Artist Statement

Jackie Weller/Artist Statement.

My Photography is me expressing myself and showing the world what I see through the lens of my camera. I really like taking Photographs of landscapes, buildings, animals, objects, capturing a moment, and people only if they’re not looking or posed. I really dislike pictures of people when they’re posed and it is trying to be passed off as Photography, I feel as if they are just snap shots and not Photography. I want people to look at my photos and say, “wow, isn’t that beautiful? I wish I could do that.”

This semester I learned a lot about photo editing. I actually didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know anything about adobe Photoshop, or how to use it. I always figured, when not take the picture how you want it so you don’t have to edit it? But now I know sometimes they look better when the contrast is higher, or if you make it brighter. Some other tools we used were desaturating photographs, which was cool because you used the “sponge” to suck up all the color and you cold leave a certain thing colorful to draw attention to it. This is a very good technique that advertisements use.

This semester I studied Berenice Abbott and Annie Liebovitz. I Really like their work, because I can relate to it. Abbott was my favorite at first, but now that I learned about Liebovitz, she is definantly my favorite Photographer. I would like to be like her some day. Taking photos of famous rock stars, and always making the cover of the ‘Rolling Stones’ magazine. I had a lot of fun paying Homage to her with my ‘Alice in Wonderland’ photo shoot.

I have always wanted to be a photographer when I get older, but this class has really made me want to even more. I know a lot more about it now, and I really feel like I could make it.

- Jackie Weller ☺

Annie Leibovitz

We watched a video on Annie Leibovitz called "Life Through a Lens". It was a really interesting movie about her life and how she became such a good photographer. As a young girl she took lots of pictures, that were good even then. But she took a interest in photography the summer after her sophomore year that her and her mother spent in Japan. When she returned to San Francisco that fall she took night time photography classes.

In 1970 Annie approached the editor of 'Rolling Stone' magazine and with her impressing portfolio, she got her first assignment: shoot John Lennon. Her photograph made the cover, and 2 years later she was named the 'Rolling Stone" chief photographer. She also worked for 'Vogue' and 'Vanity Fair'. She has 2 kids and lives in New York. I believe she has a house in england also. Annie has a very Daring style, i hope to capture some of this in my own Photography.