interview with fellow BA student Jessica Marin.

1. What was it that got you hooked on photography? What inspires you to take photographs?

- Taking photos of my family as portraiture inspired me toward photography. My mother grew on a passion for me to always take pictures and as time went on, it became my interest. In my first semester at Rutgers, one of my floor mates would ask me to take model pictures of him. When I presented them to my professor, he was amazed at how a beginner student took a good portraiture photograph. Now these days, I am experimenting with color and its effects on how to enhance the mind in losing itself through the spectrum.

2. What content is your favorite to photograph?... Why?

- I have a special interest in black and white portraiture. Sometimes expressed through sensuality. I have also drifted into the understanding of composition, lines, and structures within a square format.

4. Do you shoot in digital or 35mm, why do you prefer that style of photography over the other?

- I like shooting in 35 mm and recently in digital. My preference with 35 mm is to black and white film. I have a fascination for working in the dark room and developing my own film. With digital, it is more with quick works, ideas that burst in the moment and need to be recorded. I also use it when I take on journeys of places I need to remember. It becomes very useful when studying the galleries artwork as a reminder of things that were noticed, looked up close by zooming in.

6. What do you plan to do as a photographer and where do you hope it takes you?

- I have thought of going to grad school to study art therapy. Because of my minor in psychology, a pass-time to analyze people, and making art, it works towards an opportunity to do everything all at once. I would also like to intern in as a photographer’s assistant. Due to transportation difficulties, it has been hard to meet with other photographers. As an artist, I also have to put in the effort in showing my work at exhibitions. I am planning on showing some of my work on the upcoming BA/BFA Open Show.

8. If you couldn't be doing photography what would you be doing?

- If I didn’t do photography, I would have tried to go for graphic design. Adapt it toward Publicity and Marketing would be the additional step. In these present days, selling products through the World Wide Web becomes the new business. If that wasn’t the case, it would have been accounting or physical therapy. I like to be organized in respect to numbers, and like human anatomy. As an athlete, injuries have become my daily life. Learning more about it and being able to understand how the body works to a finer detail inspires to excel in my own workouts.

chelsea gallery visits

Robert Miller Gallery- "Barthelemy Toguo"
- found the banana box flooring very interesting, added more to the work than visual items actually let you feel a piece of the work. the boxes felt a lot different to walk on then the normal gallery floor. I love the mocking tone that comes through in his work, and if its not quite mocking than i would say a nonconformist attitude. He questions authority and likes to stick it to the man. Love and chuckled over the idea of sculpting wooden suitcases knowing the police will want to search them. thing i didnt get was why so many of his works had stuff spewing from the mouth within the image. lastly one word, LASERS. HAHA i laughed when reading about his run ins with lasers.

Lehmann Maupin- "Juergen Teller"
-the nudes positioned next to the sculptures in the museum seem to be breaking the social norm. Not sure if the artist was trying to represent beauty with beauty, in the form of juxtaposing beautiful naked women with beautiful sculptures. Although representing beauty with beauty the objective of the work from what i can see is also deals with naked women vs naked men sculptures so maybe its a feminist piece. despite not really getting the idea conceptually i found it interesting by the photographs of naked women inside a museum. a place that holds strict guidelines for viewing the art within its walls. seeing some of the exhibits roped off yet having a naked women behind the ropes is captivating.

PaceWildenstein- "Maya Lin"
-probably the most provocative gallery i visited visually and physically. walking around the work the artists seems to deliberately take up the viewers space. one walkway around the 2x4 Landscape was so tight that when someone walked on the oncoming side of traffic it feels as if you were going to knock into each other sending them into the sculpture. To me Water Line, was the most interesting piece out of any of the galleries. you were able at some points to put your head through the sculpture which changed the view of the piece completely. visually it was interesting to see the sculpture coming out from the walls. being positioned up tight against the walls gave it a feeling as if it was actually growing out of the walls. and i know the piece was relating to a map of the ocean floor but the title of the show was "Three Ways of Looking at the Earth," and having the sculpture appearing to come from the wall related to the idea of earth.

Chapter 2: The Crit.

-"MFA stands for yet another Mother-Fucking Artist," ...everyone is probably using this so i might as well so with that said HAHA M.F.A.

-"I believe in education for its own sake, because it is deeply humanizing. It is being a fulfilled human being" ...oddly enough i need to to save this quote for my battles with my dad to prove the reason for spending more money to attend a university rather that a county college.

-"When artists are put on the spot, it helps them "develop thick skins and come to see criticism as rhetoric rather than personal attack." ...i agree, yet i dont like crits that much mainly for the reason of being put on the spot, i do feel it has enabled me to be an all around tougher person though.

-i found it very interesting that dogs were allowed to attend crits.

-instead of food to share the artist presenting should bring a cold 30 pack, so some rum and coks. rum and cokes are always good. plus most peoples lips get looser when they drink so maybe it would open up conversation.

-bringing in outsiders such as significant others is an interesting idea. i wonder how it would work for us? if the outsiders are allowed to comment on the work, how would it force us to grow in a matter of what other non artists, people we havent been in class with for 4 years would, think.

-"Every artist thinks they're going to be the one, that success is around the corner," ...BULLSHIT. thats the furthest thing from my thoughts. looking around in class, seeing other kids and their work, damn im just happy to keep afloat. The one might end up to be the kid next to me in class, but never thought it would be me. staying afloat works me, im happy with that.

Alex bag

thought watching this movie was going to feel like i was getting my teeth pulled. but i actually got into it. found the narrator to portray a character of art students that could possibly be found as mgsa. i feel it maybe mocked in a way the idea of a "art student". thought the narrator, i cant remember her name at this moment, wanted to express the idea of not being to caught up with art and the art world. she wanted to show that you have to have other skills in life not just being able to create art. think she expressed being worldly and artsy is better then being too consumed in art. thats at least what i took from it. she acted out good scenarios and situations, a few even made me laugh.

New museum

2nd floor:
-thought prints were very interesting to see, but wasnt that interested in the topic of the work. did think however, that the title wall was amazing. i have worked on a digital version of a title wall and that could not compare at all to the real hands on title wall. it was very beneficial to see a actual title wall and put it in perspective.

3rd /4th floor:
-images were very intriguing. love the images being so large. gave the viewer a feeling of realness. felt as though you could get inside the images or actually take objects off the image. also like the way the artist choose to display the work. thought is was a simple way yet yielded a clean cut and profession look.

5ht floor:
-did not understand nor enjoy much of this floor. could not figure out what was going on. however i did like the interactiveness of the floor.

bucket of blood

found the movie actually interesting. played on a lot of ideas found within the art world. i even laughed a few times.