Final Project

Artist Book

Artist Statement

In creating this project, I wanted to portray to the viewer the art that is a major driving force in the design of the automobile.  When we hear the word “art”, we tend to picture a beautiful Picasso, or a Van Gogh hanging on the walls of a museum.  Not all art, however, is meant to be hanging in a museum.  Some forms of art can be functional, such as a beautiful vase that can be used to help give flowers life, or a contemporary home on the shores of Southern California.  Much like a vase or a contemporary home, in which the artist designed his masterpiece to be beautiful as well as functional, the automobile can be a beautiful and functional masterpiece.  In this book, the photos that I have taken were intended to portray the beauty of the automobile through my mind, in hopes that the viewer will view the automobile as a rolling, functional piece of art.

20 Under 20

20 Under 20

20 Under 20 Inspiration

One of the Flickr "20 Under 20" users whose photographs I drew inspiration from is Nicholas Scarpinato.  What I enjoy about Scarpinato's photographs is the faded and often grainy look that is applied to his photographs.  Another photographer that I drew inspiration from is Greg Ponthus.  Though I am not usually a fan of photos with an overexposed, blown out sky, I rather enjoyed the look and style that some of his photographs showed.  I also liked how most, if not all of his photos were taken of people, a subject which I have not had much experience with and would like to delve further into.  I also enjoy the uniqueness of Lissy Laricchia's photographs of people or herself, and I was able to draw inspiration from her works.

Independent Project/Auction Piece

This photo was taken just after the sun set in Newport, RI, from the Cliff Walk pathways.  I took this photo, with a Canon T3i, 50mm prime lens, at ISO 100, f/5, and 20 seconds.  This was my first long exposure photo taken of waves crashing on the rocks, that was not taken at night.

Photo Series

Photo II Final

Still life I:  

For these two photos, I used a manual setting on my camera, set at 50mm, ISO 400, f/7.1, and a shutter speed of 1/80.  I used a shell, a jar, rope, and some keys to set this up.  For the second image, I also added some paint to the water filled jar, to add even more color, then boosted the saturation using Adobe Photoshop.  I also set the first picture in Black and White using Adobe Photoshop.  All five images were taken in a light tent.

Still Life II:

For these photos, I set up some bottles, a jar, some rope, and some of the keys used in the first still life.  To take these photos, I used a manual setting on my camera at 50mm, f/1.8, ISO 400, and a shutter speed of 1/80.  The first photo is the entire set up.  The second photo I took above the jars and bottles, looking down at the rope and keys.  Finally, the last photo was taken from the front of the set up, focused on the compass of the jar's cover.  I achieved the look that I wanted with the water in the jar by adding a little bit of green and blue water color to the water, then added more water to fade the color of the paint.

Carbonated Water Shoot

For this shot, I set up a vase in the Square Perfect Light Tent.  My camera was set on Manual mode, shot at f/5.6, with an ISO of 400, exposure of 1/125 sec.  I also used a Speedlite flash attached to my camera to get even better lighting.