The exhibit Interior Lives: Contemporary Photographs of Chinese New Yorkers, are photographs by Thomas Holton, Annie Ling, and An Rong Xu. The exhibit had a lot of open space and dim lights. The photographs were framed on each wall. The categories that the photographs were broken into was the documentation of the lives of Chinese New Yorkers, demonstrating their everyday lives. The photographs range from the year 2003 until now. The exhibit Through a different lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, is a exhibit thats smaller than the other one and much brighter. The photographer was only 17 when he photographed for the LOOK magazine in 1945. His photographs range from the years of the 1940’s. His photographs are also categorized as a documentation of people’s everyday lives.
In the exhibit Interior lives a photograph that spoke to me was the one shot by Thomas Holton. His photograph Chinese Soap Opera, 2004 is compelling because he’s documenting the life of a Asian woman. The intention of the photograph was to demonstrate something raw and authentic. The photographer succeeded into making me feel something about the subject because the way this woman is living and cooking while watching her soap opera is something that I can relate to. In the Kubrick exhibition, his New York is described to be rather entertaining. A particular photograph that is rather humorous is the taxi man fixing his car tire. I find it humorous because he has a cigarette lit and looks rather mad and is a typical New Yorker who doesn’t want to be bothered.
A photograph I liked was the one from Stanley Kubrick where a man and a woman are in the train station and another man on the ground. This photograph is shot in a close up. It can also be seen as a depth of field because the couple look like they’re closer to the camera compared to the guy who is on the floor that looks like he’s further away. I like it because the photograph can convey two different stories such as the man probably knocked out the guy to protect his girlfriend or the woman got caught being with another guy and the guy grabs her violently but like everything else, an image can convey a thousand words.
I also like the Thomas Hilton photo that you selected. The woman looks so absorbed, it feels like a very private moment. She forgot completely about the photographer.
Remember that depth of field refers to the range of focus in a photograph. There can either be a short range of focus that we call shallow depth of field or a deep range of focus that we call extensive depth of field.