Artist Lecture: Justine Kurland

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Justine Kurland speak through VCU's artist lectures. I feel being able to experience her work and have her discuss it aided me in understanding her photographs a little more. Previously, I had only seen her work in conceptual photo classes, which never applied to the work i was doing, so I never really looked into it deeper. I was impressed with the fact she attended Yale, which is obviously a very prestigious school, with photography as well. My favorite works were when she traveled around the country, locating small villages tucked away in mountains and forests. I don't want to sound shallow, but basically a bunch of hippies, which is fine, I see nothing wrong with living off the earth and needed nothing more than nature, and community. Her photos really captured a essence of what the communities were about, most contained nudes comfortably walking around, but it doesn't bother me. I was just fascinated with hearing her speak about the connections she made between with these people. As she discussed her work, she'd go into these short stories, telling about a specific individual, or what occurred during a photo, it was interesting. I really love to travel, eventhough I haven't had the opportunity to do so recently. Once I get out of college, I'd like to take some time to move around, see different parts of the country, maybe even Europe. I feel that its important to do things like that, as Justine is doing, find something that really interests you, and explore it photographically, continuously study it. Thats the only way you're going to get good, and standout from the rest. It really motivates me to take a ton of sport photographs, I also need to look into what I'm going to do in the future, for sports. I'd like to continue to photograph for the school paper or possibly just VCU athletics. We'll just have to see what happens, I'd like to stay in the college realm, so I don't have to worry about working my way up from high school, if I can continue to gain access as I already have, I'll be okay. Well, I went a little off topic, but I feel she's made me think a lot of about what I am doing, and where I need to go from here. I do think i'm on the right track though, i've got a good internship, and should learn a ton about sports, the latest photography equipment, and the business side of it.