exhibition text:
I wanted to create a project about my grandmother and the work she did as a mother, and how her work was overlooked. It reminded me of the installation for the Minneapolis Institute of Art by Carmen Winant, "The Last Safe Abortion." It deals with the clerical behind the scenes work of abortion clinics of the past, obviously referencing the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Inspiration:
Carmen Winant's exhibition of thousands of photos of work at abortion clinics, past and present handles the behind the scenes work of abortion clinics, referencing a general work of women and mothers, their labor is not at the forefront of our minds, but their labor is essential to the running of their respective systems. Which can be referenced to my grandmother and the labor she raising her children. The ring I have on in the final is a symbol of her, since it's her class ring. I also used a camera in the photo which is just personal to me, since I use it a lot and it's my way of connecting to a lot of people.
Planning:
first I wrote out some initial ideas, starting with my personal definition of community. I found that I kept coming back to family and my childhood, in growing up where I did, in Bay View. I thought of an object next, my grandmothers old class ring from her high school, Bay View HS. I next met with Jason Yi, to discuss my ideas so far. I found that I should be looking at traditions and heirlooms in the future and I then started to think about locations and where to take this photo, with that not being solved yet.
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Some locations I thought of when brainstorming locations to pose in were, her old house, Grant Park, the Sheridan Park waterpark, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, as well as a couple other locations around Milwaukee where we went during my childhood. I plan on asking my grandmother and other family members where I should take the photo.
I started to think of possible poses to be in, and after getting feedback I found that having a bench between the two of us would be separating us too much, and would create a barrier. I still wanted to include the ring, and I was thinking of ways to include the ring and have it be prominent.
Most of my planning included thinking about having me and my grandmother included in the photo, however when I began the process I began to see that I didn't want to include people in the image because it did not include my object, the ring, enough and that was the whole reason I was taking the photograph. This meant completely rethinking my idea and working the ring into it still.
Process:
my first step of the process was going to the beach with my grandmother and taking a few pictures of her. The pictures turned out okay, but the weather was really bad and I didn't end up with any pictures that I liked that much. I also discovered that having two people in the frame was distracting from the message, and the ring did not even get to make an appearance in the frame because there was simply too much going on. Also the dry and cold weather was not making for a good backdrop and I did not want to include such a rough landscape so I tried to move on to more heavily include the lake. I did not take any pictures on the camera I wanted to either because the battery died, but just using my phone camera I realized I would have to be more diligent about the technical aspects, making sure things were in focus, and that the things weren't washed out.
I went back to Grant Park by myself and found some more success, at first I was experimenting with posing the ring around different spots, but I found that this method was getting a little tired, this composition was a little boring, and it made me sick of having just the ring in frame, with nothing else, it made it too much of a spectacle and I wanted it to be more natural. However it was bright and sunny so I was having better luck than last time with the background. I knew the ring was important and I thought of it as my inspiration point, but it was too small and insignificant to be the only thing in frame. Experimenting with getting further away from the ring proved this, because although the composition was more pleasing, the ring was no longer big enough to fill out the frame.
After finding that the ring was too small, I started to experiment with other ideas on the spot. I used my hand that already had a lot of rings on it to make the ring stand out but blend in at the same time. Another similar idea I had was to use a camera to make my hand look more natural in the photo and to make a stronger personal connection to me, as I really like photography, and the ring wholly belonged to my grandmother and essentially had nothing to do with me except for the connection.
The final product I ended up with was the sum of the ideas that I had in the past, I had the ring, I had my hand, now just with the inclusion of a camera, which can be seen as too much, like there is too much going on, but I like to see it as a personal connection to me and to my inspiration, as the inspiration has a fairly busy composition as well, when looking from far away. However with the connection to the inspiration the closer you look at it the more details are revealed. I would have liked to not have my coat sleeve in the frame, I did not have it on in the other pictures of my hand, but I did have it in this one cause I was cold and distracted by the other things going on in the frame. I actually had a couple different people input into the final photo and overall people liked the one with the camera in it the most, so I thought that is the one I should go with.
Experimentation:
I started taking pictures of the scenery I was in to try and scope out good backdrops, I wasn't completely happy with the weather and the season in general, but I tried to move forward and focus on the lake instead so that I could have something that I was happy with. I did not completely hate the backdrop and later in the photo roll I used this backdrop, not just the lake. I like the clouds in the background and I like how far the viewer can see, the landscape goes on for miles and I like how much of that is shown.
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I started photographing the ring after the scenery, and I did not do the best job, the ring is so small compared to anything else and I didn't want to get to close, I wanted it to be like a portrait of the ring. But this was making the ring super out of focus and left me with lots of out of focus shots. I also took these at a portrait orientation, just so that I didn't get bored of the landscape shots. I knew that something like this couldn't be the final but I wasn't thinking about the final at this point in time, just about the general ideas it was giving me at the time to move forward with the composition. Being this low to the ground also gave way to sticks and rocks and garbage that is on the beach, which was not so appealing because the ring couldn't block any of it from view. It was too small to just be a portrait and that is how I moved forward with it.
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I then tried to get further from the camera. The size of the ring was still not cooperating and I could not easily control the focus of the camera, it is pretty old and hard to use at times (one of the buttons doesn't work). I also tried to shoot the ring from the perspective that I was looking at it like it was a person sitting next to. But this didn't work because it wasn't convincing to me and I knew I needed to move on and find something new to try for the compositional elements. I also was just starting to think that the ring was boring, it was too small and kept getting lost in the scale of what I wanted to include. Another thing I didn't like was the log, I was sick of it and how much it blended into the sand, I wanted some more contrast to try and make things more interesting.
I think that the hand shot was something I did on a whim, I wanted to find something more interesting, more contrast more color. My way of doing that was adding my hand. This also added a stronger connection to me, I was now an active part of the shot and it worked out in my favor, I like the imperfections of my hand with the lake in the background. I like that the ring is a part of me and my whole history of rings. It gives the composition a stringer connection to my IB theme of identity as well with my person being in it.
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Critique:
Similarities may include:
- The mediums in each photograph are obviously the same, there are many photographs in hers and just mine. I would say that both photographs have a heavy emphasis on cameras and media used.
- The things emphasized in each artwork are the different shapes, for example the rectangle of the camera in my piece, and the rectangles of the different photos in Winant's piece.
Differences may include:
- The inspiration has a heavy emphasis on repetition of the media, it includes repetition of many different photographs. My piece includes repetition however, it is in the details like the rings, not in the media itself.
- The locations of the different photographs: my photograph includes one singular locations with an importance to me. Whereas her installation has many different locations, and with that naturally comes with putting less significance on the locations, because there are so many other things to focus on. I think it is pretty clear in my photograph where the picture is and that makes it important.
- My inspirations planning took a lot, there was a lot of travel and contacting of people to get the materials organized. Whereas I sort of took a "just go out and do it" approach to my art making. I had some planning behind me to help but certainly not as much as her.
- Color is more important in Winant's piece than it is in my piece, there is a wider range of colors in her piece, and mine has a couple different colors, but to me they are not as important as the subject matter. The same can be said for Winant's piece, but color is something that immediately hits the viewers eyes.
Reflection:
At the end of this project, I feel more confident in my skills in photography, I had some bumps in creating balanced photographs at first, but once I got the right angles and lighting I was able to make something that I was really proud of. I feel that my technique used in the composition of just trial and error until I got it right worked in this case and landed me with something that looks balanced. I feel that working with this medium in a way that I hadn't before was good for me, it pushed me to interrogate my relationship with photography and why I like it so much. My inspiration for this project was the artist Carmen Winant and her photo installation for the Minneapolis Museum of Art. This artwork deals with abortion clinics of the past, and the clerical work of it. It reminded me of the work of women in general and how their labor is often overlooked. My grandmother came to mind when thinking about this because she raised three boys, mostly by herself while my grandfather worked. It is a different kind of labor, but in my mind it connects. The biggest challenge I encountered on the project was finding the right thing to photograph, I had a lot of different ideas in my head and it was hard to find the right ones for this project. I have worked a lot with photography in the past and it is something I enjoy, working with it in a more formal way was both easy and challenging for me, but I think it makes my art for the better. My favorite part was going to the lake to take the picture, and getting to see the beauty of the lake for the first time in a while. Whereas my least favorite part was working in the cold dreary weather, because I think my photo would be better suited for lush green scenery. I hope others view my work with the knowledge that it is about my grandmother.
ACT questions:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- When I see the inspiration and I see the message of the artists looking at the behind the scenes work of abortion clinics of the past, and I am reminded of my own message of looking at the identity of mothers and women raising children, specifically with my grandmother.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The author takes a careful and thoughtful approach to the subject matter, they look at these photos and they make something grand out of a few hundred pictures that could be overlooked by others.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I found that the behind the scenes work of abortion clinics is often overlooked, before the art piece, I did not think of this aspect of handling abortions, and I assume that many others did not either.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
- I wanted to use an inspiration that had photography as a medium, and I wanted to use an artists from my own knowledge, I first thought of Steven Meisel, but his reason for art making did not closely represent the message I was trying to go for. Then I thought of other photographs I have seen and thought of the installation and realized it was perfect for what I was going for.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I found that my artist inspiration has a long history of installations at different museums and that her work goes past abortions but centers on female experiences.
- When I see the inspiration and I see the message of the artists looking at the behind the scenes work of abortion clinics of the past, and I am reminded of my own message of looking at the identity of mothers and women raising children, specifically with my grandmother.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The author takes a careful and thoughtful approach to the subject matter, they look at these photos and they make something grand out of a few hundred pictures that could be overlooked by others.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I found that the behind the scenes work of abortion clinics is often overlooked, before the art piece, I did not think of this aspect of handling abortions, and I assume that many others did not either.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
- I wanted to use an inspiration that had photography as a medium, and I wanted to use an artists from my own knowledge, I first thought of Steven Meisel, but his reason for art making did not closely represent the message I was trying to go for. Then I thought of other photographs I have seen and thought of the installation and realized it was perfect for what I was going for.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I found that my artist inspiration has a long history of installations at different museums and that her work goes past abortions but centers on female experiences.
Bibliography:
"The Last Safe Abortion: Minneapolis Museum of Art." Minneapolis Museum of Art, MIA, 2023, new.artsmia.org/exhibition/the-last-safe-abortion.
Winant, Carmen. “Carmen Winant.” Carmenwinant.com, 2024, https://www.carmenwinant.com/.
Winant, Carmen. “Carmen Winant.” Carmenwinant.com, 2024, https://www.carmenwinant.com/.