#6 INCLASS CRIT

This is my idea:

· Still motion Animation. I would make a video of tons of images zoomed on the mouth as the mouth speaks and talks and reads a story out loud. I will copy the video 4 times. Each different copy will have an audio track of me reading the same story. However, each video’s audio will be me reading the story with different emphasis, voices and intonation. The point is to express the difference between voice and body language.

COMMENTS, IDEAS, TIPS, GENERAL THOUGHTS?

A photo filter would be good to use as a means to help express the point, add a filter such as sepia or black and white

Make the photos seem as though they are on an old 1950’s television set

Still life with breast. 2001. Joel-Peter Witkin.

Alexander McQueen 2001 Asylum

Sanitarium. 1983. Joel-Peter Witkin

Joel-Peter Witkin, born 1939 in Brooklyn in New York. Mr. Witkin's work resembles that of early Dagguerreotypes. Generally speaking, his work is dark and macabre in nature. His work has extensive use of still life and high contrast. A large part of his photographs have heavy production, both post and pre. The production consists of either preparing corpses or adding effects to the seen, these sorts of production are done before hand. Post-produciton can consist of Mr. Witkin using the scratch technique during developing or a method known as hands in the chemical technique to achieve a certain look. He said that his "design sense"is based on a tramatic accident he had as a child. Simply put, a young girl was in a car accident in his very front yard, where the child died from decapitation. I would imagine my outlook would be crappy too. Random fact: his photograph "Sanitarium" inspired the final presentation of Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2001 collection.

Follow Me. Wang Qingsong. 2003

Wang Qingsong is a highly political and concept driven artist. This particular photograph was inspired by books meant to teach English to Chinese citizens. It's also a colmination of his ideas about China moving towards a more "open" direction. Wang Qingsong was born in 1966 in the Heilongjiang Province of China and currently works and lives through Beijing, China. According to his own website, he doesn't not have many accolades or awards. However, I chose this photograph because it's so strong, it says so much literally and figuratively, you can get lost in the photo, it's subtle yet brash, overdone yet understated. I really like it.

Blog Promt 4

#19. Can you think of anything that:

1) should not be photographed? Why?

No I believe in art. Nothing is off limits. No one is forcing the viewer to look or even like it. But the artist can and may express whatever they believe
2) cannot be photographed? Why?

No. I don't know actually. is this a can't vs. shouldn't trap.
3) you do not want to photograph? Why?
Not really into flowers. I mean they're pretty and all, just not my thinggg.

#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

A supermarket

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

Me leading an Army of Mannequins

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

leave the shutter open as you go from page to page on the internet.

An image of a public space.

Aerial View

An image of a private space.

spying, voyeur

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

A beer bottle in a church

#21

A. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of “news”-related photographs.
The photographs are more about information as opposed to artistically d riven

B. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of “snapshots”, including family photographs, cell-phone shots, photos posted to facebook
These snapshots are more about a moment in time.

C. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of advertisement photographs, including fashion photography, product photography, etc
Advertisements, are often highly done in a way that creates a want for it. post-production

D. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of film/movie and television stills.
candid

E. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of yearbook photos, senior pictures, and team/club/sports group shots.
Poses, faces, heights, symmetry, etc

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.
Emphasising lust, the idea of beauty or what it should be. etc.

H. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of paparazzi shots or celebrity photographs.
OH LOOK IT:S A CELEBRATY

Blog Prompt 3

#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.

The place in which I am remembering only has a few photographs of it. Nothing remains the same from the photograph to today. There would be different furniture, paint, and considerable aging. I am standing in the same place in which I stood in the photograph. The people have clearly aged. I have aged, the scene, aside from paint and furniture, has stayed the same. I am in a dining room with my parents.

#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?

The photograph that I remember the most is one were I am holding my younger sister (by 14 mos). I am 2 in the photography, she 6 months. We are on a carpeted floor during christmas. This image reminds me of the strong bond between one older brother and one younger sister. The place no longer exists, and for me to recreate this photo would consist of me now 21 holding my 20 year old sister, would be rather challenging. The photograph if done correctly would be interesting to see. Personally, I would be as contemporary as possible in the representation of our styles, and yet as historic as possible in the background.

#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.

I would place twigs in the ground in a manner resemebling that of a tree and lay down behind them to slightly see my face with the camera on the ground to ground perspective. behind more trees, naturally!

#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?

Take a double exposure photograph of two doors and framing the doors in the center and the facade around it, so the two exposures have overlapping doors. I think if you are to take pictures of a place that is largely left untouched by humans, I would go about it by taking a landscape style pictures, A way in which you can capture the place/scenery as is. With little to no human presence.

#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 you r 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.

I would take several pictures of the same exact framed focal area from different perspectives. Keeping the center as the center but yet from different perspectives. The doors would be a door which I regularly enter, while the other being a door that i regularly exit.

#16, 17, & 18 Please respond to three of the following quotes.

“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

With this quote I agree to a certain extent. I think that if you are trying to capture the person for who they are or as the image is then yes. However, if you are purposefully trying to display the subject in a different manner or in a certain concept, then you can change characteristics to suit your needs. However, the base still remains the subject.

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

I am a very curious person. I am always driven by not knowing. I hate not knowing. This drive I believe helps my imagination. My imagination is always working, making a reality for me. I know what I can see and that bores me.

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

Landscape photography is so hard. You have so much to manage when taking a photograph of landscapes. Space, Lighting, Demension, Porportion, Framing, Detail, etc. You have to fight it being a cliche, you have to work with the perspective and how to make it unique.

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” Arnold Newman

“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” Berenice Abbott

Composition: By placing myself in the center I am the subject the focus, I am the stalked. The tree growing from my head allows my skin tone to stick out from the background. There is a a horizon and texture from the trees.
Concept: My concept was that I was being watched... but I liked it.
Motivation: To turn the camera on myself and see what happens.
Method: I used automatic focus and then manually set my aperature and shutter speed.
Context: I wanted to switch shoes and views, become the photographed

Composition: All black foreground. Bright, crisp, illuminated background. in a pattern of irregular spaces and only one distinct person.
Concept: The so called guilt associated with people when they eat fast good

Motivation: I wanted to express my concept

Method: Got as far back as I could and made the shutter speed fast enough to capture the light but not the subject
Context: the anonymity of fast food and it's guilt

Composition: A wall with alot of texture is the main composition. I think that the subject on the far left adds to the concept but not to the composition, I find her to be distracting and not needed. The lines of the wall and the texture al add to the composition while the most depth and damage of the wall lies within the center of the photograph.
Concept: I wanted it to look as though the subject was contemplating about the destruction that had already happened there.
Motivation: I was motivated by the texture of the photograph. I wanted it to look old and weary. Brokedown and sad.
Method:I spent forever trying to figure out the best way to capture the texture of the wall and not making the subject the focus, but rather that the subject is a compliment and a way to help allude to the sentiment. I tried to use the line between the differentiating colorsj to add a visual interest, a break, another way of highlighting the texture.
Context: The context of which is just I wanted to show the wall it's crumbling

Composition: The only detial in focus is the texture of the hair. The shapes are clearly visable but are not sharp or focused. The center of the frame is the journey, is the road, the car in front adds distance and depth. The focus flattens the image as a whole allowing the sharpness of the details to come out.
Concept: I wanted to show a figurative journey, I wanted it to seem like I wasn't there and the subject was on a journey of his own
Motivation: Everyone knows how it is drive alone, to be a journey through time on the road and with the cehicle
Method:
Context:

Blog Prompt 2

#5 Give your thoughts on one or both of the following quotes.

“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen   

“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” ~Mary Ellen Mark   

I agree. A photography captures a moment in someone's soul. It will forever be able to share, preserve, explain, argue, or represent that person at that exact moment. What they are feeling, who they are, and what they've been through is to me, someone's soul

#6 In your opinion, when is it beneficial, ethical, or appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? When do you think it is inappropriate or ethically wrong?

I think that altering a photo afterwards can take away the mastery of the trade. It can make it easier to capture the same image in the same way without having the technical skill to do so. I can see how it would be ethical in a negative way in that sense. However, to alter a photo to help express the idea/content or otherwise totality of the photograph, I think is acceptable

#7 Pay close attention to the types and number of photographic portraits you see in one day. Where did you see them? How do you think that the content of the portrait changes based on the context in which you see the image (news, facebook, magazine, advertisement, television, youtube, etc)? In other words, what is the difference between the portraits you see on facebook vs. those on the news? What is the difference between the “viewpoint” of the photographer in each situation? What is the difference between their “intents”?

I think that it is all about the intention. The intention of facebook photographs is to share the moment with others. the exposure, quality, perspective and lighting are all secondary to the subjects and place. The Intention of artistic leaning photographs is to express more of the concept/idea or aesthetic. It's all about the intention of use.

Please respond to the following three quotes.

#8 “My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.” ~Richard Avedon.

It depends. If a person who is well versed in an individuals work or if an audience is looking at multiple images by one artist then sure, the portraits are more about the artist. However, more often the image contains the subject.

#9 “You don't take a photograph, you make it.” ~Ansel Adams  

True. End of Story

#10 “All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.” ~John Berger 

I think that the painter has more interpretation as he can not successfully capture every detail, where as a camera, unaltered, captures the image how it is for what it is.

Nick Knight

URL: www.nickknight.com

Biography: Nick Knight OBE was born in 1958 in England. He currently lives in London with his wife and three children. He studied photography at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design. At 24 years old, he published his first book.

Significance: Mr. Knight is very accomplished as fashion photographer. His work has earned him an OBE. He was awarded The Fashion Tribute Award by Moet Chandon. His accolades continue for miles.

Composition: Mr. Knight works mainly in portrait photography His work involves careful lighting, set design, make up, and highly planned and idealized images. He works with color and active movements.

Concept: He articulates fashion. Fashion concepts and ideas. He poses them in the best ways.

Method: The images produced by Nick Knight are highly produced, either post or pre-production.

Motivation: He is very unique. He has many works, I cannot say for sure what his motivation was, but rather what his aesthetic is.

Opinion: The reason why I chose Nick Knight was because I had heard so much about him, but was quite clueless as to details. I thoroughly enjoy his work. It's a fantasy of fashion, of subject, of people, of color, of motion, of idea. I love it. I feel dumb for not knowing.


Clarence White. Ring Toss. 1899

Clarence White. Miss Grace. 1898

Clarence White. Miss Thompson. 1907

Foto Link

www.photosight.ru/photo/alone/3981325

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/98VZiP/triggerpit.com/2010/11/22/incredible-pics-nasa-astronaut-wheelock
www.photosight.ru/photo/alone/3206369

Part 1:

Composition: I like how I used the park's ashtray as a way to frame the parks serene beauty. The background is distinguishable but clearly not in focus. I used natural lighting with a high contgast element. Visually there is balance between the "view" and the "structure". The emphasis is on the sharpest part of the image, the ash-tray.
Concept: My concept was to show the juxtaposition between the beauty of a fountain and the utilitarianism of the ashtray. Framing a park's fountain through the park's ashtray. A place so beautiful has ashtrays?
Motivation: I wanted to show bad/ugly/deadly/etc. exists everywhere.
Method: I shoot images that capture my attention. As I was in the plaza I saw these ashtrays that dotted the premise. A nice and quiet place to smoke and enjoy the beauty, as you die. I like that struggle of dichotomy of beauty and what's thought to be bad etiquette. I do not brainstorm, I do not plan, I do not test. I go, I go, I go.
Context: I wanted to express to the viewer that dichotomy and beauty and ugly are all in everywhere.

Part 2

Interpretation: That I'm trying to make smoking look beautiful by placing the subject matter against the park. I'm not satisfied with our critiques.
Evaluation: The framing is done well. The focus and the contrast placed upon the cigarette buts is also well done. If the park content was different and the ash tray stayed the same that would be the best.
Extension: I would use this piece as a place to jump from, to focus on areas of high contrast beauty. Cigarettes in a Park. Flowers at Chernobyl. etc.

Part 1

Composition: I framed the subject center front. With the perspective of an on-looker and landscape/portraiture. The contrast also suggests volume. The lighting is natural and through the clouds and trees.
Concept: I wanted to express serenity and relaxation through the subjects body language of grasping the plant. The bench, the wild life, the pose, and the lighting all allude to a mid day bench relaxation.
Method: I crept in the bushes and had the subject relax as if I was not even there. I then began to capture images as she relaxed, very candid, very real. I placed the subject behind objects in the middle ground to give depth and to take away from the identifiable shape of body posture.
Motivation: My intention was to express through a photograph the emotional ambiance of that setting.
Context: There is no issue. There is no worry, no war, no crime, no rain, no pain, just nature, plants, humans alike.

Part 2

Interpretation: The image concept is blatant. The subject is on a bench relaxing, enjoying nature.
Evaluation: I like the concept of this photo, I don't believe however that technical skill is a strong as the concept in this photograph. Another angle, or different lighting would be help push this photograph further. The framing and perspective I like though.
Extension: A series of Nature photos, or a series of portraiture of subject in places that bring them relaxation. etc.

Part 1

Composition: Ketchup. Mustard. Surprise. The overcast lighting, the black framing and the composition and perspective all help make this even better.
Concept: I wanted to make it seem like the two bottles were involved in an explicit encounter that were interrupted, almost like a rendezvous.
Motivation: My goal was to make voyeur a whole new level through watching and wanting and lusting after these condiment bottles.
Method: Aperture priority mode. No lighting except the microwaves own lighting.
Context: There are many undertones, wanting something. Spying on something not even worth the time. etc.

Part 2

Interpretation: that the two bottle were caught in an explicit act. The door ajar and the lighting of shadows helps to express this poin. The balance and asymmetry also help to provide the idea.
Evaluation: The contrast and the lighting as well as the framing is working very well in this photograph. But above all, I feel like the perspective is the strongest strength. Bottle placement, focus and actual bottle subjects could have been manipulated in another way.
Extension: A series of played-out double entandres (sp)