Small Website update: Nike Be True, VW, Truth...

Well, Its taken me long enough to get it all up. But I have finally got most my my past commercial work up onto my site. I posted work I did for the Nike Dunk 25th Anniversary Zine called "Be True." A great project commemorating the history of this iconic shoe I contributed to with Crispin Porter + Bogusky last year. I posted some shots of the zine and the portrait work I made of students from St. Johns and BET host, Terrence J who interviewed the students.










Recently, I also posted older commercial work for Volkswagen's Carbon Neutral Project. I shot a ton of images of trees in a 55 ft lift above the tree canopy in Miami. The images were then painstakingly composited into the image below.




And finally some time ago I posted the shots from the first out door campaign that I worked on that was in time square. The Work was for the Anti-Smoking project, truth. I shot this on 8x10 chrome - which ended up being cheeper then a P45 rental.

Website Update: Microsoft, I'm a PC - Outtakes

Last night, I hammered out some new HTML pages with outtakes from last year's Microsoft shoot. I can't believe last year at this time I was finishing up a wild spurt of traveling for this project. I wrote a little bit about the project at the beginning of the year in this post: website update: Microsoft, I'm a PC.

Below, are a few outtakes that I have gathered together that were just posted to my website here. I might post some more but these fill in a few areas that are burned into my memory. Places and people that were not chosen to be in the final edit. This set is in reverse chronological order beginning with the afternoon shoot in Johannesburg, South Africa.


©2008 harlan erskine, Teacher, Kliptown Youth Project, Johannesburg, South Africa

After shooting early in the morning in Cape Town the crew bus ran everyone to the airport for the 2 hour flight to Johannesburg. Where we were met with a local crew and whisked from the airport to the township of Kilptown and their community center the Kliptown Youth Program. This Community center is part of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, so they had lots of computers for the kids to work and learn with. enjoy.


©2008 harlan erskine, Student, Kliptown Youth Project, Johannesburg, South Africa


©2008 harlan erskine, Ranger, Priviate Game Reserve, South Africa

The image above was taken at Aquila Private Game Reserve and Safari - an amazing place where the animals they have taken in to help heal and keep safe have a massive amount of space to roam free. Truly amazing to see elephants, lions, rhinos and countless other animals in this setting.


©2008 harlan erskine, Phil Walsh, Butcher, London


©2008 harlan erskine, Monica Hamilton-Richard, Lawyer, London

Your website sucks... Comments from the "experts"

This Linkedin Post, Is everyone tired of Livebooks website format ? on the APA Group reminded me of a discussion a while back of photographers websites. After the dust has setteled from graduation, I have been thinking a lot lately about my website, my blog and how to promote myself as a photographer and artist in a sustainable way. Recently, I have began a newsletter (sign up here) and have updated the website more regularly.

I built this site myself, with a lot of help and advise from too many friends to list. Sometimes I think I should revamp the whole thing and begin from scratch again. I think building the SVA MFA Thesis site made me start reconsidering my own site but a major overhaul will have to wait for now.

If I were to hire it out I would surly not be with Livebooks. I think Livebooks is overpriced, not as functional as a website should be and the templates I have seen look cheesy. There are too many almost free ways to make a site better looking then Livebooks. I would recommend avoiding flash sites. Unless you know what you are dong, or you hair an expert. When I originally build my site I considered flash but since I wasn't that good at it I (thankfully) went for simple HTML. Many of the rules I followed came from the advise and philosophy of you Daniel Eatock and indexhibit. Some of the many rules I believe portfolio websites should follow are:

1. clean easy to navigate design.
2. Direct links to each area and image on the site.
3. clear contact information, artist's bio, and client, exhibition or CV.
4. large images without watermarks. and lastly, build a site you can view on a phone. I think phone portfolio viewing will become more and more normal as people move from their old phones to 3 and 4g smartphones like iPhones and Blackberrys.

Amazingly, Daniel Eatock and friends have turned indexhibit into a free platform for creating solid portfolio sites.

Another free option I have heard good things about is http://artlog.com/ anyone out there tried that one? Let me know if you like it. If you want to spent some money on a site I would recommend hiring a company like my friends over at Wegee Design who can custom make you a site that best fits your vision in a clean design that will likely still be cheeper then Livebooks.

I just wanted to add this old commentary on web design from the a visual society blog:

2. Livebooks. It seems to be popular. Popular to the extent that if I visit a website and see the familiar name scroll across the top and familiar double thumbnails start loading down the right hand side a feeling of dread comes over me... I don't know what Livebooks cost, from what I have heard it's not the cheapest. Give your web designer buddy the cash instead and have him design a real site for you.

from:
http://www.avisualsociety.com/2007/10/30/your-website-sucksfrom-a-photo-editor/
and
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2007/10/29/your-website-sucks/

Will Steacy, staring down the...

This might be a little old but I just found these videos. Kinda fun and they remind me of school cititque to some degree.Will Steacy and hisStare Down vs. Sarah Small. I'm not sure if these videos ends up being good for the photographic dialogue or what but maybe they will get the swing of things. Seems like they should be longer? and less like a quick fire challenge.






Viewfinders | Zoom In

What is Zoom in you ask? well according to them it is:

Zoom In Online (ZIO) is an award winning online video network. ZIO covers the best in pop-culture, providing visitors with the latest happenings in arts, entertainment, culture and technology with four online communities: Film & TV, Music, Photography and Design. Each community is updated daily with professionally produced video shows, podcasts, news stories and blog posts.

ZIO has been called "The NPR of the media industry" and "Vanity Fair meets WIRED magazine."

We want you to be inspired, to discover new things. We want you to be informed, and to inform us with your opinions. We want you to be "in the know" on the most useful technology, the most engaging entertainment.

Today's landscape of arts, entertainment and technology is dynamic and diverse. Explore it in-depth, with ZIO and ZIO Pro.

And it's over...

© 2008 Bert Rodriguez. The End-A project installed during the Whitney Biannual. As someone passes through the opening doors of the elevator a motion sensor triggers an endless looping soundtrack. The soundtrack was designed by the artist created from sections of end theme music from films. As the artist sees newer movies, more music is added until his death when the soundtrack will become completed.

Well, It's the end of many things now for me. School is finished. The Thesis Exhibition is down. And Summer access to the School's Computer Lab and printers is also over because they are renovating many parts of the school. So, we are now officially locked out from using the lab like we did last year to work on summer projects.

For now like so many photographers in New York I will be using Print Space when I need to make a work print or scan some film. While it is surreal that School is finished - with the end of school brings the excitement of the challenges ahead. It's terrifying graduating now but at least the economy appears to be getting better. If I had graduated last year we would have been flying into the job market as the economy entered the worst collapse since the great depression. Hopefully, that is behind us and jobs will be coming back to all the working photographers and artists. And collectors will begin to buy more of the art that they enjoy. Go stock market go!

I'm really happy with how our Thesis Exhibition turned out. It was sad to bring home the work but the end also means new beginnings for me and the development of the series. Check out all the great blog love we got below. Thanks to all the bloggers who posted the information for the show or posted links to their favorite artists.

Press from the SVA MFA 2009 Thesis Exhibition
whats the jackanory ? - sva mfa show
Two Days Left for SVA MFA '09 Show | Gallery Hopper
ArtCat - Chelsea - SVA (West 26th) - MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department presents Thesis Exhibition
Hey, Hot Shot! - SVA MFA 2009 Thesis Show
SVA (West 26th): MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department presents Thesis Exhibition | .FILAS, n{e}ws
Recent MFA Shows' Selections. | digressions: a blog
Zoe Strauss: SVA MFA Photo Thesis Exhibition
wan.der.lust.ag.ra.phy
Schauraum 3 – thesis show at the FH Dortmund « Daniel on photography
SVA.MFA. « Prison Photography
ARTmostfierce: SVA 2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition
The Exposure Project: Jessica Bruah's No Lake This Summer
Tina Schula - Conscientious
Maureen Drennan - Conscientious
Carlos Alvarez Montero - Conscientious
i heart photograph: yiftach belsky
School of Visual Arts MFA Photography and Related Media Thesis Exhibition | Artis

As for this blog I hope to keep it up. I have been thinking about what it should morph into now that school is out. I will be experimenting with taking some of the papers I have written in school and turning them into long blog posts. If they work I will continue to write longer articles on art in this blog in the future. So, to recap, an end is sad but the beginning is terrifyingly exciting. To quote my favorite wordsmith:

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?--it's the too- huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies." -Jack Kerouac

School of Visual Arts Thesis 2009 Exhibition and website

‘The Phantom Brigade,’ 20 x 37 inches, 2008

It's been a long road these past two years at SVA. Tomorrow brings the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. Tuesday night from 6 - 8 pm is the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media thesis exhibition.

I will be showing a set of five images from my series, Imaginary Wars. If you can't make it, I have updated my website with a set of six images and detail shots: here.

Be sure to check out the strong work from my collogues of the class of 2009 online as well:

http://mfaphoto.schoolofvisualarts.edu/thesis2009/index.php

Thesis Exhibition, June 12 — 27, 2009
Opening Reception: Tuesday, June 16, 6 — 8 pm

Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26 Street, Suite 1502
Monday — Thursday 10 am — 6 pm
Friday 10 am — 5 pm
Saturday 10 am — 6 pm

Thesis Video Screening, Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7 — 10 pm
SVA Theatre 333 West 23 Street

i heart photograph, too

i heart photograph, too.


Black Sun 0006, c-print on diasec in wood frame, 48" x 64"

Thanks to for the posting my Black Sun Project. I have been reading i heart photograph for a while now maybe I'll run into you durring the NYPF this year, I see you'll be doing another panel on the state of the blog.

i heart photograph: harlan erskine

website update: Microsoft, I'm a PC

Microsoft, I'm a PC and this is how I roll. -Desanti Antoine

I just updated my commercial section of my website with the Microsoft work I did this August. The project lasted almost two weeks and sent me and the crew to Paris, London, Cape Town and Johannesburg South Africa and a shoot day back in New York. The shoot was a integrated set where a full tv crew would shoot the motion shots and then I would follow up with the still images. All the final ads are on You Tube as well as tons of additional videos here. The ads were produced to counter the nerdy stereotype of PC users by documenting the diversity of their user base. The subjects include a photographer, Nick Fleming a green architect, Edouard François, a French YouTube celebrity, Jey Jey (not yet posted) and many others.

I'll be posting more images soon, including the ads posted last month in Union Square, Times Square and Spring street train stations.



Microsoft, I'm a PC and I share the truth. -Nick Fleming


Microsoft, I'm a PC and I design green buildings. -Edouard François


Microsoft, I'm a PC and my city never sleeps. -Matthew Murray


Microsoft, I'm a PC andI'm gonna get published. -Shamikah Martinez


Microsoft, I'm a PC and I'm one in a Billion. -Lucille Dechansiaud

Website update: Black Sun Project

black sun project, gallery view, 2008

Finally found some time to update my website with some older projects. First to be updated is my Black Sun Project first shown last year at bas fisher invitational.

more updates to come...