ChrisOrtizPhoto's Blog

Losing it all.

chrisortizphoto — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:25:20 +0000

I have encoutered a problem…and it is rather a serious one. It all revolves around a very major question, which is a simple one to ask, but I’ve found a rather hard one to answer.

Okay, so here we go. Everyone knows that there are a couple of basic things that one needs to do any types of art work, things that can’t be bought, sold or traded. These are the simple things of Sight, the ability to use your hands, and to have a creative mind. No matter what type of art work that you do, if it is photography to painting to fibers to animation to music, to theatre and so on…

But what happens when you lose the ability of one of these? What happens if you lose more than one? Like lets say that you lose your sight and the ability to use a hand? One might be in a very tight fix based on you can’t see your final product and if you are doing something like me, photography, you’ll need a lot of extra help to actuall be able to even use the camera. It would be made easier if one used Automatic-Focus on their lens and automatic settings and have the use of tri and monopods…but then being able to have fun and experiement with things becomes, well, almost not doable for the most part.

The reason why I’m bringing this up is actually because I’ve asked myself this several times over the past month. The hand thing more often than the sight, but the sight is because recently my glasses broke (on Valentine’s Day, which might have been a good thing since then I wouldn’t have a clear view of my date…hold on, I was single on Valentines day, by myself…) but most importanly about the hand do to the basic fact that I am facing losing my left hand within a year or so, without surgery that I can’t afford (and no I don’t have insurance). WIth a pinched ulner nerve in my elbow that is being cut little by little everytime that I bend my elbow, the doctor said that by Jan. 2010 I would start to have perminate damage if the surgery wasn’t done. Last months I was starting to feel the pinched nerve when sharp pains shot from in all areas of my arm, and the feeling like a knife was jammed in my elbow right were the “funny bone” is located at (which is actually were the ulner nerve sets).

So as time sits slides by and the damage goes on, what can I do as a photographer to be able to continue my craft? I have tried to find other photographers who only have one hand, but is a lot harder to do than I thought. It seems that I might be in a very, VERY small field if I continue to do photography after I lose the ability to use my left hand. Yet again, do I want to take away all of the creative freedom that I’ve enjoyed thus far with my camera and being able to do what I’ve wanted to do in return for still being able to produce art from it? Would the trade off be worth it? Or should I hang my hat up and remember the good times and the images that I was able to take when I had the chance to.

So, my main question is, who, out there, is a “handicaped” artist (if you’ll excuse me for using that term, I personally hate it with a passion, but I couldn’t think of anything better to say) and how do you deal with your handicap and maybe even use it to your advantage? Is there anyone out there who has lose something that is vital to their craft that they have been able to make due without?

Art or Not: Photography.

chrisortizphoto — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:43:58 +0000

Throughout most of the 21^st century, photography was one of, if not the most, ground breaking new form of art. With the help of companies like Eastman-Kodak, the art form was taken from the skilled masters of the art to that of the mass, general public. However, there was always a fine line between the “masters of photography” and those who did home photos of their child’s birthday parties. People from Adams to Arbus, Warhol to LaChapelle dominated the photography art scene throughout the past century. Yet there has been over the past ten years, a new spoke in the wheel.

With the digital age in hand, with computers and digital cameras, it seems that anyone who has mastered the computer photo editing programs such as Adobe’s Photoshop and the freeware GIMP can go and take a very mediocre photograph and by using one of these programs, turn that image into one of breath taking proportions. Such was to do it have been published in magazines like Digital Photography as well as in whole books. So, with this technology at anyone’s hand (and I’m not saying “to anyone who can afford it” do to the simple fact that people can download these programs for free [and illegally] via the means and others) the masses of “professional” photographs have grown astronomically over the past ten years. Even so much that even the profession of Wedding Photography has gone down in sales price from on average of $1500/wedding to a simple $400-$500/wedding (at least locally do to a poll that I took of 20 local wedding photographers for this blog). I’ve talked with the local newspaper, the Lawrence Journal-World and yes they still have staff photographers for their print editions and for mostly online, yet they do use a lot of “amateur” photographers to certain segments of their website with the very good chance of using more and more of them as it saves them money in the long run.

With this knowledge, it leads one to ponder the question, can, with all of the digital means of today’s world, photography remain a form of art or will it be washed out by the new digital age? I myself have stopped submitting the collections that I have done with my Nikon D60 in gallery proposals and focused on a little nitch that I have started to carve out for myself, an older, more obscure form of photography that most of the younger photographers that are my age (I am 27 year old) have never heard of or ventured to experiment in, Pinhole photography from a camera obscura.

My personal camera that I shoot with now is one that I made in my father’s heating and air conditioning metal shop, out of sheet metal and gaffer’s tape, with a 4×5 film back. Film, as I can see it shot with whatever kind of camera one can shoot with, maybe be the way to go to make sure that photography remains true as an actual art from. With this, and only this, one can be sure that it is the photographer, not a computer nerd, has created the image, spent time in a darkroom, not behind a computer monitor, to create the image.

Yet, this also brings up the question, does a computer enhanced image cross the line and start to fall into the realm of Graphic Design or other Graphic, Computer based art work or can it still remain in the photographic world?

Jeff Koons Sucks

chrisortizphoto — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:52:47 +0000

So tonight, on Twitter, OvationTV and I’ve had a great conversation about who is an artist and who isn’t, and who should get credit and for art work and who shouldn’t.

It all started when I asked what the person who does their Twitter about their thoughts on Andy Warhol and we basically agree that yes, Andy had his time but now, give him a break.

Then I was asked about Jeff Koons and if I thought he was over rated. And the following blog is basically how I feel about Mr. Koons. Mr. Koons is an unbelievable thinker and creater, he has idea for production that I wish that I could get or be able to create (I’m lacking the money, so if anyone wants to chip in…then all is welcome ) but an artist? HA, I don’t think so. Not anymore at least. He is the brains behind the creation, but as anyone how knows anything about Koons knows that he has a whole entire fucking team of artist who do his pieces for him. He goes through and has AMAZING ideas…but the factory of unknamed people who paints and sculpts his pieces are not ever once named in any way, shape or form in the creation of the work is just insane. Mr. Koons goes through and takes credit of other’s people’s hard labor and calls it his own.

The thing that I can say Koons is now like is someone like Walt Disney who yes, at first created his own works like Steam Boat Willie and the other cartoons which featured Mickey Mouse and his other characters but when it came down to the movies and later cartoons, it became the Walt Disney Company and each artist go credit for his or her own part in the production. Why can’t Koons do this and stop taking credit for other people’s hard work? Even other people who have been featured on OvationTV like David LaChapelle who work with a team said that he is nothing more than a “button pusher at the end of the day”. I think that Koons should take a note for LaChapelle’s or Disney’s book and say that he is nothing more than just the brains behind the creation, and start to give credit to those people who actually do the work for the pieces that we all know him for and the pieces that he still shows today. Theatre and dance companies also give credit to everyone involved in the production, from set design to the spotlight people to the director to costume design, not just the main actor…Is Koons just that stuck up that he thinks that he can be an asshole and just slap his name on work that other people have done the mass amount of work on and say that it was his.

But, what can we do about this? Is Koons too well known as an “artist” for this to change? I say no. Even though he might be the best known American artist at this current moment in time, I feel that if those who feel the same as I do make enough of a voice, maybe things could change where he would start to show some respect by those who do the labor work for him. Either that, or we can count on the fact that maybe one of us will be under Koons’ labor camp doing a massive amount of work on one of his projects and not being able to get any public credit for our work what so ever, and my thoughts…yes the experience is good, but I want the world to know what I’ve done and not let someone else show work that I’ve done under their name.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck…

chrisortizphoto — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:20:03 +0000

Well…shit, The holiday weekend is over…and the thing is, that I’ve had such a fucking amazing time that I don’t even know where to begin.

The one thing that I must say that I’m the happiest about this, the project that me and a bunch of other artist have done for Valentine’s Day. It just makes me feel so good.

As well as this weekend is my first gallery showing in a year, but not only that, is that it is in a brand new gallery, opened only this month, and my art work will be featured in the first ever Paola Art Crawl…so that is exciting. I can’t wait.

But That is about it for now so yeah…you guys go have fun doing what you want to do…and don’t forget to check in every once in a while.

Well…

chrisortizphoto — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:03:57 +0000

Really, no new blog today…I have a four day weekend ahead of me, a gallery showing a week from Saturday…Monday night is the $1 bowling and $1.50 beer night with two friends, and then sometime next week my band is going to start practicing the pop songs.

That is basically it, end of story for the end of the story for the week. I’m not going to update for the weekend as I’ll be getting ready for the up coming week. Have fun this weekend, and don’t forget about the blog.

Untitled.

chrisortizphoto — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:50:23 +0000

I don’t know what to write about today, but I feel that I should write about something. Hmmmm…

Well…Tomorrow starts the date that I start to majorly work on advertising for my next gallery showing in the little sleepy town of Paola Kansas. I know that some people won’t say that it is THAT bad in that city, but when you have lived through what I have, Paola is boring. However, from what I’ve been told, Paola is a nice little artist haven…which is odd since the Kansas City Crossroads Art District is not more than, what…like an hours drive north? But I guess a lot of “older” artist live in Paola who show down in the Crossroads a lot and have works in collections all over the world and they all live there. I guess it is because it is a cheap place to live…so one could live on a artist income.

The thing is though, that all of the artist around here still seem content on showing only locally and not really trying to branch out to see what they can maybe do. At least the artist that I personally know and ones that I’ve just talked to or even just heard about, they all seem content on either A. having one gallery showing per year, or B: just doing nothing.

Personally, I want to show in as many places and I can, all over the world. I want to take it over! And I need Your Help. If you do like my work, let me know (and if you’ve never seen it then Shame ON YOU…lmao, but really, you need to. go check it out

Just watch out, someday, you, the person who is reading this email, will know my name.

Lady Gaga is hot…

chrisortizphoto — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:07:31 +0000

Well…there is something that I haven’t told you. I’m in a band…and it isn’t the best band in the world…I used to be in some very good punk bands before, had a 7″ before as well as several played several concerts, got pretty good…and one of the people in my band…a guy named Tim, I’ve played with before.

But last night, my third night in out at the bars, Tim goes through and tells me that he wants to go through and start playing Top 40 pop songs as punk songs…and in the drunken state that I was in,I said yes, of course! So yeah…he said and said that the first song that we are going to play for Sorority band thingy is Paparazzi by Lady Gaga…enough said.

The good news is that I got my new photographs to the gallery today for the new gallery showing on the 23rd, as well as I got asked to give my work to for Valentine’s Day Cards…I’m fucking excited…the gallery is Crewest in Los Angeles…that should be fun.

We know who you are…

chrisortizphoto — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:00:15 +0000

I’ll keep this blog short tonight.

The funny thing happened to me this morning. I received a direct message on Twitter from the Lawrence Art Center. It was a small part of a conversation where I asked them (because I knew that they were going through some changes) what their submission process is. The person who does their Twitter gave me the proper email address to do a proposal.

I didn’t know if it would be like a blind email to the guy who’s email address that I was just given, so I simply asked him if he or anyone there had heard of me or my photography, which for those of you who don’t know is Chris Ortiz Photography (google it to see some more of my images…but like I said before, don’t steal my images and claim that they are yours to try and impress a girl, I do have the legal rights to my photographs and it is just really sad that you can’t get a girl on your own) and this was what their twitter person said to me.

“I myself have not, but people in the office have.”

I find that pretty awesome to know that my art work has now become, I’ll say somewhat known, in my home city and for something good (trust me, I’d hate to be known here for some of the crap that I’ve gotten away with thus far in my life). I’ve never had this happen to me before. It is rather an awesome feeling.

I said this at midnight, new years eve to my best friend Rob, but I’ll say it again. I have a big feeling that 2010 will be a huge year for me and my photography.

Oh Whatta Night…

chrisortizphoto — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:12:07 +0000

Well…last night was an amazing evening. I went out to my little bar called The Replay Lounge, and I was already upset because of that day, so I was just going drink. Little did I know that a friend of mine ended up showing up, and make a long story short, I didn’t make it home till about 8:30 this morning…so yeah…let your mind think about that.

The funny thing is that there was an after hours party that was and I did book three more bands to photograph. The odd thing is that I was treated like a famous person…they all knew who I was and my work…it was really kinda fucked up feeling in a way, I’ve never been witness to this before. I don’t know if I would like to have that treatment for my life or not…but what I can say is that maybe I could…maybe it wasn’t that bad after all…

Another Day, another…

chrisortizphoto — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:16:44 +0000

So yeah…Today I have an interesting thing I thought about. I have been going through on my digital camera and have been photographing at an ISO of about 1600 or at the HI1. The problem is is that a lot of the photographs have been coming out pixelated and then I sat back and thought about it. When I was using my old Nikon FM I wouldn’t shoot with a film ISO speed of over 400 and now I’m shooting with such a higher ISO setting…jesus…SO…in the day time, I’ve toned it way down to shooting at from a 100 to 200 ISO setting and will be shooting at my old fav. ISO film for night shooting with a flash. I’ll be doing that and testing it to see if that makes any difference. I think that it will, but see. I figured if I can still work the f-stop and and shutter speed manually, then I shouldn’t rely on the camera for the ISO setting as well and just do it like I’ve grown up doing.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?