Fae

Fae - 07012

Fae was the second model I worked with in Las Vegas.  She is a true gem to create with.  Her energy and spirit shows in her work.  She has fun modeling and I got a lot of good stuff to work with from our two sessions.  I have a collage of her I will share in a few posts that is part of a growing theme I am exploring on Justice and Lady Justice.

Fae and I created a number of images using the natural light in the living room.  We also used the LCD projector.  Once again, she is another model who loved experimenting using the LCD with me.  Until now I only used my my own images to project on the models.  I have used a Dali painting, but all photos were mine.  I used one for a couple of those shots,  Robert Frank's famous Highway 95 and appropriated it with Fae and another model.  I am still trying to find my boundaries with appropriation.  Barbed wire and others are my source images.

To all photographers visiting LV, Fae D-Cay is a golden model to work with.  She will make you smile and give you the magic to help you create art.

Fae2 - 070112

Fae and Robert Frank (color) - 070112

Fae and Robert Frank (BW) - 070112

Theft

ESB - 062912

Raise your hand if your photos have been stolen and used by others for their gain.  Me too.  Below is a link to tumblr website that is trying to expose those thieves.

http://stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com/

I have mixed feelings about appropriating art and changing it around like Warhol did.  I think it is justified if done right, but what the above site exposes are pure thieves calling stolen images as their own.

Gabbi

Gabbi - 062312

Gabbi is the first model I photographed in Las Vegas and was a joy to work with.  She has an enthusiasm for modeling that exudes beauty and a deep sultry energy that simmers with sexiness, even in quiet moments.  I appreciated her patience as I set up and tore down areas to work in and for going with my ideas as she integrated her own magic into them.

Gabbi - 062312

Here are few photos from the session.  I am also using many of the images we created in photo collages, my new frontier.

Thanks Gabi!  I hope we work together again.

Gabbi - 062312

Las Vegas

Vegas Collage 061612 (click for larger view)

I could write pages about why I am falling in love with world's greatest city of simulacrum.  With that statement though, I've already given the city a disservice.  My parents hate Las Vegas without having visited.  I think they hate one street in the city, to be honest.  Las Vegas Blvd (the Strip) represents so many things they hate.

For me, the Strip is a place to view humanity, the simulacrum and the efforts to maintain it, and millions of individual stories.  On one end is the airport and Mandalay Bay and the other end of the Strip ends at the Fremont Experience*.

Late last year I bought a second home in Las Vegas.  The price was good, the location very convenient and the home in good shape.  Since then, it has become my "urban cabin".  I truly relax there, find inspiration in the people, architecture and natural beauty surrounding it.

The digital collage at the top is part of an assemblage I made in honor of my oasis in the asphalt.  The assemblage is a metal book safe that I painted, glued the collage above on the back wall of it and wired LED lights around it to illuminate it.  I glued some sand around it and added some other bits to add to it.

For me, much of Las Vegas involves lots of driving.  Almost all the roads are perpendicular, very wide, 45mph, and go toward the 4 cardinals.  **They hook into a series of highways and interstates that wrap around the city, with the I15  coming from LA and going up to the US/Canada border in Montana bisecting the city. That is why I put the map on it.

One night, we were waiting for our car to be brought up from valet***.  There were two young couples all dressed up to go out and hit the clubs, waiting for their ride, .  One guy says, "Let's ask them. "  He came over and asked, "Hey, they should replace the 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' with "Vegas- the back is the front'.".  We thought it was probably too deep, contextual, and vague, but clever.  Since buying a place there, I never enter the city through the front.  I always go to my urban cabin and poke around the backside of this great city.

*Las Vegas Blvd goes for miles north beyond Fremont St, but that is the stretch known as the Strip.
**Big tip 1.  Unless you want to get stuck in traffic and see tons of lights, avoid driving on the Strip.  There are multiple roads and I15 that run parallel to it.  Take one of them and take the closest cross street to get to the place you want.  
***Big tip 2.  If you are driving to one of the big casino resorts, check your car into valet parking.  It is a free service and will cost you a few bucks in tip.  Your car will be parked in a shades spot (remember, it can get above 110).  It is fast, efficient, and worth it.

I'm kind of in a Beatles mood and am really missing George.  This video is fascinating.  They are just dicking around, having fun.  Damn.  There is a huge void.

What's up, Karl?

Moon - Van dyke process - Cotton Rag

"What's up, Karl?"

"What's up Karl?"

The importance of a comma.

You wouldn't know this by tracking this blog, but I really enjoy writing for it.  Sadly, I've been busy with other life things and let this exercise and discipline slide by the side.  While not producing anything here in a while, I've worked a great bit on my art and life.

The life bit - it continues to move on.  Work is busy.  I went the UK and Basel, Switzerland for two weeks.  I traveled to my second home in Las Vegas a number of times.  I contacted and am planning collaborative efforts with a few photographer friends.

The art bit - big changes.  I completed an alternative processes class where we made photograms, cyanotypes, Polaroid, Van dykes, gel transfers, assemblage, collage (digital and analog), toy cameras (Holgas and Dianas), tin types, and many other cool techniques.  Some of them worked for me, others didn't.  The big discovery though was my need to get away from just taking a picture, editing and enhancing it and calling it done when I printed it and put it in a frame.  There are so many great ways to present my art.  I am really getting into creating digital collages based on themes.  Why can't I put words directly on the art?  Now if I want to, I do.

Another big learning lesson was that it is so easy to create reproducible art in photography - just make another print.  Somehow I found comfort in knowing I could always make another print.  For many of these alternative processes, I only get one piece and no more like it.  This gave me an appreciation for marble sculptors, painters, and other single-item creators in the art world.  By knowing there is only one piece like this in the world, it feels more powerful and special.

For my final project, I chose a theme and created 5 pieces using different alternative techniques.  The theme was on objectification of women and caused a good bit of debate during the class critique.  I loved that.  You will see more on that in a special post.  

I also worked with four nude models in the past few months.  Each was completely different and brought her own unique gifts as muse and model to the shoot.  You will see some of those pieces in upcoming posts as I write about each shoot.

Now it is time to focus again on getting my business going.  All this creation is fun, but I need to get going on planning and implementing the next stage in my life.  I am slowly setting up work in the SF Bay Area.  I am also trying to set up work in my second home, Las Vegas.  I will write more about LV in the future.

One thing I will write about Las Vegas now is that I've had the pleasure of catching up with Terrel from Photo Anthems.  Last Sunday, we went out for a drive in the country scouting locations.  I enjoy talking with him about art, photography, life, women, Las Vegas, family, and all other things in between. 

I am also in contact with a good friend and artistic creative both behind and in front of the camera.  She and I went to high school together.  Once her life settles down from moving back to the US with her family, we are planning to do some big collaborations.

Its been a great Spring.  My artistic energy is pushing me and I am pushing myself to create stuff I never imagined before.  I look forward to sharing in the future.

Up top is a scan of my Van dyke print of Moon.  Below is my cyanotype.  Both are created using a light sensitive emulsion spread onto paper.  After laying a large negative on top of it (created in phototshop, but any film negative would work) similar to a contact print, I left them out in the sun for 5-10 minutes.  After processing them, voila.  I love analog art.  I prefer the Van dyke of Moon much more, but I loved learning both methods.

Moon  - Cyanotype - Cotton Rag

I love this song and nobody sang it like Janis.

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Nostalgia and the photo.

A snap of me on vacation in Las Vegas. 040112

"Nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound.  It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone" Don Draper (Jon Hamm) - Mad Men

In the Mad Men episode, "The Wheel", Don Draper has to make an advertising pitch for the new Kodak slide projector that introduced the carousel. How can he make it the next big thing, like the iPad or digital camera?  In his pitch, he connects the power of having easy access to our memories, our history, and the connection to family, and love via seeing the slides of those moments to this technology Kodak needs to promote.

 


Mad Men ´The Carousel´ from Emilio on Vimeo.

This scene is my favorite from a show I've grown to love.   Maybe it is the sentimentality of Don looking at his family that he is losing, the feeling in his eyes as he sees his wife and kids share those private moments that make them a family.  I appreciate how many of the photos are technically flawed with bad flash, motion, and other common imperfections that make them more of a family's memories and not a professional quality shoot that would be out of context for what they are.  In this way, he is connecting how these photos have meaning to him and it doesn't matter how others view them.  He gets the point of the carousel and personal photography.  It is for the photographer and those closely involved.

I dread it when an acquaintance says, "Hey Karl.  You are a photographer.  My (insert his/her loved one that I hardly know and have no connections with) and I went to (some location distant or close).  We got some great photos from it you have to see."  He or she then whips out an iPad, iPhone, or laptop (at least it is no longer a slide projector or photo album) and shows them to me.  They never really give me a story more than, "This is us by the (insert attraction name).  And this is us eating a big taco at..."  They usually have a few good sunset shots and one or two good action or scenic photos as well.  Sadly, they don't realize I rarely get anything out of their photos.  I doubt most of the people they show their travel photos to find any meaning out them or really care.  The people those photos hold some meaning to are the people who lived in the moment they were taken.  They all share that nostalgic bond that makes them feel the beauty of the moment captured.  While I am being a condescending prig of a photographer thinking these things, I have a reason.  It isn't that my travel pics with family and friends are any better.  It is because of my intent when I took them.

When we take the vacation, holiday, life-event, and informal snapshots, we have a special intent.  We want a reminder, a connection to that special moment.  We want to relive the smell of the air, the sound of the waves and wind, and the feeling we felt with those living the moment with us.  We want to hear our children playing on the swings.  We want to feel the moment of the wedding, the party, or whatever the moment captured.  Our intent is for us and those who shared either the moment or a have a connection to the others in the photo or the place visited to relive it again.  Our subconscious intent is that these are for us.  If these photos are so personal, why do we feel we must share them with others?

I believe one reason we inflict our family photos on others (especially those not closely related to either the people in them nor the location) is the powerful feelings we have about the images.  Our close and warm feelings makes us forget why the photos have meaning to us.  We forget they are about us, for us.   This feeling of closeness makes us forget that others wont have the same connection to the images.  We forget that the intent for making them was for us, not them.

The photos I take for artistic/commercial purposes are different though due to the intent behind them.  I took them with the intent of others seeing them.  I want people to feel something by seeing them.  They may see different things, (beauty, sadness, happiness, arousal, quiet moments, ugly things, etc.), but the photo was created to go beyond being just for me.  Not all of my art photos will mean something for everyone, but the intent is there to have a meaning beyond me.

My artistic photos rarely have nostalgic meaning to me.  They may have personal emotions behind them, but I am rarely capturing them for nostalgic reasons.  The only sentimental value is if the model and I had a good time and enjoyed creating together or the location was special to me.  What I feel for my art can be all of the attributes I listed above that the viewer may feel, but nostalgic pangs for that moment are rarely felt.

I am not a total jerk about seeing others' trip photos.  If the person shares why the moment was important to them and what they felt at the moment, it helps me understand why the moment is important and I feel more of a connection to them, but maybe not the image.

I greatly appreciate this scene from Mad Men.  It tells one reason photos have so much meaning to us.  Photos give us that "twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone."  Please don't think poorly of me if the photos that gives you this "twinge" do nothing to my heart.  It wasn't your intent for it to do so.  You took it so you could feel that special twinge again.

I am a pro... or at least my website says so.

I finally launched my commercial/professional website.  I created it with the extensive help from artist/graphic designer/web designer Sara Zimmerman.  She created my logo, color palette, and built the look and feel of my website.  I also enlisted the help of my friend, Jim Kaspari, who specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).   He helped me find the best URL, develop key search words, and helped ensure all the pages are search-engine optimized.

My website, www.photoswithmeaning.com, is a huge step for me.   On top of the expense of putting it out there*, it is my way of saying to the world, "Here I am.  Come and get me."  I plan to use it as a portfolio and business contact site.

How did I get that url?  Jim and I were discussing key words that I find important to describe my philosophy about my art and photography.  He then used some of his SEO magic prowess to determine which combination of words had a great search engine potential, mixing the uniqueness (lack of competition) for the words and the number of times those words were combined into an online search.  We were both surprised that photoswithmeaning.com was still available.  It had that great balance of being unique yet and often searched for. 


I debuted the site name to a group of fellow photographers with mixed feedback.  Many thought the url is unique and very easy to remember.  Many thought I should go with karlsutphinphotography.com since I am the brand.  One photographer shared that it may seem pretentious to assume my photos have meaning.  That decision is up to the viewer.   I had to digest this feedback and determine how it would shape my website.


I agreed the name is very catchy and easy to remember.  I took the second bit of feedback of using my name as the url and decided against it due to the fact that my name is not a phonetically easy name to spell.  I am not blessed with names like Kevin Bacon or Brad Pitt nor one with a catchy onamonapia.  Still, I know that I must be my own brand in the art world.  At some point, I would like someone to say, "I own a Sutphin print" instead of "I own a fine-art nude."  I am not at that point.  My name is not recognizable as a brand, yet.  To help me assure I am associated with my art and website, my site is labeled Karl Sutphin Photography.   I am going to purchase karlsutphinphotography.com soon and will link it to my site.

I believe that with the billions of photos snapped and uploaded to the web every year, the value and meaning of photos is just above absolute zero.  We should strive to create photos with meaning.  We should demand seeing the same as well.  This is one of my core philosophical beliefs on art.  It should mean something to someone, or it isn't important.

As for the criticism of assuming the importance, or whether my photos have meaning.  I agree that others will have to determine if my art has meaning or value.  If I don't assume my work has some meaning, then why should I create it and put it out there?  I know my work wont work for everyone.  Many wont care or give another look.  That is OK.  I know it will have meaning to enough art lovers.


*You get what you pay for.  As with my philosophy on purchasing computers and photography gear, get the best you can afford.