Reflection Blog Post No. 2 -- Terri Warpinski and David Graham

 Reflecting on Terri Warpinski's presentation, I thought it was noteworthy that she adopted the artist label at three years old, yet it took many years for her to develop an emotional connection to art -- she stated that art did not provide much meaning to her throughout college, as she focused more on skill-building in her work. Warpinski stated that, at one point, photography was never a medium she really took seriously, owing to the fact that taking photographs seemed less involved with physical craftsmanship by the artist. I think it's pretty astounding that she went from having those attitudes to doing such deep, nostalgic, and emotive work with photography and collages. The project Warpinski is still in progress with, "Death(s)trip", the one where she photographs the places where people passed away and includes a written section about their story, was striking to me. I think photography is a superior medium for this sort of project, because the photographs  capture the location objectively. There is something more potent about seeing these places of death when you know they were captured as-is with the camera, for some reason someone painting it or drawing it would remove some of the objective reality from it, I think. Warpinski's artist touch with editing and angles, supplemented by her writing, bring that location's beauty to life and honor the lives lost there. 

This was my favorite work of Warpinski's aesthetically. I think the composition is beautiful and I really like the old photo, paper-y, faraway feeling it gives.

Ripple Effect, Smythe and Bybee Lakes, 2002

I'll be honest, I do not remember as much about what David Graham said about his works, but I really loved the bright, saturated colors in his photographs and the juxtapositions he captured. Particularly I was drawn to the photo of the building and the truck with the landscape painted on it, as well as the photo with the school buses floating half-submerged in the water. It is called "High Water" and I can't save a photo of it on my computer so I won't include the picture in this post, but that one reminded me of crocodiles chilling in a swamp with their backs above the water and I really appreciate the element of humor in a lot of his photos, such as "Moby Duck".