Robert Capa and the Greatest War Photograph

According to the writing of Robert Whelan I think Capa was at the right place and time when this moment occurred and he was able to capture one of the most important pictures in war history. I find Robert Whelan arguments convincing, especially because he did a lot of research and backs up every argument with evidence that support it. I think this pictures authenticity matters because people who first saw this picture believed that this is how the men who go to war suffer. When people are told something and believe it and later told something is not true, ignore and not give importance to the subject. I do believe in lucky shoots. Therefore I do believe that this picture is not staged.

Rock Star Food Behind the Scenes

Looking at Henry Hargreaves photos was very shocking. Seeing how much a person personality can be described in one picture is amazing. These pictures literally showed how this peoples individuality with out them having to be in the picture. Like for example Frank Sinatra by just looking at his picture I can tell he is a heavy hard liquor drinker. He loves his shrimp and must have cough drops for his throat. Mariah Carey picture can say she drink champagne sophisticated adult but adding that bendy straw show she has a young and party heart.

Le Voyage dans la Lune

I personally dislike black and white movies and even more when they’re silent. Le Voyage dans la Lune was a different because it actually caught my attention. I saw it twice the first time I just I understood the concept of the movie but I had to watch it again to really look at what the film maker did to create this movie. If you put close attention to the movie you can see that the filmmaker added many different pictures in the scenes and that are not even noticeable. My favorite scene was when the rocket ship landed on the moon. If you looked very close you can see that the moon is a human probably covered in whipped cream. Another scene was when they laid down on the moon and stars appeared you could see that it was a black curtain with holes for people to fit their heads in. It very impressive to see that he managed to create such a great film in that time period.

Week 12 Hands up don’t shoot

All these recent events are just emphasizing on how hypocrite Americans are in general. I feel like right now the entire world is pointing fingers and laughing at us for trying to promote “world peace” in other countries and continents while we are the ones that need help the most. I feel like communism in the USA worst that  communism in North Korea even though we don’t say it. We are the first ones to talk about our rights and whatnot, but as we can see in Olson’s pictures, the moment people try to protest, tear gases were thrown at them. Looking at these pictures and comparing them to happened in Kent State, I think that the United States still has along way to go before talking about peace.

(Leah. M) Week 10 Discussion Topic: Robert Capa and the Greatest War Photograph

If my memory serves me right in class that day some were of the opinion that the photograph was staged. I don’t mind being the only cheese to stand alone and say I believe it is as authentic as authentic can get. I picture this as the soldier running and being attacked from behind hence the reasoning for him falling this way. Why would the photographer put himself in harms way to capture that shot? When you have a passion for something, you tend to lose focus of reality at times, some may even risk losing their lives in that process. Does authenticity matter? Yes and no. Most people would rather be reading or looking at stuff that is genuine. There are times when you cannot capture those photographs in the moment it takes place, but you are given a general idea as to what it is like and you now have to use your imagination to figure it out. The problem is some people are to lazy and just love being spoon fed and don’t want to make their brain cells work. There is nothing wrong with doing a little research every now and then and too see exactly what message the person is trying to bring forth to you the receiver. I was convinced by his arguments. Is either you accept it or you don’t. It was also confirmed in the Spanish government’s archives that Borrell had been killed in battle at Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936. How much more convincing can this get?

 

Week 11 The New American Dustbowl

I think that both these pictures and FSA pictures are similar because they were taken in similar situations. Watching the video made me realized that we are abusing and damaging our soils. We can’t just expect things to grow abundantly just by adding water and fertilizing the soils, we need to let it rest. I feel like it is similar to the human body, you can’t eat the same things everyday and  expect your body to be healthy. You’ll definitively have some kind of deficiency. Same thing with sleep and rest. I feel like at this rate we are heading the 1930’s dustbowl again. Americans aren’t really aware of this because of fast food chains like McDonald, Wendy’s and so on.. We all know that eating is right expensive, but don’t really know why, so some of us rely on junk food as they are less expensive and fill you faster, and don’t really care about the rest.

week 10 The greatest War Photographs

I remember how chaotic the class was when we first talked about Robert Capa’s  ” Death in Spain” .  I always ask myself the same question after viewing war photographs : ” is it that easy to watch someone die in front of you?” . Although I personally do not approve of some of the pictures, I think that they are the only way we can remember the soldiers that lost their lives in wars. I think that his pictures are authentic because I think that after the death of his girlfriend, Capa didn’t really see the importance of living anymore, so he put himself in all kind of dangerous situations. Even if some of his pictures were staged, he died while actually taking new pictures of the war.

week 9 Famous musicians quirky demands

For some reasons I couldn’t control my facial expression while reading this article. Do not get me wrong because I think that the pictures are great, but they felt a little bit exaggerated to me. It’s just things we see in our daily lives, but because of how they were plated was a little bit weird to me because I think that he was trying to say something along the line “hey let me show you how crazy musicians actually are”. Although I have to say that some of the requests like “cornstarch and a cup of butter”, are totally absurd I can not really judge them because we all have our own fetishes and whatnot. I think that the three most disturbing pictures from the list are: Nine Inch Nails( depends on how you view it), Busta Rhymes’ , and Billy Idol. I think the artist did a great job with the lightening and pros to show a side of musicians that we don’t really know, and maybe it is he way of saying that no one is perfect.

(Leah. M) Week 11: The New American Dustbowl: Documenting California’s Drought

It seems like these farmers in Central Valley , California, forgot about everything that happened back in 1930 the Dust Bowl and what had happened. When land is farmed for several years and not given a chance to rest, eventually you will end up with the situation currently taking place in Central Valley. I won’t say that Americans are not aware of the drought conditions in California and the impact on our agricultural supply.They are aware of it. When you go to the vegetables stands, the price of everything has gone up. For example about 3 years ago I could have gone to the fruits and vegetables stand in my neighborhood and purchase a bunch of broccoli for $1.00. I no longer pay $1.00 but $2.50. One of the main reasons for this is because of supply and demand. There is a high demand, but a low supply due to the water crisis these farmers are faced with. So if you are a conscience shopper like me you will be aware of the change in price items. So I don’t think that is a fair statement (just my opinion).                                                                    The photograph comparison to FSA photography is quite accurate. It brings you right back to that time of the dust bowl. A very sad situation indeed but that’s what happens when the land is not given time to rest. It will eventually give up the ghost. Everyone loses in that situation. Crops are lost, livestock dies, such a sad sad sad situation. I’m praying for rain for Central Valley California.

week 8 Photography in early film

You can not judge a book by its cover. The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title “Le Voyage Dans La Lune”, was “oh really?? this is so not going to be fun”, but I found myself while watching the video. The video, was very detail because he used a lot of animated pictures, and combined them with videos (not really sure how he did that). I was especially impressed by the moon. Basically in the movie the moon is kind of like person, and from afar you can not really distinguished its facial features, but once you get close you can really see them. I love how He changed the image of the moon to someone that actually got hurt in the face when they finally arrived there. Overall, i think that the movie was really fun to watch compared to all the movies we’ve actually watched in class ( there was a lot of creepy ones).