Influences

  William Eggleston has been a huge part of my studies as a photographer.  Before him, I learned about his predecessors, Walker Evans and Robert Frank.  I love their photographs, but it was Eggleston who I was mad about.  THOSE COLORS.  That seriously complicated sounding dye transfer processing.  He could make objects we see every single day look so otherworldly.  I felt such a connection to the way he saw things, I just wanted to emulate the way he photographed.  Of course I was always disappointed with feelings of self loathing because my images would never be as good.  Never.  If you haven't seen William Eggleston in the Real World, I highly recommend it.  You get to observe his process of going out and finding things to photograph.  It happens very organically, which is refreshing.  No studio lighting, no gimmicks, just him, his camera and the sunlight.

  In my last post, I mentioned both William Eggleston and David Lynch in the same sentence.  I just found this gem going down the rabbit hole!  The internet is wild. 

   This scanned image is from my latest issue of Lula Magazine #15 (thanks, Angie!).  This photo spread was my absolute favorite and looks like it was shot in Barstow or Joshua Tree.  I couldn't get the image above out of my head.  See anything familiar?  I wonder if it was a conscious influence for the photographers, or pure coincidence?

your friend,

ava

Old Friends/New Adventures

  This past weekend, I embarked on a short journey up north to see old friends, and shoot some portraits for my series.  It was a weekend filled with so much warmth, nostalgia, and RAIN....plenty of rain.  My dear friend, Rio snapped the polaroid above.  I couldn't get over that car sitting in between those hedges, with that house...unreal.  Straight out of a William Eggleston world, or David Lynch's Blue Velvet.  I could have taken hundreds of photos of the scene behind me (I ended up taking maybe five)....

  

polaroids © Ava Alamshah

 

  I'm looking forward to sorting out these memories to share with you.  I already miss my friends.

your friend,


ava

More Vivian Maier

This past Wednesday I decided to check out the Vivian Maier exhibit at MK Gallery. 


The gallery closes at 6pm and I was cutting it close that day.  For anyone who hasn't been to the gallery (it was my first time), beware of that traffic on La Brea.  Also, it was hard to find.  I made a few u-turns until I finally saw an image in the window.  I curse mapquest directions!  


I parked behind some pretty, Hollywood apartments and preceded to make my way to the gallery.  I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of the golden hour earlier and snapped a few photos.  I make it a point now to keep my camera in the car, just in case. 


I had 15 minutes to spare and I already felt inspired, so it was a really good 15 minutes. 

Reminds me of this Robert Frank image. 

Has anyone seen The Orphanage?! Creepy/cute for sure. 

My favorites.  All these images plus more on her website.  


I had mixed feelings about the show.  I really loved her self portraits and thought they were fascinating.  

I thought that she had a great eye for detail, and I could see that she liked to experiment.  I particularly love the one where you see her smiling. She's clearly been caught in the act of voyeurism and enjoys it.  I get nervous when taking portraits, so I was really fond of that and maybe felt like I knew a little more about this woman. 


She never got to see this success in her life.  She died and then her work was discovered, and she could have shown her collection to someone, but chose not to.  So I wonder if this lady was still alive, would we have seen any of these?  That's where the mixed feelings set in.  I don't know if its exploitation, but you have to wonder if part of the allure is because this artist is no longer with us? I mean, these images were going for 2,000 dollars (minimum) and maybe I'm just jaded because I've seen the Robert Frank, and the Walker Evans stills (his subway portraits are some of the best ever) and admired Arbus and Eggleston.  I wanted to be like them, except I don't have a drinking problem and I'm not entirely depressed. I don't know. All I do know is that I love to look at things.  


It was nice to look at some art again.


Curious about your thoughts.  Let's have a discussion. 




your friend,


ava

Vivian Maier

When sifting through pages of the LA Weekly during a break at work, I came across this little tidbit about the photographer Vivian Maier.  I remember seeing something about her almost a year ago.  

I'm excited to see these images knowing that they were hidden for so long.  It's like unlocking the pages of a diary. This is exactly the photographic style I've always been drawn to.  Stylized images of every day.  William Eggleston is my favorite example of this. 

source

The opening reception was tonight.  Hosted by Tim Roth.  Is that the Tim Roth I'm thinking of?  Oh, , ,pumpkin.  

The work will be up till January 28th at Merry Karnowsky Gallery.  

your friend,

ava