Photo by John Messinger

John Messinger came into our class to talk to us on 11/29/16. I was super pumped on listening to his lecture he had for the class and was interested in what he had to say about photography. John is one of Professor Cyr friends from college and professor Cyr showed us a video on John Messinger on how he shoots his projects.
 John first showed us a video that Fuji Film made on him for a project they were working on. The project they were working on was with the new Fuji Film Instax. John's work was made of multiple Instax instant pictures that were put into grids and all taped together. All of his pieces looked very abstract. He zoomed into pictures on a digital screens and came up with all of these unique colors. John explained the process how every photo has to be produced the same. From the timing he peels the cover off of the photos to the angle he shoots the photos. Some one in my class asked him how he came up with this idea. He said that he always kept the history of photography and one day he was taking pictures of the girl swinging on a swing from a odd prospective. Every time he took a photo he laid the photos out on the ground next to the swing. When he looked over his photos from that day he liked how he was making a grid with all of these polaroids. John then applied to use a space at a museum in the Hamptons. He told us it was one of the worst applications he has ever filled out. The museum gave him a shot to produce work that they were going to present. They gave him the winter to shoot photos for them. Shooting in the winter is tough because there is not a lot of color out doors. He shots photos outside the building and he thought the out come was terrible. He then was in the darkest room in the museum and looking at the computer screen and started shooting photos of the wallpapers of the screen. He was impressed with the colors that were being produced. Making a grid out of the polaroids. Thats how he came p with his style. John works as a visual artist and is self employed but sometimes during the year companies will hire him to do projects for them.