Jeff Harris: 4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting

Sourced from TIME Light Box

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

In an effort to record the year of his life leading up to the millennium, Jeff Harris began a project in which he used his trusty Olympic Stylus 35mm film camera (he’s since gone through six) to take a self-portrait each day and then posted the results on his website.

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/01/03/jeff-harris-self-portraits/#ixzz1rWDsgqJA

Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium

Sourced from PBSoffbook

GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and in novation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hot bed of GIF creativity onTumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Basic Visual Language #1: Camera Angle

Che Guevara - Alberto Korda

Tianenmen Square - Jeff Widener

Migrant Mother - Dorothea Lange

This is the first of a three part exercise that introduce students to the fundamental elements of visual language: camera angel, lighting and composition. 

Materials / Preparation

1. Cameras
2. Computers
3. Students should pair off into groups of three.

Photo Exercise  (20 minutes)

In your groups choose a location and photograph your peers in the same scene from three different angles.

1. Low angle (like a worm looking up from the ground)
2. Hight angle (like a bird looking down from the sky)
3. Eye level (the camera lens should be level with the subjects eyes)

Edit / Submit (20 min)

1. Select three of your best photos (one photo to represent each shooting angel).
2. Email Mr. O your images with your period and student names in the subject line.

Presentation / Reflection

Students present photos and discuss how these techniques influence the various meanings we can take from a visual message.

Photobook: Masahisa Fukase’s Karasu

Sourced from the Guardian UK

The British Journal of Photography recently asked a panel of experts, including photographer Chis Killip and the writer Gerry Badger, to select their best photobook of the past 25 years. Surpisingly, perhaps, Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency, from 1986, came a close second to a much less well-known book, Masahisa Fukase’s Karasu (Ravens), which was published the same year.

Read the full article @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/24/masahisa-fukase-ravens-photobook

2 Inspiring Light Painting Examples

Below are two fascinating examples of light painting. One photographed in 1949 by renowned LIFE photographer Gjon Mili and artist Pablo Picasso and the other created by the Inner-City Arts’ Heart and Soul project in 2011.

View the more of Gjon Mili and Pablo Picasso images on LIFE

This video by Inner-City Arts intersecting light painting, photography, dance, & animation.

Save Our Schools: “RIF Now, Pay Later”

In protest to the deplorable layoffs, the Roy Romer Middle School community has banded together to produce this lip dub video. Spread the word… show this video to everyone!!! Saving the teachers should be our number one priority!!!

Magnum in Motion: Steve McCurry

Magnum in Motion video showcasing Steve McCurry’s most recognizable photographs from New York to Southeast Asia to Tibet and Afghanistan.