Gabriel Changlee

Professor Scanlan

English 1121

29 September 2024

Lines of Green Near Pillars of Concrete

Photography can often be used as a reminder of what we once had. As John Berger stated in Understanding a Photograph “ (The most popular use of the photograph is as a memento of the absent.)” (20) We often take for granted the things and people we love until we lose them, left only with a fragment of time in the form of a photo. The idea that we can take something for granted until the moment it is gone and all we have left are memories and photos is sad but there is not anything we can do besides to know what we have and appreciate it.
Nature is one of the things we take for granted, the very trees that provide us oxygen that we cut down in order to make room for the cities to be built. Only to have the very same trees littered throughout the city placed in specific patterns locked to their positions like caged animals at the zoo. The photos used will be taken in New York around the downtown area which used to be where natives would farm and fish. Using lighting, foreground/middleground/background, and angle, I will explain and hopefully help you share the same perspective on nature that I do. 

(Title: A Green Dome)

The first photo is at an upward angle with a ceiling of tree branches and leaves with sunlight leaking through. There are buildings in the background with very dull colors, making the bright green leaves of the trees stand out even more. 

The photo has a very high reality effect and the bright sky beyond the green leaf colored sky due to the photo being angled from below the tree branches helps a lot with imagining being inside a forest during summer or spring. The bright green leaves whose colors can often elicit a calming feeling that helps you to feel even more at peace when surrounded by nature. Instead of the dull colored buildings (often tan, white, black, or gray) which reinforces the monotony and dullness of life, the leaves feel like they can give you energy somehow. The idea that these trees are caged in between giant concrete pillars is further reinforced by the fact that; even beyond the reaches of the tree branches, we can still see the dull buildings that house our everyday lives in the background with their symmetrical square shaped windows. 

Imagine the scene of nature walking through a forest with leaf and rock crunching underneath your shoes with the scent of flowers in the wind. Now compare that to what we have now, where the not so very good smelling air within the city permeates your nostrils as you try to take in the rare sight of nature.

(Title: Across The Metallic Stream)

The next photo makes use of foreground and background. A tree on the right side of the photo seemingly tries to cover the sight of the building with its long extending branches. There is also a river of trees in the background of the photo. This is also a good time to mention how interesting the unique shape of tree branches can make a photo. Personally, the odd tree branches that extend whichever way the tree feels most comfortable in comparison to the straight calculated design of the building in the background makes for quite an interesting sight. 

The street below the taken photograph is out of frame of the camera so all thats left are the trees seen and the building that the tree is trying to cover up. Try to picture the building not being there, a distant blue sky with a river flowing just under the frame of the camera. The beautiful sights and sounds of the river flowing taking you away. We have not exactly lost the ability to see such sights but, its not as frequent as it was for the natives who used to farm and fish while  living here prior. From History.Com, New York City ”The first native New Yorkers were the Lenape, an Algonquin people who hunted, fished and farmed in the area between the Delaware and Hudson rivers.” While we did not lose the ability to experience such sights, we lost the ease of access to these things. I would gamble that many people don’t even know how calming it can truly be to be in one of these places. 

(Title: Industrial Coffin)

This last photo will truly drive home the idea of nature being imprisoned like animals at a zoo with its use of foreground and background. There is a metallic fire escape in the foreground, giving the illusion of the tree in the middle ground being imprisoned behind bars. There is also a tree painting the background for an amplification of that feeling. The lighting provided unnaturally by the phone also wears off on the edges of the photo, leaving it in pitch darkness aside from the occasional windows lit up brightly.

This tree being imprisoned within metal and concrete can also symbolize us. Although we do indeed have the freedom to move, we often do not have the luxury to do so as much as we may want to or feel like we should. I do not necessarily mean to move permanently, but even a vacation to get away from the city is a form of luxury that we often take for granted. 

In the end, the way I view these photographs as moments of nature captured and put on display for a false sense of comfort for humans is simply what I believe is within the photo but not shown. From Berger, J. “What it shows invokes what is not shown.” (20) Nature is one of the things that we take for granted and within these photographs we can see the very same nature we have “captured” and put on display. What we do not see is what was once there, the forests, swamplands, and farmlands that had previously been here along with the sense of calm that came with them.

References

1. Berger, J. (2013) Understanding a Photograph. In G. Dyer (Ed.), Understanding a Photograph (pp. 20). Aperture. https://archive.org/details/understanding-a-photograph-john-berger/page/20/mode/2up
2. . A&E Television Networks. (2010, January 12). New York City. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/new-york-city 

Through my window, Caryn Gutierrez

 

Name: Caleb Aryeetey

Course: English 1121 Composition 2 Section D536

Instructor: Professor Sean Scanlan

Topic: Photo Essay

Date: 9/24/2024

Writing Assignment Essay #1

 

                                                          A View of Bedford Park Blvd

Photographs have always been an effective way of communication and also a way which memorable events or activities are remembered. This is a clear broad day view of a busy area in the Bronx neighborhood. Bedford Park Blvd is a very busy area, where people pass each and every day to work, hospitals and school since Lehman College is only three minutes’ walk from the four-train station. This photo is an art also in this photo, the composition makes it one of a kind whereby the shapes and vantage point where by this photo was taking makes it intriguing for the framing of this picture. I also chose this photo because it has space, and also shows people and objects in motion. You can see the train tracks, people crossing the street, cars waiting for the traffic light to switch to green, to proceed movement and also some people filling their cars at the gulf gas station, whiles some people are having conversation beside the tree that is behind the gulf gas station. There is also an internet company named Verizon in the right side of the picture and also the proportions of this photo make it very interesting to analyze in a sense whereby you can see all these colorful objects and scenery which makes it fun to observe. There is also a gas station filled with cars. Not to forget there is a bird also flying in front of an incoming Nissan rouge which is approaching the traffic light.

 “Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation”. “Also, a photograph is effective when the chosen moment it records contains a quantum of truth generally applicable which is revealing about what is absent from the photography as about what is present in it.” (5)  Berger, John. Understanding A Photograph, 2013

 

 

                A Broad View of the New York Subway 4 Train Line At Mosholu Parkway

This part of the Bronx has been always lively from the noise of cars, motorcycles and more from the train which runs every six to twelve minutes. This is photo is an art, the balance and composition of this photo makes it very interesting to look it. Also, you can see trains going at each direction with one going to the last stop, which is Woodlawn and the other facing the direction of new lots avenue. I like to observe the train tracks and how it moves on them with the pattern that it makes whiles it is moving. The view from which I took this picture makes me very aware of my surroundings and gives me an idea of what is going on, e.g., when the trains are not in service, I can see it even without checking on my phone for the notice same way when there is something happening somewhere in the city, I can also have a view of it like when there is a fire burning. There is also a white van in this photo that is parked and has a wet ground where people hand wash their cars and there is someone standing there. A lot of project buildings are in this neighborhood. In this photo also you can see the space and scale of how the photo is been taken not only that, but there is a train maintenance station and parking space where most of the trains are serviced not only the four train but others as well like the D and other many. The vantage point of the photographer makes the photo attracting. Cars are parked in the parking lot of a housing projects and also the blue building in the picture is a church and the building adjacent to the train tracks on the right is the building of the New York City Sanitations. The true content of a photograph is invisible, for it derives from a play, not with form, but with time. “One might argue that photography is as close to music as to painting. I have said that a photograph bears witness to a human choice being exercised” (P 9-11).

 

Views Of Jerome Park Reservoir And The George Washington Bridge

This picture taken in the sunny daytime is an art photo. This is the George Washington bridge, including the neighboring houses around Washington heights and Highbridge. The light which is been reflected by the sun unto the water and the wind blowing over it makes it look like a silver ripple. When you look closer to the bridge you can see cars moving on the bridge heading to New Jersey and also entering New York with a little bit of traffic. You can also see trees and plants around this place which makes it a very comfortable view to stare at, or go rest under the trees and get some shade and fresh air. Also, there is a baseball field in this photo, which is close by Lehman College which makes it more of an attraction site to visit for students and others. The empty space that is seen by the reservoir is a parking lot for cars. I chose this photo because of the calming feeling it gives when you stare at it because of how it is surrounded by nature. While I like all the three pictures, I prefer the second photo because it gives me more view of the neighborhood and how you get to see the trains and all these nicely built apartment and offices. The focus of this picture is also based on the water and the bridge. When you also look towards the bridge you can see a straight road and also a tall white building which is the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

References Berger, J. (2013). Understanding a Photograph. In J. Dyer (Ed.), Understanding a Photograph: John Berger. (pp. 5) (pp. 9-11) Penguin. https://archive.org/details/understanding-aphotograph-john-berger/page/n3/mode/2up

Sontag, S. (2013) On Photography. In D. Rieff (Ed.), Susan Sontag:

Essays of the 1960s & 70s. The Library of America. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/scanlan-english-1101-d333-spring2018/files/2018/03/Sontag-On-Photography.pdf

 

Kuksong Fuse

Essay 1: My Photo Essay

9/25/24

ENG 1121 – D536 (Professor Scanlan)

Natural Falls	Night Walk	Sky’s Coastline

Spontaneous photography

Teju Cole mentions, “Beginning photographers are often tempted to reduce photography to rigid rules… But the reality is that there is usually a much more improvisatory and flexible mathematical order at play in a successful photograph” (2015). My interpretation is that photography is more of something done on the spot and isn’t something that can be forced even if you follow all the mathematical formulas. This is present in all of my photographs, since I took all my photographs at the spur of the moment when I thought they were aesthetic. The three photographs that I took “Natural Falls”, “Night Walk”, and “Sky’s Coastline” are all representative of my sense of aesthetics and their relation with color. 

“Sky’s Coastline” was taken when I was going with my friends to Overpeck County Park in New Jersey as we were walking around the park after getting dinner together. We crossed a bridge after driving from dinner and continued to walk until we saw the beautiful view of the sun setting in the distance over the lake, and we all decided to document it with a photo along with a few more photos done in a series. Berger (2013) says, “A photograph is a result of the photographer’s decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen” (18). This is encapsulated in “Sky’s Coastline” as this was originally meant to be just getting food with my friend and driving out of state just to have a getaway and enjoy going somewhere new with my friends. This shows Bergers’s idea of the photograph being used as a way to record the event and show that it has happened. The DOF (Depth of field) of the photo is meant to be very shallow with the majority of the focus being on the small patch of shrubbery at the bottom of the photo and keeping everything slightly blurred since the lighting was very dark since the sun has already set too far, but this helped a lot since it gave a dark silhouette of the entire background and the tree that was covering the sun. There is also a varying color scheme over the water and sky as it reflects the changing color from the sky into the water, and it all goes from a bright yellow color and then slowly darkens into an orange shade to a cool tone of blue and slowly gets darker as it transitions to the other side of the sun. This use of color adds a variation of color that seems to blend in and slowly transitions from a warm color to a cooler color, which is the reason I thought this photo should be recorded.

“Natural Falls” was taken when I was in Ithaca Falls with my family when we went to visit during the first week of school. I wanted to take a photo of the beautiful landscape since it is very rare that I get to see a waterfall, especially since there have been very few times that I have seen a waterfall in person. The rapid waters flow down the cliff and hit multiple different layers, making the water have a more white-grayish hue. The overall photo has a dull color scheme that consists of gray and white colors from everything except the trees in the background, and they add to accentuate the photo by giving a sort of outline for everything in between the trees. Overall, this photo has a matching color scheme with very distinct colors of separation, and they serve to give contrast to the photo and a sense of form to the photograph.

“Night Walk” is taken from Newkirk Plaza train station near my neighborhood. I took this train when I was wandering around late at night with my friends and exploring the neighborhood. I chose this view because it was aesthetic and empty but filled in space at the same time. The dominant impression of this is the train, as it looks like it is coming out of the darkness. The reason why I titled this photograph “Night Walk” is because I usually walk around late at night with my friends and then take the train back home. Usually for me and my friends, taking the train at the end of the night signifies the end of my walk and going home to relax and rest for the next day. The overall composition of the photo was taken in a wider shot with a zoomed-out camera angle, so I could get a wider view of the surroundings, and it can capture the effects of the light in the photo. The lights also add a little contrast to this photo as it shows the difference between the light and the dark effects on the photo as the darkness of the background slowly creeps towards the foreground of the photo until the platform lights push them away and the darkness is enveloping the entirety of the background and middle ground with the light only covering the platform and its immediate surroundings. The photo was taken from a head-on view with the vantage point pointing towards the center of the dark horizon where the train is coming from as I wanted this to be the dominant impression of my photograph. 

To summarize, there isn’t just one set standard or formula to take photographs and have them be beautiful, as it is more flexible in its ability to portray a message. There are multiple aspects or types of a photograph that can be different from one another and still have a sense of beauty in it. According to Berger, “What distinguishes one from the other is the degree to which the photograph explains the message, the degree to which the photograph makes the photographer’s decision transparent and comprehensible.”(18). I resonate with this quote from Berger since the only way for a photograph to be understood by the viewer or observer is to make whatever you want to show easily understood since the viewer can not understand the exact thought going on inside the photograph. In addition, this idea of the photographer explaining their message adds to the idea of no set standard or rule for photography since the photograph is whatever the photographer chooses to show and doesn’t need a rule of thirds or a golden ratio to get their message and personal sense of beauty to the viewer. 

Word Count: 1075 words

References 

Berger, J. (2013). Understanding a Photograph. In J. Dyer (Ed.), Understanding a Photograph: John Berger. (pp. 17-22). Penguin. https://archive.org/details/understanding-aphotograph-john-berger/page/n3/mode/2up 

Cole, T. (2015, November 11). Perfect and unrehearsed. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/magazine/perfect-and-unrehearsed.html 

Johnson Yeung

Essay 1: My photo essay

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

Date:9/20/2024

Japanese Summer Festival

“Festival lottery prize”	“Festival Mikoshi”	“Eating Takoyaki Alone at the Festival”

                The summer festival is the time when we as people want to go to experience the festivals’ cultures, see the vibrant colors that hit our eyes, and the shape of the food that we eat. With all of these experiences, we want to be able to capture these moments so we can remember them as we get older. While we can save the photos and have them stored, what factors determine which photos we save?  This brings us to John Berger’s (2013) statement that, “Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation. A photograph is a result of the photographer’s decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen”(18). He explains how we deliberately chose the photos, what we witnessed then, and what significance it has on us. To illustrate Berger’s point, I will be using three photos “Festival Lottery Prize”, “Festival Mikoshi”, and “Eating Takoyaki Alone at the Festival” to illustrate how they all are deliberately chosen to tell how they connect to the theme of the festival with help of Teju Cole and Susan Sontag.

                 Starting with our first portrait photo “Festival Lottery Prize” has the dominant impression of me the person in the picture holding an anime figure box as the main focus. Its position uses the rule of thirds to have it in between the four corners. This photo tells the story of the emotions I felt as I won my first anime figure from the Japanese marble lottery that’s to the right as it is out of frame by getting the corresponding marble color. In the background of it there is a shelf of possible prizes with anime merchandise like Pokémon dolls and at the bottom are anime figures. These items are significant as they build up the cultural aspect of the festival as these items of collectibles of beloved characters that kids have grown up to watch. These descriptions of the surroundings are supposed to certify the experience that I have at that moment in time. As stated by Susan Sontag (2013),  “A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it – by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic” (534). Sontag explains that when you take a picture, you are mainly focusing on getting a good shot than enjoying the experience. While my selfie with the surroundings supposedly limited my full experience at that time,  the image is undeniable proof that I was there. The Proof that I was at the festival and how the festival has brought colors to my eyes.

                  Speaking of colors, in the second photo “Festival Mikoshi” the decisive moment for taking that photo at that time was its colors. Decisive moments explained by Teju Cole (2015), “ The success of certain pictures that makes the viewer say “ Damn it,” and wonder how such things are possible- comes from a combination of tutored intuition and good luck”(4). Cole’s explanation of decisive moments is how it requires luck and intuition to take a photo of a masterpiece. I can’t say how lucky I was to be able to take the photo with pure luck, I can say how I had the intuition to take it due to its color. The red color of the tablecloth stands out since the color red sometimes represents life and this helps make the shrine’s yellow and gold stand out for display.  The colors Yellow and gold two colors stand out for the portable shrine as in Japanese culture these colors are supposed to bring divine presence and ward off evil in Japanese culture. These colors along with the angle shot of the portable shrine make it unique as it was that decisive moment that I felt some Sort of blessing there as I was at the festival.

                 While “Festival Mikoshi” shows the moments with its color, “Eating Takoyaki Alone at the Festival” shows a glimpse of the festival’s food. The punctum of this photo was that I was exhausted from going around the festival and was starving at that time. This was when I ordered a takoyaki to eat at the table. The taste of it was creamy, soft, and hot since it just came out covered with Takoyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, and fish flakes. Takoyaki with its taste helps bring you into the festival’s setting of being energetic. If you look closely you can see the light refracting the table to show the dirtiness of it.  This tells us how the festival had so many people that there wasn’t enough time for the staff to clean it. The dirtiness of the table didn’t contrast with the festival’s atmosphere of being fun as it complements it since having a messy table means people were enjoying themselves.

                  Ultimately, I would like to reflect on the three points that I have made, experience, color, and taste, and how each of them relates to Berger’s statement.  Berger’s idea is that we choose what we want to show and how they are connected.  “Festival lottery prize” was first selected as that was the starting point of the festival, being able to enjoy winning a prize there. “Festival Mikoshi” brings out the colors that I see as I pass the portable shrine and it hits me how colorful the festival was. “Eating Takoyaki Alone at the Festival” allowed me to enjoy the festival’s food and see the surroundings around me as I munched on the Takoyaki. By choosing each of these photos, I could show how although they are different, they tell a story of my experience during the festival.

Word count: 948

Citations and References 

Cole, T (Nov 11, 2015) Perfect and Unrehearsed  

 https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english1121-fall2024-d536/files/2024/02/Teju-Cole-Perfect-and-Unrehearsed.pdf

Berger, J. (2013) Understanding a Photograph. In G. Dyer (Ed.), 

Understanding a Photograph (pp. 17-21). Aperture. https://archive.org/details/understanding-a-photograph-john-berger/page/20/mode/2up

Sontag, S. (2013) On Photography. In D. Rieff (Ed.), Susan Sontag: 

              Essays of the 1960s & 70s. The Library of America.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/scanlan-english-1101-d333-spring2018/files/2018/03/Sontag-On-Photography.pdf

In case the text is messed up: Summer Festivel (4)

I’m not sure when I fell in love with reading stories. Was it when I first read “Percy Jackson And The Olympians,” back when I was riding the train home from school with my Mom? Maybe it was when I first got introduced to “Harry Potter” back when I was in middle school. All I knew was that I loved it, I loved the idea of a whole different world, unlike the one I was accustomed to, with new ideas and concepts that caught my attention and left me wanting more. 

However, after years of reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, adventure and action, I think I just got tired of it. I think I became envious of what every writer had. What was that? Their own world, their own characters, their own setting, with their own plot. I didn’t want to read any more stories, not when I could write better ones. Why bother staring into someone else’s world when I could craft my own?

Welcome To Brownsville:

Just like me, my character is from Brownsville, Brooklyn. The story starts with this teenager waking up to a loud alarm and getting ready for another day of college, probably how your story starts right? He walks downstairs only to see the news already on. A white woman in her early thirties with brown hair and green eyes was in the middle of announcing the shooting of four people, including a police officer in a subway station nearby. 

The constant news reports were a reminder that he was not as safe as he thought. The thought of leaving was growing all the more tempting to the teenager with every passing day. For him, it was starting to feel less like home and more like a graveyard.

The image above is a documentary photo, I’m using it to tell a series of events in a specific order. I used the light from my lamp to try and imitate sunlight even though I took the photo sometime in the evening. As I stated above the story would take place in the morning so I really had to experiment with the lightning to mimic the effect. 

Another thing you’ll see in the photo is a black mask in the right corner. I did this to foreshadow the events in the story, seeing how I already mentioned the problem the character faces with being stuck in a dangerous neighborhood with the desperate thought of moving away.

In Susan Sontag’s “On Photography,” she states “A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened.” (531) This connects back to the story where the news gives a glimpse of the dangers lurking in Brownsville and reveals the reality of the environment my character is in.

Citations: One

Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr. “Susan Sontag’s on Photography.” Artforum, Artforum, 26 Sept. 2023, www.artforum.com/columns/susan-sontags-on-photography-209266/.

 YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAGa8mFuONA.

I’ll Do What I Need To:

This is another documentary photo that takes place a few weeks after the first scene in the first photo. We cut to this scene where my character is in a computer lab at his college. He’s staring at two computers planning out a robbery of an art museum. This is a major shift from the first image which seems pretty simple and casual but leads to this complex scene. 

In this scene, the character is staring at two different screens. On one screen is the museum and on the other screen are the blueprints for that museum that he is planning to rob. This goes to show how detailed he might be. It could also imply that he’s done this before or maybe putting a lot of thought into it. You can also see the same black mask on the computer keyboard if you look closely,  it’s creating a kind of pattern or trend through its repeated usage. 

In this photo I had Ranold take the shot from a different Vantage point, I wanted all of my pictures to be as if someone else was taking it but unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or the resources to make it happen. From the angle the picture was taken it almost makes it seem as if I’m being watched which was exactly what I was going for. I wanted to create a theme of my character being investigated or closely stalked which would coincide with the story as a whole. However, the benefit of two different Vantage points would be two different perspectives.

According to John Berger’s “Understanding a Photograph,” he states that a photo is effective when it is “as revealing about what is absent from the photograph as about what is present in it.” (20) My photo reveals the current state of the story but doesn’t depict the time between the two images; what happened? What led to the robbery? 

Citations: Two

“Understanding a Photograph John Berger : John Berger : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/understanding-a-photograph-john-berger/page/20/mode/2up.

Night Of The Heist:

This final photo is yet another documentary photo. As you can probably tell from the title this is towards the near end of the story where the robbery finally takes place. The character gathered a small crew also consisting of students to help him pull off the art heist.

In the photo, you can see the black mask one last time along with screwdrivers and a flashlight lying on the computer. The photo screen is a list of names of the other characters aiding in the heist as well as their roles. Finally, on the computer screen, you can see a picture of Spain which is where the character is trying to go, but requires the money to move there.

According to Sontag “A camera is sold as a predatory weapon, one that’s as automated as possible and ready to spring.” (537) This is similar to my character who is more or less triggered by his environment and pushed to spring into action. He takes matters into his own hands and resorts to stealing to have a better chance at a safer environment.

Citations: Three

Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr. “Susan Sontag’s on Photography.” Artforum, Artforum, 26 Sept. 2023, www.artforum.com/columns/susan-sontags-on-photography-209266/.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, I chose these three pictures because they helped me bring one of my stories to life. I captured an image in my head and brought it into the real world. In addition, these photos also reflect who I am, especially since the character was based on me. They represent who I could’ve been in a way. Regardless, I used the photos to shape my thoughts; now they’re a part of my story.