Artist: Jim Brandenburg

I really enjoyed the second half of the video about Jim Brandenburg’s quest in his 90 day self project.  As a photographer myself, I completely understood the frustration of having to many exposures to compare. You are always taught to shoot the subject from different angles and different placement. Brandenburg brings up the point that because of this, there are too many exposures to compare. Having to make the decision to live with and in the end be happy with it. I also could relate to him about the subject driving obsession. I usually get ideas in my head and either write them down on a post it or sketch them out. I am very much subject driven to the point where, I need to shoot the subject that’s in my head, in order to rest sometimes. Or sometimes I a driven by a way a photograph was shot. I want to try to recreate that image or try to do something better. 

I like that he said he takes a chance on things. Having the opportunity in a self project is a sign of relief, but also a sign of a huge accomplishment.

Artist: Edward Burtynsky

The images from Edward Burtynsky were very  striking and interesting. I kind of started to get emotionally attached to them and felt them to be very heartbreaking. The images were about “e-waste,” which is used electronics. Many of the items or trash are sent to China to be recycled and are sorted by workers. The workers are exposed to hazardous waste and material, which unfit working conditions. He makes the viewer look at the images in a very different way. His approach and angle that he takes his photography is almost as if he got giant crane and was looking from top down. The depth of field and clarity of his quarries image series are breath-taking and invites you too look through all the details of each image, which then makes you think more deeply about the image you are looking at.  Burtysnsky:  “The concept of the landscape as architecture has become for me, an act of imagination.”

His various photographs of ship yards, urban mines, and industrial work  demonstrate certain areas of work and how processes are carried out. His photographs show the dilemma we live with when it comes to industry and the environment. You start to wonder and can’t help to think that  we should be repulsed at the idea of quarrying into the land, But then should we also embrace it for the technological marvel that it is? It’s hard to say and its a hard concept to think about.