The fact that Evans decided to published his photos 25 years later after it was taken, it was a strange and interesting approach. Perhaps it is more interesting to the public to look back at history instead of looking at pictures from the present time. Because from my own perspective, I am more interested in seeing the subway portraits during the Depression Era as oppose to subway portraits today.

There are of course differences between the subway portraits from the Depression Era and the present time. The depression era subway portrait can easily be distinguished by the interior of the subway train, the fashion and the picture quality. It is interesting to see the similarities are the expression of the passengers. Their facial expressions are restless, calm and lost into their own thoughts. After all, there are some things will never change from “the city that never sleeps”.

puff pastry demonstration:

1) rolling detrempe into a rectangle, 2)covering 2/3 of the dough with butter mixture(beurrage) 3) folding and turning, 4) perfect book fold

egg bread soft rolls

forming  the dough into a single and double knot was a little bit tricky, but fun! thanks Professor Jjacus for always encouraging us even though we are super clumsy ^^

Documentation of spiritualism is pointless in my opinion. The idea of spiritualism makes no sense nor does it interest me. Do I believe that the majority of these pictures are altered? Yes, I do. As a society of living human beings, the border of trying to access a sort of realm of the afterlife should not be crossed. If we were meant to interact with spirits, I believe that these interactions would be hearable and visible to all with ease. People are attracted by trends and that is my only explanation of why spiritualism has its community. Nothing about any of the photos Shannon Taggart has taken represents anything to me, not to discredit her as a photographer. I do believe that there are forces in this world that humans may encounter, however I think that a hype has been built around this practice that only attracts gullible people. So to answer the question of “Do I find such documentation valuable”, no I don’t.

Texture is an important aspect when it comes to food. There are different sorts of textures and being able to know which texture can be paired with which is a skill I hope to accomplish. In the photo that I have chosen there is quite a balance of texture within the products. The scallops in the picture are seared to perfection to obtain the golden tops on each side of the scallop. You can see the flakes of black pepper still embedded on the sides of the scallop. The scallop is placed on top of a piece of meat that I interpreted to be the salty, tougher product of the dish to balance off the chewiness of the scallop. The colors of the dish come together to incorporate the freshness of the scallop and the herbs placed on the plate for garnish purposes or even a different taste factor. Although the portions are quite small the flavor components speaks volume.

Spiritualism can be a debatable topic because it can be interpreted in many different ways. Personally I do not believe in contacting with spirits among the dead but in this case Shannon Taggart does. Don’t get me wrong I do find this belief of religion to be interesting, quite fascinating. I say this because the evidence in the picture draws my attention to question myself as to what goes on in a mind of a person so in depth with photographing such bizarre photos. When looking through her photos I do believe that some could have been altered, for instance the photo with the bending of spoons suggesting that the mind is the force behind the objects physical appearance looks unreal to me. But then again real enough to be believed by others in terms of being accepted as just another form of art. For example the purplish orb present on a woman’s shoulder of her deceased husband and everyone responding so nonchalant suggesting it was a common occurrence; they were not bothered by her findings.

I believe that  playing with the dead is not art, nor is it a respectable idea. I believe that the dead should be respected, and once layed to rest they should not be disturbed. It is only for god to determine how things will be, and what they will turn into. From an artistic stand point, i dont have much to say on it. I feel as though it is not art. Granted some people feel relief and comfort in seeing their loved ones, and being able to have memories, i feel it is very creepy. The colors and texture of the picture feels cold. It shows another part of life that I am not yet ready to explore.

Since the vitalization of photography, people started to use cameras for various purposes, from family photos, daily lives, to artistic activities. At first, there were lots of criticism against photography from painters, but as time goes by, people started to appreciate the stories that photography provides, and it’s one of the most desirable fields of art these days. Artists want to tell their stories through their art pieces, which can be extremely subjective, but still it could mean even extremely unsociable artists also value the communication with the audiences. Documenting spiritualism might sound convincing to people who believes it, but it seems to have not enough power to attract the audiences, in other words, lack of communications with the audiences. I would stay open minded towards documenting the religious rituals, but Shannon and few others’ “spiritual experiences” should not be considered as an art. At least I failed to listen to whatever she was trying to say through her pictures.

One of the things that people do first when they are about to try a new restaurant is to look up the pictures of food from yelp.com or any other sites that contains the pictures of food that the restaurants serve. The reason why people do it is because they want to get as much information as they can. Texture of a food in a picture provides various information to customers. The picture I took is strawberry shaved ice that I had couple of months ago. The strawberries are very red, shiny, and sugar powder on top of strawberry looks very smooth. From these information, we can assume that the strawberries are very fresh, and it’s very sweet. Most of pictures of food are used to enhance their “texture” and maximize the imagination of customers so that it can stimulate their consumer sentiment. However, sometimes it is more effective when they photograph a texture that hard to guess. From the picture of strawberry shaved ice, the white flour looking powder in the base layer is actually the ice. Now, when people find out that it was shaved ice, the two different textures, (smoothness and coolness) are going to be added together vaguely, just enough to stimulate their curiosity. As mentioned above, photograph of a food texture can provide numerous information, and it’s our jobs to use it wisely to promote our product to customers.