Contemporary Photographer

The photographer I decided to critique is Edward Burtynsky and his work Oil: Transportation.  In every picture that is included in this project, there is some kind of transportation, mostly consisting of cars and trucks. There is a lot of motion in these photographs. The first six are photographs of highways and are captured from a high vantage point. They are very detailed and show the twists and turns on the highways and inner belts. The all the photographs are in color, but the ones consisting of the highways are dominantly gray and white because the highway takes up most of the picture.  The highways look like long thin lines that run next to on another and on top of each other. One photograph that sticks out to me is titled Highway #2. It is taken from a very high vantage point looking down onto the highway. This photograph is so striking to me because the bright white highway sticks out from on top of the dark ground under it. It’s so much for my eyes to take in, because there is so much activity. Between the cars on the highway, the design of the road, and the buildings in the background I want to know what everything is exactly. Just by looking at the photograph itself, I don’t think you be able to exact distinguish where the photo was taken. However under every picture there is a title, location, and year that explain the photograph where it was captured. All of the pictures of the highways were taken in large and busy cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Shanghai.

All the images represent the transportation we use in our everyday lives. It expresses how busy we are and how much oil and resources we use in order to meet our daily needs. I think the fact that our culture is so materialistic and wasteful influenced the photographer to take these pictures. We waste resources more than we use them, and don’t think twice about it. The work is responding to our awful habits and not taking better care of our planet and restoring our resources. The work can address anyone who drives a car or uses transportation. It also targets wasteful people. This work brings attention to a topic that is discussed a lot, but not always taken seriously. These photographs give me a bird’s eye view of the harmful effects that our lifestyles inflict on the world. When we discuss pollution we are used to seeing garbage, oil spills, and smog. This shines light on the same subject but in a different view. We get a large-scale view of everyday activity that is harmful towards the environment. We may not recognize all the harmful gases and chemicals that are being released in the picture, but if you look at it long enough you can think about all the noise pollution and resources that were used up.

I read Edward Burtynsky’s artistic statement on his website and it was very similar towards mine. He took these pictures and used the images as metaphors to the problems we currently face in our world. He claims we are drawn by desire- a good lifestyle, however we are unintentionally hurting our environment and risking the health of the animals and plants. In a hundred years our planet may look very different, and these pictures “function as reflecting pools of our times”.

I am in awe of this project. I think it is very successful and Burtynsky’s ideas and beliefs are communicated clearly in his work. You can tell he knows how to take a pleasant looking picture even if the meaning behind it is negative. The frame, vantage point, and colors are amazing and give a stunning view. I loved exploring his website and looking at his other bodies of work.

                                            http://www.edwardburtynsky.com 

Details

What inspired me to do this project is the fast pace lifestyle we are all accustomed to. One day I was laying bed staring at my blanket and noticed a bunch of details that I have never seen before. It made me ask myself what else I must have missed before. The purpose of this project was to capture the little detail of everyday objects that we wouldn't think twice about looking at. Even though these objects are nothing extraordinary or beautiful, my goal is just to bring attention to the structure and technicalities.

I was also influenced by the saying "Stop and smell the roses". I think everyone is somewhat familiar with this phrase. There are different ways to interpret it, but the overall gist of it means to stop and take the time to appreciate life. How many times have you just stopped, and marveled at the world around us? Through all the bad in life, we can all find something good in the end. I want people take a second from their busy lives, just stand there, and look at everything that surrounds them. 

Interpretation Assignment

Made By a Man is a exhibition created by J. Casey Doyle. His exhibit includes 7 large pieces of artwork. All made out of different bright colors and thin ribbon that you would use to wrap a present. There are two blue pieces, two pink pieces, one green, white, and purple piece. They are all hanging up against walls, while one of the pink pieces is draped over a wall and one of the blue pieces is hanging from the ceiling. Most of the pieces look like blankets from far away, and the blue piece that hangs from the ceiling has delicate, large squares knitted into it, making it look like a quilt. 

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend his lecture about his work, so I feel like I missed out on a lot of information that would make this interpretation more successful. Just by looking at his artwork, I was not really able to conclude any biological information. One piece of artwork that stuck out to me was called Beauty. To me, this piece of work is trying to contradict the stereotypes that are mixed in with gender roles. This artwork represent a quilt, made by a man. I think society normally views women as the creator of objects like quilts and other crafts. We normally never hear about a man sitting down and knitting anything. I feel like this exhibit can be addressed to anyone who might be nervous to follow their dreams because it may look frowned upon or go against what is "normal". 

I found this exhibit to be quite confusing. It was very hard for me because I did not get a chance to attend J. Casey Doyle's lecture so I feel like I missed out on a lot of important information that would have helped me understand his art better. To me, the exhibit just looked like a bunch of blankets, and it was hard to find "meaning" behind everything. However, I can very much appreciate all the hard work he put into his exhibit. I cannot even imagine how frustrated and tired he must have been making all these interesting pieces. I admire his perseverance and patience, as I know I would never be able to do something as marvelous as this. 

Final Project ( forgot to post this earlier)

The concept of my final project is to capture the details/textures of everyday objects that we have a tendency of ignoring. I want to capture the "beauty" in places that we wouldn't think of looking at. This whole concept began to interest me when I saw American Beauty of few months ago. The whole theme of the movie is "to look closer". Ricky Fitts, on of the characters in the movie, video tapes everyday objects. While everyone thinks he's a basket case for finding things like birds and plastic bags beautiful, he doesn't understand why more people do not take the time to stop and appreciate the world that surrounds us.

I plan to explore this concept by taking up close pictures of objects that we don't really notice. I want to capture the detail and texture that we don't think twice about. I want about half the pictures to be everyday objects and the other half to be things outside, like plants or animals. I don't expect everyone to find every picture beautiful because we all have different opinions and views. But I want people to stop for a minute and think "wow, I never really noticed all the small things around me". I plan on printing this on regular photo paper and in color.

Work in Progress!

The idea of my project is to capture the detail and texture of everyday objects that we hardly ever notice. So far I have only take pictures of objects indoors but I'm planning on going outdoors and taking up close pictures of nature and anything we might miss with just a naked eye. I'm planning on printing them on regular photo paper and then displaying them in the frames that Mrs. Shannon showed us during class. If anyone has any suggestions of what I should photograph or what I should print my photos on please let me know!

The Crisis of the Real

1) According the Andy Grundberg's essay "The Crisis of the Real", postmodernism is a demonstration of abstract concerns of intellectuals. Or in Grundberg's exact words "... in short, postmodernism, in its art and its theory, is a reflection of the conditions of our time" (165). When postmodernism first hit the artist world in the early 20th century, it greatly affected architecture. "Architects had a very specific and clearly defined target in mind: 'less is more'" (165). To most architect postmodernism meant using stylish flourishes and no rules to create "free" and "no worry"art. In my opinion, postmodernism is taking a problem, event, or trend in current society and turning it into art in order for people to look at the situation through a different view. It could be making fun of something, rebelling against it, or simply bringing awareness to it. 

2) One way postmodernism challenged traditional photography practices was mixing photography with other forms of art. In the 70s, many artists started mixing photography and video, then combined it with media. In my own words, postmodernism photography was in a way about capturing the "raw truth". Many of the aspects of traditional photography were completely disregarded when it comes to postmodernism photography. Perfect lighting, shutter and aperture speed, poses, and appearance was all forgotten. The main focus of postmodernism photography was to capture the thing itself, right when it was in its element. This doesn't mean postmodernism photographers were not creative. They were constantly coming up with ideas about how to project what they captured on film. Some artists even took photographs of other peoples' pictures. Artists went out of their comfort zone and started exploring the new and different ways to photograph. The beautiful, yet at times frustrating thing about postmodernism photographs is that the meaning of many of them is what you come up with when you view them. When you look at a traditional photograph you are able to almost immediately tell what the photograph is trying to portray. Unlike traditional photography, postmodern photography can be confusing and multiple meaning-or none at all. 

Shirley

My project is inspired by the ghost that haunts mine and my roommates apartment. Her name is Shirley and she is our age. Within the first weeks of living there, we noticed really strange things happening. We told our RAs about the disturbances and they told us that a girl actually died there a few years ago. I have never believed in the supernatural, but ever since I moved into the apartment I am beginning to think that the dead might be able to communicate with us. It's very ironic that I chose to do to a creepy project because I HATE scary things.

I am trying to communicate a very creepy and threatening message through my pictures. I want the viewer to feel disturbed and scared. I want to make people wonder what else could be living with us that we don't even see. With the pictures that have other people in them, I decided to make the scene large because I wanted it to look like they were doing normal activities with a ghost in the background. So at first glance, maybe the viewer doesn't notice the girl sitting on the ground or standing next to the woman. 

My ideas did not really change while shooting this project. At first I wanted to come off as a peaceful kind of "soft" ghost, but once I got really into it I wanted to be more creepy and "violent". I didn't use the flash for this project at all because I wanted everything to look natural and I had it on a longer shutter speed. I posted these image in an order to make it look like I was moving through the house, starting off my standing in the window. Unfortunately, I took a lot of good photos that I could have used but I think that these ones were the best. It was really hard to narrow it down so I hope that these eight can tell the story successfully. 

In Plato's Cave

1. I think she means that no matter how much you try to capture just the reality of the photograph, they are haunted by their truth and story. An example she uses is the Farm Security Administration photo project. The photographers would capture hundreds of photographers until satisfied. Many of these photographs included a  subject that supported their own belief about poverty, light, dignity, texture, exploitation, and geometry. I do agree with her statement. Everyone can interpret photos differently and form different opinions no matter how "right" or "wrong" the message in the photograph is. However, the photographs she is referring to are just trying to capture reality, which could be taken away because of peoples' beliefs or opinions.

2. I think she Sontag means that taking photographs on vacation can certify your experience and in a way could be a souvenir because you can always have that together to remember your trip. However a photographer can only limit the experience, especially if the viewer of the photograph was not there with you. A photograph cannot capture your entire experience, only a fragment of it. I also agree with this statement. No one can truly understand and experience all you encountered. A photograph can only get a snip it of time. An example Sontag uses to back up her statement is tourists who are on vacation. Most tourists feel obligated to take a picture of whatever exciting thing they see. Whenever I go on vacation, I take a bunch of pictures then post them on Instagram or Facebook. Our generation especially has a tendency of flaunting our lives on a social media website. Whether we want to look cooler or more interesting, we want people to see where we have been and who we were with. But on a more positive note, the pictures may capture an enjoyable time for us and remind us of happy things. Even though people looking at the pictures might not know the background story, they still see a moment in time that makes us happy, whether we were at an interesting place or just looked really good in the photograph.

The Portrait

The theme of my project was to portray that it does not matter who you are, everyone has been labeled  or called names. No matter how much you hide your feelings, everyone is slightly affected by what they are called. Whether someone means it or not, words can cut deeply. Everyone feels pain, and those labels can be a burden we carry around for the rest of our lives. I once heard a phrase that said "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but only words will leave me psychologically damaged". This phrase is beyond true. It's completely human nature to remember all the bad things people say about us, but forget the compliments we receive. We dwell on our flaws people point out and think about all the characteristics that are wrong with us. It's cliche, but we should only treat people the way we would want to be treated.

In order to create a somber and striking mood, I turned off all the lights and waited for it to get dark outside. Then I should a desk lamp and shined it at different angels in order to get differently lighting on peoples' faces. I asked everyone to write down on a piece of paper everything they remember being called throughout their lives. I wrote it on their faces in black with eyeliner in order to make it really stick out. Almost every single person wore a black or white shirt because I didn't want any colors or design to take away from their faces. One of the portraits is blurry on purpose because I liked how crazy and confused it looked, but you can still slightly make out what it says on her face. I think it kind of symbolizes how messed up insults can make people. I also choose to change the lighting for some of the pictures to make the people look lonely and depressed.

If I were to do this project again there would be a few things I would change. I would have rather taken pictures of people out in public with the names still written on their faces. I feel like this would have been better because it would've made the project more interesting to look at and it would've shown everyday people doing regular activities without knowing they have been labeled. It was kind of depressing during this photo shoot because all my roommates sat there and dwelled on what they wrote down. It made me realize that no matter how happy or "normal" someone may seem, we all have stuff bottled up inside of us that bothers us.

Documentary Photographs

The place I choose to document for this project was my family's restaurant in downtown Cleveland. The formal name of the restaurant is Sokolowski's University Inn. It was established by my great grandparents and started off as a bar. As the years went on my grandmother and grandfather took over the business and turned it into a European style restaurant, but also has American food to accommodate to everyone's taste buds. I am very proud to say that this establishment is part of my family and our history. The restaurant is known for giving off a family type of vibe, and our cooking is compared to "something your grandmother would make". My goal for this project was to give off a friendly, kind of "home" feeling of the place.

Trying my best to capture photographs that give off this vibe, I took around 100 photos. I felt like these met my expectations the best and hopefully the viewer can also see why I choose these photos. I decided to take most of my photographs without using a flash to create a more relaxing, natural looking picture. I did not want them to be really bright because I felt like it would take away from the calm and homey vibe that I was trying to communicate.

In a way it was hard to communicate photography's formal elements in order to communicate the ideas I had. For the photo of the man's feet, I know I wanted to incorporate frame. I only took a picture of the man's feet so the viewer could focus on what I was really trying to communicate. I feel like if the picture included the whole man's body, they would not pick up on what I was trying to say.

Old News Interpretation

One picture I really enjoyed was the Best (Men's) Legs Contest photograph. The work was photographed on August 5, 1985 using a digital camera. The photo was printed on silver gelatin paper. The picture is taken in black and white and you can detect a lot of shapes in the picture. The women who are the judges are in a line formation while the shot of the man's legs form a triangle. The photograph was displayed horizontally and from what I can remember it was basically the size of piece of computer paper- 8x11. The photograph does not display any biological information about the article or the location where it was taken. 

The meaning of the work is to show reverse sexism. The photographer mentions that in the explanation of his photographs. Even though I think this photograph is to be taken on a lighter scale, it does raise awareness to an important issue that is always taking place in our society-sexism. The photo shows a mans legs walking down a cat walk while a row of female judges are laughing and smiling at him. Very rarely to we see this, since women are usually the ones being objectified and judge more on their appearance. I feel like some people may take this photograph the wrong way, in that it is very unorthodox and it was dumb to have a contest like this, but I also find it pretty sad that there is competitions on women's body parts and appearances. Also, I hope the men in the contest had a good time, while learning a valuable lesson on what it is like to be a woman in society. I'm sure there had to be at least one man who felt uncomfortable walking in front of all those people, and even worse maybe he felt self-conscious about his body. I am not saying that every man is completely comfortable with who they are and how they look, everyone has something about themselves they do not like, but much of the male society is oblivious to the pressures and expectations that are inflicted on women today. 

Three questions I have for the photographer would be 1) What image of his does he think is the most powerful, or means the most to him 2) When did he start taking photographs 3) Has he been working on any collections lately and he plans to eventually display

Assignment 2: The Photographer's Eye

 FRAME

 VANTAGE POINT

 DETAIL

 FAST SHUTTER SPEED

 SLOW SHUTTER SPEED + TRIPOD

 HAND HELD NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

 NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY + TRIPOD

 f/3.1 1/6

DEPTH OF FIELD  f/8.0 1.0

 FLASH

THE THING ITSELF

After reading the article from last week, I interpreted that "The Thing Itself" means that no matter how deceiving or confusing a photo may seem, it is not what it appears to be. This part of the assignment was very difficult for me, especially since I was not sure if I had a correct idea of what it meant. After taking this photograph I went and asked my roommates what they thought this was a picture of and luckily they said a blanket. However, it is a napkin. I think this is one example of how something may seem different from what it really is. 

The Photographer's Eye Response

This article, written by John Szarkowski, is a summary of how photography transformed art and how we remember things through time. It doesn't matter who the photographer is and what the purpose of taking the photograph was. Pictures could be creations from knowledge and skill, while some could be created from an accident, misunderstanding, or experiment. But no matter what the photograph was taken of and who saw it- everyone sees the same thing-but no necessarily in the same way. A few reasons photography became a popular form of art was: inexpensive, easy, and it recorded anything- unlike other forms or art such as painting and drawing. 

Later in the article, the author breaks up into sections the five most important parts of photography. The first one is The Thing Itself. He goes on to explain that this means that the photographer must face reality. The world by itself is art, and you can capture it in it's best forms if you pay attention it's movements and are creative with them. The second part is The Detail. One explanation that the author mentions was in the early days of photography. The goal of the photographer was to achieve some sort of narrative- kind of like an explanation of the photos through a sequence of different photos. A good example he states is the documentaries of the American Civil War. The purpose of the series of photographs was to make it seem real, not to make the story clear. A great photograph is one that has a narrative and symbolic view. The Frame was the third part that Szarkowski explains. Not only does a frame make a picture more decorative, but it initially displays the most important part of a piece of art. Achieving a perfect frame was nearly impossibly, and since enlarging a photograph was not practical, a photographer had to decide which fragment of the photograph he had to use. The time and effort it took to make a perfect photograph made people appreciate photographers' work that much more. Time is the essential part of photography. Every picture, no matter what time it was taken or what it was taken of- describes a part of time.What was really unique about photography was that slow lenses and slow films a photograph could actually display a time segment in several seconds. If the object moved, the photograph would suddenly show a blurred subject. Into a deeper aspect of time, a picture could capture the beauty and feeling of the time. The last important part of photography was the Vantage Point, or place where something can be viewed. Since the beginning of photography, artists have been exploring new techniques for shooting such as a bird's eye view and distorting the subject. This article overall explains the influence of photography on art and artists. 

I found this article to be very boring. If I were to write an article about this subject I would have used more modern day examples. I also found the vocabulary he used to be confusing. But, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it was a very informative article. In detail he described the important parts of photography and used good examples. 

Assignment One Photography

I took this photograph outside of the Ovalwood building in the creek. I went under a small tree where the light was shining through. I love this image because of the rich green colors and the shadows. I also think it was kind of creative to sit under the tree and look up at the sky to take the photo in order to get a different perspective.

Materializing New Space Response

I found the exhibit to be rather depressing. The lack of colors made it very malaise. If the artists never explained the meaning behind the art, I would have never had a clue what they were trying to communicate. I made sure to examine every piece carefully- but I was just puzzled. However, I did think it was very clever how they took actual images and combined them with computer generated images. I cannot image all the time and effort they put into their project in order to get a satisfying result. I can see that being an artist is never easy and that one must perservere in order to be successful.

One piece that stood out to me was The New York Stock Exchange Project. I thought it was clever that they actually brought and sold stocks, averaging and recording them to fit into a hand-constructed sculpture. I'm not exactly sure what about this piece stuck out to me. I do not know a lot about art, but I have never seen a piece that was inspired by the stock market. I guess it was also a bonus that they not only made money off the art, but also the stock market. As far as interpretations, I think mine do differ from the artists-considering I did not fine that much meaning in it.

Some questions I would ask the artists are what exactly made you want to do a piece like this? It seems like they knew it was going to take a long time and a lot of effort for just a few pieces. Another question I would ask is why did they choose pain birds. I think the choice of bird definitely affected the excitement of the picture.

Interpreting Marin Parr's Photograph

Marin Parr's photograph is a picture of a mouth smiling with the bottom of their nose at the top of the frame. It is a human mouth. The person in the photo is caucasian, however you cannot tell what gender it is because it is up close. The lips are red and skinny. There are particles on the person's teeth and in their gums. There is a very tiny gap between the person's two front teeth. The lipstick is applied almost perfectly, with no smears. The background is dark.

The person might have been laughing while the picture was being shot. It is probably a woman if they are wearing lipstick. They just ate because they have stuff in their teeth. She was maybe at a restaurant because she would not be wearing lipstick if she was just eating at home. She is at least in her mid-twenties because her facial features look more mature.

My guess is that this is a photograph of an older woman who went out to eat. She is wearing lipstick which women wear when they are out in public or at an event. She has small wrinkles around her mouth which suggest she is older. The stains on her teeth also could signal that she is older. She has particles in her teeth which means she probably just ate. Lastly, she is smiling which could mean that she is out with friends having a good time. 

A Photo I Love!

One photograph I happen to love is V-J Day in Times Square, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The picture depicts a sailor kissing a nurse in a white coat passionately in the middle of Times Square. It was shot in black and white, with the two in the middle of the photo and what seems to be a parade going on around them. It was photographed on the same day it was announced the war on Japan ended. I love this photo because I think it is really romantic, even though the two did not know each other. I think that the soldier was so happy the war had ended that his excitement led him to kiss her. I wish the couple would have actually started dating after the photo was taken.