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Up. Down. Up. Down. Repeat?

Up. Down. Up. Down. Repeat. is a 2:42minute video by  JLSpradlin on vimeo.

It shows Buhdists praying repeatedly to a slow timed song by Thomas Newman.

I like this video because it fits with the music and is calming. it begins and ends the same, with buhdists praying.
Each shot is in extreme slowmotion and would be atleast 10 seconds long. the shots range from extreme close ups to mid shots and panning etc.. I like the simplicity of the video and the types of shots it uses.
The people in this video look sad and poor, along with the children. they pray for hours on end so to me they also look tired. 

Larry Clark Interview

Why did you decide to film/photograph teenagers? Why're we so interesting? 

I think that what happened in our youth, especially our teenage years can effect us for the rest of our lives. I started drugs when I was barley 16 and kids these days are doing that type of stuff so much earlier. Theyre having sex and living and I wanted to capture that. Everyone has a story and in my films, especially in Kids, a lot of the dialog isnt scripted, like in kids when the boy and girl are sitting and talking on a bed and he tells her his life story, thats all real, thats what my films are all about. 

And what about how sexual some of your photos of the youth are and some of the backlash about them?

I though 'why not show everything?" no one else is showing everything, and as I said, the youth are doing this. Iv been called names from Pedophile to Perverted etc.. I just dont listen, this is art, Im not getting much money from it or anything like that. You open a magazine and see half naked kids everyday, they do it for profit, I dont. 

What do you think about drug use with kids these days compared to you when you where younger?

In the 50's drug use within youth had just begun and thats when I began filming my friends and I with our drug use, I think when all that came out middle America was shocked because it had just hit them then and I showed drug use from the begining to the end, showing how it effects your life. As I said I started using drugs before I was even 16, it started with weed and led upto shooting up etc.. Kids these days start a lot earlier. Some of the kids I met where shooting up and they where only 14.

Why do you document teens who are into drug use and are sexually active etc.. Why not 'normal' teenagers (if there are even normal teenagers these days).

Maybe I will film 'normal' teenagers one day. For me being a teenager is a traumatic time in your life, and I wanted to see that from the point of view from the youth these days. back in my youth that type of life was secrative, no adults aloud, but these kids in 'kids' have let me into their life. Its interesting, these kids have to go through so much growing up in ghettos and such.

Larry Clark

Larry Clark was born in January 1943, In 1959, Clark began injecting amphetamines with his friends.Routinely carrying a camera, from 1963 to 1971 Clark produced pictures of his drug-shooting coterie that have been described by critics as "exposing the reality of American suburban life at the fringe and ... shattering long-held mythical conventions that drugs and violence were an experience solely indicative of the urban landscape."

Nan Goldin

 Nan was born in september of 1953, Nan was 15 when she started photgraphy, her first solo show where photos taken of her cities gay and trans community.  She began documenting the post-punk new-wave music scene, along with the city's vibrant, post-Stonewall gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was drawn especially to the hard-drug subculture.  

Machine: Slowmotion Tattoo

Slowmotion Tattoo Tattoo by GueT (Paris) ,  Done on Fabrice (Switzerland)

Music: Emmanuel Top - Industriel (From the album "Asteroïd") - Novamute 1996  (The original speed of this track is on 33 rpm, but the speed on the video is 45 rpm)

Slowmotion Tattoo is a video showing an extreme close up in slow motion of a tattoo gun tattooing someone. I like this video because you can see the skin rippling while the gun tattoos them and the extreme close ups show it nicely.
It shows how the gun works in a way I havent seen before and how precise you have to be when tattooing.
The music goes in time with the gun when its fast and slow which adds to the effect when you see the skin rippling etc...
shots used are mainly extreme close up in slow motion with a few bits is normal speed to show how fast the gun really goes.
Its a mixture of attraction and repultion as the gun ripples the skin like a water bed.
It dosnt show the face or the tattooist or the person being tattooed on and it suits this type of short video clip.

Catherine Opie

A common social/political theme in her work is the concept of community. Opie has investigated aspects of community, making portraits of many groups including LGBT community; surfers; and most recently high school football players. Opie is interested in how identities are shaped by our surrounding architecture. Her work is informed by her identity as an out lesbian. Her works balance personal and political. Her assertive portraits bring queers to a forefront that is normally silenced by societal norms.
~wikipedia

Journey as a theme: Baraka

Baraka is a musical piece, it is footage set to music from over 20 countries and 6 continents. It uses shots such as birds eye view, mid shots, extreme close ups, time laps etc... 

The movie is 96 minutes and time laps is used in nature shots and in traffic in cities. In the shot above it uses mixtures of mid shot and extreme close ups.

The movie starts with different shots of nature, people and places with music playing. The rest of the movie is showing nature, people, places and how different things are in different countries. It ends with time laps in different shots of nature.
Its directed by Rick Frickle. Shot in 70mm, it includes a mixture of photographic styles including slow motion and time-lapse. To execute the film’s time-lapse sequences, Fricke had a special camera built that combined time-lapse photography with perfectly controlled movements. They filmed for over 14 months, Locations featured include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Ryoan temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smouldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations of the Masai in Kenya, and chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling.
My favorite parts where the monks doing rituals, the man in the picture above praying, and a japanese man with an almost full body tattoo. I liked the way it was filmed and edited, and the fact that it had no talking other than a few times from people who where being filmed. 
~some information taken from wikipedia 

Letter to an alien about community

Dear Aliens, a community is a group of people who share common characteristics or people who are living in the same place. For example a city is a community, and so are people who are into the same music genera like Heavy Metal or Hip Hop, e.g the Hip Hop community.
My community is the tattoo and piercing community, this is a group of people who have or are interested in tattoos and piercings. This community is brought together by their common characteristics since they all bond over the love of art for body modifications such as tattoos and piercings.

5 Wrong Photographs

#1 Over exposed

#2 Under exposed

#3 Blurry

# incorrect WB

#incorrect WB

Recipe: How to Read and Throw Shade.

Recipe: How to Read and Throw Shade

Recipe ingredients:
A strong personality
Quick thinking
Sassy comebacks

Cookware and Utensils:
Sass
Hair for hair flipping
Props, like sassy sunglasses etc...

Recipe Instructions:

1: Be very casual, but sassy. Sit/stand and be confident. make sure you hold eye contact. Read the person before you throw the shade, notice their faults.

2: Make a powerful demand such as 'shut up'. It must shock the shadee into silence. Add hand gestures and eye movement.

3: Awkwardly laugh to let the shedee know you arent kidding, add eye squinting if needed. Remember to lean in close.

4: Only tell the truth, shade is not telling someone they're ugly because they already know they are.

5: End the reading with a glare and hair flip then say something along the lines of 'ciao, darling' and walk away.

preparation time: 5 minutes
cooking time: 10-15 minutes