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