Week 4 Blog Prompts

#19. Can you think of anything that:

1) should not be photographed? Why?

       I think there are many instances when paparazzi take photographs that are highly inappropriate and invasive.

2) cannot be photographed? Why?

A process, from beginning to end, cannot be captured in a single photograph.

3) you do not want to photograph? Why?

       I am not at all interested in sexually based photography. I feel like it is overdone and there are so many other subjects that ought to be explored.

#20 Describe at least one photograph that you could take for each of the following “place” prompts.

·                An image of a synthetic “place” such as Disney World, Las Vegas, a Hollywood set, a diorama, etc.
       I imagine a fantasy world where all microscopic elements of the world and enlarged so that we can walk through them. This would allow us to photograph the three-dimensional nature of these organic and inorganic materials, their texture and their scale in comparison to other elements.

·                An image of a fantasy/fictitious environment concocted from your imagination.

        I have always been fascinated with the idea of walking on water. I would love to do a fashion photography shoot that had this as a backdrop.

 

·                An image of a placeless space such as the Internet, cell phones, e-mail, e-bank, surveillance, etc.

         This idea makes me think of circuit boards and the wiring that allows for these “placeless places” to exist. I think recording the incoming and outgoing signals to somehow portray their quantity and their speed would be interesting.

·                An image of a public space.
        I would love to take an image of a very busy street in the middle of a big city and digitally remove all of the advertisements. I think it would be fascinating to see the world without these influences.

·                An image of a private space.

        I would love to do a series of living rooms with families in them. I think it would exciting and interesting to compare and contrast living styles and behaviors .

 

·                An in-between space that brings to mind one of the following ideas: nomadic lifestyles, displacement, rootlessness, out-of-placeness, boundaries, movement, expansion, etc.

I am fascinated with the photographs of National Geographic magazine.  This prompt reminds of an article that described the last living truly indigenous people. They live completely off the land, devoid of much emotion and social context. They have absolutely no contact with the rest of civilization. I would love to follow them, to take candid photographs of a hidden form of life that lacks all outside influences.

#21

A. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of “news”-related photographs. Many photographs taken for journalism purposes are candid, and therefore capture a moment filled with emotion or energy. They are also factual; they tell us enough to inform us about the purpose of the article. Although they are straight to the point, however, they still contain some aesthetic pleasing elements. The candid shots often tell of extreme happiness or extreme grief. For these reasons journalistic photographs are engaging and emotionally charged. While lighting conditions cannot always be controlled, framing and cosmetic enhancements can be made in post-processing and therefore must play an important role.

B. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of “snapshots”, including family photographs, cell-phone shots, photos posted to facebook, Snapshots fill our own personal need to document our lives and relationships. I think the context of these photographs is what makes them different that professional photos. The scenes are often of positive subjects. The lighting is often enhanced with the use of a flash, which floods the scenes with front lighting. Little attention is paid to framing, as they are not usually processed, but instead simply “posted.”

C. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of advertisement photographs, including fashion photography, product photography, etc When I think of fashion photography and product photography I immediately think of lighting. Especially with fashion photography, lighting adds drama and depth. The sharpness, or lack thereof, and the colors, or lack thereof, help push concepts far in one direction or the other. 

D. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of film/movie and television stills. Clarity is the first word that comes to mind when I think of film stills. The scenes are impeccably lit and show incredible detail.

E. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of yearbook photos, senior pictures, and team/club/sports group shots. Staged is the common word for these types of photographs. The photographer is aiming for continuity is a series of images to be displayed in a common place for a common purpose. Therefore their framing, lighting, contrast, and subject matter are all very similar. Sporting group shots are often taken outdoors, mainly in the summer when there is ample sunlight. Yearbook photos often use side lighting with some type of filter. The framing of these photographs is tight and uniform.

F. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of stock images. http://www.corbisimages.com/ http://www.gettyimages.com/

G. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of fashion photography. I think the most unique aspect of fashion photography is positions of the subjects. Angles and perspective are always more interesting when the pose of the subject is also interesting. Marketers are searching for the most effective way to display a garment or accessory, and drama and interest are crucial.

H. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of paparazzi shots or celebrity photographs. These photographs are almost always candid. The photographer has little to no control over lighting conditions and are often moving themselves when taking the pictures. Many times they are also stationed at quite a distance from the subjects so they must use zoom lenses, or take pictures that are somewhat less descriptive. Of course the photographers who own the photographs are free to process them as they wish, and framing and zooming can be adjusted afterwards.

In Progress

Recreation 3

Memory

 In my recreation I attempted to capture a similar frame and similar lighting. The recreated image is slightly more backlit than the original, however I believe it has the same compositional feel. The memory and original photograph come from a trip I took with my father to San Diego many years ago. The recreation is a picture of my mother. Both photographs, I hope, give the viewer some indication of nostalgia and reflection. To me they represent the closeness that feel towards both of my parents.

Historical Photographer

Arthur Rothstein

Arthur Rothstein, Dust Bowl, 1936

 Arthur Rothstein is a fascinating figure in the history of American photography. Born in New York City on July 17, 1915, Rothstein was a premier photojournalist and documentary photographer who was greatly concerned with the betterment of society. His work had a very wide range featuring sporting events to war, rural farmers to U.S. presidents, weather and more. Although he often photographed people living in difficult conditions, his compositions were picturesque and he always strived to maintain the dignity of his subjects and to find the beauty in their surroundings. His composition, Dust Bowl, shown above, shows a father and his two sons walking through a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Rothstein's black and white photos had great depth and interest.

 Rothstein was educated and the Columbia University where his contacts eventually led to his co-founding the Farm Security Administration which later became a part of the Office of War Information (OWI) for WWII. He joined the signal corps as a photographer in the U.S. Army and was stationed in China, Burma, and India throughout wartime. In the post-war era he worked as the chief photographer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. 

 Rothstein was a founder and innovator throughout his career. He won 35 photojournalism awards, was a former juror for the Pulitzer Prize, and was the sole founder of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Among his many innovations was his instrumental involvement in the development of the Xograph, a printing process that for the first time allowed mass production of pictures that appeared to be three dimensional.

Contemporary Photographer

Lori Nix

  Lori Nix was born and raised in Kansas, a state often ravaged by severe weather. She was fascinated with storms and natural disasters and their aftermath greatly influenced her world view and her work. A very environmentally conscious citizen, Nix is highly concerned with the influences humans are having on the earth. Much of her work in apocalyptic in nature, yet does not have the feel of devastation. 

 For the majority of her pieces Nix created hand-made dioramas which are very intricate and extremely small. For her latest series, The City, the spaces show public spaces devoid of human life. They are slowly being taken back by nature and often feature flora, fauna, and insects. They also seem to portray a dark humorous sensibility which make them intriguing and thought-provoking.

 Her work features creative, and sometimes rather dramatic lighting, relatively large depths of field, and large frames. Although her work often portrays small spaces her photographs have amazing depth and vivid detail.

Lori Nix, The City

Lori Nix, The City

 

Lori Nix, The City

Week 3 Blog Prompts

#11____Memory of a Place: Try to imagine a place from your past. Do you have pictures of this place? Describe this place as you remember it. What might a photograph look like of this place if you were to go back and photograph it? What would it look like in the past? What would it look like to you today? Where are you standing in this place? What other items are in this place? What colors do you see? Are there other people or are you alone? Make a “written photograph” of this place using words/description.

 In the neighborhood where my aunt and uncle live in West Lafayette, Indiana, there is a tiny pond which always freezes over completely in the winter. Occasionally at Christmas we would go skate on the pond with the whole family. We don't have many photographs of it unfortunately, but it is ingrained in my memory. In this picture would be my mom and dad, my two sisters, my Aunt Linda and Uncle Denny, my Uncle Buzz and Aunt Bethia, and four of my cousins. Behind the pond there was a home that had a few acres of land. They kept horses and such and it was fenced in. The other side contained homes on smaller plots of land. Today the neighborhood has significantly more trees, it is lush and green in the summer, and beautiful and snowy white every Christmas. Their home is one of my favorite places on earth. 

#12____Memory of a Photograph: Which photograph from your past do you remember most? Describe this photograph. Describe how it makes you feel when you remember/think about this photograph. How have you changed? How has the place in this photograph changed? What would a reenactment of this photograph look like? Would you act or look differently if you reenacted this scene today?

 I actually used my most memorable photograph as source material for a painting I recently completed. The picture was taken on a trip that I took to San Diego with my dad when I was nine years old. The trip was very special; he took each of my sisters and myself on our own trip. We went to Torrey Pines National Park which sits right along the Pacific Ocean. My dad and I both have always loved the ocean and I distinctly remember how happy he was that day. The picture was taken by me, and it is of my dad standing on the beach in front of the water. The picture is actually overexposed and the left side of it is almost white which interestingly makes it more nostalgic. The sun was very bright that day, and it was relatively windy so that the waves were rolling into the shore. My dad was 42 years old when we went. I imagine the beach itself would be much the same today, as it resides in a protected area; we, however, would be much different.

#13____Human-Made Space: In the past, photographers who were interested in how humans impacted the natural landscape grouped together to form the New Topographics. “"New Topographics" signaled the emergence of a new photographic approach to landscape: romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal, focused on the everyday built environment and more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field.”http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibTopo.aspx

In addition, at the same time in history artists created (and still do create) “land art” in which they use materials found in the landscape to make sculptures that remain in the landscape. Many of these works now only exist as video recordings and photographic documents.

Pay attention to the number of ways in which you encounter humans’ interaction with nature and the physical land. Write these down. Using these as inspiration, describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might create that would be documented by a photograph. Describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might make in a man-made landscape that would be documented by a photograph.

#14____Unknown vs. Familiar Space: When photography was invented, it became a way to document and reveal the specific aspects of both familiar and faraway places. Imagine a familiar place. Imagine a faraway place. How would you use photographs to convey the difference? Can you imagine any places that have been “touched” very little by humans? How might you photograph them?

 There is always a comfort to being in a familiar place. Even if it isn't a place we necessarily love, we do know what to expect. We know what or who we'll find there, we know the environment, the temperature, the space, the smells, and the sounds. To capture familiarity, we therefore need to capture a scene that describes what we know. What tangible part of the space can we bring to the viewer that for a moment can help them sense all of those things that we feel or see when we enter it? When I think of unfamiliar places, I think of islands that are uninhibited. We know little to nothing of what we can expect when we set foot on their land. I imagine a photograph of somewhere like this to have less focus than a familiar place. Perhaps it has a greater depth of field to give us more information about the surroundings or the environment as a whole. The lighting would also be very telling of spatial information. 

 

#15____In-Camera Collage: Collage brings together two or more items that were previously separate. The resulting piece usually visually references the fact that they were once separate entities. Imagine an important place in your past. Imagine an important place in your present. Imagine who you were in both of these past and present places. Describe how you might use a slow shutter speed and/or double exposure to capture two moments in one image that tell a new narrative about these important places and how they relate to who you are and were.

 The important places that I am thinking of are both ice rinks. I have skated since I was three years old, as have both of my sisters. Today I am a skating coach, with my own private students. Although the rinks themselves are in different locations, the scene is very much the same in my head. The rink is a place of dedication, friendship, hard work, collaboration, support, and comfort. When I think of a collage involving both places, it is blurred in the middle where the two rinks overlap but crisp on either side. I am young, and skating on one side, and an adult teaching on the other. I hope there is a new light on the present, where I intend to teach in a slightly different way than I was taught. 

“I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.” Duane Michals

  I completely agree with this quotation by Duane Michals. We all take candid photographs of people nearly everyday. What makes a photographer's work stand out? How can we make a portrait distinct? These are the questions which are asked by professionals. With all the different adjustments that can be made to a camera, a set, or a subject, there are endless ways to portray them to display characteristics which may not be immediately obvious to the rest of the world.     

“I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.” Duane Michals

 I have often been taught this principle in regards to Graphic Design. How much information does the viewer really need in order to understand our concept? Sometimes what we know lies just beyond the border of a piece is what makes the subject intriguing. 

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” ~Ansel Adams

 Ansel Adams is one of my favorite photographers. I love the simplicity of his work. He is the perfect person to make such a true statement about landscape photography, which in my opinion can often be boring. I enjoy detail, and sometimes photographs with a large depth of field are missing this for me. Anyone who can capture vast space in a unique way is truly talented.

Assignment 2

Small Depth of Field

 I played with many different frames for this composition. I wanted the focus to be on the corks themselves, but showing a small amount of the hand was important to the feel of the piece. Although the photo was taken indoors, it was shot during the daytime in front of a glass door, so much outdoor light was coming into the space. The amount of natural light allowed me to use a faster shutter speed to eliminate any potential blur. I like the subject of this composition because I think it could used in a variety of settings. I picture it as a photograph to hang in a wine bar or a kitchen. I could also see it being used in an advertisement. I like the clarity of the words on the corks. The zoom and small depth of the field help to push the concept. I took this photographs with my subject holding a collection of corks in her hands. Her hands were resting on a plain white table in our kitchen in front of glass doors with sunlight shining in. I took the series from a range of angles, and placed her hands in a variety of ways in order to get a good perspective and frame. My goal in this photograph was to take a crisp clear close-up which I have struggled with to this point. I believe that I achieved this. This particular image is similar to the work of Paul Politis. He is a black and white photographer with a unique perspective on objects alone or in groups, still lifes, and other subjects. Overall his compositions are simple and rather minimalistic.

Slow Shutter Speed

For this composition I used a slow shutter speed to capture movement that looked almost surreal. The outdoor lighting was helpful, and the midday sun was perfect. I wanted to include some portion of the surroundings to give the feet context and the viewer a sense of space. I have very little experience with action photography so this piece was somewhat of an experiment for me. If I had the opportunity to do it again I would likely expand the frame and play with the wardrobe to give the scene more interest, perhaps even turning it into a fashion shoot. When I was taking this picture I was thinking of William Morris's famous Umbrella Jump. I aimed to give this photo the same lightness and simplicity.

High Contrast Lighting

My main focus for this photograph was to play with the lighting and the drama. I hope the photo evokes thoughtfulness for the viewer, and the framer adds wonder as to what lies beyond its borders. Both a lighting and an adornment prompt led to this composition. Because the photo was taken indoors, I played around quite a bit with the amount and placement of the lighting.  I also tried this shot from several different angles, and the framing was changed several times in post-processing. 

Adornment with High Contrast

This photograph was again done using the prompt of adornment. However another obvious goal of this image was dramatic lighting. I think her look is contemplative and introspective. I think my tendency is to cut the framing in too tight, and I believe that I probably did that again here. I wish the frame gave the viewer slightly more information. My goal with this photo was to show emotion in the face of my subject, something that I have been unable to do. I wanted her to be more than a pretty picture, but to show thought and purpose. 

BRIAN FINKE

 

My Recreation

 Brian Finke is an American photographer. Born in Philadelphia in 1976 Finke currently lives and works in New York. Although my recreation is in black and white, his work exhibits vibrant, saturated colors achieved often with the use of a flash, even in outdoor light. He is becoming known as a documentary photographer, in great part to his cheerleader and football player series' which capture the heart of social scenes in America's youth.
 Finke works hard to not comment on the social context of his subjects, but instead strives to capture them in "real" moments to tell a story from the perspective of the subject. He strives for honestly, lightheartedness, vibrancy, and humor.