Paper Curls Photos

I’ve been working on some photos of curled paper and experimenting with the lighting and processing. There’s so much to explore when you focus on simple things.

White Curls 3

White Curls 1 (photo edited in Illustrator)

White Curls 4

Limited Edition Prints

I’m excited to announce that I’m now working with oorbi, to offer a few limited edition prints of some of my flower images.  Oorbi is a French online gallery, and they will be selling editions of these three photos from my Garden Party and Garden series:

Red Lily

Pom

Wild Garden

Tags: abstract, flower photos, limited edition prints, oorbi

Brooklyn

I’m revisiting some of the stuff I shot in Brooklyn and listing some new images in my Etsy shop.

Sugar Factory Windows by Michele Valdez

Brooklyn Brick Houses by Michele Valdez

Over the Rooftops by Michele Valdez

Tags: brooklyn, cityscapes, photography

Widgets

I’m continuing to photograph my daughter’s toys and things.  Right now, I’m focusing on some translucent plastic objects.  I love the way the light interacts with the plastic, and the layered effect I’m getting when I lay objects on top of each other. I’m doing a lot of post processing on some of the images, others I’m pretty much just adjusting the color a bit. I’m not sure where I’m going to wind up with these, but I’m enjoying the work.

Widgets 1 by Michele Valdez

 

Widgets 7 by Michele Valdez

 

Widgets 5 by Michele Valdez

Tags: abstract photography, art, color, photography, toy photography

Blue Zen Photography

Some serenely lovely beach scenes by  Blue Zen Photography on Etsy:

The Bench by Blue Zen Photography

Beach Chairs by Blue Zen Photography

Volleyball by Blue Zen Photography

Tags: affordable art, beach, Blue Zen Photography, etsy, photography

VOLTA NY 2011 – Referencing Photography in Painting and Drawing

Time’s been tight lately, but I wanted to make sure I got out to see at least one of the fairs during  this past Armory Week, so I decided on VOLTANY, the smaller sister fair to the larger Armory show.  Each gallery at VOLTA limits their showing to only one artist, which for me, makes for a more interesting show. The format provides a nice snapshot of an artists’ work, and the smaller venue is much more manageable than the beast that is the large Armory show. I saw a lot of great stuff, but I was most fascinated by the exhibitions featuring two artists whose work had strong photo like elements.  I’m always interested in the relationship between photography and other media, and I liked the way these two artists used the idea of photography in their painting and drawings, rather than incorporating photographs in a more literal, direct way.

Dil Hildebrand at Pierre-Francois Ouelette Art Contemporain, included a series of ethereal paintings that fairly ooze with brilliant color, neon oranges and pinks painted in strips over a grainy background which on first glance appear to be photographs of rooms.  When viewed closeup, it becomes clear that the blurred background images are not photos, but paintings. The blurry background contrasted with the bright foreground gave these work a sort of tension, a sense of trance like calm in the blur, which is disrupted abruptly by the bright strips of paint in the foreground.   The balance between the different areas of the paintings was strong, and my eyes easily moved  from one plane to another.  The choice of such vibrant colors in the strips really enhanced the sense of depth and movement in the works.  The photo here doesn’t really tell the story, these gorgeous paintings really need to be viewed in person.

Dil Hildebrand, Studio D, 2010, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inch

Paul Chiappe’s exhibit presented by Madder139 included some graphite drawings which more directly referenced photography, again in an abstract, blurred image.  His Yearbook 1 drawing was my favorite, a beautifully rendered image, with soft, rich marks that again, are hard to reproduce photographically.  The effect didn’t so much mimic photography in a photo-realism kind of way, as capture the way photographs exist as pieces of memory.  The blurriness heightened the sense of these people existing for the viewer as fuzzy memories, ghostlike and barely recalled remnants of the past.

Paul Chiappe, Yearbook 1

More on Dil Hildebrand on his website

More Paul Chiappe on Madder139 website

Tags: art, Dil Hildebrand, drawing, Madder139 gallery, painting, Paul Chiappe, photography influenced drawing, photography influenced painting, Pierre-Francois Ouelette Art Contemporain, VOLTANY 2011

Shoot the toys

I’ve barely been able to find the time to  bathe, let alone do any shooting since my awesome daughter came into my life, but I’ve started to squeeze short mini shoots in during her nap time.   I’m photographing the one thing around me that I can’t not see –  her toys.  They are bright, colorful and everywhere.  All of these images are shot using natural light in the middle of the afternoon.

Back of bead maze toy

Rings

Doll Stroller

Tags: abstract, color, photography, toys

Marco Suarez

Great looking  prints by Marco Suarez on Etsy:

Electric Pole by Marco Suarez

Recycle by Marco Suarez

Tags: affordable art, art prints, etsy

Stephanie Bracciano

Some beautiful images by Stephanie Bracciano:

Down the Rabbit Hole by Stephanie Bracciano

Going Away by Stephanie Bracciano

Stephanie sells prints of these and other images in her Etsy shop, Deep Within the Armoire.  You can also see more of her work on her website, Stephanie Bracciano Photography.

Tags: affordable art, etsy, photography, romantic

Elad Lassry, MOMA New Photography 2010

 

EagleGlove, Falcon (Kodak), Elad Lassry

I recently took an increasingly rare trip out of my apartment (a new addition to the family is keeping me happily housebound) to see MOMA’s New Photography, 2010 exhibition.  This is the 25th anniversary of the annual exhibit, and it represents a significant shift in the way many contemporary artists are thinking about using photography as a medium.  Several works use the photographs as part of a larger piece, and others take commercial photography as a reference point for making images that feel familiar, but also slightly off.

The most interesting pieces in the show, for me, were Elad Lassry’s smaller scale photos, a series of images which are describes on MOMA’s exhibition site as:  ”vibrant pictures—still life compositions, photocollages, and studio portraits of friends and celebrities” .  None of the images exceed 11″ x 14″, which I found a positive bit of relief from the ever-increasing scale found in fine art photography.  To be drawn towards an image rather than having to step back to view it helped me to feel more connected to the work, particularly in a viewing space like MOMA where its easy to get distracted by the crowd gathering around a large piece.  It also added to the cohesive nature of the images, the sense that these objects were bound together, a sort of collection rather than a series of standalone images.

Pink Hat, Elad Lassry

This sense of the photographs as objects was further enhanced by the artists framing choices.   The decision to use frames which “derive their colors from the dominant hues in the photos” was a brilliant move which worked so well for me. The works have a very unified look and unifying the frame with the image forces the viewer to look at the works as complete objects, challenging the notion of where the photograph fits in as an art piece.  I loved it, along with the odd choice of images and the vibrant use of color.

There is a lot more going on in these works beyond the formal aspects, and on MOMA’s website, Lassry is quoted as having said,“I’m fascinated by the collapse of histories and the confusion that results when there is something just slightly wrong in a photograph”.   This “something slightly wrong” is what makes the images for me.  They have an unreal, eerie quality, and they seem to be trying to convince the viewer that everything is fine, when something is clearly, really wrong.

New Photography, 2010 is on exhibit through January 10, 2011 at MOMA.

Tags: conceptual photography, Elad Lassry, fine art photography, MOMA, museum, photography