Artist of the Day - Day 14 - Man Ray

Man Ray; Toaster whistles gray boards of light. 

Man Ray.  I almost just want to type a paragraph of just crazy words and I think that might do for a good description of Man Ray (and I bet he would enjoy it).  Man Ray was the father of (or at least Uncle) of modern surrealism.  He used photography (as well as just about any other medium) to create works that were, to put it kindly, created using more dimensions than we can see. 

For me personally, I really like Man Ray’s work, because he really embraced (and in effect, showed me and countless others) that there is no such thing as a “mistake” when creating art.  He used photography and its technology in such a way, that when first perceived it might be seen as a mistake or “wrong”.  He would over develop photos, place objects on the photo paper to alter the image and countless other things that showed art is so much more than just a “Step 1, Step 2, Step 3” process.  It’s more dynamic and random than we can ever know. 

 
Wikipedia
Works by Man Ray

Photo 365 - Day 98 (Firelines)

Day 98 (October 9th, 2010)
Title: Firelines

I got this picture on the way home from Santa Cruz, and I thought it reminded me a lot of yesterdays photo, but yet different enough that I would give some "prime-blog-time".  I really enjoy the abstract of this photo, which is a strange because normally I'm not a fan of abstract paintings (now and then an abstract sculpture will really catch my eye, but I generally prefer impressionism, realism, surrealism and even baroque art).  But, with abstract photography, its interesting to me because a) you know it came from a 'real' source of some kind, but that photographer is manipulating the medium (aka camera/film) to give an effect of a non-real (re: abstract) situation. 

In this photo, we were driving home and I decided to just stick the camera out the window and take shots of the cross traffic.  I knew I wouldn't be able to get a clear shot of a car, but I was hoping to get some sort of abstract effect like I did.  Many of the shots were just blurry without any form or function to them, where as some of the others had enough 'real' elements (a tire or other car part in focus enough to take the viewer out of the 'abstract' mindset) that I couldn't use them.  This one, to me, has enough form and is defined in a way to preserve the 'abstract' concept I was going for, but was still able to avoid any of the 'real' elements that helped create it. 

Enjoy!

(Click picture for larger view)

Photo 365 - Day 89 (Peacock Peek)

Day 89 (September 31st, 2010)
Title: Peacock Peek

It was a dark and stormy night.  It was a bright and sunny morning. We decided to celebrate the lovely morning with waffles! (of course, how else would one celebrate!).  We enjoyed our lovely waffletastic breakfast and as we were walking back to the car, we saw something a tad bit strange.  A peacock was just walking down the road.  Wasn't running or acting scared, just walking down like he owned the street.  He walked up to the corner of this house that had a bowl out (I'm assuming for a cat or dog) and the peacock peeked around the corner, saw no one was coming and began to help himself.  We watched him for a good 5 min - peek, nibble, nibble, peek.  Finally, he was full and continued his walk down the street. 

So, recap: Waffles with a side of surreal for breakfast. 

Enjoy!