Fall 2012 Tu/Th History of Photography

The F. Holland Day photo of the Crucifixion with Roman Soldiers is a photo that I particularly as a Christian did not like because that photo to me did seem a bit intrusive to Christianity. The reason I see that photograph as intrusive is because it really seemed like a mockery to what really happened at the crucifixion. What I mean is the soldiers and how they are dressed. Obviously the one who was undressed was Christ because he was being humiliated so it makes no sense in the photograph that the Roman soldiers are also undressed, thats the part in the photograph that seems like a mockery to me. Therefore in this case I do think that the photo was intrusive to a religion, Christianity.

Documenting religious experiences can also not be intrusive, for example if a Christian event is documented for the purposes of promoting future Christian events like those documented then its not intrusive. But it can definitely be intrusive if a religious event is being documented for the purposes of making it look bad or promoting negative things about that particular religion. It’s really the purpose of documenting a religious event that makes it either intrusive or not intrusive.

I think Evans’ approach was very effective and successful as it can clearly be seen in the photos he took.  It shows the raw emotion of everyday subway riders that are being transported from point A to point B.  Riding on the subway is a repetitive and boring process, its main purpose is to get from one place to another in the shortest amount of time possible.  The subway is also a place of unforeseeable events and that anything can happen at any time.  There is that look of fear in the subway riders in the photos taken by Evans, because the subway environment always created a sense of fear for the riders, it’s an environment in which you are sharing with a stranger and you don’t know what they are capable of.  Evans captures this emotion perfectly, in a candid and clandestine way.  So to answer the question of what I think of Evans’ approach, I think it was very effective and successful as it is shown in the results.  As for the similarities to today’s subway riders’ expressions, I do think they are similar judging by the photos, in the photos, the riders stare off into space as they are in the train and today is oddly similar, with the exception of the riders have their phones and kindles in their hands to keep them occupy instead of the newspaper.

I feel like Evan’s idea to secretly take pictures of subway passengers was great. Taking photos of people when they are not noticing and not acting nor posing for the shot makes the photo more real. He got to capture a real moment of the riders zoned out and captured their thoughtful  facial expressions. Looking at the photos in Visualingual’s blog I see many similarities between the riders from the depression era and today’s riders. 99 percent of the time you ride the subway today you will always see a few people zoned out thinking about something, talking to a friend, sleeping, or they will just have a depressed\serious look on their face; just like in Evan’s portraits. People were stressed back then because of their financial struggles and you can see it through their facial expressions, just like you see it today. Many people are just tired and stressed from work and when they are on the subway they just think about everything, it’s like the subway ride home or to work is their alone time. If someone was to secretly go and take pictures of random people on the subway today and publish them in an article, they will look very similar to Evan’s portraits just with better detail.

Documenting a religious experience can be possible, and this is nothing new to us because we’ve seen in photographs (“Crucifix with the Roman Soldier, 1896 by Holland Day).  I think that one of the reasons of documenting religious photographs is to make people understand how important a religion can be for certain individuals (Haitians).  Shannon Taggart’s photographs shows a country’s believes about their religion that can make people wonder about the way they express, invoke Gods, and sacrifice animals.  I also think that by showing photographs regardless of the religion, it will always be valuable for the society to learn and undertand and respect their believes.

I think everyone has the right to decide whether a photograph is intrusive or not. It all depends on how you want to see it or how you want to express it. In my case, I do find this photographs a little bit intrusive because i’m not used to seeing photographs, however, I do respect their religion and all the things they do or say. And I think this religion is an interesting subject of study for all the history behind.

After reading the New York Time article, my opinion on Evan’s approach to photography is to capture people’s emotions while riding the subway. As he said in the article “He wanted to do nothing but look at the people”. It funny how when I looked at his photography I see a resemblance to how riders today look while riding the subway. Either their talking to a friend, zoned out, sleeping, or just staring into space. Nothing much has changed in people expression during the Depression Era to today’s riders, maybe the fact that there are more ads to look at but that’s about all. Though there are difference to the Depression Era to today’s riders expression is that many of the riders in the Depression Era has no facial expressions as in nothings entertaining in their lives. Compare to today’s riders you can almost see a different expression on everyone’s face, some are smiling to themselves, some are listening to music while moving their head, some are looking around like explorers, some are reading books…etc. Rider’s today seemed to be much more entertained compared to the Depression Era riders. There are similarities and differences between the Depression Era riders to today’s riders.

It is difficult (if possible at all) to know for sure what goal Holland Day was trying to achieve, when he made his famous “Crucifix with Roman Soldiers”. Was it an allusion to high art? Or maybe it was an attempt to promote Pictorialism with as little criticism as possible (since many people would refuse to condemn the work which has any religious reference).

Assuming that his work was an honest experiment, we do know for sure that the photograph tries to demonstrate historicism of the actual event of the crucifixion of the Messiah. In a way, Day did the same what Southworth and Hawes did creating a post-event photograph “Death of Pain”.

Totally different goal is pursued by Shannon Taggart in her project “Basement Vodou”. It is not an allusion to art, and she is not trying to recreate past events. What she does do, is document events, or experiences, as they happening.

The question is, are these experiences spiritual in nature? As far as I see, they are not. The same behavior is occurring is other cases, which have nothing to do with religion, such as rock concerts. Shannon could’ve explored that niche, but it’s already has been done. So, instead of photographing rock concert, Shannon photographs religious “concert”… I assume, difficulties involved are the same.

Are these photographs valuable? – I wouldn’t miss them; but they are informative.

Are they intrusive? – I think, it depends on rules of a particular religious organization. It is obviously isn’t intrusive when it comes to Vodou; otherwise we wouldn’t see the project “Basement Vodou”.

Nowadays anything can be art! In museums, one kind of color on a firm is consider a master piece. So if the is called art why can an app be art!

An app can be art, it is just the matter of how the viewer views it as an art or a piece of electrical component. Matter of fact all around the world everyone is using apps on their phone and on their computer. Most people uses these apps to create art and to apply art into modern activities during a person life.

In the past art wasn’t considered art by using any painting or any skills. Most people can become artist only if they have the heart or determination to make art.

Most importantly an app can be art because it can change how art can be viewed and how the art views the world!!!