GRA 2330 Digital Photography

Aperture Foundation, Exhibit: City Stages

Posted on the four walls of the room are images in somewhat black and white.  By having them in a boxed setting helps to evoke the sense of motion throughout the photographs. The subjects vary from busy store locations to a park full of people in protest. The use of blurred images in the photographs helps to pull the audience in and feel as if they stepped in a paused moment in time. The blurred portions of the images exude people moving. The photographs achieve the idea of movement by using long shots. For example, there is a photograph of a dinosaur inside of a museum and around it is a crowd of people, looking and passing. The curved blur line helps to evoke the idea that the museum may have been busy or crowded at that particular moment. Majority of the photographs use great, strong curved lines as well as various angles. Majority of the photographs were taken from eye-level and high angles. The shot of Toys ’R’ Us uses that high angle in a really good way. It allows a grand view of the store and also connecting the audience with the height of the dinosaur.

Robert Mann, Exhibit: Rijksmuseum

The gallery focuses on the idea of open space. It uses backlight to create strong shadows. The use of light, pastel-like colors creates a warm and inviting space. Once the light hits these colors, the shapes and lines that are created are beautiful and strong. The images portray the idea of something that never really ends, like walking through a hallway that never comes to a stop. The continuance in the images also helps complete the idea of symmetry. There were also “before and after” photographs. The use of wide depth of field gets you to see the difference in the use of light between the same spaces.

Bruce Silverstein, Exhibit: Arrangements

The gallery was a complete opposite from the previous ones. The photographs seemed to be gloomy and mysterious. In the photographs of the women, the images were high contrast and sharp. The women were mainly naked and bare, displaying scars as well. Although the woman is naked, the photograph is done in a tasteful way. The main light used created such strong shadows that it also helped the high contrast in the image. The other photographs were of homes in different locations. The weather also had an impact on the image. Upon closer look, you could see the photographer was able to catch the snow and rain as it fell although it was blurry. They were also asymmetrical, long shots and eye-level. From it, I got the idea of desertion and abandonment.

Clamp Art, Exhibit: Composites

This gallery immediately had an eerie mood. All black and white photographs, the extreme close ups were two photos compiled together to create one; one photo more than the other. That effect was huge. It’s like when people combine their pictures to see what their offspring would look like. The three images titled “Aliens” were the creepiest.  The photographs were symmetrical, a wide depth of field and low contrast. Mostly black, the photographs do not quite fit the black and white criteria. The small gallery really helps to exude the creepy feel. Had it been low lighting inside the gallery, I think the mood would have been just as strong.

Julie Saul, Exhibit: Metro

The photographer compiled numerous pictures from the same scene into one entire photograph. I think this was my favorite. The vibrancy in the photographs warranted a closer look. The compilation of different shots from the same scene added to the mood of the image and gives the idea that you are looking inside someone’s mind; one that has rapid thoughts. It also helped to create diagonal lines within the images. Mostly from eye-level, the images depict everyday life, city nights especially. The photos showed tight spaces and packed streets.

Matthew Pillsbury

It is mainly about city scape and movement. He uses long exposure time to create a transparency effect that helps make a fast paced feel that New York is mainly about. The photos are all in black and white. It uses high angle to make things look bigger than they are, such as the one of the toy r us where the angle making the t-rex look big.

Wijnandoo Deroo

They are mainly images from Rijks museum interior. There are some photos of under construction areas, hallways, and history painting/objects.  Most of the photos have depths and there is balance between left and right side. The long shots taken of the hallway create a depth and the one with the ladder creates some distance. Also, they were all taken in eye level.

Nancy Burson

This exhibition is about portrait view and there are slight changes to them. My first impression of the exhibition was that it was a bit creepy since the first thing I notice was three old portraits with black background. However, the one with the animal looked rather interesting as well as the one that looks alike but one female and one male. The photographer uses close up framing.

Marie Cosindas

The first impression of this exhibition was a dark and somewhat creepy feeling. It is mainly photos of landscape and woman. The photo with the black crow and single tree gives off a scary mood since there are no leaves on the tree and it’s dark. The images are all mainly in high contrast and taken in eye level. Most of the photos are in the rule of third.

Reiner Gerritsen, Adam Magyar, David Molander

This exhibition is mainly about city life such as the subway and buildings. In the subway photos you can see the emotion on the subjects faces. There’s one that looked a bit mad and mostly tired or busy on the subway. They are mostly taken in long shot and medium shot. There’s also an interesting photo from a bird’s eye view of people walking that really makes people look small.

Gallery 1: City Stages by Matthew Pillsbury.

In this exhibit, it contains the work of Matthew Pillsbury. The entire gallery contains his photography in black and white. The main subject for his work focus on a city life or urban environment. His photography style is by using long exposure to capture the element of the image by creating blurry effect or moving effect. His work of arts allow us to feel in a certain psychologically way. This is because of the usage of black and white effect. With all his photography there is a certain image with shallow depth of field. Most of his image was taken at a eye level and very few with a high angle.

Gallery 2: Rijksmuseum by Wijnandoo Deroo

In this exhibit, it contains the work of Wijnandoo Deroo. The gallery of her work is mainly focuses on perspective, distance inside a building. What I love about her work is that she manage to capture her image evenly creating a very good use of symmetry and balance. It make the viewer to feel like they are actually inside the photo. It also gives a good sense of space for the image. The photographer uses a very good amount of framing for his photo. Mainly she uses long shot to capture the perspective of her environment she was in. It was taken mostly at a eye level viewpoint.

Gallery 3: Arrangements by Marie Cosindas

This exhibit gives off a different feeling. The gallery focuses mainly on landscape with additional of few portrait. The landscape photography gives off a very mysterious feeling because of the image being black and white and additional of some foggy environment. It feel like the viewer is watching a psychological horror film. Especially with the photo with just two small girl toward the bottom while the rest is just foggy sky. Her entire landscape photo came out being very soft. Having a soft looking image, it definitely gives off even more mysterious feeling. Couple of images was able to demonstrate the rule of thirds. The images was taken at a certain eye level.

Gallery 4: Metro by Reiner Gerritsen, Adam Magyar, David Molander

This exhibit allow us to explore the New York City life style. The photographers manage to capture the one of the biggest NYC experience we can ever image, the subway ride. Within just looking at it, we can image what was going on and how they were feeling. For a typical New York citizen, we have to deal with train issue. The common emotion we have to face while being in the train is frustration, anger, annoyed, sad, depressed, tired, etc. The photographer wanted to give the viewer a sneak peek of what it is like to be on the NYC subway.

Gallery 5: The Heart and The Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank.

The entire exhibit photo was capture during the 1950’s. The photographer capture the people lifestyle during the 50’s. One of the photo that was taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson was able to demonstrate the perfect moment of the activity. The photographer was able to frame the image with a medium shot.

Gallery #1: aperture foundation  Matthew pillsbury

Exhibit: city stages by  Matthew pillsbury

This was the first exhibit we attended in our field trip,   His show is very interest  and was definitely my favorite of the rest of the shows we saw as a class that day.

His photographs are strictly black and white images by choice because there were taken in mainly between 2011 and 2012.

At first glances the images appear blurry , but that is what I love most about them. At a second glance you notice that blurry effect is indeed objects in motion such as people or cars that at first glance you may have thought it was dust. This effect is mainly causes by high exposure in the photographs. The mood in the photographs are mainly happy energetic photography’s.

Popular elements the photographer used in his photographs along with high exposure is wide dept of field and strong use of lines in his photographs

Gallery #2: Robert Mann;

Exhibit : rijksmusem by Wijnandoo Deroo

Wijnanda Deroo – rijksmuseum

My second favorite exhibit for the day, the exhibit feature photography of behind the scene process of setting up for an actual exhibit.

The photography have a strong usage for bright and bold colors , strong lines . The images are very sharp and use a great deal of depth of field and are very balanced images.

The overall mood for the photographs are very cheerful and interesting and he deliver a story of setting up on exhibit with his photographs and keeps you on wanting to see what will. Happen next

Gallery #3: Clamp Art

Exhibit: composites by  Nancy Burson

Composites by Nancy Burson

This exhibit is definitely the most intestine and most strange exhibit we saw during this trip.

The exhibit features black and white process images using film.

The photographs include multiple images of famous celebrity and famous figures as well as other random people and pets, resulting in a portrait of a whole new subject that is some what unrecognizable from the original but as well keeping a hint of the original subject and if there were famous you are we’re able to say for example ” they have the eyes of Audrey Hepburn  and the nose of grace Kelly”

The overall mood of the images is defiantly creepy and strange , and he photographer focuses in her images on light and low contrast and close ups.

Gallery #4: Danziger Gallery

Exhibit: the heart and the eye by Henri Cartier and Robert frank

What I loved most about this exhibit is that it features vintage images taken in some of my favorite locations in the world such as New York and Paris.

The photographs and mainly in black and white but unlike Matthew pillsbury from city stage it was not a choice but a limitation of the camera from that era.

The photographers mainly shot still action and people in action in there everyday like , as if the didn’t notice them while they were taking the photographs . In there photographs they mainly used long shots and shallow depth of field as well as the rule of thirds.

Gallery #5 : Bruce Silverstein

Experts for silver meadows by Todd hido

Todd hido exhibits is the exhibit that I considered the closed and had a fine art feel to it.

His photographers used strong elements that gave it a feel that is was painted instead of it being a photograph. The use of diffused lighting in the photographs  give the images a feel of being lonely and. Gloomy . The photographer definitely showed a strong usage wide depth of field as well as a range of different framing ( long shot,medium shot, close up and extreme close up.

1. Photographer: Matthew Pillsbury, Exhibit: City Stages

Matthew made long exposure black and white photographs.   He took the photos with wide dept of field and long exposure to create a motion.  He records the human activity in his images.  I really like the photograph of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the year of the Dragon.  These photographs give me a good mood and let me remember my country when I see the dragon.

2. Photographer: Wijnandoo Deroo, Exhibit: Rijksmuseum

Wijnanda Deroo’s photographs are clean and balance.  The quality of light is soft.  The ladders and packing materials and interior; storage rooms and hallways are Deroo’s subjects.   She used the technique of wide depth of field and long shot in her photographs.  The warm colors, rigid geometric compositions and the lighting unite her pictures.  The full of powerful images are pleasing to my senses.

3. Photographer: Nancy Burson, Exhibit: composites

In her photographs, most of the images are portraits, one is a cat and the other one is a lion.  Digitally combining and manipulating images of well-known individuals, including movie stars and world leaders.   The exhibition covers her earlier work with digital technology.  It is ubiquitous in photography now.  She manipulates images and combines various eyes, chins, cheeks to create unnerving representations of faces.  One of her image has a very big eye.  It gives me the unnerving feeling.  She took the images with eye – level.

4. Todd Hido, Excerpts from Silver meadows

Most of his images are landscape.  He created a distinct visual language and emotional drama set in the suburban landscape.  Empty roads, a few bare trees are his subject.  He used the long shot, wide depth of field, low contrast and asymmetrical on his photos.

5. Photographers: Reiner Gerritsen, Adam Magyar, David Molander,

Exhibit: Metro

This three men show of urban scenes, the images are full of the bustle, energy on our contemporary urban environments.

Reinier Gerritsen’s portraits at the Wall Street subway stop in New York City.  These photographs capture many images in rapid succession. In his images, each individual has different expression in an overcrowded space.  He used medium shot and eye-level to take the photographs.

Magyar works through selections and photographs from an overhead perspective.  He took the photo from a birds-eye view down on a street and created a pattern of commuters.

Molander shows the city as an organism, moving blurry through the streets at night.  The weaving roads and bridges are together with buildings to make impossible compositions.  He used the long shot and wide depth of field to create his images.  It is a very beautiful picture.  These works let me feel the pulse and frenzy of the often overwhelming energy

1. Photographer: Matthew Pillsbury, Exhibit: City Stages, Gallery: Aperture Foundation

City Stages is an exhibition with black and white photographs shot with long exposures – anything moving in the frame becomes blurry. Pillsbury captures urban environments from big cities like New York, Paris, London and Las Vegas. And the images are mostly taken from happenings like Occupy Wall Street, Year of the Dragon Carnival and the 9/11 Anniversary.  These photographs offers a great sense of movement and motion, and the style makes the feeling almost ghostlike and emotional. Pillsbury are mainly taking long shots with wide depth of field.

2. Photographer: Wijnandoo Deroo, Exhibit: Rijksmuseum, Gallery: Robert Mann

Rijksmuseum offers photographs shot from the inside of museums. The images are like an invitation to the viewer to come and see whats behind the scenes of exhibitions. The photographs show unfinished environments often shot either with a symmetrical balance or according to the rule of thirds. The photographs are in color, but the colors are subtle almost in pastels. My first impression of this exhibition is that the images makes me feel calm, and a sense of organized chaos due to the symmetry in the photographs.

3. Photographer: Nancy Burson, Exhibit: Composites, Gallery: Clamp Art

Composites is an exhibition with black and white portraits from the 80s and early 90s. Each photograph are made out of many pictures. One portrait could, for example, be a mix of world leaders, races, men and women, or actresses. In a way, Burson was probably one of the first persons to manipulate images. At first glance you would never guess that these pictures was composites, but when you read about them and look closer, it’s really fascinating to see how early manipulation could look like. Burson keeps me curious through her subtleness in her composites, it’s not obvious, and that makes me want to guess what is in each portrait.

4. Photographer: Todd Hido, Exhibit: Excerpts from Silver Meadows, Gallery: Bruce Silverstein

This exhibition offers photographs with diffused light and soft shadows. They are mainly capturing isolated and rural areas, or abandoned houses. The framing of the images are mostly medium to long shots. Most of the photographs are in a grey color, although a few were in color. The overall feeling of these images are loneliness, isolation and misery. These are not places you want to go to, however, looking at them makes you feel calm, and they make you wonder where they were shot.

5. Photographer: Reiner Gerritsen, Adam Magyar and David Molader, Exhibit: Metro, Gallery: Julie Saul

Metro is an exhibition including three different photographers. The overall feeling of all photographs is motion and movement. Three of the photographs were taken from a birds-eye view down on a square or street with people moving in different directions. These images were interesting because of the angle they’re taken. The photographer are not revealing where he took the photograph, and how he took it, that makes me curious. The second group of photographs were composites, repetitions of different angles of the same street from a medium to long shot, with vibrant colors in yellow and orange. You would not know were one shot started and when it stopped, the photographer combined the images so well that he almost fooled me to think that it was only one continuos image. The third group of photographs were capturing people in a crowded New York train in the subway. Looking at these images I got a feeling of seriousness and concentration, maybe even boredom. No one wants to stand in a packed subway train, the photographer probably knows that this is something we all hate, and he knew it would be recognizable to his viewers.