CourtneyP

Last night was 7×7 Magazine’s Bring on the Night silent auction benefit for SF Camerawork, where they auctioned off the top 25 photographs in their recent contest.

My photo, which made it into the top 10 and therefore featured in this month’s issue, went to this lovely lady pictured here (thank you to Aynne for the photo). She wanted a photo with me and had me sign her copy of the magazine.It’s kinda neat to be in this position, although new and somewhat awkward

I’m pleased to announce that the above photo that I shot (at Club Deluxe last December) has been selected as a top ten finalist in 7×7 Magazine‘s Bring on the Night Photography contest!

The top ten photographs will be featured in the November issue of the magazine (which, as you can see, has an “After Dark” theme). The issue should be out any day now… so keep an eye out for it!

Prints of the top 25 photos are being auctioned off to benefit SF Camerawork, a “non-profit organization encouraging emerging and mid-career artists to explore new directions in photography and related media by fostering creative forms of expression that push existing boundaries”.

Congrats also go to Derek, who I noticed was also on the list of top ten photos for this contest as well!

I’m excited that my photography is slowly making its way into the public eye. I’m even more proud that I’ve been forgiving enough to myself and to my artwork that I feel comfortable in submitting my photography to these kinds of things. Self-criticism is a hard to thing to overcome.

I guess I’ve been somewhat timid to mention this, but I suppose I should.

I’ll be tabling for my first time at the Alternative Press Expo (commonly referred to as APE), taking up a small space at tables 348-349, graciously hosted by The Geekout & Entropy Comics. I’ll also be sharing the space with fellow geek and friend Kevin Cheng, who’ll be pimping out a graphic novel he worked on with MJ as well as reprahzentin’ Off Panel.

I’ll be showing and selling my first (real) zine entitled Slightly Irregular, which I hope to expand in the future to found photos/objects and others’ contributions. I will also probably be hawking zines & wares from Robert as well as our friend Ben Claassen (Bendependent).

Now I just have to finish production on my own stuff. Ergh. I’m sure I’ll work it out just fine.

Lots of outta town friends are gonna be here for APE and beyond, so it’s gonna be a busy next week or so. I’ve been a bit sick for the past few days, so that’s been a damper, but hopefully it’ll clear up by the time Lap-POP 2.0 comes around!

It’s a month of crazy creative geekiness. Ain’t it grand?

Jake truly knows how to make a girl look good. First, the lovely portrait that he took of me at Lap-pop (with my D50, nonetheless!), then this elegant shot of Eris and I at her birthday soiree on Friday. Who knew my skin could look so good?

If you haven’t ever perused Jake’s photos, I highly recommend taking a look. He brings out the best in people. I find many of my favorite photos coming from him.

I can’t describe how excited I am about the experimental photography class I am taking this quarter. It’s the bomb-schniggety.

It’s more of an “Alternative Processes” class, or more specifically, “Historical Processes”. It’s just that the school and its catalog calls it “experimental”. Bah, words, they just confuse you.

Anyways, to clarify, we are learning photographic processes that were popular in photography’s birth and growth, when there was experimentation with different light sources, chemicals and materials to get a photographic image. Keep in mind that the term “photographic image” does not necessarily mean a capture of a scene that the photographer saw with his/her eyes, but an image created with light. The word “Photography” comes from the Greek word “phos” which means “light”, and “graphein” which is the Greek word for “write”.

Er, that’s enough teaching for now. ^_^;;

My point being, I am looking forward to making works of art that aren’t just straight photographs (snapshots?). Ya dig?

Anyhoo, I checked out the book Alternative Photographic Processes from the library the other day. It includes a lot of processes that we are to cover in class, like enlarged negatives, solarizing, toning, cyanotypes, Van Dyke prints & Kallitypes, and gum bichromate prints. We’re also going to be working with Liquid Light during the course, which looks to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this is only a quarter-length class, so we cannot cover the many other processes. I would like to try my hand at daguerreotypes someday…