NANCY BARON's series Talking in L.A. is a group of images captured in Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles that's meaning is manipulated by simple  conversation blurbs, that she happened to hear in the process of photographing the canyon. They are known as one of the rare destinations in L.A. where people tend to take this opportunity to chat with friends or fellow residents of Los Angeles. 

"As I am photographing the gold and green natural beauty that lies only minutes from urban streets, hikers pass behind me, asking about my camera or my lens, what I’m seeing, but, more often, engrossed in their own conversations; taking advantage of the opportunity for intimate face to face conversation with friends. The images are subtitled with phrases that I overhear while shooting."

John Baldessari

I think John Baldessari is hilarious and I really like his work because he uses the medium of art to talk about art. He brings a playful mood to his work and I think its really important.

Jim Goldberg

Jim Goldberg seems to do a lot of work relating to class and race separations. In his series Open See, he documented people trying to find better lives in Europe (including immigrants, victims of war, those seeking asylum). The subjects would then "destroy" the image through mark-making and including written stories of their experiences. Goldberg also uses text in his series Rich and Poor, which documents the differences between upper and lower classes in a narrative way. I find his use of interactions with the subjects powerful and eye-opening.

Steffan Bruggemann

I was drawn to the work of Steffan Bruggermann because her word choice is simple. Her work doesn't seem to be too complex and while the viewer is allowed to read more into the work, the work still is approachable on the surface level. I Enjoy her newer work as opposed to her older work because she began to start making the work more about the text, rather than use the text simply as a tool. My favorite installation of hers is the one where her text starts to become illegible (top). The viewer can still try to make sense of the work but they are given more freedom to imagine what the artist was trying to convey.

Victoria Crayhon

Victoria Crayhon creates text installations and then photographs the installations as documentation.  The photograph then becomes the only evidence that the installation ever existed or took place.  I think this is interesting in the context of our project, since her text is included in the actual image.

Though the author of this piece is unknown, it exemplifies what I really appreciate about cyanotype and van dyke. The ability to create an image that looks as if it is a three-dimensional photogram rather than a photograph if that makes sense.

Shaun Richards

Artist: Shaun Richards

This artist combines image and text using the process of collage. The text and image combined inform a larger social message about the viewers complicity with the world. I like how the text not only becomes a title for the image but also a formal quality used to support the totality of the image.

http://shaunrichardsart.com/