hiatus for a little bit. just been way too tired and busy to maintain a blogging schedule. you’ll find me in the darkroom.

Green Hills Flea Market

Flea markets in Central New York have the best finds. Never populated by hipsters and overpriced items like in the city, it is what flea markets are suppose to be. This was the first time I’ve gone to Green Hills, since you need a car to get there and I am immobile, and we were all skeptical to know what is going on inside this one-floor warehouse. There were only about 3 cars parked in the vast parking lot so we knew that pretty much nobody was there. Once we walked in, it was like stepping into a graveyard of memories, as cliche as that sounds. The people were really friendly since we were probably one of the few visitors that came in that day. Bargaining is now a breeze. Works better with the men than the women.. work that “Hmmm, do I really need this” and “I’m a tiny cute Asian girl” ordeal and usually prices drop. (note: one of the FEW pluses to living upstate)

I’ll post some photos of the items I bought later.

excessive consumption

Critique for the first assignment went well. Ideas always come full circle after my moments of creating. I printed them digitally so the ouput of the photos were just slightly cyan. (argh, cyan!) It was definitely possible for me to print them all in the darkroom but during that time I was scanning, I really didn’t know what I was going to do.

Professor said I shouldn’t need to care about the layout of my selection.. basically saying I should’ve printed a vertical photo that was also interesting.. too late, I’ve always been a bit anal about layout and being at the gallery all summer, layout makes it or breaks it. Good thing, she could understand my logic behind not printing a vertical.

the room i slept in all summer

I’ve spent every single day at Light Work, either color-correcting (second guessing) or working. Today, I’ve spent about 10 hours here.. and still going ’cause I await my roomie. Going from the darkroom to the finishing area over and over again gets extremely tiring on the eyes. I just wanna close my eyes and fall asleep.

Tomorrow is Monday and I start bright and early at work, again.

Bebe

Notice the more frequent entries with my photos? It’s thanks to the fact that I needed to scan some old negs to hand in some bullshit for Junior Sem.. and my rabbit was in the roll.

oh, to be a new yorker.

hallway to the kitchen

We don’t have lights in the hallway. My kitchen is now usually overrun by my brother’s boxes. I also love our kitschy wallpaper.

I didn’t color correct this ’cause I was lazy.. and I sorta like the crazy colors. It’s my lazy reasoning. take it. Note to self: stop using the 800 speed film indoors!

I’d rather not bullshit my first photo assignment for junior seminar but if I’m not in love with the topic or my images that I shot, there’s no point for me to show them. There’s also no point for two people to have pretty much the same images so I might as well back out and do something else. There’s some massive photo manipulation that has to be done to my “Home” and “Hong Kong” images to convey over-consumption. I am by no means even in the ballpark of Mr. Gursky, so it’s a challenge.. also because I need them printed quick!! Oh stress.

yes, if you hadnt noticed, the blog turned into the life of a photo student.

Because oil gets everywhere

This was taken some time during the summer, probably on one of those many days I didn’t want to leave my house. (My mom always foils the stove area, for realz, homey.) As old and rickety as my house is, I’ve really grown to love the cracks. It gives the house character. It’s very likely we will be fixing up the house within the next 5 years and all the character will be torn down and replaced with fresh new paint, tiles, etc. When that time comes, I’ll only have my photos and possibly video of my rickety house.

Still home sick but maybe too busy to think about it.

Photography by Kate Bingaman

It seems the broken ground-glass wasn’t as big of a deal as we originally thought. It’s better to admit the truth than hiding it.

My junior seminar class is frustrating me. Mmm, actually all my photo classes are. The current project involves me taking a contemporary theme that only people in this generation would understand. It’s harder to execute than it seems. I know what I don’t want to do. No facebook, myspace, cell phones, i-pods crap. No no no. It doesn’t interest me. I want to be really into the idea to know that it will turn out successful. So the decision is to focus on consumption, crap that people really don’t need, strip malls, etc. Taken inspiration from Kate Bingaman, of course. My problem is with getting to locations. So far, Cynthia and I pretty much have the same photos since we have the same topic and because we go everywhere together. I’ll have to see how that’ll turn out. Syracuse isn’t the most safest place to walk all over. Can I say, once again, how much I hate fucking Syracuse?

Anyway, as much as I find BJ’s and Costco revolting (in terms of families buying gallons of mayo), I frequent it. I participate in it. I do enjoy shopping. I am a girl, afterall.

Cynthia and I were talking about how we always pray the years will get better here, ever since we moved in freshmen year. Two years have passed and we’re still bitter. It doesn’t help that we can’t connect with people here.