This project was based on inspiration from the artist and poet Bernadette Mayer, a NYC woman who made an amazing project about her daily life by taking thousands of photos each day for a month. I suggested they try not to edit much.
The Everyday Project Developed by Tessa Sutton
Introduction
The Everyday has had a huge surge in popularity recently, stemming from Dadaists and Surrealists in France in the early 20th century as they walked around cities and took to the streets, knocking fine art off its pedestal. A return to the local as a microcosm of the global has been of concern to artists. How can something mundane be made special? What is your point of view that others can peek into? How can the details of daily life provide artistic fodder? How can you find the poetic at home, on a walk, playing with your pets? Try to catch people you live with off guard. Try to catch yourself off guard.
To gain inspiration, explore the work of photographers and artists such as:
Artists:
Bernadette Mayer – 1970s NYC
https://daily.jstor.org/everyday-life-revisted-with-bernadette-mayers-memory/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/inside-bernadette-mayers-time-capsule
On July 1, 1971, the American poet and conceptual artist Bernadette Mayer began to record one month of her life by shooting a roll of thirty-six color snapshots every day, developing them at night, and keeping a diary of her impressions. The resulting amalgam, a “crazy headed journal” that she called “Memory,” was shown as a mixed-media installation at a SoHo gallery in 1972: a honeycomb of more than a thousand three-by-five photographs mounted to the gallery walls, with six hours of narration playing on a loop. Whatever memory is, “Memory” was an exploration of the layers of what a person thinks they remember firsthand.
William Eggleston
https://gagosian.com/artists/william-eggleston/
Hannah Starkey
https://www.ft.com/content/dccde37c-e098-11e8-8e70-5e22a430c1ad
Larry Sultan
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/larry-sultan-here-and-home/
You might find some more to research on here.
https://medium.com/vantage/5-photographers-that-find-beauty-in-the-mundane-7426918d4472
Learning Targets:
I can use a camera to demonstrate personal voice.
I can choose appropriate equipment and techniques to best demonstrate my ideas.
I can apply the principles of design to my images (emphasis, balance, etc.).
I can use asymmetrical balance to activate the entire frame of an image.
Research
1 On your Weebly under RESEARCH for PHOTO II, add the links of the artists above (need two) and an additional resource. Make sure to provide 3+ sentences, written in your own words, explaining the significance of your artist and resource.
2 Find an additional artist that you think might be influential for your project. You will also need to 3 find one additional resource that helped you prepare for The Everyday. This resource could be a Photoshop or Camera tutorial, an article to read, or something else beneficial to your photography needs.
Assignment
- Find a variety of moments in your everyday life to photograph, and include simple moments that people might not see from your point of view. What is intimate and off-hand in your everyday life? What is poetic that you see everyday? What can be raw? What might be disturbing or beautiful? Think about your point of view…the things you catch in your peripheral vision.
- Capture 20+ images demonstrating simple, mostly unedited techniques. Keep in mind this is about the everyday, so using your filters and controlling lighting and mood in the room and on your phone/camera is probably more important than editing.
- Utilize tools and techniques in Photoshop to enhance your compositions as you see fit. For example, the magical in the Everyday.
- Edit 4 different images. Each image must contain different subjects. No repeated imagery.
- Upload your final 4 images on your Weebly Photo II page.
student images
Camryn was exploring color here.
Maddie was playing with the idea of catching a moment that usually goes unnoticed.
