Adam Firestone - Artist Statement (end of semester)

My work is all about what's around me and what I have to work with. All of the photos that I edited and put into my blog back that up. I put thought into every single one of those, because my photos all usually focus on one thing, or the focal point. My style is my own, I don't try to be like another photographer, I like to represent myself and no one else. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to edit my photos, and I enjoy doing that a lot. My favorite one to do was the Retro unit because it was the most challenging, and the final results were really satisfactory. Another unit I liked was the desaturation because it was fun making everything black and white in a photo except one thing. I liked this class because it really gave you the chance to expres yourself, as you can see if you saw my DVD slideshow I made for the final.

Winter Theme

Typography

Retro Photos

It was actually a lot easier creating these photos than it may seem. I took an old photo from Google Images, and I took a modern face from a picture, cropped the face out of the new picture, and put it on top of the old one. I erased the edges I didn't want, and moved it so it would look like it's on top of the old face. I converted the new face to black and white, and adjusted the light and color levels to have it match the old picture's skin tones. I made it look smoother using the "blur" and "smudge" tool. And that's all I did, it wasn't too hard, it was fun, and the result is hilarious!

Retro Photo Slideshow

I used a photo of these people from a while ago holding model cows, and I used a picture I took a picture of a man on the street, and I used Photoshop to put the man's face on top of one of the faces in the original picture of the people holding the cows. I think it's a pretty funny picture.

Adam Firestone / Artist Statement

Adam Firestone

Artist Statement

Photography is one of the most unique ways of expressing yourself. There are limitless possibilities with it, so you can use anything and everything around you as a way of artistically showing your feelings. It’s amazing how many things you can do with your photos using Adobe Photoshop, and when your digital pictures and Photoshop combine, it becomes whatever your imagination wants to be. I love going out and taking pictures because I love the environment around me: there are so many things going on and it’s a great resource for artistic expression. Photography is definitely one of my favorite subjects to work with.

I think that the key to being a good photographer is having a good eye for the things around you, and thinking of things in more than perspective. This is something that is very hard to teach to other people, which mean that some people are just born with that kind of imagination. I like making sure I put thought into a photo before I decide to keep it or not. It makes a difference if you put meaning and effort into your pictures, as opposed to pointlessly aiming your camera at anything. Photography is a skill and a thought process that takes years of experience to master.

When I edit a photo, sometimes I find one thing I want to highlight and make it “pop out” at the viewer. That may mean changing the hue of the photo, desaturating it, or simply using the paint bucket tool. Or, sometimes you may want to tweak a photo to make it look abstract or avante garde. Either way, you’re using Photoshop to make your pictures more interesting and artistic. It’s very satisfying at the end of the editing process to look at your final result, because it makes you feel proud for what you’ve done.

One of my favorite types of photography I like to look at, and do, is street photography. I’ve seen some of the photos the professionals take, and they’re really interesting and it makes you look at street life differently. This is one of the hardest typs of photography to pursue because you never really know what you’re going to be given to take pictures of, and you have to heavily rely on improvisation and you really have to use your imagination.

Like I said before, I love photography and you can really go all out with whatever you want to do. It is the passion of millions of people around the world, and it will be for many years to come.