ENG1101 Section D324, Composition 1, Fall 2014

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In this photograph, you can easily find that is a construction in front of a tall building and surrounding by some trees and other buildings, a crane is lifting steel materials. That remind me that a part of City College of technology was torn down in the past. Aside of the construction is a roadblock. Then, at the middle is the road, and a man and a woman is crossing through the street with two cups of coffee on their hands. At the same time, a green taxi is coming from another side. The nearest to the camera is the citybike’s instruction and two of citybikes are showing at the left corner. In this photograph, you can see the sunshine is coming from the right side

This is a picture from the intersection near the subway station in Jay St MetroTech. The reason I took this picture is lots of students, workers and other people were hanging out in this corner. In this part of the Jay St, it provides a lot of stores to students for lunch. When I saw the people on the sidewalk, the first thing comes my mind is the busyness between students, workers, teacher and others. They were just walking so fast toward their destination. The subway stations are right on both of the sidewalks, which provides convenience to all of us. Even though this intersection did not has various products, we still hanging out there for relaxing ourselves.

I took this picture at afternoon.  The first thing came to my eye is light and darkness.  On one side of buildings were in the sunshine that looked golden, and on the other side of buildings were in the darkness.  The sunshine made me feel warm and gave me hope to move on.  Trees were enjoying the sunshine between the two sides of buildings in a cool day.  Two flags behind a bus were flying with wind.  Five cars were moving in the picture, people were to go to their bourns.  I took this picture because the sunshine made me feel warm in a cold day, and I enjoyed the picture that combined with light and darkness.

-Wenjie Feng

This is a picture of the ocean taken by myself located down by the Brooklyn bridge piers. This photo was taken in the late afternoon using no filters. When I took this picture, and then saw the actual photograph, the first thing that came to mind was the feeling of peace and serenity. The clouds blocking the sun, leaving beautiful light rays on various parts of the ocean. The beautiful outline of the cloud up front, narrates a story of glory. Although the weather is changing due to the expected seasonal climate break, and the way the waves are dancing because of the chill in the air, the feeling of warmth is still brought out emotionally.

Hi Class…lot’s of information today!

Homework for Wednesday: 1. Read Parla and Anastasio. 2. Post a photograph (make sure that the image size is under 1 Mb) that you have taken to OpenLab then describe it under the photo in terms of subject, setting, light, color, and any filter you used. Make sure to proof and edit your writing because this is a public site!

VIDEO CLIPS:

1. How does a digital camera work?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic0czeUJrGE

2. How to develop film using coffee and vitamin C:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYjOqcbBEco

3. A Darkroom in Use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nue495wxlXo

4. Five tips for taking your own digital photographs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YroMyQJ-GMQ 

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Here’s a written description of a store:

“It was a narrow room, with a rather high ceiling, and crowded from floor to ceiling with goodies. There were rows and rows of hams and sausages of all shapes and colors–white, yellow, red, and black; fat and lean and round and long–rows of canned preserves, cocoa and tea, bright translucent glass bottles of honey, marmalade, and jam; round bottles and slender bottles, filled with liqueurs and punch–all these things crowded every inch of the shelves from top to bottom. “

-Thomas Mann

What is the dominant impression of this scene?

The Main Concourse of Grand Central Station, 1929, Anonymous

Henri Cartier Bresson, Derriere la gare de Saint Lazare, 1932

Hi Class,

1. What is a photograph?

2. Why do we take, keep, share, and discard photographs?

3. How should we make sense of photographs?

The French sociologist and critic Roland Barthes wrote about photography, and he came up with several useful terms for studying photographs.

1. Studium: The studium of a photograph is the public and historical background of a photo. The studium is context and it is the general understanding. The studium of a photo must be visible, and it is the cultural reading of the faces, the gestures, the buildings, the actions within a photo.

2. Punctum: The punctum of a photograph is highly individual, not public. The punctum pierces the viewer in a particular way. The punctum, which must be visible, pierces the viewer like a arrow, raising certain individual memories and consciousnesses to the surface. The punctum bruises me but not you. The punctum is about loving, while the studium is about liking.

The larger picture:

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

September 3, 2014

Hi Class,

I hope that your summer was great: as productive and as relaxing as you wished it to be.

As we get to know each other, I believe that you will find that I am very fond of reading, and I am interested in new digital technologies. In particular, I like to examine digital tools that can help students work more efficiently. One such digital tool is Wikipedia. Hardly a week goes by when a friend, or a parent of a college student, or a colleague rips into Wikipedia (a new digital research tool) for its flimsy research, its weak documentation, its biased approach. Well, I’ve always thought that Wikipedia keeps gaining ground on other encyclopedias, and it looks like it has truly reached the tipping point, especially when esteemed historian William Cronon gives it the thumbs up:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/one-of-the-nations-top-historians-decides-its-time-to-embrace-wikipedia/252576/

Try this exercise: look up the terms “immigration”and “Brooklyn Bridge” on Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia and tell me which one is more complete with more footnotes and more resources.

My next point:

Summary Blueprint:

a.  Author’s thesis. Identify the author’s name and the title of the writing

b.  Author’s more specific thesis and plot outline (if applicable)

c.  Author’s examples, evidence, structure, and style

d.  Author’s conclusion

Cheers and welcome to my class,

Prof. Scanlan