flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelmargaret/

B&W/Color ------ Film/Digital

As I wrote in my blog post at the beginning of the semester, I have indeed "learn[ed] to appreciate taking color photographs." I feel like black and white photographs are often interesting simply because, being not in color, they show us a world that is not what with see with our eyes. In a color photograph, there is so much more to examine and appreciate. If I were at a gallery or museum, I think I would spend more time looking at a color photograph than one in black and white because are there are more details to look at.

While working on my final project, I viewed my digital camera as a tool to help me sketch out ideas. Before photographing with the plastic camera, I took ~10 or so shots of each person with my digital camera just to make sure I liked the setup and the way the colors looked on the lcd screen. Obviously the colors on the film were much different than on the digital screen. However, I think working with the digital camera to make "sketches" was really helpful. Also, it's way more exciting to get negatives than to see digital photos uploaded to the computer.

For now, I'm most interested in taking color non-digital photos.

I still don't really know how to explain what makes a good photo. Maybe one that is unique and portrays the subject of the photo in more depth than one would get from looking at / being near the subject for a short time? I think uniqueness is what is most important. Often, I like a photo just because I have never contemplated taking a photograph like it or seen something like it before.

Final Project

I really enjoyed being able to work on an independent project for a few weeks. It was also really nice having so much class time to work on the project. My project was meant to show the progression of time for each person (between the old photograph and them today) as well as the progression of time through the different styles of photographs (black and white, color tinted, different sizes, etc). I think that idea comes through clearly in the final product.

My initial idea for this project was to make pairs of portraits. I wanted to photograph a close-up each person's hand's holding a photo of them and then photograph a simple portrait of each person as they are today. However, because the Diana+ camera was unable to focus for a close-up shot of someone's hands, I ended up doing just one portrait for each person. I'm really glad that I did one portrait for each person instead of two because it's nice to see more than just the individual's hands. Also, having two photos of each person may have been tedious to look at.

The photos work well together because the details in each are different but the basic idea is the same in each. I purposefully photographed everyone in a different location. I photographed about half the people in their rooms, and the rest in places that would provide a fairly simple background. Using different locations really helped to add variety to the prints. Because the viewfinder and lens are different, I accidentally cropped out the tops of many peoples faces. I also underexposed a few of the shots. This led to a wider variety of photographs which I think made the series more interesting. The combination of natural light coming in through the windows in some prints, and lamps for others also added to the variety among the prints.

I had trouble printing the photos with the vibrant colors I had wanted. If i were to reprint, I would try to make brighter prints. If I were to continue with this project, I would photograph people other than my family and maybe even strangers. However, I'm not sure if the results would be as good because I like how comfortable everyone seems in the photos, and I think that may be partly due to them all knowing me well.

Final Project

Sebastiao Salgado

The fact that Salgado's photos are aesthetically nice doesn't bother me. What bothers me more is the mysteriousness of the photos. If Salgado is attempting to keep the subjects in the photo mysterious, than he is an a way being exploitative because he is photographing them more for the sake of beauty and art then to inform people about what is going on throughout the world. If Salgado's photographs were accompanied with the stories of the person or people in each image, the photos would be a lot less exploitative. The story could either be in the words of the subject or written by Salgado himself.

The fact that Salgado is taking photographs in locations where cameras, museums, and photo books are uncommon means that the individuals in the photographs likely don't know what will become of the photographs. Salgado must be making a lot of money from his photographs. Does he give some of the money back to the subjects or to organizations that help the people in the countries and places he photographs?

Looking online, I saw the Salgado changed professions from development economist to photographer early in his career. Also, it appears that he does include writings and captions that tell about what is going on in the regions he portrays. He doesn't write about the specific individuals he photographs but rather about the places he photographs and the situations in the countries he photographs. This makes me think that his photos are beautiful and informative, and may influence the viewers of his work to effect change in positive ways. And his photos are exploitative but they are not as exploitative as I first thought. Just because someone lives in poverty or a war torn area doesn't mean they shouldn't be photographed beautifully.

Daniel Weiss

I liked this gleaning because it was interesting to see contemporary photos by someone our age and I agree with Weiss that film photography and working in the darkroom is much more gratifying than digital photography.

In many of the street photographs that appear to be of strangers, you can see some sort of interaction between the subject and the photographer. For example, the overweight man on the bench with his hand up seems to be saying “stop, don’t photograph me.” The man with the red guitar also doesn’t appear thrilled that he’s being photographed. In some of the other street photos, the subject seems to be looking suspiciously at the camera. Does Weiss ask permission to photograph the people he doesn’t know?

A few of the photos seems like still from a comedic film or TV show. In Weiss’ black and white photo of two men, it looks like the man in the hat and sunglasses is acting or telling a joke and the man on the right is either very sad, confused, or in disbelief. I have no idea what is going on in the image but the overexaggerated facial expressions and makes it seem like its two actors.

Free Shoot 12

Cassoni

I enjoyed the Cassoni project. Doing a project that forces me to set up a shot and pay attention to the details helps to make me focus on trying to tell stories or portray some sort of feeling through my images rather than just taking photos that I think are aesthetically pleasing. Also, it is amazing how Photoshop can merge multiple photos into one seamless image.
Although in class people weren’t fond of how the three panels worked together, I think that the three panels together is stronger than just the top panel with the girl in the red dress. It seemed like people particularly thought that the middle panel with the close up of the two old-fashioned looking men shouldn’t have been included. I agree that the middle panel doesn’t really add any new information. However, I think that the close-up helps to focus the work on the two old-fashioned men and thus makes the story clearer. To me, the close up of the men and their different positions in each image illustrates that they are in fact ghosts that wander throughout the cemetery, praying for others who are buried in the cemetery. The two men are oblivious both to other ghosts and live people who walk through the cemetery. I see the mostly hidden figure carrying the shovel is the bottom print as a real person oblivious to the ghosts. The ghosts are also oblivious to her. The figure with the shovel can either be interpreted as someone working in the cemetery or a criminal.
I liked working in a group because it provides people with whom to discuss and critique ideas, and it was fun. However, group work for art classes also can be frustrating in that you can’t just do everything your way. It is a lot easier to compromise with group members for a paper, presentation, or problem set than for an art project.

David Hockny

Using a camera obscura to help with drawing reminded me of how people sometimes separate a piece of paper into a bunch of small rectangles and then draw what goes in each little box one at a time. Many painters started to make more realistic paintings. Did they all know about camera obscuras and concave mirrors and how they could be used? Does Hockney believe that many painters used optical devices or just a few of them did? Wouldn’t someone have discovered what the artists were doing and exposed them for “cheating”? What are the other explanations for the “sudden burst of realism in European painting” other than camera obscuras or concave mirrors?
I’m really amazed by Hockney’s composite photographs. I like that they are unique but still easily accessible for viewers.

Marilyn Minter

I didn’t particularly like Minter’s photographs themselves but putting art on billboards is a great idea. I like idea of putting art on billboards because it is unexpected and billboards are normally covered in ugly ads. However, because Minter’s photographs look somewhat like advertisements, seeing them on billboards wouldn’t be as unusual as seeing a photograph that looked more like fine art and less like an advertisement on a billboard. If I had seen these billboards while walking or driving through New York, I would not have realized that they were art, and would have been thoroughly confused. Because the art is in a public location that is free for anyone to look at and not protected from the weather, I feel like I have lower expectations of the art and would be more impressed with the same piece of art on a billboard than in a museum or gallery.

Cassoni

5th graders

Camera Phone Photography as Art

I don't agree that in a few years everyone will be doing cellphone photography exhibits. A few cellphone photo exhibits are interesting because they are unique, but the quality of the photos is inferior to the quality of photos that can be taken with a good digital camera that I don't think photographers will want to spend time making such images when they are no longer as new and unique as they are today. Also, the fact that cellphone cameras are convenient is not an adequate reason for why they should be used in place of better, but bulkier, cameras.

What is interesting about Patrice Elmi's photographs is that they appear as if they were taken from a good camera, not a cellphone camera. The colors are all very vibrant, the light is good, and the images are sharp. I was surprised to read that Elmi did not photoshop or digitally manipulate the images. However, to me what is most impressive about these photos is not the images themselves but that they were taken with a cellphone camera.

The prints are only 6 inches square. At a time when large photographs are becoming more and more popular, why would many photographers want to limit themselves to small prints?

Free Shoot 11

Practice Panoramas

Field Trip

Photo classes are excellent because they're pretty much the only college classes I've had that go on field trips. I really enjoyed the trip to Portland. I liked Tanja Hollander’s landscapes a lot although I wasn’t a big fan of her window shots. Her landscapes, particularly the water shots reminded me of the series of photos that are half ocean and half sky (I forget the photographer’s name). It was fun to photograph the basement of the mill and see the Photographic Collective’s darkrooms. I would like to take the color darkroom class at the Bakery Photographic Collective either next month or next semester.

The photo exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art was great because it was a large collection of diverse photos all in one place.

I didn’t like “The Wonder Gaze” as much as the Glickman collection or Tanja Hollander’s work. I liked the name of the exhibit, “The Wonder Gaze”, and the idea of photoshopping out the victims of the hangings in order to focus on the spectators. However, I didn’t find the six color photographs all that aesthetically pleasing, except for the one with the old haunted looking tree. The color photographs just didn't hold my attention for very long, and I felt like they were unnecessarily large. Also, I was very surprised by how expensive the photos were.

Looking at the photographs in Portland and Kolster’s “Safety Envelopes” series has made me more interested in looking at other people’s work… I now procrastinate by looking at photographs online.

Animation

The animation project was fun but I felt that it didn’t really focus on photography. It was difficult for me to concentrate on an individual photograph when I had to be continuously taking photographs. I wanted to move the camera around to make the animation more interesting and focus on the framing of each shot, but that was difficult to do. After looking at all 600 or so photos together in the animation, I realized that all my zooming in and out and moving around led to a very crazy and chaotic movie. However, the result was okay because the hectic movement worked well with the band practice animation. After realizing the need to keep the camera still or move it very very slowly, I tried to keep the camera fairly still for the “Kitchen Counter Chaos” animation in order for the animation to focus more on the characters’ actions than on the camera’s movements. However, I wasn’t all that successful in keeping the camera still because I got too caught up in moving the camera to follow and zoom in on the action. Although imovie was a little frustrating to use, I much preferred it to having to deal with the printers and matting. Althouth I prefer normal photography to animation, I’m glad that we had this assignment and I’d like to make more animations. There is a lot for me to learn about creating animations.

Field Trip!

Free Shoot 10

Animations

Mayor to Ease Permit Rules for Capturing City's Image

I chose this article for my gleaning because while skimming through it, I was shocked to see that a law had been considered which would have required a permit and at least $1 million in liability insurance for groups of two or more filming or photographing for more than 30 minutes in New York City. Although the law was meant as way to cut back on filmmakers and their sets from blocking pedestrian traffic, it would have greatly cut back on individuals’ ability to photograph public spaces in New York City. I wonder if the original version of the law was meant to prevent photographers from documenting New York. It seems like the way in which the law was originally written was meant to do more than simply prevent filmmakers from blocking sidewalks. It is very unlikely that two people standing in the same place with a camera for 30 minutes could seriously block pedestrian traffic.

Do you think the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting accidentally made the law too encompassing or that they wrote this law with the intention of limiting amateur photography and filmmaking? Do you think the Mayor’s office may have been looking for a way to decrease photography in New York City for security issues or that this law was created solely to deal with the issue of photographers and filmmakers obstructing sidewalks and pedestrian traffic?

The following is a link to the website of a group that worked to weaken the regulations regarding the need for permits and liability insurance for photographing and filming on the streets of New York… http://www.pictureny.org.

Free Shoot 9

Aline Smithson

I love practically all of Aline Smithson’s photos aesthetically. In particular I like the composition and the lighting. The “People I Don’t Know” series of collected photographs held by others is really nice. Over the summer I had been looking at my grandparents’ old photographs and was trying to think of some way to incorporate them into a photo project. Smithson’s idea for using old photographs in a new way is great, and exactly what I wish I had thought of. Smithson’s portraits are all really great. I like the “Charlotte” series of her daughter and the “Regarding Henry” series of her son. One of the few series of hers that I didn’t like as much is series of the portraits of the hugo doll. Aesthetically, I like the way the photos look, but the idea seems kind of dull and the subject doesn't interest me. I don’t like her hand painted photos as much as her black and white or color photographs. Her photos are great and many of them are just like what I wish my photos could be like.

Response to Lies Assignment

I liked the lies assignment in that it gave us lots of flexibility in choosing what to create but at the same time forced us to learn a little more about Photoshop. The looseness of this assignment made the critiques even more interesting and exciting than usual because the projects were all so different and it was fun trying to find the lies in some of the more subtle projects.

Although I disliked having to matte prints for the color assignment, I liked that everyone had to matte or prepare their photos for display in some way for this project. Having to consider presentation added to the photos for this project much more than it did for the color assignment. As far as my presentation is concerned, maybe I should have better researched 1950s/1960s photographs and displayed my photos differently than I did.

Two weeks sometimes seems a little short for assignments, especially if one wants to experiment with a few thoughts before deciding on a final idea. I wish that I had more time to take photos for this project. I had not intended my photos to be of Bowdoin in a previous era, as some thought, but rather I wanted each photograph to appear as if it was taken 50 years before it actually was. If I had shot more, I would have had a wider variety of photographs and perhaps my idea would have been clearer.

Lies