Semiotics

Incase you don't no what semiotics are I'm going to briefly summarise what semiotics are. Semiotics is the study of signs, these signs consist of signifier and signified. signifier is the material aspect, it is what we see in front of you, what is actually there. the signified is the mental aspect, it is learnt trough our society and culture.

To be able to look at semiotics I advise you watch Johnny Cash - Hurt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clq01TXQR0s, first watch it in silence, then watch it with sound. come to some conclusions about what you see and see if your ideas change when you what it with sound, I'm sure the lyrics will effect your opinions about the window and the semiotics involved. Below I'm gonna write my ideas about the video and read that after yours and please post your ideas as a comment.

 - The bowl of fruit at the beginning immediately jumps out as looking like a renaissance painting.
 - The closed museum about Johnny Cash "House of Cash" saying its not open to public maybe meaning that his life is closing and he now wants privacy as it comes to a end.
 - When Johnny Cash is sat at the table with alot of food in front of him i think references to the last supper.
 - The line "everyone I know goes away" and "what have I Become" seems to be that he is reflecting on his life and what has gone wrong and who he has lost, maybe due to age or events in the past.
 - "I wear this crown of thorns" referencing to the Bible and Jesus.
 - What have I become my sweetest friend" again reflecting on himself but this time showing his wife and older footage of them together allowing us to see a different side of Cash when he was younger and in love.
 - The final few seconds Johnny Cash closes the piano lid which I think represents that his life has come to a close and he knows its time.

Polaroids

I bought a polaroid back for my Bronica ETRSi and it came with 3 pieces of film in it. I shot three photos randomly without and specific subject matter in mind, and came realised as i did it the film must have been out of date and was producing these odd colours that made my subject more interesting that it actually was.

                                    

Blog Research

Creating my own blog led me to look at other blogs of different scale and popularity. One of the first blogs I checked out was http://cupofpea.blogspot.com a small blog about a photographer called Rasmus Vasli, and his portraits he takes when he is walking the streets.

I think what interests me about this blog is in the approach he takes to taking the photograph, these are complete strangers but in the time it takes to shoot the photo he gets to know the person in front of the lense and then writes about this meeting on his blog in quite a intimite way.

 http://www.lenscratch.com/ is a well established blog offering daily posts, showing peoples work, exhibition reviews and interviews. down the right hand side of the page is a list of photographers that has been showcased on the blog and another list with other blogs and website which would give you more than enough viewing.

I spent a lot of time going through old posts on lenscratch looking for things that really caught my eye and thought was truely inspiring and worked with mainly the use of colour and light in the photo, I found myself being more and more drawn to work that was abstract rather than something like a portrait. One of the interesting things I found was a series of photos call "Revolutions" by Yvette Meltzer where she photographed laundry spinning in the washing machines. This work in my mind plays on colours to draw you in, the washing machine is almost like a frame to these different colours swirling around.

Other photos I found really unusual were of fire flys taken in japan, these long exposures are really unusual and a world away from the long exposures you normally see of cars and traffic. The scenery of the woods gives these photos a sense of a fairy tale and as if a journey is taking place. Photos originally from http://www.escapeintolife.com/showcase/dazzling-fireflies-display/ photographer unknown.