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Farewell

Posted in abstract, Art, Jason Gray with tags Bulgaria, farewell, Galina Todorova, Jason Gray, painter on May 25, 2012 by Jason Gray

As some of you may know, I am experiencing two significant moments of my life (adopting/becoming a parent and going back to school), and this has made it very difficult to continue to post my weekly contributions to d’Arte Board. So, with some regret, I am resigning from my post at this blog. I have made several excellent friends, and many more interesting acquaintances, through d’Arte Board, and I hope that you all will follow my much less frequent posts to my personal blog, Hours of Idleness.

Nonetheless, I have invited my friend, Galina Todorova, to take over for me. Galina is a noted painter who lives and works in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Her posts will begin next Friday, so please show her some support. I have spent many long hours discussing painting with her, and I feel like her points of view and passion for art will be a welcome addition to d’Arte Board.

I have included a few examples of her work after the jump–> Read more »

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Donna Summer

Posted in Jason Gray with tags friday night music video, Jason Gray on May 18, 2012 by Jason Gray

It’s been a rough week in terms of producing artwork. Unfortunately also, Donna Summer died, and so here’s a Friday night music video tribute:

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Andreas Gursky

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on May 11, 2012 by Jason Gray

Many people know Andreas Gursky from the prices that his images command (twice, his photographs have set records for the amount paid), and possibly also for their scale (his images often are printed as large as some Abstract Expressionist works). However, Gursky is less understood for his approach to photography, an approach that is as equally contemplative as it is controlled.

“The significant step from representational depiction to representational photographic design comes when the subject, the motif, is no longer shot for its own sake, but is demoted from its own meaning to the status of an object of the design intention.”[1] This quote summates the transition, from one to the other, of the two major, Post-Modern approaches to representational photography, New Topographics and the Dusseldorf School. While included in the first New Topographics exhibition, Hilla and Bernd Becher were technically the founders of the Dusseldorf School. The Bechers’ students at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in Germany, and those students’ intellectual diaspora, represented this new approach, which differed primarily from the first one in that, while the New Topographics were engaged in showing the results of human occupation (depiction), the Dusseldorf School were interested in reorganizing the world in front of their camera (human beings or not) in a way that suited their vision (design). This photography, including Gursky’s, is formally a way of cataloguing according to common references, like books in a library, but not so much according to the subject as the photographer’s handling of it. Read more »

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Also…

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Adoption, Jason Gray on April 13, 2012 by Jason Gray

My wife and I are adopting, which is a darn expensive process. If you’d like to help, and are in the area, please consider stopping by the Trivia Night fundraiser mentioned above. If you are not near St. Louis, and you don’t find my Friday posts too annoying, feel free to contribute by using our Paypal option here.

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Diane Arbus and the Snapshot

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, Diane Arbus, snapshot on April 13, 2012 by Jason Gray

Both the bane and the benefit of photography in the Modern Age is camera technology that enables the novice photographer to produce a convincing photographic representation without much training, artistic inclination, or investment expense. Currently, introductory cameras (point-and-shoot compacts, cell phone cameras, entry-level DSLRs, etc.) are so fully automated that almost anyone can pick one up and immediately make a decent picture. This fact implies that photography is not always as complicated as photographers make it seem. For individuals attempting to professionalize the activity of taking photographs, this represents a dilemma; how does one take advantage of streamlining technology, while at the same time, preserving the role of the operator as a necessary component? The answer, of course, has been for the professional photographer to point to the novice photographer’s images and call them “snapshots”, or images made crudely without regard for photographic conventions.

A “snapshot”.

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Generate: Collaboration

Posted in Art, art on paper, awareness, Drawing, Jason Gray, Painting, performance, St. Louis, video with tags Ann-Maree Walker, Generate, Jason Gray, performance art, St. Louis, video on April 1, 2012 by Jason Gray

Unfortunately, I did not have this quite ready to post on Friday night, so I am usurping Sunday to share it with you. I recently finished a collaboration (maybe the first of more) with St. Louis-based artist, Ann-Maree Walker. The video is part of her project, “Generate”, which was a recent feature of the Luminary Center for the Arts exhibition, Something Happened. My contribution deals with the idea of instantaneity; specifically, its relationship to the public’s perception of how artwork is generated.

See more of Ann-Maree’s “Generate” here.

More stills and the full video after the jump. Read more »

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Mississippi Update

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, Mississippi Levee on March 23, 2012 by Jason Gray

I spent a bit more time out on the Levee recently. I hope to begin printing the results of my labors soon, and exhibiting them soon after that. I’ll keep you posted.

Friday night music vid:

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Levee-tation

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on March 9, 2012 by Jason Gray

Recently, I have been working on a new series of images involving work made while out on the Mississippi flood plain. This area is otherworldly, simply put. The levee system near St. Louis consists of several earthen mounds running parallel to the river, and it is obvious from the landscape between them and the river that devastation is a yearly occurrence. My waders on their way. More to come on this series…

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Miles Not Davis

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on February 17, 2012 by Jason Gray

Some of you might recall that post that I did some time ago on the Miles Mausoleum. Anyway, here are the first prints from that session (these are from the 35mm that I shot that day). Definitely more to come on these…

All Nikon 8008s with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens and Kodak T-Max 100 film.

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Place

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Art, Jason Gray, Nikon, Place on February 3, 2012 by Jason Gray

What’s up, Darteboard? Here are a couple of examples from a photographic experiment that I have been working on.

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A Pic and a Video

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on January 27, 2012 by Jason Gray

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Pics and Music Videos

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on January 13, 2012 by Jason Gray

Model: Lindsey Davidson

Music: from STL

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Miles Mausoleum

Posted in Art, film, Jason Gray, landscape with tags Jason Gray on December 24, 2011 by Jason Gray

As promised several weeks ago, here are some of the shots that I took on a visit to a nearby abandoned mausoleum. All photos were shot with a Bronica ETRSi and 75mm f/2.8 lens on Kodak T-Max 100 film. Images were scanned, which contributed to the funky color-cast, and appear completely unedited (save the watermark). I’ll include some scans from the final prints at a later time.

From Wikipedia:

Stephen Miles, a veteran of the War of 1812, was buried here by his son Stephen W. Miles. The mausoleum is located atop Eagle Cliff midway between Columbia and Valmeyer in what is known variously as Eagle Cliff Cemetery or Miles Cemetery. Due to its size and position on the bluff, the mausoleum is visible from several miles away, and has thus gained a prominent position in local legend. It has been a frequent target for vandals, and as a result all bodies were removed and reburied elsewhere; the fifty-six crypts are now empty and open, and the door to the mausoleum is gone.

More–> Read more »

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More Men (not Mormon)

Posted in 35mm, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray on October 7, 2011 by Jason Gray

Last week, I posted a pic from a new series of photographs that I am working on. This week, I am showing off more shots of some of the men from the series, and next week, I hope to have some of the women ready to put on display. It is interesting to me to observe how differently the women versus the men approached posing for this; the women had a sort of default “pose-face” whereas the men kind of let their guard down a bit more. I guess that’s culture….

All Nikon N80 with the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G lens and Kodak T-Max 400 film. Prints are on Adorama-branded, variable-contrast, fiber paper. Please excuse my dusty and orientation-moody scanner.

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The Stranger

Posted in 35mm, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, portrait on September 30, 2011 by Jason Gray

I am back to working on the subject of identity. This time, I have photographed portraits of 47 strangers, 23 men and 24 women, and hope to show the degree of visible variation between people of a certain place (I staked out a spot at a local community college). More to come on this.

Nikon N80 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G lens and Kodak T-Max 400 film, printed on Adorama-branded, variable contrast, fiber paper.

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More Lonely Buildings

Posted in Jason Gray, Photography with tags Abandoned Building, Barn, Farm, Illinois, Jason Gray, Nikon, Slaughterhouse on September 9, 2011 by Jason Gray

Last weekend, I visited my mother-in-law in Springfield, Illinois, and she drove me around looking for abandoned buildings for me to photograph (who else has that kind of a relationship with their in-laws?). We found a couple of barns and a slaughterhouse, which made for a nice little outing.

All Nikon D300 with Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G lens.

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Zoo of the Uncanny

Posted in Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, Saint Louis Zoo on September 2, 2011 by Jason Gray

So I was walking through the Saint Louis Zoo the other day, and I turned around to witness the strange Arbusian scene of a little girl trying to coax a small flock of exotic birds to be her friend. After taking the picture above, I started to think about how really strange the whole zoo environment is, with all of the animals tidily on display for their (often disgusting) human counterparts to look at, all wild-eyed. The zoo is a fantastically odd place, and I tried to snap a few photos that relayed this feeling that I was having at the time. Enjoy.

All Nikon D50 with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-x pro lens.

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Recent Portraits

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, portraits on August 26, 2011 by Jason Gray

I don’t have a lot new to share despite the fact that I have been really busy. Does that make any sense? I didn’t think so.

Anyway, here are a few examples of some recent portraits that I have been taking. If you read One Round Jack, expect to find a few of these faces popping up again soon.

All Nikon D300 with either a Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G, 105mm f/2.8G, or 50mm f/1.8E lens.

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Unilever Soap Plant; Pagedale, Missouri

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags Jason Gray, Unilever Soap Plant on August 19, 2011 by Jason Gray

This former Unilever plant in Pagedale, Missouri sits on 20+ acres and features over 320,000 square feet of existing, interior space. It was built in 1953, and ceased operating in 2001. The Terminal Railroad runs nearby and once serviced the commercial giant at this former manufacturing center. There had been plans in 2003 to renovate the site, but as far as I can tell, all that is happening now has to do with a large paved area northwest of the central building being used as a school bus parking lot. It is a unique and interesting site that once supplied over 200 jobs to the region.