Kelly Wrage

As I start on my final project for my studies at UArts, I think it's a good idea to put these older toy camera images up. I've been using various "toy" cameras for years; always searching for one tool or another to get me the mood I'm looking for in a particular type of imagery. I keep coming back to my Holgas. I started using Holgas in early 2006 because of an emulation assignment I was given in school. I chose Keith Carter as my model, but needed a camera that would afford me some kind of out of the ordinary selective focus. I couldn't afford a camera with movements; I had just purchased a Hasselblad and there was simply no money for anything else. So I did some research and came up with the Holga. The look was different, but the mood was very similar to what I saw in Carter's images. I can't do a real emulation of anyone anyhow. My work has to be my own, so it was a relief to find something similar....but different for that assignment. Prob...

Just a few images from last year.  School starts in a week and a half.  This semester is going to be jam packed full of work, but it should be doable.  Soooo many major projects.  I just hope it isn't as tough as last semester.  I made it on the dean's list again, but pulling 3-4 back-to-back all-nighters every single week for three and a half months might just kill me if I try to do it again.  If I find it's too much, I can always get rid of one class because I'm taking more than I need.   The image of me and the washing machine was the impetus for my final.  The rest of the images are pretty formulaic and not done particularly well.  We crammed a lot into one semester, so there was really only one week's shot at each.  I know how to do them all properly now, so it should make each type of shooting easier in the future.  I'll be buying my set of strobes soon and have some ideas in mind for that, but it might have to wait for winter break.

Just some images from my last studio class at UArts.  They are about my feelings of being overwhelmed by the mess in our house when we were moving in.  We actually packed up and moved everything in the week before finals, so I had to do all of this in one week.  Not easy.  I was trying to merely use the studio strobes to get the feeling of real room lighting, but without the dim shadows, light fall-off, and tungsten yellow-orange color cast.  For some reason, I felt the need to get a window into every shot.  It's nice that by looking out the windows and seeing light outside, the room is expected to appear darker inside.  It is simply not expected and therefore a bit cinematic--not real. Perhaps it's the fact that I love the old metal windows in this house.  

A few more from my latest series.  I would say more about them, but I'm exhausted and keep falling asleep....

Okay, so I'm pretty sure this is the last prescribed sort of assignment I'll be getting from my Junior Workshop instructor, David.  We were to alter our subject in some way without using Photoshop.  I had the toughest time coming up with something.  I've been pretty out of my element and out of it in general for a couple of years now, so I didn't know how to handle this.  I had a couple of ideas, but they were weak at best and still not "me".  So, I talked with my instructor, he gave a few examples of what the concept means, and I said, "well, the last thing I was doing that really worked for me were these little set-ups".  He said, "Well, there you go."  I think I was able to visualize what I wanted to do within minutes of the end of that conversation.  That was a just a few days ago, and the assignment was due today.  I had two weeks to do this, and spring break was one of them, so if I'd known what I wanted to do, I could have gotten...

There is a longstanding project or  topic I've been considering and working on in bits and pieces for a while now.  A few months ago, I came across this little book in an antiques mall.  It's titled Addison's Sir Roger DeCoverley.   It was published in 1917, but I believe the story predates that.  As I started thumbing through the book, I found many parallels between this character's situation with a pretty, highly intelligent, and ultimately deceptive widow, and a situation of my own. This work is part of recent assignment I had at UArts.  It was titled. "The Altered Print".  It was designed to get students to consider all portions of their work, from start to finish: shooting, processing, and the final print.  The final print was to be altered in some way, and concept was to be considered when making the decision as to how to alter these prints.  I shot the images digitally, then made a print.  I altered that first print by applying a solvent (of sorts) to t...

It took me a couple of weeks to find the time to put this work up.  It's just been one assignment after another--busy busy busy.  This one was based on using "alternative cameras".  This was of course an experiment that forces the photographer to consider what he or she is photographing based on what the camera "sees" or how it functions, quirks and all.  God knows I have a plethora of what would be considered alternative cameras because I've been using them extensively for the past few years, but in the spirit of the assignment, I decided to get a new camera--a couple actually.  I loaded each one with films of differing speeds because there is no other way of adjusting for changing light.  One of the quirks that these cameras have concerns framing problems.  It's similar to that of most Diana cameras, where the viewfinder is a little off in relation to what the lens sees.  This camera is WAY off, and as a result, there is too much space to the right of ...