by Rebecca Cornwell | Aug 12, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
Praise For Sick Women
Women’s strength and marginalization is a theme I consider all the time in my own work. As a single mother to three girls, thoughts of the female world always seem to come to the forefront. Sometimes its battlefield, when you think you’ve won there is a mountain of history sitting behind you that still keeps antiquated ideas rooted in the culture. Looking at the tag last Sunday, an image by a longtime IG friend, Heather @poppybay spoke to me about these ever-swirling thoughts. The image of the blindfolded/blinded woman is one I’ve used myself with frequency. She stares at us with all of her beauty, almost judging, but she’s hooded. She can’t see but she does. She knows all.
This beautiful piece will haunt you for a long time.
Heather: I was the kind of child who could lie in the grass for hours, talking to the trees, making up whole new worlds in my head. Having come from a family of artists, a sense of imagination wasn’t unusual, but I didn’t imagine myself as a visual artist. As I’ve gotten older, my desire to linger, let my mind wander, hasn’t gone away, but the responsibilities of the adult world don’t leave room for such things… until I found mobile photography.
Even after I discovered my passion for film and then digital photography, there was a technical coldness that I just couldn’t shake. The iPhone, along with tools like Snapseed and Image Blender, have opened up a new whole world of expressiveness and versatility. With these tools, I generate an altering of reality, manifesting of my dream-life, expanding and exercising of my creativity. The weight of my dslr has hung less and less around my neck as, through mobile photography, I can go out and create in my own space, wherever I find my inspiration.
I recently found myself alone in a small Chinese teahouse tucked away behind a garden in my neighborhood. The experience of solitude was unusual and precious. Being alone, I looked around for self-entertainment and found a nook of used books under the cash register. A beat up copy of Gary Snyder’s RipRap was in the mix. Flipping through the pages, I came across the poem Praise for Sick Women. It inspired an image that would pay homage to the mythology behind Gary Snyder’s poem, finding strength and glory even in history’s weakest assessment of women.
The female is fertile, and discipline
(contra naturam) only
confuses her
Who has, head held sideways
Arm out softly, touching,
A difficult dance to do, but not in mind
Excerpt from Praise for Sick Women
by Gary Snyder
You can see more of Heather’s very strong and thought -provoking work on Instagram @poppybay
by Rebecca Cornwell | Aug 5, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
Time Changes Memeories
Some months after I joined Instagram (just over a year ago), I was introduced electronically to Darryl (@darryls_world) by another fellow Texan. I do not know if there is something unique about Texans but something always seems to unites us. Weather its the landscape or the accents , we never seem to be strangers. Maybe it was this Texanism that caused me to feel an instant connection to Darryl’s imagery or maybe is was some thing else all together. Darryl’s images are both dark and beautiful. They are desolate and foggy in a way that is like dream that is not quite scary but not quite safe and cannot be remembered to its fullest. Although Darryl has only participated in SundayBlues a few times, this image from last week pulled me completely into his world.
Darryl: Memories from the past obscured in a strange way fascinates me. Time does strange surreal things to our memories the same way dreams do. These thoughts are what brought this image about.
I have had no formal teachings in art. Last spring I purchased a couple of apps to touch up some family pics and ended up really enjoying myself. I learned that I could change the entire mood of a image and make it feel the way I felt about it. So I started shooting and editing everything and joined instagram shortly after….
I really haven’t looked back since then. I still shoot mostly with my iPhone and they look excellent in large format on gallery walls. My work currently has a home in a gallery in downtown Denison, Tx. and I’m hoping this is just the beginning. I love to shoot, I love to edit and I love to create. It’s like a beast that has to get out on a daily basis.
Even if you’re not from Texas, you will love Darryl’s images.
You can find him on Instagram at @darryls_world and @darryls_corner
by Rebecca Cornwell | Jul 29, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
Street Lapse part 2
Sometimes when I’m deciding on an image to highlight for the Sunday Selection I will look through the week’s past images one by one, sometimes as a grid seeing which one might scream out to me and sometimes there is an image I can’t get out of my head. I’ve selected this shot of Malcome’s because it is such an image. Upon first glance it seems like a street shot that maybe I’ve seen before or that I know from somewhere else but when I focused in, something else happened. It shook my brain. Not just with it’s visual reverberations but also with the sense that I had been there before, like a lost memory or even a dream. Take a close look at this amazing image by Malcome and wake up!
Malcome: Often at times, I’ll be scheduled to work in downtown Los Angeles and for the past couple of years there has been this particular man who has been hitch hiking the same freeway exit almost every time I have gone. Now, I’m not a street photographer by any means. I’m usually scared to death of getting caught, and my anxious behavior makes me easily noticeable, but something told me to shoot and so I did.
To me, the “time lapsed” feel depicted in the image kind of represents all of those days and hours spent waiting in that same area. Waiting for that little dose of help that he may never get.
Many thanks to all of the kind folks in Juxt for this opportunity.
You can view this image and all of Malcome’s other thought provoking work on Instagram :: @__malcome
by Rebecca Cornwell | Jul 22, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
“Wake up. Sleep. Dream. Repeat.”
This week I’ve chosen to feature a beautifully symmetrical work by the very talented @markgoblue. I’ve admired Mark’s symmetrical blue images for weeks and even months in the #sundaybluesedit tag. His incredible visions seemingly bend time and space, creating abstract patterns, while still maintaining the details of the real world. Under blue and white marbled skies, the tiny figures move effortlessly on the sandy beach dance floor. Happy Blue Sunday. Enjoy the dance!
Mark: My interest in photography started after taking a photography class in high school. This was in the 80’s so I learned shooting with film. The age of digital re-sparked my interest in photography. Mostly due to the convenience and flexibility it provides. After getting an iPhone 4 and discovering the Instagram app, I found myself shooting more with my iPhone because it was always with me. My Instagram feed is strictly iPhone shot and edited. I like the challenge of seeing what I can create.
I love the Hipstamatic app and shoot most of my iPhone shots with it. It has a film-like look and the lens/film combos can create great images that need no further processing. I also like editing and blending images to create dream-like, surrealist images and using symmetry effects. Apps I like to use for editing are Snapseed, Photo Wizard, Diptic, Blender and Decim8. My passion for music also occasionally shows up in my Instagram feed.
Sundays for me are usually lazy and a day I sleep in. It is a day to relax before the workweek starts. For my latest submission to the #sundaybluesedit tag, I wanted to create an image that creates a dreamy, relaxing mood. I like using symmetry effects because of the patterns and the alternate images they create. I have a large stockpile of cloud images on my iPhone camera roll that I like using for blending with other images. Several apps were used to create this image and it was blended with a symmetrical cloud image. The apps used were Hipstamatic, Decim8, Photo Wizard, Blender and Snapseed.
You can find Mark on Instagram as @markgoblue
Mark is also on Flickr where he has digital camera images, full resolution versions of some of his Instagram posts and some iPhone images not posted to Instagram.
http://flic.kr/ps/9KWAK
by Rebecca Cornwell | Jul 15, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
Ode To Phoenix III
This week I present to you a very special artist who speaks more to my soul than even to my heart and eyes. I first came across @kaliopy in the #sundaybluesedit tag where her dark images left me speechless. She is most often moving from darkness into light and examining the depths of a mysterious dream place. We stare deep into her eyes, as well as through her eyes, where even in the darkest corners we will find light. To top of her already amazing talent, she has a unique sparkle that glitters down on you with every comment she leaves and any interaction she shares. This weeks image is quintessential @kaliopy, within it’s very darkest darkness you will find reverberating light from which you cannot look away.
Kaily: ‘Ode to a Phoenix III’ is the protagonist within this operatic tale… with its smoky symbolism of rebirth, immortality and renewal, to a score of symphonic arias of course! If this transition is to happen, it must be epic and spectacular! (put on your 3D glasses, this may be a bumpy ride, cue in the harp solo and throw in some bass!)
I like a story or two – and my love for photography stems from my love of epic tales that continue beyond their frame. I have worked within television production both behind the scenes and in front of the camera as well as stage… and well, four years ago a significant turning point changed the trajectory of my career and outlook. I was struck with bi-facial palsy; bells palsy in stereo… temporary paralysis of the facial nerves, it was the case of the 7th cranial nerve! Yes, the nerve of that!! Basically I looked like a walking decm8 app! (she grins) This kind of hindered my acting career at the time… and thus my confidence spiraled down… the art of hibernation became the easiest alternative to cure my ailment. Alas, during this time my Grandmother, my muse, had also passed away… so basically, I felt that creatively, I had no stories to tell… Fortunately, I was reminded by a friend that with every Greek tragedy (serendipitously I am of Greek heritage) there is always the role of a heroine. So, instead of remaining in splendid isolation, I chose to trust, see and listen to the characters in front of me who were waiting patiently to have their story told. When I heard about Instagram, I decided to begin firstly by exploring self portraits and using this ‘canvas’ to create narratives. Please note, indeed, I have recovered. I can wink and smile again with a hint of fabulous asymmetry. There are days of woe begones-ville, yet it wouldn’t be a Greek drama if there weren’t.
Amidst the interludes, I came across the #sundaybluesedit created by the High Priestess of Wonder Azzure, Rebecca. I love the platform to showcase the many facets of blue-isms in all its shades of highs and lows.
Through the accessibility of mobile photography, chasing the light seemed the greatest outlet (albeit, mostly whilst in transit and caught in traffic) and I am once again curious by the day-to-day happenings and the monologues taking place within the busy streets of Sydney. So with viewfinder ready, I await for the shadows emerging towards the light and occasionally tango with the endless possibilities within the frame… at times pleasantly surprised with it’s twist and turns, engaged with the tension in the unspoken dialogue, distracted by the chaos, clarity and blur, yet I aim to provide a spotlight as I listen to their tale.
“When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.”
Luigi Pirandello (Author, Playwright)
I encourage you to find Kaily on:
Instagram: @kaliopy
Iphoneart: Kaliopy
