I'm a Little Concerned

To paraphrase the immortal words of Mr. Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame—based on much of what was shown at individual meetings on Thursday, to say the word 'little' would be a slight understatement. It had been over a full month since our last individual meetings.

As many of you like to say you "get motivated once the pressure is on," well I would consider this a thoughtful wake up call.

Realize you'll have had sixteen weeks to have generated a considerable amount of results for both of your projects. That's a solid chunk of time. The grading breakdown for this class it is as such:
Project One = 35% of total grade
Project Two = 35% of total grade
Demo/Presentation = 10% of total grade
Blog Work = 10% of total grade

So as you can see failing to produce quality results in any of the categories will affect your grade considerably and it would be very easy to get a below C grade grade for this course. Be involved! I and your colleagues in studio want you to be. When you show work to each other, offer observations, don't sit there like a bump on a log. I don't care if it's 8am, that's actually not that early comparatively you know? You're here to make it work but if you don't have anything to show, I and your colleagues have nothing to work with.

You're all perfectly capable—of that I have no doubts—but several have shown rather 'less than apparent' commitment or passion with any number of absences, excuses, etc. Time's up, you're in the advanced level studio, start showing us advanced efforts. A few of you are putting good efforts in, some of you...I'm a little concerned.

"Make it work." —Tim Gunn

What About the East?

Often times we seem to discuss more North American and European photography but it's not to be said that the east does not offer it's fair share of photographers, even the more contemporary-based artists. Muge is a fairly young photographer who is based in Chengdu, China and studied at the Sichuan Normal University. But most of his work is freelance currently. Please note his site typically doesn't download fast but it can be worth it for exploratory reasons.

But he does touch on some similar subject matters that I know a few of you are working with in your projects and upcoming capstone ideation. His 'Home' series is a nice reflection of when you go back to your birth-home environment, observing what is still the same, and what is definitely not the same anymore and how jarring that can be to you and the people still there. Thoughtful indeed!