“She Being Brand” and “Coming Home Detroit, 1968”

The poems “She Being Brand” by e.e. cummings and “Coming Home Detroit, 1968” by Philip Levine, both express the authors feeling through metaphors for driving a car through a city. Though the poems use the same metaphors they do have very different feeling or tone.

“She Being Brand” by e.e. cummings takes place in the 1920s. The author expresses his love, excitement and anxiety throughout the poem explaining it is a “brand new” car or experience. He shows how the car reacts for the first time and how he was nervous “a little stiff I was careful of her…”. While reading you get a feeling that the poem may have a more intimate meaning than a man driving his new car, but rather a man and a woman experiencing each other for the first time “it was the first ride and believe I we was happy to see how nice and acted right up to the last minute…”. The poem is smooth, fun to read and figure out.

“Coming Home Detroit, 1968” by Philip Levine has a much deeper, darker feeling to it. The author brings you into the poem with the first line “the city pouring fire…”. It gives you a sense of unease and almost disgusting feeling about the way the author felt about Detroit at the time. I read a little bit about that time period of riots and the disgusting auto factories. Levine really expresses his feeling about these matters within the poem “The charred faces, the eyes boarded up…” and “One brown child stares and stares into your frozen eyes” as if no one cares what is happening around them. The authors ride through Detroit was a sickening and sad one.

For the photoshoot I would like to shoot two distinctively different photos with possibly the same car. For “She Being Brand” I would like to shoot an old style car with a romantic lighting maybe red in the background. I feel like the reflection and lighting will go well with the overall feel of the poem. For “Coming Home Detroit” I would like to have less lighting, dark background and focus on the car to cause a dramatic and dark feeling.

Both poems are using a metaphor of driving a car. On “She being Brand”, Cummings uses “she” to represent a car. It is mysterious to the readers at the beginning. On the first stanza, the author writes the car is new as she’s new to sexual experience. The author is expressing both of them are nervous at the beginning. “it was the first ride…” This is apparently telling he was experienced but driving this new car for the first time. It is actually meaning they are the first time sleep together also she has no any experience. They are finally having a happy ending. In contrast, “Coming Home, Detroit, 1968”, PhiIlip Levine was expressing the negative feelings to the readers for the whole poem. Telling a story for the man pass by his hometown city when he is going to work. “The charred faces, the eyes boarded up, the rubble of innards. the cry…” This could tell us he is having a strong sense to this place but at the same time, he is feeling no hope with it.

I will try to find old style toy cars for next week shooting. I will do more close up shooting and pay attention to the details of the car for the first poem. I think for the layout I will focus on bright colors to express the feelings in exciting. Also, make it as a brand new car.

The second poem I will take images of a black car in the white background. I am thinking to make some dust on the car so that expressing the idea of when he is passing by the city.

Comparison & Contrast of “She Being Brand” by E.E. Cummings and Coming Home, Detroit, 1968 by Phillip Levine:

• The first one, gives another form of imagery for sex : A man going for a “drive” in his new “car”. The poem never mentions sex, but the ambiguous opening makes the reader imagine a woman, and the carefully chosen descriptions and climactic, shuddering finale unambiguously evoke sexual intercourse. The poem is rife with the eccentric punctuation characteristic of Cummings’s poetry, which slows down or speeds up the narrative flow in an interesting, meaningful way. Describes a man driving his car while “the car” is the woman ,and this is a great kind of metaphor because we never see the word “sex” in the poem, however, if we use our critical thinking skills we will be able to find out immediately.

• E. E. Cummings‟ SHE BEING BRAND is one of the poem which is full of deviations. In this poem Cummings alters the structure of the poem and creates a rhyme scheme unlike traditional poetry. However, as it is clear that deviations used by a poet are not without purpose. It has some hidden meaning which are difficult for beginner-readers to understand. However, theses deviations play a core role to clarify the meaning and theme of the poem. Deviations used by Cumming in the She Being Brand are very important and make him a prominent writer of the existing era. The analyses of deviations are as analyzed below.

  In contrast, Levine’s poem is disturbingly mournful. From the very first stanza he uses the phrase “dirtied with words.” Before today, I was unaware of the racially charged climate in Detroit during this era, but that phrase alone has a very negative connotation. He describes the people who have been displaced by the automobile industry. It is dramatic when readers are able to see the word “fire” on the first paragraph, it makes us think about a chaos or a disaster that has happened, but also mentioning snowstorm provides an idea of a cold and dark place. Seems like for that time, Detroit was a poor city and full of dirt, i think it’s an awesome way to describe misery, poverty, but also a connotation of a wealthy man driving on the streets of Detroit.

  Ideas for shoot on Monday OCT 30th 2017:

  I particularly bought 2 CARS!! according to the era of 1968 and 1927, both cars will play an important role for this exciting project. One is a Cadillac and the other one is FORD.

  The technics that i will be using, i will try to use a Black & White mode, and including some fake smoke, or even a real one if it’s available in our studio on Monday. describing a man driving in a dusty street and lost in his thoughts. The other idea will be with color and using a close-up shot with the car, highlighting the brand and the main idea of the poem.

  I need drama for my pictures, as well as suspense, but also a symbol of poverty.

   

  

  Inside of those boxers are my cars!!!

  I’m so excited with this project.

I analyzed both poems them I compared and contrast them.

Phillip Levine’s “Coming Home, Detroit”

Levin’s poem uses the city, and the events that are happening in that particular moment as the main protagonist of the poem. There is a politic tone in his words; riots, chaos and destruction, what did make this happen? We also feel the survivor in the middle of the anarchic situation. People that are not involve but are witnesses and victims of such society disparity.

As we know Detroit, the poet speaks of the dead-end era. A period of transitions where he remarks his respect for those who do not give up and whom hold out faith, a distant but constant belief that could be a better society.

He points to the demonstrations and responses against an industrial city, with its dirt and surrounded with smoke, from people that experience it every day.

E.E. Cumming’s “she being Brand”

E.E. Cummings’ poem “she has being Brand” a metaphoric description of a man  having a sexual experience with a first timer woman, refers to this mas who is about to drive a new brand car.

The description and the metaphor could be associated to the 1920’s idea of sexual liberation and changes in morality.

The poem describe, in an intimacy description and clear knowledge of a car parts and its function, an intimate moment of a man about to drive a new car.

The presence of the metaphor is not only in the poem’s meaning but also in the broken-condense syntax: putting words together as one, breaks with lines and illustrating beats with the description. We notice the use, or not, of periods and commas to emphasizes the metaphoric context of the poem and to sublime the assessment to which the metaphor refers.

The poem could be seeing as incongruous as humorous. But the metaphor is clear and direct, despite the techniques used by the poet.

Compare / Contrast

After analyzing and comparing-contrasting the poems of E.E. Cumming’s “she being Brand” and Phillip Levine’s “Coming Home, Detroit”, I can say that there is a strong social presence in their meanings. Cumming’s poem could refer to the American sexual liberation of the 20s, and Levine’s poem could refers to social changes that affect labor and workers. Both poems are told from a male narrator point of view.

Beside the social references of both poems, there is a politic tone involve in Levin’s poem that contrast with a more intimate experience in Cumming’s. But what is clear is the strong presence of technology.

This technology reference, that is a subtle reference because it is not in the poem itself, refers to the car industry revolution and how these revolutionary changes affect society behavior, as well the way societies looks and sense the world.

Both poems, which were writing in two different American history moments, involve cars or refer to the car industry; this is a way for the poets to tell us about that particular moment in history. We experience an array of feelings and experiences reading the poems but at the end we understand that both poems have a sense of hope.

About the Shoot for Monday October 30th.

“Change” “Passion” “Move Forward” “Hope” that will be the cue words to be considered for the shooting. The challenge is to portrait a metaphoric meaning of the poems using a toy car model from one of the two history moments when the poems were writing, 1926 or 1967.

I will try to bring a model of one of the most classic cars in the car industry, a car that shaped an entire generation; the 1967 Chevy Camaro.

I want it red because that color could be a representation of both moments: in Cumming’s poem the color will refers to the passion and love, as well as to sex and liberation. In Levine’s will represent the burst of a tired society against harsh work and living conditions and the progress and their consequences, in addition it could represent as a whole, car model plus color, a society moving forward as the main character in Levine’s poem does, despite the turbulent moments that Detroit society is leaving.

The shooting style is a big challenge. I would like to create an atmosphere that could be read as a romantic as well as a chaotic, depending the poem that represents. I would like a spot light in the car with all the surroundings blur with point of out of focus lights. I will use gels to create the different tonalities aside from the areas of high contrast using a ratio of 4 to 1 or 8 to 1. The car does not necessary be all inside the frame.

There are one thing both of these poem share, is they both described a scene as driving a car, and its also a metaphor for different story.

“she’s being brand” has a more exciting mood, and also a bit movement. describing as a man driving a car spinning around in the city with high speed. This is a metaphor of sexual activity, He first describes her as being “Brand-new” which caused him to be “careful of her”. This implies that this girl is a virgin and she’s about to experience the first time with an men who has more experience, so he feels like wants to protect her.he “oiled the universal joint” and “made sure her springs were O.K”. These two metaphors refer to he is being prepare and also taking care of her. this poem finalize their sexual activity by saying that “it was the first ride” and “ we was happy to see how nice she acted right up to the last minute. By communicating that this was “the first ride”, this indicate this is the first time both of them having sex. it has been described as a more sensitive  and careful first time rather than aggressive and hot.

“Coming home, Detroit 1968” in contrast with the first poem, this is more a cold and emotionless. describing a man drive back to a place where he used to live but without too much feeling. he’ see a little boy on the road but he choose to ignore him and drive ahead. “One brown child stares and stares into your frozen eyes until the lights change and you go forward to work.” this he action created an a feeling of disappointment.

Ideas：for the first poem, i am thinking about using red or purple or maybe both lighting , and as two light segment that cross over in the background, i don’t know if its possible. a dark lighting but not high contrast.

the second poem, I want to use high contrast to emphasize the mood, i would like to try using a burned matches with little smoke to put on side or in front of the car to implies that the city of Detroit, there’s a great era just like a burning matches but now only burned ash left, a city that’s dying.

Coming Home

Levine is projecting how Detroit have transformed from a city that was once a predominantly residential filled with natural habitat and a life that was communal into an industrial landscape of high profile automobile brand factories where the hammering of steel, burnt by touches of fire, have polluted the atmosphere. There you notice the mist created by the breath of hard working men, molded into one resemblance in frigged temperatures, driven by the will of industrialism.

She Being Brand

She Being “Brand”, New. No, don’t Brand Her, she is new to me. New lover, not a “Brand”! But Cummings she is “Brand” and “New”, and is his lover. He loves her so much, enough to be compared a woman. And so, they became intimate, and went on a journey, sharing passion until the end.

Design Concepts

For Cummings “She Being Brand”, probable I will do a full front of a car using broad lights, with no background lighting, with a male figure short in split view lighting to create a sync between the two images.

For Levine’s “Coming Home”, a car becomes visible through the mist with a faded sky line of factories in background. In this short we will manipulate the key and fill light to achieve a scene that resembles a city that changed from home to an industry.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World

by Michael Pollan:

• In this article, the author describes and shows the importance of paying attention to every little detail written on the products we buy. He also mentions that every product and the information that comes with it, (in this case potatoes) are protected by Federal Law, and its requirements. In order to have a good quality of product and to PROTECT people’s health, farmers have to go through certain procedures so that way their products can be sold
• The idea “the food chain that begins with seeds and ends on our dinner plates, is in the midst of revolutionary change” shows that many products are in the middle of a “TRANSITION”, because the procedures used in the past were different than now, for example: “The modern industrial farmer cannot grow that much food without large quantities of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and fuel”. It shows that in America, the industry of Agriculture it’s always changing and constantly adding more procedures to ENSURE that such products meet the criteria to be sold and eventually consumed by the final consumer.
• Diseases are everywhere. so the farmer of now, can not grow many products without the use of pesticides, since it has increased considerably the risk of diseases in humans, consuming products that are not fumigated.

• Botany of Desire’s idea: 
• I would like to shot directly from the front with a white and clear background so i can capture every single detail of the potato, it provides the customer a ver clear idea of what is that about. I would also try different angles like 45 degrees (shooting) and also from the left or right so i can create a SLIGHTLY shadow on the bottom of the potato. Another slightly side of the potato will be highlighted or illuminated.
• Fresh Direct Idea: 
• As the name says: DIRECT. So, i would use a direct angle and shooting from the front, for example, with the veggies inside of a bowl. This is my favorite: i would definitely create a relationship between potatoes and vegetables, since both are related to food chain. I would be using “Close-Up” so I can get the best of my details of my picture, also it would be GREAT to use different vegetables with different colors, so that way i can build “Harmony” between the two different kind of food.
• Another nice idea is: Applying gel to vegetables, and then “spray” and get water drops after it, and creating a fresh sensation on the picture, it attracts the customer or consumer to buy the product, as a form of advertisement.

The article “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan, Pollan explains that the food we eat are indeed pesticides and majority of what we eat are altered in many ways before we are actually able to eat it. He says that Genetic Engineering is an improved way to replace all of these toxic chemicals and gain a more healthy approach. Genetic engineering allows vegetation to have a gene that will protect itself from insects and diseases without the use of pesticides. I think this approach of genetic engineering is an idea that makes sense towards removing hazardous materials but I believe it can also be harmful. We do not know what could happen to us from consuming these genetically engineered products in the long run.

For the book cover design I would like to show the potato in a way where there is dark on one side and light on the other side of the potato. This will create a feeling of uncertainty whether this is a good or a bad thing. I would also like to try a shot with very little lighting to create a dramatic effect and shadows on the potato.

For the Fresh Direct shoot I would like to show the vegetables looking bright and fresh to create a clean feeling. Possibly with water on the vegetables close up.

Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan focused on one out of four different plants that have evolved because of human’s desire for them. For the article we read, it focused on the potato and how our desire to control it sort of guide it to what it is today. It talks about how great the potato is in the fact that it is able to feed such a huge amount of people. However, the article mentions how potatoes used to be sprayed with pesticide, a spray used to kill bugs that would eat/ruin the natural potato in it’s growing stage. The reason for the farmers spraying such toxic chemicals on something people would eat is because of such high demands. The alternative to this, some believed, was to create NewLeaf. NewLeaf created genetic engineered potatoes that won’t need to be sprayed with a pesticide, known as GMO to consumers. The metaphor Pollan used was that these potatoes were an operating system like Microsoft, they were Monsanto’s intellectual property.

When I read the article the first time my idea was to portray the Potato in a sort of evil/negative manner with it being chemical enhanced and all. However, I actually saw the documentary of Botany of Desire and my ideas changed a bit. I feel that the focus of the book/documentary is not to portray this in a negative way but rather to shed light and give an in-depth look into this. It took a very neutral approach, in my opinion.

Photo Idea: Botany of Desire

I want to run with the idea of “shedding light” so for one of the ideas, I want a dark background with a front view of the potato or maybe quarter view with a bright spotlight shining on the potato giving it a “spotlight” effect and all our focus would be going to the potato. I want to try one with normal light and one with a green or red light using gel lights. Another idea to bring a magnifying glass and use that in different ways. One would be to the potato being up front and having the magnifying glass directly in front of it, another one would be to have the magnifying glass from the top view angle,

Another approach would be to use reflection with Rembrandt lighting for a dramatic effect and shadows. Again, I want to play with the gel lights to incorporate the genetically engineered feel to it. Using the same idea of having the potato reflect I want to try it with a broad light so we can see a lot more details of the potato but still have some shadows to create a serious tone.

Photo idea: Fresh Direct

For fresh direct, I want a lot of green veggies with bright, well-lit background using butterfly lighting. I want close up shots with water drops on vegetables to indicate freshness. Another approach is to create depth with the potato and veggies, using broad light for dimension. I want there to be little empty space in the photograph.

The article from Michael Pollan ’s “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World”, the author discusses his point of views on spraying pesticides and transgenic plants. at the beginning, he tells us a story of planting potato by a farmer. This is bring a conversation of how modern agricultural technology affects crops. The New Leaf potato invented by Monsanto’s genetically engineered product. Using the biotechnology to kill pests with toxins.  However, through the impact of genetically modified food. The New Leaf was finally ended.

For the book cover, I want to use front light, close up, no shadow. As a cover placement, I want to try to duplicate my potato shoot as a GMO idea, use as a background, then I will make type treatment on top.

For the Fresh Direct web homepage, I will bring corns and a plate for the prop. I will shoot key light and fill light, with 2:1 lighting ratio, I would like to try to shoot from the front with close up.