new topographics

today was the first crit involving my work. it was pretty awesome. and i came away feeling quite pumped to continue working. the most amusing part was the realization that my photographs were a true (more than ever) representation of things that I've been feeling. For awhile now I've had a very pessismistic outlook on many things. from 9/11 to the recent acts of god like hurricanes, mudslides, tsunamis & earthquakes (see my brief entry entitled HELL) I've had this gut feeling that we're being punished and sent to a slow death for all the acts we've commited. we kill one another. we bomb one another. we rob the planet of its lifeforce. and all we have for a fucking solution is a stupid Toyota Prius that gets a pathetic 20-30 extra miles per gallon...what a joke. my professor said the word "apocolyptic" and a light bulb went off in my head. other students in the class likened the color scheme to that of a nuclear holocaust. one even said that a shadow in one photo looked like a mushroom cloud. the darkness and ambiguity in some of my photos gave the feeling of fear and damnation. i was like "HOLY SHIT!" here i am [i]thinking[/i] I'm trying to find these lines where man, earth and science meet and whether or not they clash when the answer is right in front of my face....my prof joked that she thought I was kidding when I made that statement and I replied back that I was completely oblivious to the apocolyptic nature of this current body of work. the good thing is ... it all makes sense. and as always having more direction never hurts....now if only friggin mother nature would cooperate (and programming would die!) I could go out and shoot some more. Nadine's work was also awesome....I'm supposed to write her a letter with my thoughts as part of the class and she in turn has to write to me about my stuff. We also talked a bit and had a really good conversation which is good cuz I thought she didn't like me or something. the biggest shock though came when my professor asked the class "has anyone seen work like this?" and everyone including her was like "hell no" i mean in a day and age when SOOO much has been done before its one hell of a compliment for someone to say. it made me feel good like, here I am, a true photographer...i'm out of that "student photographer" phase. Sadly, so much of the work I see people put up I just kinda have to shake my head and say - I've seen that already many many times - it's almost a cliche at this point. but I guess I'm 26 and they're 19 or 20 so that little difference ends up being huge.....(i'm in an undergrad class even though I'm a grad student...long story)