Lund: Assignment 6

Dominant Color

Isolated Color

Harmonic Color (Monochromatic)

Bonus Image

Dominant Color Contact Sheet

Harmonic Color Contact Sheet

Isolated Color Contact Sheet

Kelsh, Elora: Reading Assignment 2 (The Staged Document)

Photographic Icons: Fact, Fiction, or Metaphor?

What I find interesting about this article is that it questions the authenticity of “historical” photographs when they are set up to look a certain way. Examples given were a picture of a young couple in love that ended up being two actors and not spontaneous, and Rosa Park’s infamous picture of her sitting in the bus that was actually a posed picture months after the actual incident happened. It makes one think about what the true objective of photography is; to capture an actual moment in history, or to act as pictorial supplement to a piece of writing no matter what the process is to get that ideal picture?

The Picnic That Never Was

Beate Güschow’s photography is interesting in that none of her landscapes are real; they’re all stitched together but still seem like a photograph. It makes me start to wonder what photography really is; not just documentation anymore, but idealized situations laced with social commentary. Her pictures “forces us to consider a more serene world, while also reminding us that no contemporary experience is unmediated: technology touches everything” (17). I find her work very intriguing and inspiring, especially because of the fact that I love using Adobe Photoshop and creating things that aren’t real but could be.

As Unpretty as a Picture

Eric Fischl explores both the medium of photography and painting in a way that makes them synonymous with each other. After setting up staged scenes of unscripted domestic scenarios, he photographs them a lot and then compiles them into one ideal painting. In the same way that photography does on its own, he successfully captures the fleeting moment, especially those times that are hollow and purposeless. His paintings in particular aren’t part of the Photo-Realism movement where they painted to look nearly exactly like photos, but rather look more like modernist paintings.

Moments in Time, Yet Somehow in Motion

JoAnn Verburg's photographs don't necessarily capture one moment in time because of her nature to capture sequences and present them in diptychs and triptychs. The continuity of these adds to the sense of movement in her pictures.  I relate to how she takes pictures without really knowing how they will turn out/if they will even be good.  I'm also very interested in how she uses water as a horizon line in many of her photographs that featured her friends. Narrative, color, "space within the image", time are important elements in Verburg's work.

Robert Polidori: In the Studio

Polidori is well known for his saturated ,colorful, and geometric photos of architecture. He's also a senior photographer for the New Yorker, so we know that he's skilled in documentation in his photos. I like the way he views interior architecture as a way of looking at people; "rooms are metaphors and catalysts for states of being, a look into the soul", and calls interior spaces "'exoskeletons' forcibly by the people who lived in them" (66). He also solely works with color and believes that pollution has muted not only light but also color in the world, which I believe is a very interesting viewpoint.

A Young Man With an Eye, and Friends Up a Tree

Ryan McGinley started his journey in photography young, when he was studying graphic design in school. Most of his photographs were taken of his friends at the beginning, living fast paced young lives. He was very obsessive in his methods in the way that he would take Polaroid's of every person who visited him for several years, eventually covering the walls with them. I find it interesting that he used the digital platform of Myspace and Youtube as a means of dispersing his work so many would see; this is something that is still very much relevant today, and arguably the only way for work to be seen nowadays, with the popularity of social media sites and photography.

Personal Response

I’m unsure of my opinion on whether these kind of photographs are authentic or not, I see them more as just a visual aid conceived to go along with a piece of writing about whatever subject is in the photograph, but made to be most ideal. The original meaning of photography was to depict reality and perception of reality, so photographs that are staged pose an interesting contradiction to that idea. Photoshop also fits into this odd category, being a program that digitally manipulates photographs; are they authentic anymore? I believe that they become a unique piece of art that should still be considered photography.

Bell, Tyler_The Portrait

Defying Beauty Through Avedon

Richard Avedon is a photographer known for his portraiture photos of women in magazines such as Harper’s Baazar  and Vogue. As shown in his photo of a woman in a boat holding a cigarette,  Avedon’s photos a lot of the time, although are about clothes, are really characterized by the sophistication of the woman, drawing the viewer into the photo. Each of his photos depict sophistication, mystery, and playfulness, different from the original intent of the photo taken. Much of his work is composed from acts of surprise; poses, faces, etc., that are all difficult to recapture, getting rid of the idea of a photo being artificial.

Self-portrait as Obscure Object of Desire

Jack Pierson created a book called the Self Portrait composed of photos of naked men, young to old, to describe an imagery of himself, even though the photos are of other people. This book addresses the way people view cultural construction: magazines displaying haircuts and sunglasses, etc. 

Is That Portrait Staring at Me?

This essay is about photographer Fiona Tan who worked within film and video art. Tan photograph’s prison inmates and guards, carefully posing them in specific manners. The piece, Correction, was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Tan’s photos are sequenced to display only for a few seconds, not allowing people to become presumptuous about the subject.

A Pantheon of Arts and Letters in Light and Shadow

Photographer Irving Penn advanced the genre of portraiture with his use of venerated subjects. Penn had an exhibit at the Morgan Museum in New York for it’s first photography show, as it portrayed famous icons such as W.H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Marchel Duchamp, and more. His subjects were intimate with him and he grew relationships with them. Generally, Penn would photograph his subjects in strange locations for a good effect.

A Photographer’s Lie

This essay depicts every day life and what people choose to share, paralleling to how people keep daily journals for the impulse for what information they choose to share on a given day. In photos, people show the great things they love and care about, hardly showing the struggles or negative aspects in their life. This is shown in contrast of Annie Lebovitz’s book, A Photographer’s Life, where the difference between images and writing is prevalent. 

Embalming the American Dreamer

In this Essay, photographer Katy Grannan searched for subjects by displaying advertisements in local papers. Most of her answers from her ads were from young women in the twenties looking to be photographed. It was said that many people most likely called Grannan because the relationship between a photographer and the subject as a model was a sense of rebellion. As stated, many subjects shot by Granna opted to pose nude for her. Grannan would find out personal information about the lives of her subjects, as her work grew connection on the documentation of a generation of women. 

Personal Reflection

I found this reading very interesting to read. I love portrait photography, but I hardly ever practice it. I would love to start focusing more on portrait photography, in the way that you are able to tell stories through the expressions and mannerisms of people. I like the idea of portrait photography being able to build a relationship with a person, mind it be even a stranger. 

Linnea Havener: Photography After Frank - Photojournalism

Photojournalism:

Photojournalism is where photographs are used to help show or support an article about an important event. The point of the camera is to just witness an event without disrupting it to accurately witness what is happening. The important difference between a photo taken by an artist and a photo taken by a photojournalist is that artists are taking photos to explore an idea whereas photojournalists take photos to answer questions. These are the same questions that a journalist answers such as who, what, when, where, why etc.

Page One: A Conversation with Philip Gefter, Picture Editor of the New York Times’ Front Page:

This section is set up like an interview between author Philip Gefter and Veronique Vienne. Philip Gefter was nominated as Page One picture editor in 1999 for the New York Times. His style involves making photos that are edifying versus illustrative which means that the photos don’t just add to the story but also illuminate in the photo what is being reported on. Most of this interview is about the 4:30 Page One meeting that the staff has every day. During this meeting they discuss what information and which images should be displayed on Page One for the next issue.

One interesting point I thought Philip made was that it takes focus and discipline to accurately talk about photos. He also says that his main concern when trying to select photos for the front page is that are accurately present what really happened even if that is the opposite of his own personal beliefs.

History’s First Draft Looks Much Better With Pictures:

Very often huge historical events are associated with images that photojournalists took to accompany the story. An image is can definitely help make a story stronger but it is still only as valuable as the information it provides. This section talks about how the book Things as They Are explains how the history of printing and photo technology have helped develop the genre of photojournalism. The photos seen in twentieth century magazines set the visual tone for photojournalism. These photos featured sharp lighting, simple compositions and bold lines. Later Diane Arbus created photographs that were blurred, raw and grainy which challenged the classic magazine photograph. For photojournalism, the subject seen in the photo is the most important part rather than the aesthetics of the actual image. In the later 1900’s photojournalists found a way to do both by changing where they took the photos and in what way they observed their subjects.

Reflections of New York’s Luckiest: Look Magazine:

There used to be a magazine called Look, which was the opposite of the magazine Life. Look helped show that New York is really just a city full of “outsiders” and that people whom didn’t fit other places could always find a home in New York. The magazine tended to be more left wing and lighthearted and never turned away from a funny human-interest story. Originally the magazine started as a tabloid but then broadened its material to appeal to the whole family. The content ranged from social and political issues to celebrity profiles and cultural events. There is now a show in the Museum of the City of New York that features all of these photos from Look magazine making the point that collaboration between art directors; photographers and magazine editors can help advance careers.

Reading Newspaper Pictures: A Thousand Words, and Then Some:

In this section the author talks about the caption that goes along with a picture. He mentions how one of his colleagues told him that a picture and a good caption are worth a thousand and ten words. Some examples he gives of photos that could be out of context without a caption are a picture of a dusty tea set and a picture of a well-dressed man behind the counter of a diner. Once the captions are added to the photos, it makes the whole viewing experience more thought provoking. Based on the examples he gave I definitely agree that those photos needed a caption in order to be fully appreciated. In general, I do not necessarily agree that art should be viewed with a caption or description given at least not at first. By viewing a piece with no knowledge beforehand, it makes it more subjective and can bring out other ideas and meanings. I think the author thought of this possible argument and so at the end of this section he tries to explain that that is the difference between art and journalism, which extends to those two types of photography. He says that art comes from ideas whereas journalism reports facts so captions help remove the potential for viewers’ subjectivity to change the facts and reality of what is being seen.

Cornell Capa, Photojournalist and Museum Founder, Dies at Ninety:
This section talks about photojournalist Cornell Capa who founded the International Center of Photography. He focused his work on politics and social justice such as presidential campaigns as well as repressive tactics in other countries. Besides creating the International Center of Photography, he is also best known for being such a successful photojournalist and being one of the greatest war photographers.