Dali Atomicus

Philippe Halsman

1948

This photograph was able to capture everything in what it could be considered a sharp focus during that time. While it may seem like time has been frozen in the picture, in reality, all of the subjects were in motion which often comes out a bit blurry.  However, this photograph was only managed to be taken only after 26 times and with a couple of assistants, too. As a result of the approach taken to get that moment down onto a photograph, subjects were able to be captured in a sharp focus even while moving and that there was a promotion of involvement between between photographer and subject.

I explored the work of Michael Muller. In a lot of his work he explores movement and the usage of shutter speed. I chose this photograph from his works because of the amount of movement that is involved. I like how experimental he got with the lights from the picture and how he also incorporated type which could symbolize, how the person or artist feels based on the photo.

Out of all the images from the 100 most influential images of all time, the one that stood out the most to me was Famine in Somalia, James Nachtwey, 1992. Any person who takes a look at this image will get a heartbreaking feeling. This photograph portrays the devastating conditions the people in Somalia were forced to live in. What I like about it is that the photographer decided to make it black and white to give it a deeper significance. It portrays a real life situation of a woman who was waiting to be taken to a feeding center. This is a great photograph because there is a whole story behind it. 

Alex Noriega

I chose this photographer because i liked his style of taking landscape photos. This one to be specific, like how he captures the sun hitting the snow to create warms tones throughout the photo. He’s able to create so much depth  with the trails and diagonals. I also liked how this was a perfect timing photo right before the sun goes away. Usually it is really hard to capture white, but he does it so well.

The Pillow Fight

The photograph ‘The Pillow Fight’ taken by Harry Benson, 1964, is a photograph of the English rock band The Beatles. The reason why I chose this photograph is because it shows happiness between the members. As well as living in the moment and having fun when you are surrounded with friends. Furthermore, behind the scene of this photograph that Benson states “I was so close to not being there,” meaning to take a risk or opportunity that is presented to you.

Photographer: Gordon Parks

Title: American Gothic

I chose this photo because of the powerful statement that it represented and still represents to this day about the unfair treatment and misogyny towards African Americans in the U.S. This photo was intended to be a parody of Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting that represented two local American farmers who are standing and one is holding a pitchfork. In Wood’s painting he was representing the models as being in the land of the free and proudly American by living under certain working conditions. In Park’s photo he took that representation from Grants painting and replaced it with an African American woman named Ella Watson and represented her struggles by the emotion on her face and the mop and broom that she is holding. This shows that African Americans were being treated poorly and given unfair pay while working hard jobs. Park represented that it was America doing this to African Americans by photographing the American Flag in the background of Watson. This photo clearly represents the poor treatment of African Americans while ‘living in the land of the free’ and still represents it to this day.

I like this photo of Bradley Cooper and  some of the biggest stars in 2014. Because it’s captured the happy moment they were enjoying together as one family. How Bradley Cooper and the rest of the stars decide to gather and take a nice selfie portrait. My eyes went to Meryl Streep smile maybe because of the white shirt and coat she is wearing and the second thing my eyes went to is Kevin Spacey face reactions.

I liked this picture a lot because how objects are used to help position something. For example the lade that’s positioned in the middle, most likely a bride whose getting a pre-wedding shoot. The staircase and the chose of color makes the image pop out, the surroundings help things to balance out and the color complementary. Where everything is gold and her dress is white.