This summer i worked for an organization called Camp Jorn YMCA, my official title was media specialist and the trading post guy. Looking back at the summer i realized i was surrounded by the most creative people on earth. Children really are the key to the future and when people say that, i don't think they understand the full meaning behind it. As we get older we be begin to close certain parts of out mind and only process information we believe to be the most important and then leave the rest to just float around.

Final Understanding Brendan Palbitska

Interacting with the campers every day, some times even letting them take a few pictures allowed me to understand from an outside perspective on how kids understand the world. When i reviewed the pictures every night i could always tell the difference between mine and theirs based on the angel of course but also the subject matter. The pictures where mostly of nature or material things, such as clothing, shoes, and sometimes pictures of the crafts that others had made. They where in their own world not caring if their pictures where going to mean something, it made them happy to be able to capture what they saw. It sounds complicated but that's because humans make everything complicated. That's the whole reason for our medium. Because humans make everything complicated and want to understand everything instead of just letting things be the way they are . My view of expression threw photographs is not to be analyzed to a T of every line and positioning of that in the background. I've heard students in the photo department talk about how much they dislike canded shots, or shots that are set up. All i have to say about that is welcome to the world of fine art photography. Every time a fine art photographer shoots they make sure they have a certain subject matter to reference something and then watches the lines to lead you some where and then, and then, and then... The list just keeps going on and on. And i'm not complaining because that's what our major is, but sometimes students put to much thought into what they're looking at and when they get done, you just sit there and imagine, if they give this much thought about this picture, how do they view everything in their every day life. That's where people get to complicated!

Untitled, © Paige Rice

Over the summer, as well as, throughout the last year, I find myself completely drawn to time. To clarify since time is something of a broad meaning; I love to photography things that show the aging of time, the subtlety of change in time, all around us. It is something the happens everyday, every second. We are constantly going forward in time. I love the beauty of it. Clouds are one of my absolute favorite things to photograph. Like the one above from the summer, it shares subtlety in its details, beauty in its various changes over time. No one cloud shot is ever the same, for the fact alone being due to time. They can change so smoothly, or drastically, either way its lovely. This is something I can't let go of; focusing on that fact that time never stops. We never stand still, we are always revolving, changing, and moving forward from the last second.

mowing © robert kjendlie

Thinking on this assignment and looking back at the work I did over the summer I found that my camera was primarily focused on family. Years passed with only brief visits. Not only has it been great seeing all of them again but the experience of spending time and getting to know them is most rewarding. They are all getting fairly used to me having my camera all the time. The work has come about rather unconsciously so I will not be actively pursuing this as my focus at MIAD. I hope to capture them being themselves. This is how I want to remember them.

These two spend hours mowing.

Underwater Galaxy © Megan Ramminger

I have always been interested in capturing the beauty of this world with the lens of my camera. Discovering a new world with the one that I live in is what I strive for. Abstraction, illusion and distortion of space is what I have consistently come back to in my photography. What it is doesn't matter, what matters is what it becomes. I am inspired by the work of Eliot Porter and his abstractions of landscapes. I also am inspired by Sabine Hornig and Peter Keetman's photographs. The distortion of space that creates new worlds always excites me. Sonja Thomsen also inspires me with her view of seeing the world, and the universe beyond, as connecting in micro and macro ways. The photograph I have posted above also shares this idea of micro and macro similarities. In this upcoming year at MIAD I want to explore my abstractions of space and try to concentrate on using my photographs as a way of communicating psychological messages in a successful way.

Untitled © Laura Hughes

Between work and classes I had very little free time this summer. I continue to be intrigued by clouds and water. Wind creates similar effects on both; moments of absolute clarity instantly changed by the newly-obscured sun or by sand swirled up by a paddling foot or hungry fish. When clouds reflect on water, the senses awaken to multi-tiered awareness rippling clouds, ebb and flow, glowing sun, and whispering wind.

My thoughts were also drawn to bodies of water--lakes and ponds, and also to the amazing stories found in rain puddles and urban streams. I took this photo in the fishpond at Boerner Botanical Gardens--a manmade construction that is teeming with unanticipated life and unexpected objects.

I recently purchased a wacom tablet and have begun experimenting with blending other media into my photographs. I hope to explore this mixed media approach further during the school year.

She was the universe©Marta Shumylo

I do not know how my fascination with photographing smokers has started but I am sure it has a lot to do with breathing. Inhaling something that is not air. Breathing is a regular physiological process that is constantly happening yet most of the time people are unaware of it. I personally feel like breathing proves the existence of air and in a way, smoking proves breathing, it makes it visible.
When taking this photograph, I was intrigued by how unrealistic the smoke seemed. It just floated in her mouth, making it look like a foggy lake, immeasurable depth. At that moment she was the universe. This was an intuitive, in-the-moment photo shoot, which is very different from my other "smoking" photographs that required a lot of thinking, planning and setting up. Maybe this is not my best photograph from the summer but it is the most important one to me. I feel like it is a beginning of something significant.

Untitled © Emily E. Johnson

I took this photo just after a storm began to clear up over Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc earlier this summer. As with most of my photographs it was a spontaneous reaction to my surroundings. I'm very inspired by the weather, and I've found that some of the most interesting lighting for taking photographs occurs just before or just after a storm has passed. I feel that the lighting is what keeps pulling me back to this particular image.

Untitled ©Keely Weiland

I spent a month of my summer traveling abroad with MIAD, living and studying in Florence, Italy. Not far from our apartment was Piazza della Rupubblica, which held something special for me. I was told about a carousel before I left, not where it was or what was special about it, just that it was somewhere in Florence. I found it the first day and was instantly obsessed. I photographed it constantly throughout my time there, always finding something new and interesting about it. This was one of the few night images I took of this carousel. This carousel inspired my entire project following this class. I spent most of the last week before leaving for home photographing this carousel and the piazza it stands in, in both film and digital in as many times of day and in as many different ways as time allowed. I really enjoyed making work like this and would like to continue it in my future work.

untitled © Kaitlynn Scannell

It was an overcast day while I drove down a small road in Indiana traveling to my families summer home. I noticed a large brick building being taken over by ivy, and couldn't help my curiosity to explore. Over the past couple of years I have become more and more fascinated by the relationship between people and their objects. What we once saw as value we now toss away as garbage. I have found myself craving exploration through my lens. In my work I try to capture the moment between abandonment and reclamation. I am constantly inspired by artists such as Andrew Moore, Brian Ulrich, and Alejandra Laviada. Their work takes on a documentary style.

Elements © Lauren Howie Laur

Sometime in the Spring of this year, I stumbled onto the idea of identity. It caused me to look at myself and ponder hundreds of questions about who I really was as a photographer, a women and why I am who I am today. I began to link place with identity and photographed what I called home. I want to understand the significance of place for their users. This photograph is unlike the very directorial photographs I have produced in the past and lead me to other approaches in my photography. This image was made this summer during an independent study course I took with Bob Smith. It was one of the first photographs I took that summer and it was a jumping off point for me as an artist. Each element of my image making currently, has very much to do with an internal conflict of what home really is and if where we are is who we are.

untitled © Olivia Obluck-Zager

Over the summer I did an independent study with Bob Smith in which I focused my camera on nature reclaiming space. Along with my topic of study I wanted to compare digital photos with color film scans. This particular image was one of the film scans. I found it liberating to be meshing film and digital aspects into my photography because before coming to MIAD all I did was black and white film, which I still prefer to do to this day. I enjoy the more physical participation in the creation of the photograph while with digital I tend to feel completely detached from the finished product.

In the beginning of this study I had planned on focusing on just industrial spaces, but throughout the process found myself drawn to more rural spaces being overtaken by the surrounding nature. I was also assisting a friend with a real estate photography job so I found myself exploring all different areas of Wisconsin and the ones I tended to photograph were the sites that seemed out of place in the surrounding town. Though I may not necessarily photograph the subject of nature's revenge I do hope to continue experimenting with film scans this year.

Home © Andrea Bartley

This image is a result of one of my visits home during the summer. I had the opportunity to go home to Zionsville, Indiana to shoot a wedding for a friend. One of my favorite things to do while visiting home is to drive around town to see all of my old familiar hang-out spots. New shopping mall strips are being built on the outskirts of my town, much to the chagrin of the locals who have lived in town their entire lives, and so each time I visit more of these spots are being replaced. I am opposed to the new construction as well, but I realize that there is nothing that I can do about it. This site is an abandoned farm house that rests on several acres of lovely farmland that has overgrown with daisies and tall grasses. I have biked and driven past several times without mustering up the courage to explore the area with my camera, but with each passing year and all of the changes that have come about, I did not want to miss another chance to immortalize this farm house.

Although I have photographed abandoned buildings before, the focus of my photograph is usually a human subject. This time I am more driven to create an image that evokes nostalgia in myself. It is more of a document of what is there now and what might soon be gone. It is unlike my previous work because of the lack of a human subject, and I am not sure that I want to continue seriously photographing abandoned buildings. I will continue to explore this sense of nostalgia with my work and perhaps direct my attention toward a human subject instead.

Untitled © Emily Porter

During the summer I mostly photographed using my 120 mm Holga camera. I find that using film increases my curiosity of what the outcome will be. In this particular image I am attracted to the soft blue glow coming through the window. I am fascinated by the chance you take using film and the pleasant "mistakes" that take place along the way. People who are close to me inspire my work, such as my sister, who appears in this photograph. I would like to analyze the relationships around me that essentially create my work and strive to develop a stronger voice in this upcoming year at MIAD.

passing drift © Alec Schuppel

Living back in my hometown for the summer, I spent my time attempting to recapture the nature that had surrounded and inspired me to start photographing ever so long ago. I find myself looking in these small happenings where the perception of time seems to slow down and all words lose their meaning. The wind becomes like music, and the feeling of receiving answers to questions that were never asked fills up my chest. Collectively, enriching the ability to find beauty in the simplest things. A gracious gesture to the life that I've been living. This photograph was a result of one of those happenings. This is a direction I've been striving to be on since high-school and this is what I intend on focusing on this following year at MIAD.

Untitled © Joshua Ballew

This image is from a series of photographs taken at Fondy's Market, an open air farmers market located at 22nd and Fon du Lac Ave. I was asked by one the directors to come down and document the exchange between the locals and the farmers. While shooting I was exposed to the expanding community of people who are choosing to buy locally grown produce in addition to those who work to provide the space and time for the market to operate on a weekly basis. This instance was one the first opportunities in which I was asked to photograph for an organization so I was unsure exactly how to proceed having no prior experiences to learn from. Regardless of that fact I fully enjoyed the time I was allowed to explore and document the colorful arrangements of fruits, vegetables, and hand made crafts. My intent was to create images which accurately reflected the relaxed atmosphere of the market while in addition focusing upon the interaction between the patrons and their agriculturally minded retailers. In the future I can definitely see myself doing work similar to this which focuses upon community based organizations. I am currently employed at the Milwaukee County Service Corps in their Art Corps program while among other things documenting the artwork created by it's members.

© Kelsey Lorenzen

I took this photo while on a bus traveling through Chicago. We were stopped at a light and I was so intrigued with these two men. Their outfits and gestures drew me into the scene and the strong lines in the background tied the photo together. This photo is very similar to other photo's I've taken in the past, and one's I hope to continue throughout the semester. I like to photograph the mundane and often over looked scenes we find in our day to day life. This photo reminds me of images by Stephen Shore and Alec Soth, both whom I admire and want to continue to emulate their styles throughout this semester.

untitled © Jennifer Romero

Being in Europe for a month this summer, inspiration grew all around me. Even in the most unexpected places I was flooded with ideas. This photograph was taken in Krakow, Poland in a long hallway leading to a local restaurant named "Buddha" in Rynek Glowny, the main square. The slow shutter speed and low light caused this blurred looking effect. This is something I recently started practicing and have enjoyed very much. I am inspired by Uta Barth's work which consists of soft, blurred and out of focus images that are simply stunning. This type of photographic abstraction is something I plan to continue exploring throughout the semester because I am extremely fascinated by the results that are the outcome of this practice.

Untitled © Zachary Seib

It was early in the morning when I captured this scene. The fog was so thick that I could feel the minuscule drops of water as they slowly drifted past me. Water was dripping from the trees as if it had just rained. As I walked along the shoreline, I noticed that the water was dead calm, and its reflection was mirror like. The dark pier was piercing the vast white abyss. The much darker reflection underneath it appeared like a strange shadow. It was a photograph that I had been waiting years to find. I composed the frame so no extraneous visual elements would detract from the scene. This photograph was influenced by Michael Kenna and Luke Stettner's photography. I am going to try to continue creating images of this nature for the following semester.

untitled © Julia L. Kozerski

Due to serious circumstances beyond my control, I did not shoot much over the summer with regards to my fine art photography. However, in recent weeks, my interest in the photographic medium has peeked in a genre I once swore "I would never" shoot . . . commercial.

I began my internship with the Shepherd Express a few weeks ago and have fallen in love with shooting images of food for their restaurant reviews. The photographs I am taking currently have no correlation or relation to my fine arts work which is shot in a more documentary style focusing on subjects such as religion and, last semester, of weight-loss and body-image. The only common thread that I can find between my current commercial-based works and my fine arts work is their "honesty." In the past I have strayed away from heavy digital editing, manipulations, and abstractions in favor of a more straight-forward, "honest" images.

At this point, I hope to continue my food photography and see where that takes me. As for my fine arts work? I hope to return to my "roots" and continue with making commentaries on social and economic themes.