Birds Eye Views - Katrin Korfmann

'gravitation, amsterdam' by katrin korfmann, 2010

  

   In recent months I have been visiting London a lot and been wondering about they way society is being portrayed in different ways; the business of the city makes you wonder what it would look like from above and then this week I came across female photographer Katrin Korfmann and her birds eye view images. I saw them on a website I regularly look at just out of interest and really liked the way they were shot and her ideas upon society.

  German born Korfmann a large-scale image connoisseur captures scenes of daily human life in public spaces focusing in on the vibrancy and tries to show society when observed from an Ariel view.

   She uses several final images and molds them together to create a constant flow of movement and display a progression of events or occasion giving it more significant importance.

  I really like her photos of the vast public spaces and daily life because its an angle we rarely get to see of the world and society and it makes you feel as if you are watching the public without being really having to be in that place. My favorite image is ‘Horizon Vanished’ and image of the public but the way in which their shadows fall in somewhat perplexing as you see the figure almost as if they in the scene and not shot as an Ariel View.

 

'horizon vanished' by Katrin Korfmann, 2011

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/20537/birds-eye-view-images-by-katrin-korfmann-at-galleri-anderssonsandstrom.html

Jeff Divine - Surf.

1970's Surfer, Jeff Divine

Jeff Divine is a surf photographer with a career span from the 1960's taking photographs of his fellow surfers and believes that he is one of the photographers that took photos before the media took hold of it. He has the largest archive of surf photography known and has some really time defying photographs with intense knowledge of the sport itself. 
  Before University I surfed every year if not twice a year and my love for water and the sea allows me to appreciate the archival photographs of the surfing and I am really intrigued by how the surf lifestyle has shaped the photography used and taken within the sport.

1970's Surfers, Jeff Divine

1980's Surfers, Jeff Divine

Brighton Murmations.

  Four years ago a close friend moved to Brighton and it is a fascinating city with not only man made productions but some of the most fascinating natural spectacles. Every time I visit I walk down the beach to get to my friends flat and each time I aim to be able to see the murmuration of starlings over the west pier. I think its really fascinating but adds a humble aspect to the very highly populated city that Brighton is and means a lot to both me and my best friend because we always associate it with each other and the love we share for the City she moved to. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The book itself.

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written by Stephen Chbosky; based upon a series of events in an alias called Charlie's life who writes to an anonymous person of whom he does not know. The story explores topics such as introversion and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches briefly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with it. As the book progresses, various works of literature and film are referenced and their meanings discussed.

 I read this book in 2004 and since then it has laid heavily upon my mind because of the truthful descriptions of his real life. I adore this book and despite it not being a traditional book I find the references to my own life at the time beyond comprehension and recently The Perks of Being a Wallflower has resumed itself into my life. The novel is being made into a film with Emma Watson starring as one of the main roles; surrounded by gossip I cannot wait to see the film itself!

The film is set to be released in September 2012, I am very excited and cant wait to see what adaptation director Stephen Chbosky has done with the written documents into cinematic movement and acting.

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659337/

Ron Ulicny

Antler, Ron Ulicny

Ron Ulicny is the creator of viscurrealistic fabrications, he makes contemporary sculptures amd earns his living with an inherent tendency to make "stuff" his 'viscurrelatistic' version of art is in fact from a group of words combined;

- visceral, a relation to deep inward feelings rather than intellect

- surrealism a 20th century movement in literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, e.g. irrational juxtaposition of images
- fabricate to invent or concoct. 


Ulicny has a really farfetched version of objects which I really adore. 


Here is some of his sculptures: 

no...ahhh...no!, Ron Ulicny

skateno.2 Ron Ulicny

http://www.ronulicny.com/

Bestival Website

Website homepage, 2012

Info page, 201

  Since attending festivals in 2008 I am really interested in one particular website which has been going since 2004, Bestival's wesbite is an arrangement of illustrations, vivid colours and clever animation its a visually exciting site and has made me buy tickets for the last two years in a row. I wanted to link this to my blog just because I am attending this year and a lot of my friends are and I would like to put this down to the way Bestival is pitched visually as well as physically.

http://www.bestival.net/

The Tree of Life.

  In February me and my housemates began to start to have movie nights, this week we watched The Tree of Life a film directed by Terrence Malick; The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

  When watching the film first time its very confusing and the plot is made up of many visual and sound clips, i.e. volcanoes exploding, the universe, dinosaurs and vast surroundings. One of the scenes used is a sequence of the universe and the feeling evoked from watching such scenes is a feeling of insignificance of the young boy in the film and gradually how his childhood naivety becomes disillusioned; surrounded by overwhelming scenes throughout the film it helps you understand his emotions without having to be narrated through his life experience (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4). Its a really clever film and the way you look at each segment is a form of re-igniting all these long lost first moments/feelings/discoveries/guilt's of your childhood and every experience is very personal as apposed to being told how you felt about a film, its more your film.

  One particular part that really made me think is a clip of dinosaurs: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDum3gehFg0&feature=related) played into the film and for the life of me I couldn't understand why but after researching this further I was enlightened to the fact that the clip was used to show; the dinosaur’s urge to commit violence is animalistic, but is it also the same bestial urge which influences Jack to commit acts of vandalism, to break in a house and most disturbingly, to tell his brother to place his hand in front of a BB gun and then pull the trigger. This type of exploration really helps to understand Jack's life and the film itself so you feel involved.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0 - Tree of Life Trailer

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4 - Universe Clip

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDum3gehFg0&feature=related - Dinosaur Clip