Super Happy Fun Time News

So I'm pretty stoked... I was searching around on Craigslist for prospective job opportunities for when I return home and came across a listing for a retouching internship about an hour away from my house. So I open it up thinking "Oh, hey... I can retouch things... I enjoy that."

And then, BOOM! There it is, smacking me in the face. "Magnum photographer Steve McCurry has an internship position available" ... Wait I know that name...BOOM!

THIS DUDE!

Oh, who's he?

THE DUDE WHO TOOK THIS ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH...

Know him now?

The guy's all kinds of famous and awesome and I've got an interview for an internship at his Studio in Exton, PA.

Pretty exciting stuff... Sorry, I can't quite contain myself.

Final Series Update

In my last post I was left without an idea for my final series of images for class. I've gone the digital route and started to create double exposures via photoshop using nude studies and organic subject matter from nature.

Here's a little preview

Photosynthesis Fail

As some of you may know I've been trying to work on a photographic process deemed chlorophyll printing. The process is done by printing a positive image onto transparency paper and placing it on top of leaves or grass, anything with chlorophyll and capable of photosynthesis. The two are then sandwiched between glass and left out in the sun for days and sometimes up to several weeks. The result is the image printed onto the leaf through the process of photosynthesis. The dark areas of the positive block out the light revealing dark spots and vice verse with the light areas, hence why a positive must be used.

Binh Dahn, a California based artist, is most famous and quite possibly the creator of this process.



However, I've run into quite a few problems. The biggest issue was searching for large enough and appropriate leaves to use, since the leaves on the trees here haven't quite sprouted yet. Secondly, the leaves that I have tried (such as spinach and rhododendron leaves) either became to brittle and soggy or simply were too dark for the process. Thirdly, I underestimated the amount of time and sun that this process truly takes. And lastly. The forecast is calling for a week of rain starting Saturday. So, I guess this is me temporarily putting a halt on this idea of mine until a better time such as the summer.

So this leaves me with a predicament, what alternative process images am I going to create within 11days...

I guess I need to do some researching, again.

Kickstarter

Ever since I was introduced to Kickstarter I thought that it was the most remarkable website for creative professionals to get their ideas out and gain support and backing from thousands of people worldwide. I constantly think about creating a kickstarter project, but I can never quite think of what I would really do... It's a constant search within me to come up with something worthy of peoples funding.

Here's just a couple videos that I've watched recently that struck me.

This pretty much made me want to cry. It's eerily beautiful.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sarahwaldorf/the-cry-project

And this one which really started to get me thinking that I too could raise money... This guy does some very similar work as I do. Just thought it was pretty interesting, and he was backed $8,100 for his project.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/851167361/crystal-silence

Silver & Light

Photographer Ian Ruhter took his life savings and invested in a delivery truck which he converted into a giant camera. If that wasn't cool enough the dude is making giant wet plate collodion prints for his negatives on this mammoth camera.

Wet plate is a tricky process. It's expensive and requires a plate to be coated in silver nitrate, and then sensitized, exposed with his truckcamera and then developed all in under less than 15minutes which is generally how long it takes for the plate to dry out. The process was invented in the 1800s and has really faded away due to it's difficulty and cost. It cost's Ruhter $500 to create just one image.

Watch the video below!

found on BOOOOOOOM!

Cargo Collective

It's not hard to create a website these days, especially with the help of Cargo Collective. Thousands of people are a part of this collective, a collective of artists, videographers, painters, illustrators, photographers... you name it, they have it. Created in the eye of the artist, Cargo Collective allows you to choose from various web designs that they offer and from there it's really simple to start uploading your images and artworks.

So there must be a catch? Slightly...the service is invite only, just so happens I have 4 invites available. So grab at 'em if you're interested.

With the basic(free) membership on cargo you receive your own website (ex. http://www.cargocollective.com/nlatini). Other features include:

✓ Cloud hosting
✓ 12 Projects, 3 Pages (up to 100MB)
✓ 16 Cargo Designs to choose from
✓ Ability to edit CSS

With the Upgraded Membership which costs $66/year or $9/month (which I have recently purchased) you get these features...

✓ Unlimited Projects and Pages
✓ 6GB Storage
✓ Unlimited bandwidth
✓ Advanced Editing (Edit CSS, add HTML)
✓ Custom URL
✓ All Cargo Designs

You can check out my website www.nicholaslatini.com to check out what I've done and if you're interested in an invite just lemme know and I'll send you one via email.

Relieving Stress

So everyone's all stressed out about printing for portfolios and assembling their frames for the show. So let's talk about a simple way to relieve stress, dance.

"We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance....well they're no friends of mine."

Thank you Men At Work...

It's proven! Exercise relieves stress. That angry beast inside you .... let it out through the power of dance. Here's a bonus too... you can even dance to music. Yeah I know! Everyone likes music, it sounds good through our ear holes. Most of the time.

Just watch and learn...

Corey Arnold

"Corey is a photographer and Alaskan commercial fisherman. From 2003-2010 he worked as a deckhand on the Bering Sea crabber f/v Rollo and more recently, captains a wild salmon gillnetting operation in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The off season is filled with travel, gallery exhibitions, magazine and ad photography assignments mixed with a bit of backyard gardening, cat maintenance, and skateboarding in Portland, Oregon.

He is currently working on a life long project entitled FISH-WORK which chronicles the commercial fishing lifestyle throughout the world. In 2010, a PEW foundation commission led to the Fish-Work Europe series, photographing aboard fishing vessels in eight European countries. in 2005, he received an American Scandinavian Foundation grant to photograph the fishermen and whalers of Northern Norway. Corey was recently nominated for the Aperture West Book Prize and the Santa Fe Prize for Photography, and named one of PDNs 30 for 2009. His pictures have been featured in The Paris Review, Esquire, Whitewall, Artweek, Outside, American Photo, Juxtapoz and many others"

This dude is awesome and I mean seriously awesome. If that info from his website www.coreyfishes.com isn't enough proof then just check out these breathtaking images.











I love his work not only due to it's beauty but due to the fact that it shows a lot of the behind the scenes imagery of Bering Sea fishers. We've all seen or heard of the television show The Deadliest Catch that depicts crab fishermen risking their lives in the Bering Sea, but what I like about Arnold's images is that he brings a humor to the stressful lives of these men.





And then there's the extreme humor...

Creep

Lately I've been getting the feeling that my work has been pretty... eery and lonely. To tell you the truth, I love it. It reminds me of the feeling you get when you're depressed and for some reason you want to listen to sad music or watch a sad romance (not that a manly man like myself would ever do such a thing). I think it's a sort of healing process, a purging of emotions. But damn, that feeling of unrest, I just can't get it out of my head. I mean, I'm a happy guy... most of the time. It's odd to say but I find a sort of comfort in it.

So I've decided to jump into it some more with the current series I've taken on. While it's still untitled, I've decided to give everyone a little sneak peak (old and new work) into my process and search for solace.

Urban Suburbia

San Fransico based photographer Todd Hido's work "involves urban and suburban housing revealing the isolation and anonymity in contemporary suburbia. Eerily lit rooms and suddenly abandoned homes increase the effect of loneliness and loss." Hido's work has always struck me as some of the most elegantly made photographs I've ever seen. His work truly does create a sense of loneliness and sadness. In the video below you can see Hido's process in photographing and some discussion on his work.

Behind the Scenes w/ Todd Hido:




Through the incredible blog/website BOOOOOOOM! I came across Barcelona based artist and photographer Emil Kozack and was immediately reminded of the similarities between his and Hido's work.

I especially enjoy his work titled "Big Black Nothing" which can be seen on his website linked above. In this series Kozack says that " It's basically walking until i get scared or cant go any further... take the photo and go back."























Kozack from "Big Black Nothing"

Below I'll show you a few images from each artist to illustrate the similarities in their work.

Todd Hido

















Emil Kozack

















Todd Hido

















Emil Kozack


It appears as though in both Hido and Kozack's work sadness and loneliness are reoccurring themes. Even in Hido's portraiture you can sense despair and desolation within the subjects. Not only do their themes overlap but their shooting style has a few similarities. Whether it be composition or subject matter they both show great skill and especially in their lighting. The quality of light in both of their work is what truly impresses me and even further embodies the sadness in the work.