Fall 2012 Tu/Th History of Photography

I really admire what Walker Evans’ clandestine approach to photography. He somehow managed to capture the mundane expressions of everyday commuters without them realizing it… simply amazing! Today, there is something similar going on in the world of photography. In an application for smartphones known as Instagram, there is a page dedicated to taking photographs of people in the subway. Here’s the twist: they only capture people that have fallen asleep on the subway. But whether commuters are asleep or awake, they definitely have the same faceless expressions as the riders during the Great Depression Era had.

The devastation brought upon us by Super storm Sandy was horrific. It left my family and I without power for four days. Thankfully, we weren’t hurt or flooded. My area was actually designated as a “Zone A” area which meant immediate evacuation. Thing was, we didn’t have anywhere to go or stay. We decided to tough it out because we thought it would turn out like Hurricane Irene did last year and tone down to a tropical storm. We were sadly mistaken. After the storm hit, my cousin’s house was a disaster over in the South Beach area of Staten Island. Friends and family (and even people we didn’t know) got together to help clean out what was left of his place. His entire basement was flooded with water. We had to hire a demolition team to come in a tear apart all of the damaged parts of his home. I honestly never saw this coming and I think no one was really prepared for the destruction Sandy caused.

From the moment I first gazed upon Robert Capa’s “Death of a Loyalist Soldier” I knew that it was real. Richard Whelan’s analysis only confirmed this belief. I completely understand why skeptics thought this image was staged. It was the first photograph that captured a man dying in war. At this time in the world, what photographer wouldn’t stage something like this? But Robert Capa just so happened to be at the right place at the right time.  Whelan really goes into a deep analysis of the photograph, giving each part of the photograph a high attention to detail. Personally, (decades later)  I think Richard Whelan has confirmed the authenticity of Robert Capa’s “Death of a Loyalist Soldier”.

War photography dates back all the way to the 1800’s. We can thank Matthew Brady (who is known as the key practitioner of the Civil War) for supplying America with these war photographs. As a matter of fact, Civil War Photography actually bankrupts Brady, opposite of the mission he set forth to accomplish. Tyler Hicks’s photographs truly capture the brutality and destruction of war. Especially the photograph of a crowd of Israelis having a funeral for their family members. In any war fought, there are bound to be innocent lives lost. It’s tragic  and unfortunate but that’s just how war works. Tyler Hicks is really putting his life on the line just to take these photographs. He is literally in a war zone and can lose his life at any given moment. He reminds me of the great war photographer Robert Capa.

Robert Frank truly captured America’s imperfections through his camera lens. In most if not in all of his photographs, Frank displays that there is no sense of community and everyone tends to keep to themselves. Robert Frank actually wasn’t liked by many modern photographers, mainly because of how he took his photographs. He would often crop people and objects out of the image and would make them blurry by not focusing.     With that being said, I strongly believe that Robert Frank’s “art” photography is more effective than  Counts’ news photography. Even though both artists depict a strong sense of social inequities in American society of the Fifties, Frank manages to capture way more than just the segregation aspect of the Fifties. For example, in his “Drug Store, Detroit” photograph, he manages to capture not only the clear segregation of the black waitress, but also of the intense commercialism.

In order for you to believe that religious documentation is possible, you must have had a paranormal experience. For example, when I was younger, I saw a ghost in my bedroom. It happened while I was lying down on my bed. I saw a shadowy figure approach me and it appeared to like look a tall woman. I noticed that she was actually floating towards me instead of walking and when she got right in front of my face I screamed out of fear. The figure then disappeared and never came back. If you want to document the paranormal, you must be willing to experience the “unnatural”. Taggart is clearly not afraid of having interactions with spirits, as depicted through his many photographs.

I think the food photography is so important to a chef or a restaurant and many others as well because it helps attract people to their restaurant. Food does attract people no matter who they are and where they live. Every person needs food to live and everyone would like to eat great food. I think its true that food does bring people together not just eating but cooking together as well. I think all food is the same when it comes to photography. The photograph shows how good the food is and how it can look in different color and different focus of the food. The art of food photography is a great and amazing thing for people to look through.

After reading the analysis on the image by Robert Whelan, I was covinced that the image (The Death of the loyalist soldier) by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War was not staged or nor it was fake. Robert Whelan talks about the placement of the hand of the wounded soldier and its almost like he is dead. Well I think the authenticity does matter because Capa was a great photographer who loved getting close to the action and capturing some great photos, but if its fake then why try to fake it. The allegations of this photo being fake affects Capa’s reputation and I think this is a great war photo regardless it being staged or not.

Hurricane Sandy was a big problem to New York City for over a week or two. I am one of the most people who got effected by the hurricane because it took out my power and that caused a water outage in my whole neighborhood but, it totally destroyed the MTA system in the city. Most of the subway stations were flooded during the hurricane Sandy. It caused me a lot of problems like not going to school or work. So, I spend my whole week at home and keep checking the news about hurricane Sandy on my phone which was running out of battery. There was an interesting picture I have seen was a diver swimming in the 42nd Times Square subway station. Even though this picture is fake, it shows the creative way that people create this picture. This shows how people are going through and what they did while the subway system was flooded. during that time i actually moved to my aunt’s place because i didn’t have power and water which made everything worse for my family members.

At first i was shocked at the images i seen in Tyler Hicks’ photographs. Especially the one where the little boys body was being held in the air during in funeral and the one where the man was being dragged through the streets. I could not believe how cruel people can be. It always opened my eyes to how war can cause so much destruction besides destructing homes and lives.

I believe the documentation of war is very important. In my perspective it shows people exactly what happened at that time and what it has caused. Seeing documentation of war makes me think was it worth it. Even through war brings about negative things i do think some wars are worth it. But the Gaza War should not have gotten to this point. Also i think it is very important to accurately caption a picture. This is due to the fact that everyone have their own opinion. People are going to perceive the photograph however they want. Accurate captions would clarify exactly what is happening in the photograph. Tyler Hicks is a great war photographer, especially since he uses accurate captions, and i believe his photographs will open the eyes of many people to the more aspects of war.