Robert Frank's The Americans Exhibition

Last Saturday on October 24, I got a chance to visit the Met and check out Robert Frank's Americans Exhibition. I thought that some of the photographs that were displayed in the exhibit were interesting and well diverse. Each image whether it was the people, location, subject matter or even the perspective, each image was different from the next. To me I found that the diversity within each photograph was appealing because when looking at each image it gave the viewer a different feel and experience that they probably did not have with the previous pieces. It was the capturing of peoples actions during the different moments in time that made this exhibit interesting. Walking into the exhibit and looking at each photograph was like walking through the scenes of a movie. Each photograph was like a still motion picture as well as a narration that either was abstract and had many possibilities as to what the image was about or the opposite that determined pretty much what the subject matter was about.

The photograph that was appealing to me was, U.S 285, New Mexico, produced 1955. I suppose the reason that I found this particular image interesting was because it was one of the few images that did not really have people or even a distinct location. Here one just sees the open road with a car from a distance. To me the sense of perspective when dealing with landscape like this image is rich and is shows the difference between time and space. The way in which the image of the road starts of wide at first and then later gets narrow and small to the point where it just vanishes to the end is great. By the photograph read a little caption that told the viewer a little something about the piece and the relevance it has on the photograph. One sentence read, “a long shot of night road arrowing forlorn into immensities and flat of impossible-to-believe American in New Mexico under the prisoner’s moon”. To me I think this quote is saying that the journey to salvation and freedom seems to be a long one, too long that it seems impossible to apprehend. One can either try, but the truth of the matter is that it is hopeless to feel free like an American when you are imprison in New Mexico.

Zimmeril visit

Although I am not always able to have time to go to New York to go visit the art galleries in the MOMA, Chelsea and etc... This week I was able to visit my local museum which is the museum and look at a few works of art there. I checked out some of the galleries like the Russian Art, Non-Conformist Art from the Soviet Union, American Art 18th to 20th Century and etc.

One piece that I liked in one of the galleries was this painting by Albert Bierstadt, called Buffalo Hunter. Bierstadt from what I read was often famous for his unique portrayal of nature and the perspective of landscapes. Bierstadt’s painting of the Buffalo Hunter is 4 x 3 in size created in 1888, and portrayed an Indian hunter on a horse on a vase area of land hunting a single buffalo. Bierstadt’s Buffalo Hunter displays an idealized picture of bravery, adventure and the cliche of a form of example of a male gender role as man being the hunter. Often at times society have been taught to see men as the hunter and provider while women are the nurturers. Although there are no women in this painting one still can see the image and get a sense of the gender role of a man. From looking at this image one sees the sense of landscape with the grass and clouds in the foreground along with the hunter and the buffalo, and in the background the Rocky Mountains and other buffaloes. The image of the hunter and the buffalo is very theatrical and shows action and adventure within the piece.

My reaction to The Crit

Before I read this book I thought that it was going to be boring and that I wouldn't find anything interesting within the book. However when I got a chance to really sit down and read a couple of chapter I was in shocked because not only was the book interesting but I myself can relate to some of the things that the characters went through or even the things that our mentioned within the book.


-".... so many people open up your work, they say things that you never imagined, and you start to feel baffled".

I feel like this sort of relate to me and my art work because it is like every time I have a critique I feel excited and nervous at the same time. I feel excited about showing people my work and getting a reaction to my work, but at the same time that reaction is a sense of nervousness. It nervousness in a way because you don't know whether it is a good positive reaction that people like about your work, or i wont say negative, but just something that they just don't understand when looking at your work. That to me leaves me feeling baffled and frustrated because I want everyone to understand my work and make it get the point across clearly. There will be days where I will have a design of something that deals with sports, but other people might see it as a design for animals this is just an example, but the point is that every critique that I do have of my work there will be someone that will say something that would make see my art piece in a different persective than what I intended it to be in the beginning.

My Interview with Jeffery John Masino

Jeff and I sat down and basically talked about each others work and are majors as well. It was interesting to see some of his work compared to mine since I was a graphic design major and he was a photography major. We shared our work with one either and then from there we went ahead and started the interview. He interviewed me and I interviewed him. This was all also recorded on video too.

Jeff- Hi my name is Jeff Masino I am a 5th year student at Mason Gross and I am photography a major. I came into the school thinking that I was going to be a filmmaker and be a big time movie director and first day of video1 it turns out to be all experimented video. I came into my own to realize that I like photo better than video, but I still enjoy the sound making of video. I did a piece with a loose narrative with 35mm color and from here I did my first foray into digital photo. I focus on doing closeup of objects that made the viewer try to figure what it is. I also wanted to focus on trying to make the piece look like a painting or something with textures. From there I did a set of somewhat smaller in size but same basic theory or theme where its closeups of pictures that you cant really tell what it is and from here, "I saw or heard sound from the images and I created a sound piece that". I put two photos together and projected on the wall and you heard the sound piece and basically you would feel some type of emotion by it and stuff.

Rudy- How long have you been doing photography?

Jeff- I been doing photography for the past 3 years and then before that I was doing video, so I've been in some type of photo or video imagery for the past 4 or 5 years now.

Rudy- What would you say your more comfortable with shooting snap shots of pictures or doing stuff with video?

Jeff- Photo and video are very different. Photo you could just put a lot of stuff into one photo and have a series of photos and could experience it that way. Video is basically moving images, which is basically a bunch of images put next to each other and fooling your eye into thinking that it's actually moving. I feel like right now I feel more comfortable with photo, but I also want to do video and incorporate the photos and the stuff that I learn in photo with my videos.

Rudy- With some of your work and even with some of your ideas that are put into your work, do you have any influences that inspire you?

Jeff- In my video background my influences were people like David Lynch, Peter Greenaway, and ummmm Kenneth Anger. Their stuff is very experimental and kind of absurd and just creepy stuff. And I guess a lot of my early work with imagery was very creepy and the sound work was very creepy and kind of gave people nightmares. With photo I guess I use my influences with film and video and set up the photos like that or try to tell a story with the photos like them where it's a loose narrative. I also get very much influenced from music, sound and from stuff that I see.

Rudy- With some of your work what do you want the viewer to feel or experience while looking at your art piece?

Jeff- For most of my work I would want the viewer to just experience a emotion or feeling from some of the work whether its a sense of nervousness that leaves them unease or even joy. I just want the viewer to be have some sort of feeling whether good or bad when looking at my work.

Rudy-Do you have any ideas for your Thesis?

Jeff- One of my ideas that I have is a continuation of my project from last year which was two photos projected on a screen and created a sound piece through that. Basically what I want to do is create a experience where there will be speakers sounding the viewer and that they will feel the vibration of the speakers and then maybe if it was a cool blue photo one will feel like a cold air and such from a fan. Basically I want all the senses to be affected by it. What I want to do is have the viewer interact. I wanna try to achieve with my thesis is something that you have to interact with and basically you are the piece and you feel like your part of the piece.

Rudy- Ok, one last question. How do you feel about thesis? Are you excited and looking forward into showing your work or are you nervous about the whole thing?

Jeff- I was nervous earlier last year thinking about it because I should have done it last year, but I didn't because I just had no idea what I wanted to do. But now that I have an idea I'm not as nervous. I have an idea and I'm excited for it and I just can't wait to experiment with the idea and through trials and errors finally figure out what I what to achieve.

Rudy- Ok that will be it. Thank you

Jeff- Thank you