Fall 2012 Tu/Th History of Photography

The movie “A trip to the Moon” is a pretty interesting science fiction film. The scenes in the film are really funny. In my opinion, I think this film can be recalling the practices of early photography. In this film, all the scenes that took place in the same area and also stayed in the view of the same landscape. This film shows that for the early photography camera people are not able to change the position of the camera. The similarity between photographic camera and the film camera are they can both be produce. Mostly, cameras can be shared everywhere on the internet.

I do not believe one type of photography is more effective than the other. In the case of Frank’s “art” photography vs. Counts’ news photography, i think both pictures are on the same level. They both open the public’s eyes to a very important issue in american. That issue was segregation and when it comes to a topic like that effectiveness of a photograph should not matter.

In my perspective both photographs belong in the same category. They display how horrible African Americans were treated during those times, although both pictures show a different aspect. Frank’s “art” photography reveals the division between blacks and whites. It does this by depicting a bus where blacks sat in the back while whites sat in the front. This photographs can have many themes associated with it. On the other hand, Counts’ news photography shows the division in action. It depicts one black girl walking through an angry mob of whites. This photograph can also share the themes that Frank’s photograph have. I do believe that they are both powerful visual documents. Just because one looks better than the other, or has more detail does not mean it is more effective than the other.

Since people live in a world where they have different beliefs and religions, it is okay to have people to document their practices with pictures and videos. Taggart is a good example for this topic. She takes pictures of different practices. Mostly a person who watches these practices from the outside world can believe in their practices. To me i was scared in how those people can talk to the dead and interact with the dead like they do in a everyday life activity but unfortunately, we have biased photographers out there, who try to change the whole concept and beliefs of a religion based on their own opinions and present it to the whole world. This is a very sad topic to deal with, because majority of people believe what they see and not what they hear or learn so people have to realize if these photographs and documents are valuable and effective, we have to see and understand the view of the photographer itself and how the photographer explain on the belief or practice.

Everyday people take pictures of us everywhere, if we notice them taking pictures of us we tend to look at the camera to look our best. From Evans’s subway portraits, he is in the subway station doing noting but look at people walking around in the station. He captures the moment of what the people do in the subway station. From the pictures that Evan took, they all show the real characteristic of everyone. Everyone acting normal on those pictures, nobody is noticing the camera and not acting like a model and showing their best to the photographer. I think its interesting and cool in how he takes pictures besides letting anyone know. By taking picture without anyone knowing, it can really show people’s true emotions and personalities on the picture. Nobody tries to fix themselves for the pictures because none of them know that Evan is taking a picture of them. On most of the pictures that I see around, people will dress up nice with a nice pose which is not showing their real personalities and their real emotions.

I do believe food should be considered art. In my perspective art is about creating and constructing something. When someone cooks a meal or bakes a cake they are using their creativity to construct something. Many people take photographs of the things they eat or  cook. for example on the app Instagram, when people go out to eat they take a quick photograph of their meal and post it on Instagram. They also post pictures of their food seasoned, while its cooking, and when its done.

NPR’s “Appetizing Art of Food Photography”, displays food in a more yummy way. Obviously it was constructed to make it look more appealing to the person. Also the different angles the photographs were taken from to show them more clearly and get every detail. While Robert Mann Gallery’s exhibit “Food For Thought”, displays food in a more artistic way. He experiments with color, shade, shadows, shapes, and scene to get his love for food across. In A few examples of Irving Penn’s Food Portraits, he displays his photographs also in an artistic way but he goes as far as to stage his photographs, meaning he sets them up in a captivating way. Clearly everyone has their own way of displaying the art of food in photography.

I do find Robert Whelan’s argument convincing. He went in-depth with his research and left no room for anyone to question. The fact that he even went as far as to identify the fallen soldier makes it more believable. Whelan also explained other critics reasons for believing that the photograph was fake and give reasons to why their perspectives were wrong. He did this by giving proof. Whelan also showed more photographs which backed up his reasons for stating that the photograph was not staged.

I do not believe that Robert Capa’s photograph was not staged. I believe he was at the wrong place at the right time and capturing a breath taking picture that showed a moment of death. I also do not believe that authenticity of the photograph matters. It displays the dangers that many soldiers change while fighting for their homeland. Even if the photograph was staged i am sure there are soldiers that sadly experienced that horrible death the same way the soldier in the photograph did. It does not matter whether it is real or not it shows whats going on while soldiers are away at war and that is all that matter. If he did stage it that was a very creative way of staging a photograph.

I find it very disturbing that at a time like this, where people are worried and overwhelmed by the event that took place, there are fake photographs circling the media. This caused people to become mislead about what is really going on. I was one of those people until i seen the video on ABC News. It is really upsetting that people would take time to do that during and right after the hurricane where families are coping with losses of family, friends, and possessions. Maybe, it would have been funny if it was done after everything has been cleared up and back to normal.

I thought the photograph with the person diving in the flooded train station was real. It had me thinking the storm was way worse than what the news was portraying it to be. I was worried that my area was next to be flooded. There were some photographs that were obviously fake such as the empire state building being engulfed by a huge wave. I knew it looked familiar because i seen The Day After Tomorrow a dozen times. Also the photographs with the sharks. It made no sense at all that we had sharks swimming around the suburbs.

After reading this discussion topic i found myself wondering if i was ever photographed during my subway commute before. Walker Evans was a very clever man to have pulled this off. I think his approach was to  photograph people when they are trying their hardest to look normal on a boring subway ride. When taking the subway people try not to stare at the person directly across from them because they do not want to make feel uncomfortable. This is a very hard task because there is nothing much to look at in a train than the people and advertisement, which there is not much of. The other option would be to close your eyes and take a quick nap.

Evans photographed people in one of the most awkward moments and its is amusing to me that most of the people had on similar expressions. I think that if the people knew that they were being photographed it would not have come out the same because they would have tried to look their very best. I find that there are similarities between the depression era’s and today’s riders. Our expressions remain the same the only thing is that we have more things to focus on such as books, newspapers, music, and games on our phones which makes the atmosphere less awkward. It would also be easier to take a picture of someone who is not paying attention today.

I do believe that the app, Oil, should be considered art. The app that was released by photographer, Edward Burtynsky, displays the “ugliness” of oils production and its uses. Clearly Burtynsky understands that we are in a century where technology is mainly used. Apps are available through portable devices such as the iPad, iPhone, iPod, other brands of tablets, and cell phones. Making his artbook, Oil, an app was a brilliant idea.

In my perspective it was a brilliant idea because now more people will be able to see it. Not everyone has time to go to a museum and view art work so an app on the go is very convenient. Also an app is art because it takes time to construct apps, just like it takes time to construct an art piece. the only exception is the person is using technology to construct the app. Anything that displays someones creativity should be considered art. Burtynsky is using this app to show people his artwork which is also very creative. I believe this makes the app art as well. We are at a day and age where everything is changing and upgrading. I believe that the definition of art should be upgraded too.

Using digital camera is nothing new to us in this generation, it’s a common thing for many people especially tourist. Not everyone is lucky enough to travel around the world, pictures help them remember their experiences and to share with theirs friends and family. Why can’t picture of picture be art? It’s still an image of an art. In my opinion i think there’s nothing wrong with taking pictures or pictures we do that all the time. Especially with all the special effects we have on our mobile/electronic device makes it even more interesting  For an example a graffiti on the wall that’s consider art in my opinion, I cannot cut a pieces of the wall as a souvenir so a picture of a picture will help me save a piece of that memories. Special effects on the electronic can not only capture an art but make it amusing. The definition of art have changed over the century back when photos was taken by a film camera to a digital camera, how photo were only black and white to every color we can think of. Picture of a picture is just another way of sharing art and preserving it. Below has two photograph one is at Time Square “Believe it or Not” another it just a photograph i took with my mobile device and did some special effects on it.