California Hotel Hawthorn

I made up my mind and just went on to shoot on the abandoned place at Hawthorn. I choose to shoot that because it gave me a story to look at, a before and after picture and how things don't stay permanently.

The place was pretty scary as obviously its abandoned with heaps of broken glasses and graffiti on every walls. I had to park near the neighborhood and break in through a slanted fence. The photo-shoot happened on Sunday, the place are pretty quite and watchful eyes of neighbour making me more nervous. However, as I begin to explore the place, my imagination runs wild, imagining how beautiful they actually was and now was just vandalized buy graffiti and broken pieces.

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

Ballroom, American Hotel

Room 1504, Lee Plaza Hotel

Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit

Atrium, Farwell Building

MarchandMeffre is an inspiration toward my thematic project which I decided to choose an abandoned places to widen my photography skills. The way of seeing those pictures taken by MarchandMeffre focusing not only sense of places but also sense of space. Every details, landmark and symbols are important to produce a quality picture that tells the history or a situation that happen at some point. It makes us wonder about the permanence of things..

More about MarchandMeffre http://www.marchandmeffre.com/index.html

Lynne Cohen

I had several ideas on what I want to shoot for my Thematic project. I want to capture the moment of space and motions that goes through it. Thus Paul ask me to do a research on Lynne Cohen. It is very true that Lynne Cohen has similiar photography picture that I want to shoot, which help a lot in my ideas, this is what I found about her:

Lynne Cohen has been photographing interior spaces devoid of people – laboratories, health spas, waiting rooms, classrooms. Their décor, sometimes kitschy, often funny, even if the humour reinforces the aspect of suspense, even of uneasiness. The rigorous framing, the distancing always much the same, the light that puts things in relief and the colour make the images seem constructed. By elaborating on the seemingly fictional quality of the spaces, the purposes of which are frequently ill-defined, Lynne Cohen plays up an aspect of social control, one that makes itself apparent in strange ways.

Candida Höfer

Candida Höfer photographs rooms in public places that are centers of cultural life, such as libraries, museums, theaters, cafés, universities, as well as historic houses and palaces. Each meticulously composed space is marked with the richness of human activity, yet largely devoid of human presence. Whether it be a photograph of a national library or a hotel lobby, Höfer's images ask us to conduct a distanced, disengaged examination through the window she has created. Not purely architectural photographs, her rhythmically patterned images present a universe of interiors constructed by human intention, unearthing patterns of order, logic, and disruption imposed on these spaces by absent creators and inhabitants. Her photos of ornate, baroque interiors achieve images with extreme clarity and legibility while the camera maintains an observant distance, never getting too close to its subject.

Alberto Garcia Alix

I came across Alberto Garcia Alix when I was in my Spanish Cultural class apparently he is one of the best photographer in contemporary Spanish photography. So I did some research on Garcia Alix, his photo is interesting and personal, not the picture I would take but good to have bit of knowledge about Garcia Alix.

This is what I found:

Master Spanish photographer Alberto Garcia Alix is known as one of the best oeuvres in contemporary Spanish photography. He is the foremost photographer to emerge from Spain's La Movida, the post-Franco era of free expression. Through his documentarian approach, he vibrantly captures the atmosphere of 1980's Madrid and beyond. His photographs fall into two fundamental genres: portraiture and still life. They are often provacative, erotic, and personal.

In 1999, he received the prestigious National Award of Photography of Spain. He has also designed the album covers of leading musical performers in Spain and Europe.

Ideas torn apart

Have you had too much ideas but never had time to actually put your ideas into work. That's what happen to me. Heaps of ideas for my Thematic project but I had no time to go and work on it. I would definitely blame it on myself for just working too much! Anyway, among my all other ideas, I seems to put these 2 into work - I went to an abandoned place and I went one of the oldest cemetery.

This is what I shoot

World of Objects project

The 3rd genre project would be the 'World of Objects'. This project is about seeing the objects that exist around you.

Looking at this 3rd genre it excite me as I know I could do this project well enough as I love to take still life images and just random stuff.

Thus I choose object that relates to my life.
- cigarettes (not that I addicted to it, I even rarely smoke!)
- Ipod, MacBook (technologies)
- Energy drinks
- School books/dictionaries
- Sweets
- Shoes
- Wine

I made up a small studio using white cardboard, small table and table lamp. Results: