Lund: Reading Response 1

This reading allows us to go through photography in the view of the past. It explains how photographers struggled with themselves to paint scenes, capture them using photographic tools as well as their own creativity. In the beginning, photography was not so much an art as it was a very extensive process. However, as the camera developed from the old models to the ones of today, photography became easier and more accessible to the average person. The author describes the photographers most important five tools as such.

             

   The Thing Itself: 

      Everything happens, and then it is gone. Nothing will ever happen the exact same way ever. Even if it appears to do so, it is never the same. This makes each individual moment a memory. A photograph is original in it's way to tell the story of this moment and the subject can help portray this ability.

          

The Detail:

     As you walk along your day you pass millions of things that your eye is not drawn too. The photographer must teach himself to stop and observe the world around him. Textures, patters, lines, curves, shadows. All of these elements made the world seem surreal if used in the proper manner. It is the job of the photographer to express their own personal experience of the world using the details that they notice that others may not. This is something a painting could never accurately represent. If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."              "

              

The Frame:

     Tree branches, windows, door frames, clouds. All normal things that allow us to limit what is seen or what our eyes are drawn too. The photographer has full control over the edges of their frame and this gives them the power to limit understanding of a subject. In using framing the photographer chooses what is important.Additionally, the idea of filling the frame became very important.

Time:

     Before cameras were at the caliber that they are today, they were actually extremely slow. Both film and shutter speeds took large amounts of time to create an exposure. This however gave the photographer a creative tool that allowed them to express the passing of time. They could make a scene feel busy, or quiet, or loud etc. The goal was always to capture the moment, but we can see the importance of slowing the frame down at times.

         

Vantage Point:

     Lead them and they will follow. The use of angles and lines to create rules for the viewer is something the photographer mastered over their years of experimentation. The use of low angles looking up made things feel dominant. Or the angle looking downward could make the subject feel small and weak. Additionally the photographer used vantage points to lead people around their image forcing some subjects to be more important than others.

                

Personal Response: 

     This article is interesting. It is hard to fully understand the struggles of photographers in the past but it is still completely possible to understand their tools. The tools that we still to this day attempt to use and master. The tools that everybody views just a little differently. The tools that some rarely touch and the ones that if they were tangible objects would need to be replaced almost every month. It is every photographers goal to express the world in their own view and these tools can allow them to express that view in both a artistic and mechanical way to the world around them.