New Ideas

My professor recently showed me this artist named Jean Michel Basquiat and his work is very interesting. I have seen one of these t-shirts before and the famous, "SAMO", saying. I know the exact friend who would be fine with me recreating this painting him. I've been just having fun doing this personal project and doing something I haven't done before. Masks are interesting because they allow a person to become someone and something else. I'm preparing for the next ideas that come to mind.

The Personal Project x The Erie & Unreal

I had combined the two of these projects and I loved the outcome of it. When I started to put make up on my face I started to feel like a totally different person and realized probably how he felt. I felt like a warrior when I posed in front of my camera and just started feeling serious and feeling pain at the same time. It took me about an hour to get a few good shots of myself and even when I finished I didn't want to take the make up off yet. I felt like I wasn't done and decided to do more. It felt good to be in another character.

Understanding My Project

As soon as I finished the second day of class and speaking to my teacher about my project, I decided that I wanted to recreate some celebrities and music videos I've seen as my personal project. I've been having fun using paint and doing this. When you put on a mask you become this totally different person. When me and my friend first did the shoots he felt like a totally different person.

WASTELAND REVIEW

Vik Muniz was born into a working-class family in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1961. He was shot in the leg while trying to break up a fight and received compensation for his injuries. He used this money to fund a trip to New York City, where he has lived and worked since the late 1980s.

The film, “WASTE LAND”, follows Vik Muniz from Brooklyn to his country he was born and raised in, Brazil. Here goes to the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The people who live over there spend their days digging through the huge pile of garbage, extracting stuff they can recycle known as catadores. They normally earn $20 to $25 per day to support their families. Muniz asks many women and men to be a part of his project, photographs them, and then converts their images into huge collages created from the trash they collected for him.

Muniz’s intention is to help the pickers to improve their lives using his photography artwork. Vik and his friend Fábio spend around two years in Jardim Gramacho and become closer to the pickers learning about their lives and how they grew up. When his work is done he then he travels to London and sells one of the portraits in an auction earning him and the model he used $50,000. With the money, the pickers buy a truck, equipment and build a learning center and a library. The pickers that worked with him learn how to improve their lives and leave Jardim Gramacho.

In this movie he finds beauty in unexpected places capturing the real meaning of the environment so you can practically smell the place and want to avoid it. When Muniz picks his characters, he follows them on and off their job, providing us with details that give us insight and make us care deeply about each of them. This movie was very emotional for me and there were times I had to pause it so I wouldn’t cry. Some stories that stood out to me the most were Tiaõ, Suelem and Isis.

This movie shows that people in difficult circumstances can accomplish great things if given the chance to do so. I’m glad everyone was able to do something better with their lives. When I checked out the website I browsed that some people have actually went back because they just love it there and some just rather avoid it now as it’s something in the past to them.

The Erie & Unreal (Photos)

I enjoyed doing this project.

The Personal Project x Paint

I had a few ideas when I ended my fall semester last year of doing a project called, “The Black + White Project”, and I want to continue with that project but add onto it with paint. I had no idea exactly what I wanted to do with paint but after taking some photos of my friend recently recreating Rick Genest, I realized I want to focus on the face and body. I want to do something I never done before and try and use paint on people’s faces like drawing a picture. I know over the next few months it will be difficult getting people to help me out but I want to have fun with this project, learn from it and grow as a photographer.