Friday, November 7, 2014

What have you learned from your 365 project? How did your style evolve?

A better question would be what haven't I learned from my 365 project. Starting off, I hadn't a clue how to operate my camera outside of 'Auto' mode. Focus was a nightmare, and interesting concepts never occurred to me. Basically, I have learned everything about photography that I know now in the 229 days of my 365 that I have under my belt. And it isn't even just photographically that I've evolved. I have become more in touch with my emotions, more willing to accept and build upon my internal frustrations and glees.

Such a smart lad. 


Look at you. Eighteen stunning self-portraits by seventeen-year old photographer Alex Stoddard.



nymodernnet.com


Alexstoddard Flickr page. (not all self-portraits)

12 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I wish people would stop using the word "evolve" when they mean "change" or what's worse, "improve."

Yeah, I know, good luck with that.

ricpic said...

What does it mean when people say they've become more in touch with their emotions? Seriously. I'd like to know.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

More in touch with emotions I take to mean from what I've heard to not be led by them to be more aware of how our actions contribute to our emotional state.

ricpic said...

Thanks Lem. "To not be led by them." When you're euphoric or fearful, be wary, or at least skeptical of the emotional state you're in before acting. That I can understand.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I just bought Taylor Swift "1989."

I chose to do it.

Through Lem.

God bless you, each and every one of you.

ricpic said...

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by.

Those lines by Yeats came to me. Although I'm sure they're not lines that would ever occur to those who reside in "in touch with my emotions" territory. But they do apply. As in distancing oneself from emotion.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Last night on The Big Bang Theory, I think it was Sheldon who said that “Pretending to be an alien is a valuable coping mechanism.”

Becoming more in touch with one's emotions ought not necessarily be the same thing as acquiring affection for them.

Mr. Spock.

There are a great many people who have parts of their mind that do not accurately communicate with other parts.

I think the idea is that "emotions" are their own thing. Alive. Independent. And yet internal. Becoming more in touch implies, necessarily, distance. Reaching. Hopefully grasping. Over time.

Pogo never said he was a diplomat.

Me? I'd better send a begging letter to a big investigation: Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?

As I get older, I understand more and more what I really believe and how much of what I used to believe was what somebody else thought.

PROGRESS!!!1!1!!!!!!!

And it feels good. And that's an emotion. Of a sort. More or less.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Guildofcannonballs said...

Eric check out f*ckfeelings dot com and the, most important, thelastpsychiatrist.

Then tinypeniscoping.com which is the entrepreneurs affect, ifykwimaityd.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Never no one question premise.

Otherwise chaos.

I would lose.

Chip Ahoy said...

Ricpic, was it the adult who said "get in touch with emotion?" I didn't double check. In that case, I agree. If the boy photographer said it, then, most people at that age are a jumble of conflicting emotion, don't you agree? I can see how photography would help sort all that. I didn't even notice he said that. I took it at face value and read right past it. The project allowed a teenager to look for and find and focus his emotion. I think it is a good thing.

Who knows what he is emotional about. Who know what else is going on in his life.

Emotions concerning his own body, being a scrawny teenager, concerning his relationships with females. His family. Money. His place in the world, his goals. I do not know.

There is a video in his photo stream of himself and several young female friends, also with cameras, traipsing off to the river with the waterfall seen in several photos. The whole group doing unusual things out there naked to some extent trying to capture images that mean something, or say something (but not knowing what) Exploring. It looks like they're having a blast. There would be an emotional aspect to that I think. Did you have as much fun with girls at this age? I did. But not as photographer. I relived that bizarre fun looking through his photo stream.

Climbing trees naked, burying himself in leaves, covering himself with bark, blending with nature. Exploring and settling his own emotion. Being a different person by wearing different clothing. The question had to do with style, but his exploration is as much with himself, and it shows.

Seventeen year olds are also not expected to grasp subtleties of language. He heard "evolve" somewhere, his own president perhaps "evolving" right before our eyes on the issue of gay marriage, if the is to be believed. It sounded good. The photographer felt it described what is happening to himself. Again, I took that at face value.

At least he didn't pull some archaic pretentious word out of his ass like "methinks." At least he didn't add dozens of ear-piercing microphone-magnifying glottal stops like, "I, I, I, think i-i-if something a-a-a-and...." as I hear every hour the television is on by full grown adults who should know better than speak before their answer is prepared, when proper English aint got not glottal stops init.

I give teenagers a whole lot of slack. They're imitating, and he is doing much better than most.

I like this kid a lot.

The issue I had with his answer, where I would have questioned, he said he is interested in making pictures he wants, not what is there, but without manipulation, but it appears to be an awful lot of post processing. I do not see how he reconciles heavy photoshop post processing with "not manipulating anything."

But speaking of whacked vocabulary, I have another post coming up I hope you enjoy as much as I do. I saw it today and pissed myself laughing: Nina Van Horn.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I beg your kind indulgence as I make yet another correction.

Having consulted Professor Internet, the line is "Better send a begging letter to THE big investigation," not A big investigation. The difference is epic.

The cause of why I got it wrong is not important. Pogo understands, notwithstanding.