Spring 2013 History of Photography

Melies film recalls quite a few of the practices of early photography. In his short film the actors are moving around and walk in and out of the captured scene this is similar to photography because both video cameras and photograph cameras cannot move or pan to follow the subjects and capture the surroundings as they do today.  Being known as the father of on film special effects Melies alters the film to create illusions. Photographers do the same thing with their negatives to alter the final image. He also uses multiple exposures to produce his vision. Like early photography when multiple negatives were put together to create unique images. In Melies film if you noticed there are multiple cut or stop scene where they would introduce the appearing props and smoke for disappearing props to create illusions when the film would role again so it would appear out of no where or vanish like magic. In photography you can do special effects as well but you cannot show the moving progression of an object appearing and disappearing you can only create a ghost effect with long exposure or an artistic effect by roughing up the negative. Another obvious similarity is the color, in earlier photography there also wasn’t any color used color was inputted into the film negatives much latter and then produced or developed to have color in them just like early photography. I found this film to be funny and very creative for being the first special effects film I saw a segment of this short film in the HUGO movie so I immediately knew what is was. The special effects in this film are surprisingly better then some movies that people try to produce today. I was impressed for the most part.

I reflect Robert Polidori’s photographs articulate more of a mood towards powerful statements of unique events. From his photograph’s I don’t have the impression that they captured catastrophes rather they captured the aftermaths of unknown circumstances and people have to realize what happened, filling in the missing story behind the photo. As for the fact that majority of his photographs don’t have any people I them I contemplate that adds more mystery towards the story behind the photograph and captivates his statements of such events because we are always curios about the unknown. In my opinion photographs like Polidori’s have such a unique quiet feeling to them because there are no people in them and yet there is a tragic element in the photos. One can look at the photographs and take time to find the story that the photograph is telling. Polidori says he is  “obsessed with human habitats violated by time and circumstance” I find his statement very interesting because for me that is true. No one lives through an event the same way we all have our own sense of style and sense of tragedy. And when nature or events adds its own “design” to that how can you not find that interesting. Another quotation of polidori that intrigued me was “ interior spaces can reveal the collective soul of a society” and “vacant rooms as exoskeletons of peoples’ internal lives” His interior photographs and housing photographs depict those ideas strongly. One can tell what culture people come from by the way their home is decorated and designed it can also depict how a certain society is living whether it be poverty or the super rich. Rooms that people either had lived in or are living in represent them and it is the shelter that holds their personal lives within it. I think polidori’s photographs have strong impacts even with some obvious elements of tragedy. Sometimes leaving the audience to decide what had happened creates a better photograph in my opinion.

I think Robert Polidori aestheticize the settings of his photographs. Some of his photographs reminded me of Fox Talbot’s “The Open Door” The idea of Talbot about photography was that some eyes will often be arrested where ordinary people see nothing remarkable. I think this same concept sort of applies to Polidori’s photographs. Because Polidori aestheticizes the setting by finding the perfect angle, the perfect lighting that will capture the beauty of that setting. I really liked Polidori’s idea of home, as an exoskeletons of people’s internal lives and the fact that his work lacks human presence I think gives more power and attention to the photograph to give the viewer the power to feel what is going on in the image. In the other hand, I also think his photographs are powerful statements of unique events and as Polidori stated, he tries to aestheticize upon historic events such was the Hurricane Katrina where he captured what exoskeleton violation looked like by photographing all those destroyed scenarios and isolated homes where it gives the viewer not only the horror of catastrophe but exploded cadavers of those homes of people.

Throughout the short film there are times where some of the earlier practices of photography relate to that of the film.  For example, there are multiple scenes in the film.  Although the subjects in the film move, the camera doesn’t.  Melies also alters the film to enhance the special effects.  This is similar to when photographers would manipulate negatives of their film to produce the picture they wanted.  He also uses multiple exposures to produce his vision.  In earlier photography, there also wasn’t any color used.  In film, the same thing happened in the beginning.  Its different from photography because the subjects are moving.  The film was a bit fuzzy so it was hard to truly capture the essence of how much this changed the course of film.  Still, it was quite interesting to learn how it all happened.

Clearly you can see that there are a few different setting in this short film. However, when the characters are in the scene, the camera never moves. This is similar to the way photographic cameras were in their early days. Also similar to the photographic cameras, Melies used multiple exposure and edited images together to create a “special effect”. In photogrpahy, negatives were put together in the dark room to create a larger or altered image. In film, a similar thing was happening. It was still in black and white as the early photography was. Also, Melies used the stops in his film camera to move things around and make is appear as if were turning into other things.

Overall, I really enjoyed the short film. I think it was more interesting because I did see Hugo and loved it. It was also entertaining to see the find kind of special effects happening. I would have loved to live in this time period to experience special effects and film when it first started happening.

I think Robert Polidori photographs do aestheticize the settings of catastrophe especially in the photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You can tell in that photo that something horrific had happened by just looking at how horribly maintained the houses are and how the car looks like it’s been dragged out of place by water. The streets in the photo also looks like they haven’t been cleaned in a very long time. You can really tell that something really horrible happened in the photos he took of the nuclear accident at  Chernobyl by the way the classroom looked all damaged, and the desk and chairs also look really destroyed. In that photo you can tell that everything there was abandoned and the nuclear accident caused havoc on Chernobyl. He chooses great places to take photos of that would show his opinion or bring his point across on how horrific these accidents were to the place it occurred. I think the photos themselves are powerful statements of these unique events and show the outcome of accidents like the nuclear one or how much damage a hurricane can cause.