Fall 2012 Tu/Th History of Photography

I’m a person that absolutely loves to eat! Even though some food images aren’t very appetizing I love looking at food photographs. Everyone I follow on Instagram has posted a picture of their food before they eat it; even I’ve done it. When you want to try out a new restaurant all you have to do is Google the restaurant and automatically reviews from people that have been there before pop up along with pictures they took of their meals. You won’t want to go and eat somewhere if you see that the food doesn’t look “good”. If you aren’t drawn to a meal by looking at it and saying “wow, that looks good!” I’m sure you wont be drawn to eat it once it’s in front of you. I think that the chef of a restaurant is an artist. He gets to choose how his plate is going to look, what color he includes in his is dish and how he arranges it. The photographer is the one that captures his masterpiece.

When I first heard about hurricane sandy, I didn’t really pay much attention to it since last year when hurricane Irene was approaching us the news made such a big deal of it and nothing really happened. The night when hurricane sandy was getting closer and was still in a strong category I started getting a little scared. After I started getting the “Extreme Alert” Text Messages on my cell phone telling me to evacuate from my home, I then knew that it was serious. My neighborhood lost power, there was flooding and there were many fallen trees. I’m grateful that my loved ones and I were ok, but I felt horrible when I turned on the news the next day and saw how bad other parts of the city and NJ were hit. Seeing all these photos that people were posting on twitter, Facebook, and instagram were devastating. There were some that looked really fake; like the shark swimming by the “subway escalators” in NY, and there were others that were just heart breaking (jersey shore boardwalk). Hurricane Sandy affected so many people and left thousands without homes for the holidays. My family donated coats, food, and anything else that would help those affected.

In today’s society, there are many people from very different religions. People don’t all believe in many of the same things. I feel like it was a great idea of Taggart’s to capture these different kind of religious practices while they were actually happening. I do agree that maybe it might be a little intrusive for the people practicing this kind of “Vodou” and maybe they didn’t like being photographed while in their element. But it is a great way to help people on the outside see what goes on while they are being “possessed”. The photos are a little creepy to me just seeing the women with their eyes rolled back and their body’s trembling is crazy. But I feel like that was Taggart’s objective, to capture a REAL religious moment and not a staged one, so people can get really see what goes on, creepy or not.

After reading the article and interview I came across thinking that some of the photographs might be staged, Hick’s has spent 10 days covering the fighting and aftermath in Gaza City but the photos that I saw was majority the aftermath. In my opinion if there was a photograph of missiles in the sky that would be more convincing, not saying that everything was staged. But I’m just curious, why were there no pictures from Gaza showing the launching of attacks on Israel? With hundreds of missiles being launched every day, there should have been a possibility for “being in the right place at the right time.” Yet, we can clearly only see the aftermath of getting bombed in Gaza City how all the buildings are destroyed and people looking devastated. Maybe the problem is the limitations of photography, which only can show us what is in the frame for a fraction of a second. But photos of bombed buildings, of cowering civilians, and, for that matter, of the bodies of dead children, only tell a tiny part of this unbelievably complex story. In conclusion Mr.Hicks courage should be well respected, going to a country during a war time, putting your life at risk everyday to capture photographs of war should be well recognized and respected.

When I saw Hick’s photographs, the first thing I thought of was “How the Other Half Lives”. Hick’s photographs expose us to the reality of what happens to countries much like Gaza City that is constantly at war. He shows us what happens to the people who are affected by this; their everyday life and how it is nothing like ours. As you can see in the photographs, every day they are scared for their lives. They live their lives in fear of what could happen to them the very next day. I think Hick’s photographs speak for themselves. His pictures are very powerful and they create a very strong emotional impact on the audience. There is not enough awareness that occurs to situations such as those that happens in Gaza City. Many of us take things for granted and while we are complaining about first world problems such as public transportation, there are people out there who are less fortune than us.

I definitely felt the heart break as I was looking through the photographs. With photographs like Hick’s that documents wars, we get a glimpse of what happens to countries that may be overlooked at or not spoken enough about. We are exposed to more knowledge of the harsh living conditions that some of these people have to live through. These photographs make me feel grateful for the life I have and before I complain about it, I should think twice. Even if I’m at my lowest, there is someone out there who may have it much worse than I do.

Food photography is one of my favorite genre of photography. As I started to major in Hospitality, I had noticed more and more of photos are of food. Growing up, my dad had pushed me to learn photography with him, but mostly it was of portraits and landscapes. It was not until 4 years ago that I realized my love for food and how I love documenting what I eat. It had became a regular thing to me to either pull out my camera or my phone to snap a picture of what I was eating. Food itself is a piece of art and documenting it helps me leave a beautiful memory of it. By taking pictures of the food, it reminds me of the meal; who I was sharing it with, the moment I felt when eating it, and the dish itself. I also love showing people the food I eat and recommending it to people. It always amuses me to see the glow in people’s eyes and how they literally almost drool over an appetizing photograph I took. With the easy access of social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, I can easily share with people my new finds and the delicious foods I eat. Not only do I photograph food that I eat, I also photograph food that I cook as well. It has become a hobby of mine. I love exploring the different delicious food that New York City offers and documenting it to leave a memory.

When I was first exposed to this photograph, I didn’t even think twice about it being staged. I didn’t even know that there was a controversy about it. I just took it as this photo was legit and it shows the brutally of war.  If you were to ask me, the photo looks too real to be staged. I don’t see how a bullet going through anyone’s head can be staged during that time. I think that photos like this can’t really be staged because it’s really a difficult shot to stage; the way the soldier is falling and his pose. As stated in the article, the way the soldier’s hand was curled up against his palm is something that is very hard to stage. Captain Robert L. Franks said that it was nearly impossible for any conscious person and that hardly anyone knows about this hand position. In addition, Capa was known to be out in the war zones photographing. Why would he stage this one photo? I find no reason why he would stage this.

I think that both Franks and Count’s photography are powerful visual documents of what went on at the time. Count’s photo made a bigger impact than Franks photo but I think it’s because Franks photos were being viewed as not “pretty” enough rather than the impact that they could have.

Franks photographs captured the reality of life at the time. For some reason his photos were not as accepted as Count’s photos were. To me they are the same, they both document situations between blacks and whites at them time and both of their photos have the power to impact. Franks photo of the Trolley shows a black man sitting behind and a white woman in front; that captures and documents completely the segregation that took place in everyday life at the time. His photos are very natural and not staged just as Count’s photo of Hazel Bryan and Elizabeth Eckford.