artist rant? Erin Tyner

Yellow, 2008
Above, 2008
This post isn't so much about the photographer its about photography for everyone. This is an artist that I found about two years ago when I started thinking and using cutouts in my photography. Erin Tyner is a self taught photographer from Atlanta, Georgia. She has a series that she made in 2008 called Half Awake. She uses model people and other household objects to create a diorama and then photographs them. "In my Half Awake series I construct scenes by combining household items, natural objects, and train figures under one inch in height. By pairing figures and context I create characters that are engaged with an unfolding narrative." When I first found her on the internet I felt fooled. I felt like I had come up with a way to use photography the way that I want to. In a way that made sense to me. And this self-taught photographer had come up with the same idea as me. This led to questions like: Why am I paying so much money to study photography when I can just own a camera and make the same conclusions about art? Or what am I doing that is interesting in any way? I think with flickr and ffffound and other sites like this make me feel inadequate as an artist. What interests me is that "hipster" photography is so over used all over the internet. And then there are people that take amazingly perfect and dynamic images with their expensive cameras. As a photography student I feel like I am swimming upstream. I have a not top of the line digital camera and all the other film cameras I have are pre-owned. Its a pretty defeating feeling. Also, the fact that Erin Tyner shares and name with me is just the icing on the cake.

So I have since realized that it is not about the camera you have, or the art school education but how you put your tools into effect. Half Awake series isn't the best but its the best of her works. There are some images that are really beautiful but to me don't have that much behind them. Even with Tyner in a small part of the photo world I feel that there is room for me. I have skills that I have worked on for a while now and need to perfect. I use the tools I have to the ways that work best. Tyner isn't represented by a gallery but she has her own etsy site. I suppose you just need to be a great entrepreneur to be a great photographer.

Website:

http://www.erintyner.com/

interview:

http://blanketmagazine.com/ (their latest issue)