Garrett_PAF_The Document

Why MoMA Is Giving Its Largest Solo Exhibition Ever to Lee Friedlander

This essay speaks about Friedlander and his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. All of his photographs are of simply ordinary things, but he takes the photos in a way that we wouldn’t ordinarily look at them. This essay says that he is able to make the same picture without it looking like the same picture. This is a very interestign artist with a wonderful way of seeing things that are normally overlooked.

Travels with Walker, Robert, and Andy

In this essay, we hear about the traveling photography of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Stephen Shore. The first two photographers began photographing while traveling, and Stephen Shore was their heir. He was deeply fascinated in traveling and America in general. In his teen years, Shore was an assistant to artist Andy Warhol. He was very influenced by his work. Evans, Frank, and Shore all have very similar styles, and they all capture the essence of American travel.

Southern Exposure: Past and Present Through the Lens of William Christenberry

This essay is about William Christenberry, who was an aspiring photographer who started taking small color photos with a  Brownie camera. He became more confident in his work when he spoke with Walker Evans and he suggested he move back to the South to pursue his photography career. Christenberry is considered the beginning of the colored photography era, and when he started it was looked down on because color film was merely commercial, not for artists. Christenberry’s work has the essence of history. He takes photos of different areas/buildings throughout the decades with many different cameras to compare the differences and show aging.

John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at Eighty-One

John Szarkowski is considered to be the father of photography as an artform. At age 11, he first started experimenting with photography. Before he appropriated the act, photography was merely used to document things. However, John Szarkowski saw it as so much more. He saw potential in it as being an artform, and he so he found photographers and curated the first photography art show. This show was entitled New Documents. Since then, he has curated many shows, and he eventually became director of the department of photography at the Modern.

The Imagist’s Eye

Henry Wessel has a very personal experience with photography, he loves the idea of snapping a photo while you’re out and about being receptive. He is very interested in the idea of time and how sunlight looks in pictures. Wessel says that he puts his photos away for a year before he decides which ones are best. He does this because the original thrill and subjective view on one’s work can be lost and more distant after time, so he likes to wait so he can have a more objective look on the photos. I found this very interesting because he’s putting himself in the viewer’s position instead of the artist’s.

Beauty is not a Four-letter Word

This essay is about Richard Misrach’s photography. He takes desert photography, because he has a deep passion for the desert and sustaining the desert the way that it is. He believes in shedding a harsh light on certain issues in order to get the idea across, but he also does it in such a beautiful photographic way.

The Tableau Inside Your Town Hall

In this essay, we hear about Paul Shambroom and his photographs that he claims are about power. He photographs various meetings of people, councils, boards, etc. He doesn’t want to display things in a negative or positive way, he just wants to display things as real as possible.

Bernd Becher, Seventy-five, Photographer of German Industrial Landscape, Dies

Bernd Becher and wife Hilla were known for photographing industrial landscapes from the twentieth century Germany. The documentation that they did was of a systematic approach, a typology. The photo was repeated over and over to make the eye dance. Bernd Becher taught photography at the Dusseldorf Academy.

Keeping It Real: Photo-Realism

Final Project: Elora Kelsh

 My original idea for this final project was to explore different lighting conditions, but it eventually transformed into focusing on interior spaces because I found those spaces most intriguing in photograph. Lighting is still very much important in my final pictures, but each photo has an even larger emphasis on straight lines leading in all sorts of directions, which I meticulously edited to be sure were all straight. I wasn't very experienced in editing before, but I feel that I significantly improved my editing skills over the course of this class and was best able to display so in this project.

I've always been very interested in architecture photography, particularly interior, and am glad I that I got the opportunity to explore it for myself. I focused on finding places that one might not think much of in passing, but become beautiful when composed into a photograph. Most of these compositions consist of empty places and empty chairs, which is a  subject I've always found intriguing; a room full of chairs, and yet nobody sitting in any of them creates an uncanny feeling of loneliness. I tried to capture that feeling of loneliness in all the pictures, even in the two that include a figure. My favorite photographs overall are probably my black and white empty chair large room one, because I love the reflections that happen and how vast and empty the room looks, and the brick one with red chairs, because of the variety of red hues and the near perfect symmetry that is broken only by the background.

Formal elements that I was inspired by were framing and detail. I printed each on 8.5x11 Luster paper and kept the original ratio, not blowing it up to cover the whole page as to not loose the cinematic feeing of the photos; this wasn't intentional at first, but looking at them now I notice that they do look like establishing shots for movies.Overall I'm very satisfied with how all my photos turned out and plan to continue photographing in the future.

Final Project Shannon Price

For my final project, I wanted to create and array of images that symbolized a normal coast surf trip. Since the coast is an hour away, I wanted to include the journey there because it is equally important as the surfing and beach parts. As I started shooting the pictures, I began to realize that all of the pictures were not as harmonious as I thought. When I began editing, there was a clear division between the surfing and the side adventures. So, I decided to choose just one section of the surf trip to fully edit and submit for my project. I chose the photos that I did because I think it best represented the trip and what I was going for. I chose to print the photos in black and white because they felt much stronger compared to the color images. Also, I really liked black and white surf photography because it feels old school. I printed the photos on glossy paper for its finished and finalized look.

I’m happy how my final project turned out and I would definitely like to go back and revise a few things like shooting with a faster shutter speed to increase crispness as well as I would like to add some more intimate shots that showcase the subjects a little more. I think that if I added some more shots that were of the subjects, I could have linked the whole trip together much better.

            I think that I could have done a lot better in the editing category. I personally never liked to edit but I have realized that editing is an art in itself along side photography. Given more time, I would have finer tuned the overall tonality of the black and white image to make it less gray and given it more contrast.

            The strengths in my project would be the surfing shots. I really like how they turned out because it was super hard to shoot a subject that was super far away. I used a 300 mm zoom lens and it turned out super nice. I would have liked the waves to be a bit better though so the shots could be a bit more about the surfing and maneuvers and less like a landscape.

            I decided to turn in both color and black and white because both renditions of the photos are great in their own unique way. The color photo offers a lot of information and vivid color where the black and white holds everything to be a little more serious. After all, the ocean is a ferocious place. 

Lund: FInal Project

My final project reflected what I love to do, ride my bike in the mountains and photography. The problem with that typically is that I am always the one behind the lens creating the images. It is very rare for me to also be included in the pictures themselves. So for this project I set out to create photos of myself that I felt captured my love of mountain biking as well as some of the beautiful locations around here in Oregon. Lastly, and perhaps the most important reason that I chose this subject is because I’d really like to photograph mountain biking as a career. With the industry being so young and living in the PNW I am in the perfect area to photograph this sport. All of the photos are self-portraits that I took using an interval timer on my camera with a lot of trial and error. I submitted 9 photos that each incorporates a journey along the trail. Whither I am going up or down the trail, fast or slow, the only important thing is that you don't stop. The photographic elements incorporated in the images are time, the frame, and the thing itself. It is also to note that while there is a lot of detail in these images, the detail was not at all a focus of the project. I feel I achieved my goal of creating interesting and fun images that explain my love for riding. My favorite image on the entire project was the image of me going around a turn up in the Alsea Falls trail system. In this image I am wearing my red flannel jacket and I am facing the camera as I go around the turn. I love this image because my body position is interesting and the colors are very vibrant without going too overboard. Additionally, the moment itself was beautifully captured because of the sun flare that can be seen poking its way through the trees. This sun flare was not visible in any of the other sequences from this location. If I could choose one area to work on it would be in two major places. The first place is that my method of shooting was very inefficient; I would have liked to have some sort of device that would let me remotely trigger the camera. Secondly, I feel like my photos captured mountain biking very well, but I did not include nearly as much nature as I would have liked to. Perhaps traveling to more locations would have made the project as a whole more interesting. The images may seem like they do not have formal elements of photography, but that is reflected in the subject. Because mountain biking in less than 30 years old, there is no formality for riding, thus, no formal way to shoot it. All images were taken on a Nikon D600 DSLR with a 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.8, and 70-200mm f4 lens. They were printed on 8.5x11 luster paper with no border to make the viewer feel like the vastness of the landscapes extends far beyond what is visible.

Lund: Reading Response 4 The Portrait

The Portrait

Defining Beauty Through Acedon

    Richard Avedon was a very successful fashion magazine photographer who honored women. His beginning in women’s fashion photography began with his younger sister Louise. His style soon developed and his most recent work still shares aspects of the work he did early on in his career. Avedon was later discovered by Alexey Brodovich, an art director of Harper’s Bazaar. He began shooting for them and his shots “animated women with spirit and determination… in which the models inhabited the clothes like characters in a movie.” The photography was all about the clothes and Avedon knew that but at the same time the sophistication of the scene mesmerized observers. Avedon had a certain tone to his work that many struggle to recreate if not fail at completely. He never stopped experimenting with photography and always regarded the women he shot as well.

Self-portrait as Obscure Object of Desire

    A self-portrait is typically a photograph of oneself (at least in the realm of photography), so when I read that Jack Pierson released a book titled Self Portrait I figured that there would be images of himself. But that was not the case. Instead, the photos depicts desire - “when it begins, how long it lasts, what it tells us about ourselves or, at least, about the artist.” He thought that by eliminating his own likeness for his photos conveyed the idea of cultural construction of the individual and identity. I personally think that’s a little deep for the normal person to understand. But then again, he is a fine art photographer. The idea however also related to today’s technological era with the idea that your personality can hide behind any face online. There is always the lust for the person in the pictures online, even if that is not who we truly are. A very interesting and true point.

Is That Portrait Staring at Me?

    Fiona Tan did something very interesting here. She decided to go to a prison and take about 300 people’s “picture” for her video portrait project titled Correction. Guards and inmates would stand in front of her camera motionless which would give the illusion of a photograph but it would still have small amounts of motion in them. This kind of reminds me of Harry Potter paintings. Additionally this project game a whole new meaning to doing time. This project has been displayed in the few places, but the first was in Chicago. One thing that is interesting is the fact that Tan decided to shoot her video in a portrait orientation. Typically video is taken horizontally but she tipped her camera on its side like a lot of portraiture we see today. Essentially theses are filmed photographs, and give off a strange vibe to the viewer that I feel might bring in an extra essence of emotion to the photo (video).

A Pantheon of Arts and Letters in Light and Shadow

    Irving Penn was a celebrity photographer who in my opinion didn't let that status of this subjects get to him. Additionally, he felt like his subject wasn't the object in front of his camera lens, but rather the reader hundreds, or thousands of miles away. Penn is now reaching the end of his life and it working hard to secure his legacy by selling and donating his work to museums. The large majority of his subjects consisted of major cultural figures. So many in fact that he became somewhat of one himself. Just like another photojournalist in this section, Penn's success is largely attributed to Vogue magazine.

A Photographer’s Lie

Personal diaries attempt to harness what is true or desired out of life. Photographs attempt to do the same thing. And they both succeed at this. We see many photographers document their lives, singing is insightful details about their loved ones, home, city, etc. Annie Leibovitz like many photographers set out to do just this in her book A Photographers Life. She tried to make this book a hybrid of personal and professional photos but only created a mirage of perverse opposition. It seemed to fail to live up to the artists intention and instead of getting a very detailed look into her life we saw more of a magazine-esque glimpse. Though her images are viewed as very powerful.

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.

Summary

    Portraiture is such a funny little thing. Portraits of people of course are the most popular ones, and that’s what we see here. The way that photographers approach the portrait however varies a lot more than we appreciate. The glamour shots, the magazine shots, the self portraits, better known today as a selfie. In each of these photos whether they are of the photographer themselves or not all have a part of the photographer in them. Their style, their beliefs, their idea, their friends, behaviors, them as a whole. Who is to limit the creativity of the portrait? Nobody it seems. And that is exactly what we see here too with these photographers.

Elora Kelsh_Reading Response 3: Photojournalism

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Conversation with Philip Gefter

Philip Gefter is a photojournalist for the New York Times, who is the Page One picture editor for the newspaper. He goes through thousands of images per day to pick the best ones that are most relevant to the stories that will also be on the front page, the most important and noticeable page of any newspaper, then discusses them with all the heads of other departments and collaboratively decide which pictures are best. His job seems very stressful to me and requires lots of attention to detail and lots of processing of images, which of course comes with every photographer’s job, but usually only with their own photographs while Gefter is looking at many photographer’s images per day. It was interesting to learn how impactful each picture is when it goes along with text, how important it is for the reputation and meaning of the newspaper, especially for the ones on the first page; the ones that people first see, they have to be able pop out the most.

History’s First Draft Looks Much Better With Pictures

This article expands on the idea of major events that were covered in newspapers starting in the 50s were effective because of the photographs matched with the events; ie. assassination of John F. Kennedy, the brutality of the Vietnam war, etc. I particularly enjoy the quote “ a picture may not be worth a thousand words, but a picture and a good caption are worth a thousand and ten. The image is only as valuable as the information provides” (132).  Photographs are very influential on people and have developed the news genre. It was also interesting to learn how the visual tone for photojournalism was set by Edward Steichen and Margaret Bourke-White in the 1930s. While television occurred and became a competitor for news magazines, magazines triumphed in the fact that their photos defined the moment forever in the form of a permanent record. The subject is considered more important than the aesthetics of the image in photojournalism, due to the nature of the need of photos for journalism – the “decisive moment” is what is strived for.

Reflections of New York’s Luckiest: Look Magazine

This article talks about the success of people who work in New York for Look Magazine. What stood out to me in particular was how Stanley Kubrik worked there before he became a film director; I could always tell that he must have had some background in photography because of the compositional beauty of his films, in particular, 2001 Space Odyssey.
Look was also a magazine that was strived to be in by celebrities. They shot up and coming actors in a very artistic way and were a renowned magazine. Many of their pictures gave the impression of being an authentic moment, but the photos were always carefully set up; “a hallmark of feature photography of the era” (137).  Becoming known in New York and being in magazines was usually considered a triumph, but doesn’t mean everyone becomes a star.

Reading Newspaper Pictures: A Thousand Words, and Then Some

The author states in this article that many people question the liveliness of a photograph unless it is paired with editorial facts and refers it to “a matter of simple sensory mistrust” (139).  Lots of people need to know what the photograph subject and context is before they can appreciate how it looks; therefore making the process once removed. Photographs then become a piece of evidence of observation of something that happened. Captions highlight photographs’ poignancy, and should be to the point, like the photograph itself; one should also be able to understand what a picture might look light with solely its caption. This point kind of reminds me of the importance of a title to a photograph – provides context to the photo when paired with a single word that defines it. This article highlights the “photo-op”, especially for photojournalists, so that they can help with the viewer’s interpretation of whatever photograph; he does this by explaining different situations where the photo is successful with this.”Art derives from a contemplation of ideas, while journalism reports on facts and events” (143).

Cornell Capa, Photojournalist and Museum Founder, Dies at Ninety

This article is about a cherished, successful, and respected photography who dies at an old age. He was very influential and produced “images in which genuine human feeling predominates over commercial cynicism or disinterested formalism,” that were mostly on political and social justice subjects. He was a part of Life magazine and produced many bold, graphic, clean images that Life is famously known to contain usually.

Personal Response:

I believe that this section of the book was interesting because it was about photography in a context that I’m not as familiar with. I prefer using photography as a form of art, but I understand the importance of photography as well, and the historical context that they carry with them, especially when paired with captions that explain what they are portraying. I find it very interesting the weight that they have in the journalistic world, and completely agree with how necessary and helpful they are.

Garrett_Ali_Final Project

 My final project was based on the works of JoAnn Verburg, specifically the diptychs and triptychs. I critically explored the idea of human presence versus the presence of nature. Each of my six photos has an element of nature and an element of human existence. Breaking up the photos creates a question of time and space within the subject matter. Through this project, I wanted to create interesting photographs that provoke thought and are interesting to look at. I think that I achieved that, and I'm very happy with the project over all. All photos are printed on 13x19 glossy paper.