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A picture is a thousand words. This idea is expressed through the what your mind perceives the picture to be. Picture’s don’t have their meanings written on them for the viewer to read and comprehend right away. Everyone has their own idea and opinion of what they believe the picture displays. All the authors have taken excellent pictures. Each and every one of these pictures the artists have created, resemble something very special and important to the audiences. Even though all these pictures represent something significant in the history of America, and are incredibly outstanding, I would say my personal favorite is “Riveters attaching a Beam,” 1931, taken by Lewis Wickes Hines.

Hine photographed four men working on the 92^nd Floor of the Empire State Building in 1931. This picture speaks out to me on a personal level because I’ve been in the construction industry for 3 years, and I plan to pursue a career in civil engineering. Recently, construction workers have been given a hefty amount of rights due to the OSHA ACT which was passed in 1970. The OSHA ACT is the right to a safe workplace for all workers. Prior to this, there were no laws administrated for the safety and wellbeing of construction workers. These men that are shown in the picture are working on top of the buildings without any safety measures. People need to understand and appreciate that time, money, blood, and sweat were put into each building constructed. These buildings and skyscrapers aren’t just bricks upon bricks, or metal upon metal, they’re much more than that. They are landmarks that remind us of the history of New York and how hard everyone worked back then to produce what we have now. Some people might think these buildings are just standing here. For me, I believe they are standing there to represent something huge, the American Dream. Meaning, the dream of a better society to live in. We all have it in us to help ourselves and others in the making of this city, this nation, and to grow as a whole, and I think that’s one of the main points Hine was trying to making in his photograph.

This picture stood out to me because it made me appreciate the sights that I’m eligible to see today thanks to everyone who contributed. I love these skyscrapers and this picture has made me realize under what conditions people had to go through to make them. Not only do I respect my surroundings more now, but I investigate deeper and appreciate the efforts of our elders, because if it wasn’t for their hard work, and sacrifice, we would still be searching for better place to live in.

Best Regards,

Ahsan Aziz

Hi Class,

I hope that you learned something on Wednesday–and I hope that it was enjoyable, too. In light of our upcoming photo essay assignment, I thought it might be interesting to read and example from one of the most interesting photo essayists out there: Teju Cole. Read his work from the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/magazine/far-away-from-here.html?_r=0

Also, for Monday: Read Sontag, read Parla, and write a positive 100 word comment on a classmates’ post.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Out of all the photographs I have seen in the book one of them caught my eye. That would have to be “Joe Roifer and friend” by Dinanda H. Nooney. When I look at this image I see a lot of things going on. If you look to the left of the picture you can see another room that seems to have a good window view where you can look out and see the great city of Brooklyn. However in the image you can see in big lighted up words the word continued and right below there is two guys on sitting down and the other one standing up they both seem to be long time friends. From the looks of the image it seems like they have not seen each other in a pretty long time and ironically there happens to be the word continued in the room. And both long time friends want to continue having the relationship they have always had and from that day on they are going to see each other more often and hang out more. Moreover the two friends just looks like they have went out to have some fun because one of them is bare foot and the other one had shades on so you can’t tell if he is sleeping or if he is awake. In this one image you can get a lot of things this is why its one of my favorites because I like to look at photographs and get details from it or it can tell a story.

-Michael Montes

My favorite photograph has to be “Riveters attach a beam” by Lewis Wickes Hine (pg 147). I like it because it shows how construction workers used to work back in 1931. It looks dangerous. Especially, when that they do not have any protective gear. In addition, based on the picture, it looks like they were working on a high skyscraper. The material they are using looks very insecure and fragile.

All the pictures look like they were taken at the same time period. In my opinion, it does really cool though because these men were not afraid. If they were, this picture would not exist. I’m guessing construction was the only stable job people would get if they want to make lots of money. Maybe also, they could not find suited men in order for a more specific and dangerous job. Either way, I bet these men were not afraid of heights at all. I know I would be. My hands are sweaty just thinking of it.

Hine must of think the same way as I am. I bet he was scared going up to a skyscraper just to take a picture. This means a lot now because it makes you reflect how time use to be before technology has evolved. Men were unprotected, work place was life threating, and probably the only stable job back then. I could not think what these men were thinking going up at least 50 feet above ground, risking their lives not knowing if they would go back home. However, they must have done a good job if this was publish and held at the Library of Congress. So all I can do is give my salutes to these men and thank them for their services. They made New York look really good.

Best,

Jorge Cortezano

All the photo the author took were great but, there is one photo that caught my attention is the photo on page 139 by Marshall Berman. Which is a graffiti art made by a new yorker. There are a lot of words in the picture that I couldn’t read the words well. One of the main reasons why I like it is because I grew up in Harlem and I see graffiti everywhere. I enjoy looking at it because I can appreciate the art of the artist. I love to draw, but, I haven’t drawn in a long time. Graffiti is one work of art that I can’t do. I tried one time, but I never succeeded. It’s pretty much refreshing to see nice work of art.
The other photo where the man working on a building. I couldn’t relate to this photo any type of way. But, I amaze they have a clear shot someone working on the building. The other picture was a bridge and it was a great photo, but is just like “eh” is just a bridge. I understand the bridge get you to the city, but I just didn’t connect with it. The photo I saw was a building and the street which was great because it represented how busy is new yorker. But, what seals the deal it for me is the graffiti because of the art. I had a background for being an artist.

My Favorite photograph was “Riveters attaching a beam,” 1931, taken by Lewis Wickes Hines. I like this photograph because it shows the work place of the blue color workers and the risk it involved during those works. These men risk a lot while building skyscrapers and how they contributed to the society, because they build and others use it as office or residential. I like Hines style of photography; he documented the workers life and showed child labor in America through his photography alongside with places like sweatshops and factories. Even though his job as a documentary photographer was dangerous he did not back down, during his time as a photographer, the child labor was supposed to be hidden from public and people, those who supported child labor threatened Hines because through his photography he showed the terrible work place this child worked and the jobs they did.
The “Riveters attaching a beam” has an amazing view, showing a sight of city from a high viewpoint. In the background, we can see another building, which we could try to measure the height of the building being construct. The workers working on the building has only few safety gears and working over hundreds feet high, they risking a lot so does Hines for taking this picture. The photographs Hine took were realistic and showed the depth of daily life and struggles workers faced during his time as a photographer.

Jalal E Din

My favorite photo is the picture of the people working in the sweatshop. The picture was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine. I found this photo to be my favorite out of all six photographs because you get to see how the life style was back in the early 1900’s. The photograph shows men and women working in a sweatshop but you see more women sewing. In my opinion, I believe they’re more women sewing then men because it was more of a women’s job in this era. The bad part about working in a sweatshop is that the pay that the job offers is low and the working conditions are poor. I could infer that in this time hats were very popular because I see multiple hats hanged up on the walls. The men and women are dressed differently from how men and women dress today. If you look closely at the type of clothing the women were wearing in the photograph, you’ll notice that none of them are exposing their body parts. If you look closely at what the men are wearing you’ll notice some are wearing suspenders with their shirts tucked in. Also, you’ll notice that some of their coats and hats are hung up on the wall. The setting of the sweatshop looks poor, for example the floor looks dirty and unorganized. Also, there’s barely any space for that many people to be working there. This is why this photograph is my favorite because it shows me how life was back in the day compared to how we live life today.

Although I enjoyed looking at and seeing what each photo meant, I liked Hine’s photos the most. I’ve always felt that there’s a lot of undercover work that goes into certain things in life. For example, how much practice, exercise, and work outs an athlete has to do to become the athlete they are. On the surface they make it look easy and given. In Hine’s photo “Riveters attaching a beam,” I feel that this photo shows just that. And that’s one thing that I love about photos, one photo can really have a thousand words. This photo shows four workers on a huge building, in New York City. Just from the other building in the photo, you can see that they are extremely high. And not only are they risking their lives on a building, they don’t even have any type of gear or anything to protect themselves. They only have on their normal clothes and hopes that nothing will go “wrong.” I for one would flip out because I’m afraid of falling, so I don’t know how they are able to work in these circumstances. Looking at them work, gives me the assumptions that they’re working this job because of their poverty. This photo also makes me appreciate the hard work that construction workers put in. And the photo also makes me think how many buildings in our beautiful city were built like this, and just how high these people were on these skyscrapers. I understand why Hine liked taking these kinds of photos. They’re very revealing and inspiring.

best,

Sali

Photography plays a very large role in many people’s lives for many reasons. Each photo is unique in its own way and represents a specific idea. Developing pictures are now far easier compares to earlier times when it was very time-consuming and hard to access to. In some people’s opinions, this advancement has changed the meaning and the way people apprehend photography. Over the years, the purpose of photography has also transformed, allowing photos from the past to be recognized as fascinating. This can be proved when examining photographs that were taken in earlier times, for example the photo “Sweat shop, New York City” taken by Lewis Wickes Hine, which was my favorite photograph because the picture shows the differences between earlier times and todays society. This photo depicts a group of people that are engaged in their job at a sweatshop. One of the main fascinating aspects is the setting of this photo. When compared to sweatshops in modern days, there are very limited comparisons. In this photo, the setting looks more like a living room space rather than an factory space as in today. The people shown in this photo occur as if they are at home rather than at work due to how people work today. This shows how much jobs and our way of living has changed. The way people are dressed in this photo is also unalike opposed to what we wear today, displaying the transition of fashion throughout the years. In this captured photo, people are dressed in very covered and formal clothes such as skirts or suits, which is far unlikely to be seen worn in society nowadays. The differences between the types of lifestyle presented in this photo and today, are endless. These variations produce a deeper sense of interest in some people allowing this captured photo to be described as intriguing in present day.

All the best,

Shahramjon Musinov

My favorite picture is “Riveters attaching a beam,” taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in 1931. In the picture there are four construction workers miles above the city, all wearing normal street clothes and sitting on a girder. In the picture you can see only one other building and the angle the picture is taken lets you know just how high the men are without any protective gear. I prefer this picture to the others, it shows the lack of safety regulations that were implemented during the twentieth. Now you cannot set a foot on a construction site without at least a helmet however these men are god knows how high wearing street clothes and hats. Also these are the people that  built New York City ; Every tower, building, and skyscraper that existed before safety requirements was built by men just like the ones in this picture. Even though the picture does not tell you the economic standing or background of these men you can infer that they aren’t very wealthy and might even be immigrants. They’re risking their lives to build what is probably a landmark, if it is a landmark probably still standing today. These are essentially the men that created the building that make New York City such a great city and such an important city. The thing I like the most about this picture is that it shows that major differences between then and now. In 84 years there have been so many new laws regarding construction and so many new buildings made. The history in this picture just adds to its meaning and makes it a better picture. It’s just weird to know that there was a time when people did not care about the safety of their workers.