Prof K Pelka : Monday 6:00 - 9:20

Category: Discussion 1 (Page 1 of 3)

Discussion 1 – Olivia VanBuskirk

1. Discuss how Dawoud Bey approaches the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice. Describe one of his projects and the impact he sought to create with that project. Bey uses photography to find meaning and being able to walk away from the photos with something he did not have before. His photos of people going about their daily life in New York City gives the viewer a much more tender view of strangers and allows us to see outside of the scope of our own lives. A project of Beys is “Night Coming Tenderly, Black” which is focused on the underground railroads and the areas around them that went unnoticed. Bey’s objective with this project was to give a the audience an idea of what these runaway slaves were seeing and going through in the darkness of the woods. This is to allow us to empathize more with the people who bravely traveled through these tunnels to freedom.

2. Discuss how Carrie Mae Weems uses photography to find her voice. Describe the kitchen table project and the impact that she sought to create with the project. Carre Mae Weems took a minimalist place in her home and told a story of relationships, the challenges women face, and family life. She speaks of being able to do this in her own home whenever she wants and having control of the environment. Weems wanted to challenge the socially acceptable social living arrangements. She mentions how women hold the key to sex and future generations while men hold the key to power and I think that is depicted in her photos which sparks thought of how we can change that or how other relationships work.

3. How can you find your own voice? Finding my own voice must come from a place of passion and a message I want to convey to my audience to spark thought and change. It is important to feel something through the work because I want my work to make others feel something. It takes trial and error to find what it is that sparks that in me and seeing Weems work does bring inspiration since she did it all in one space with so many different emotion and messages.

Discussion 1

1. Discuss how does Dawoud Bey approach the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice. Describe one of his projects and the impact he sought to create with that project.

Bey approaches the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice by taking pictures that convey a deep complex of humanity. For example, in one of his projects he’s trying to imagine fugitive slaves moving through this landscape undercover through his eyes. In his picture he shows what’s not there and what the project is about. Making the invisible, visible.

  1. Discuss how Carrie Mae Weems uses photography to find her voice. Describe the kitchen table project and the impact that she sought to create with the project.

Carrie Mae Weems uses photography to have a voice for all women. The kitchen table project and the impact was to show the battle around the family, the battle around monogamy and the battle around polygamy.

  1. How can you find your own voice ?

Finding your own voice can be tricky. I believe sometimes you have to go through challenging things in order to find your voice. You might disagree with what others are saying and therefore you speak up and you are using your voice. Finding your voice you can either be happy or you go through hardships. It’s always different for everyone.

Discussion 1 – Qiyork Chen

Dawoud Bey uses photography to find his voice by trying to give voice to the African- American subjects of his art, by re-framing the way they are traditionally represented in the medium, which he describes as “have very often been viewed through a lens of social pathology”; which means they have usually been viewed as diseased conditions of the social organism. Dawoud Bey seeks to transcend this narrow worldview by giving his subjects a voice, by photographing them in candid photos where you can see them going about their daily lives, and subsequently “convey a deep, complex humanity”. By doing so and empowering his subjects with a voice, he subsequently finds his own voice, as represented in his book “Seeing Deeply”, which is a retrospective of works he has worked on in his forty year career.

Carrie Mae Weems uses photography to find her voice through her series, the Kitchen Table Project, where photographs subjects in a very specific controlled environment—all the photographs are shot in the at her kitchen table, from the same angle, using the same lighting. The setting is a poignant piece throughout the series, as the kitchen table is traditionally one of the few spaces in the home where housewives, in their traditional role as homemakers, have some heightened semblance of power, as it is the setting where typically housewives are able to interact with family members the most, as it is wear meals typically take place in the household. By having all of the photographs of the series be taken in her “seat of power” it gives Carrie Mae Weems and housewives in general a voice that is sadly something that is difficult to find for most.

As for finding my own voice, I would hope to express my indignance at the current state of events in the world, from the current geopolitical climate of America, with the vote suppression laws being passed in numerous states such as Georgia to try and suppress African American votes, to the fact that we have a pedophile on the Supreme Court, to the wider issues going on in the world, like the Winter Olympics currently going on in China despite the genocide of over 2 million Uyghur Muslims, and the CCP’s flagrant disregard for the rest of the world by downplaying the genocide by having a self-claimed Uyghur participate in the traditional torch lighting ceremony, to the fact that the Fox News Network and Tucker Carlson are staunchly pro-Russia in Russia’s bid to invade Ukraine, despite there being bi-partisan agreement amongst Democrats and Republicans that we need to protect Ukraine’s interests and sovereignty as a nation. My voice is lost in the face of the state of the world, but by taking this course I can hope to learn the tools needed to find my voice.

Discussion 1_ Tyristan Murphy

  1. Dawoud Bey approached the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice by becoming a street photographer and capturing the essence of Harlem in the 1970’s. Once he started getting a feel of what he wanted to capture, he took it a step farther by allowing photography to what he describes as a ” conveying a deep, complex humanity” . One of his major projects he discussed was him capturing Lake Eerie and feeling a specific connection to the land at hand, knowing it wasn’t just something imaginable, it was an actual location. He felt that it is beyond important to document and not forget about the process and projects that were centered around African Americans.

2. Carrie Mae Weems used her environment around her to find her voice using photography. The Kitchen Table Project was a way in which she did just that by being able to manipulate just one individual Scene and one light source to convey so many different things. Using what she calls a “domestic space” to show the dynamic between men and women in one setting.

3. You can find your own voice by thinking of the things you feel connected to and use that to be able to express how you’re feeling or thinking. Allowing the environment you are in to help guide you as you find your voice.

Discussion 1 – Avar He Zapata

Dawoud Bey used photography as a way of finding his voice. In that regard, considering that he is African American and has hearing loss, the photos he captured throughout his career were mainly about people within the black community. A certain race group in the United States and the history they had to endure while living here. The Birmingham Project is a good example as it’s basically a comparison gallery of witnesses who were children during the 1963 KKK bombings at the 16th street baptist church in Alabama, and the same witnesses alive today in their elderly years. This exhibition kind of creates the sense or feeling of time travel with these certain individuals. What’s really to take away from this exhibition (at least what I can take away) is that we all live, and we all die. History always repeats itself and every generation is always going to suffer a similar hardship like their parents and parents before them. All that reveals the reality of how imperfect we are as a species. With photography, it shows how much time flies and can show the difference of who we once were at younger age compared to who we will become as we grow older.

 

Carrie Mae Weems also uses photography as a way of finding her voice, but is done in such a fashion where she uses it to express her home life. Well, not really her personal life alone but the lives of all black women. In the kitchen table project, Carrie displays a series of photos showing herself doing different activities on her kitchen table. Doing her makeup, bonding with her children, chatting and stressing out with friends (one of her friends being a white lady comforting her from sadness), having dinner with her husband, etc. All these pictures being a representation or depiction of African American women in day to day home life scenarios. African American women in a family unit, as mothers, wives, sisters, cousins, close friends or neighbors. In these photos we can see both the joy and constant battles that can occur within an average black household. Either way it’s tough to be family, but family will always be there for each other no matter what.

 

How can I find my own voice in photography? To be honest, I really don’t know. Sure, myself or anyone can give some generic answer like I can express myself with taking photos but then what. What else is there? I don’t have much of an expertise when it comes to photography. Yes I have a phone, and have handled a camera before, but I don’t think that qualifies me of being a master photographer. On top of that, most of the photos I take are of very random things in the city, like going to the park or some monument to take photos on my phone. But perhaps some could say that it’s a start.

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