Baden, Evan.

This guy could not be more awkward. 

Baden's (not) Google Search: Porn. Result: Upload home sex-tapes! Baden's thought: I have to go take some pictures.

Wwwwwhaaattt a Midwestern-groomed weirdo.

NVM

He's cool. Even with a neck beard.

Evan Baden the Minnesota-taught, internationally recognized, photographer makes leaps and bounds via his three series Illuminati, Technically Intimate, and Under the Influence in exposing the absurdity in intimacy with and through technology.

In his series Illuminati, the glow of the computers, phones, mp3 players, etc display the way in which the youth are intimate with their technological devices.  His contention is that the technology is a way for people to be connected via phones, computers, etc, but is used in physical isolation.  The physical isolation causes a need for the connection; the connection would be useless if one were not isolated and had people around to be social with. 

The next series, Technically Intimate, is titled appropriately. It focuses on the new world of using technology to be intimate with one another via "sexting."  The colors are bright and the lines are especially crisp and harsh in the photos. This is a great juxtaposition to the typical blurry, camera phone photo. Baden captures the ways in which people contort their bodies to fit in the frame of the small, handheld cameras. This series was the most interesting to me. I like that he does include one male picture in which the guy just casually opens his pants.  This also sets up the discussion for how the women overwork themselves to appear sexually appealing in their photos in contrast to the guy who quickly just takes a snapshot. 

The final series, Under the Influence, relates to how the media influences teenagers. Magazines glorify alcohol and sex just as Baden does in his photos.  The colors and size of the photos emphasize the ridiculousness of the extremes magazines go through in order to get a good spread of a celebrity in their magazine or an "appealing" cover page. This section relates to technology in the way the images are spread.  He looking mainly in magazines, but these types of photos of famous people are available everywhere because of technological advances such as the internet.