness. The funny thing is my professor is a fan of my work and he's married with two children. He's always making comments that my friends and I are beautiful. It takes a very confident (and cool) person to admit that beauty is a universal concept. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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