ENG1101 Comp1 D345 FALL2015

My favorite photo is “Home of Gerard Basquiat” which taken in 553 Pacific St, Park Slope, Brooklyn in March 5, 1978 by Dinanda H. Nooney. In this photo, I see a family that has four members, father, mother, and two sisters. They were having a dinner. I see happiness, warmth, and peace in this family. The father was cutting his meal easily. The younger sister looked like having difficulties with cutting her meal. The mother was smiling with taking a cup of red wine and the older sister was looking at her.
In modern day, many people can’t have a dinner with their family everyday. Just because everyone is so busy working and earning money so they neglect of family.. Everyone has different problems to worry about. They may worry about food, house, money, and working problem. For student, they worry about homework, exam, and grade. 24 hours seem like not enough for people in modern day. I like this photo because it seen so relax of people in 1970’s. People had less irritation and pressure. Compare to modern day now, people can’t relax all the time. They think a lot of stuffs. So how come they have time to have a dinner with family? They might have a dinner in the special festival like Christmas or New Year. One of the reasons why I like this photo because I desire to have a dinner with my father and mother now. They work in other country and I can’t see them all the time. In fact, I am having a dinner with my brother every night. But, still, I feel so desire that having a dinner with all my family members.

Kayu Yu

Dinanda H. Nooney had an interest in taking photographs of families in Brooklyn neighborhoods from Greenpoint to Seagate. These photos were the most appealing because perhaps Nooney was trying to show individuals of every race, gender, and sexual orientation that we’re all similar and different in a lot of aspects. Every family is different even if they may be the same race or same religion and she was able to portray that beautifully by photographing these modern families. Nooney was able to capture the essence of how a modern family should have been in the 1970’s. The first photo shows a regular family having dinner in their home and having a wonderful time chatting over what has happened that day. Some families may also see some things that they have in common with the families like how their houses are laid out or if they have some of the same furniture. This family has a table cloth with a dinner table that has a candle. In the other photo there are what may possibly be brothers that look like they are really connected in a brotherly way and like spending time with each other. Nooney did a fantastic job of portraying how families act when they’re together. These photos are great because they show how the American life has affected modern society and how we learn to interact with our family members. America has been evolving society for hundreds of years and her pictures show what its lead up to and thats why her photos are a work of art.

Out of the six photos taken by Berenice Abbott, Lewis Wickes Hine, and Dinanda H. Nooney, my favorite would be Nooney’s “Home of Gerard Basquiat.” taken in Brooklyn in 1978. It was a image of a family having a meal together on a dining table in a somewhat old-fashioned dining room and that there seems to have plenty of interactions going on. The father was just minding his own business, slicing his food like he’s relaxing, the younger daughter was busy cutting her meal with her elder sister watching her, and the mother was smiling as if she’s enjoying the family time together.
This family mealtime tradition isn’t as popular anymore in modern day as people, especially adults with a job tend to be busy working that they just don’t have the time to sit down with their family and have a decent meal together. Students, like high school or college students might have a different schedule than their parents so they wouldn’t be able to have meals with their family as well. At least that is how things are in my circles. This particular picture became my favorite out of the six because it reminded me how families used to have meals together back in the days. People were less stressed and are able to relax after work.
Also, there were some plants hanging in the background in the photo, which gives the room a impression of a larger room. The modern rooms in Brooklyn seem much smaller compared to the dining room in the photo. Afterall, we are living in a populated city and houses are built tightly next to each other.

Hi Class,

Essay 2 is about taking photos, reading them, and writing about them.

These questions will help us as we move toward Essay 2:

1. What is a photograph? What is the history of photography?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography

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 two useful terms for studying photographs.

1. Studium: The studium of a photograph is the public and historical background of a photo. The studium is the photo’s context and its general understanding which includes the precise time and place and weather. The studium of a photo must be visible, and it is the cultural reading of faces, gestures, buildings, clothing, and actions within a photo.

2. Punctum: The punctum of a photograph is highly individual, not public. The punctum pierces the viewer in a particular, private 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.

*These definitions are from Barthes’ Camera Lucida (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981)

Barthes’ example of punctum:

Little Italy. New York, 1954. Photo by William Klein

“What I stubbornly see are one boy’s bad teeth…”

My favorite photo of the six photos shown is Lewis Wickes Hine’s “Riveters attaching a beam,” 1931. I personally feel as if i was born in the wrong time era and that is why in fact I love the 1930-1970’s era. This photo shows how construction workers condition were back in 1931 and how it has evolved throughout time. As you can see these construction workers are dressed formally to do a contraction job and you notice they are supported by ropes, it was much more dangerous as you can see they were in the midst of creating support beams for a skyscraper.

These men were non-union hard labor workers with no type of safety or insurance of safety. Union’s were first creating 4 years later in 1935 when the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA) was passed. As a construction worker you would make an estimate of about $907 annually and that wasn’t enough to live off of. This goes to show that these men contributed so much to our society with there harsh working conditions and still weren’t acknowledged. Thats why this photo truly represents the men who shaped our society today with hard work and dedication in making buildings that still stand today.

By,

Brandon Delacruz

Journal 4: Favorite photograph
After examining the various photos from talented photographers: Lewis Wickes Hines, Bernice Abbott, and Dinada H. Nooney. I have concluded that Lewis Wickes Hines’ photo “Riveters attaching a beam” is my favorite photo from the “New York at work” series. To me, the photo holds a significant piece of New York’s history. The photo consists of four men constructing the foundations to a building, which makes me think that these men could be constructing a building that we still use until this very day. They put their hard work, sweat, and blood into constructing that building. I feel that the photo symbolizes the fact that New York has progressed through the dreams of hardworking, driven people.
Since Hines’ named the series of photos “New York at work” I feel that the photo of the riveters is really the heart of the series because it displays how people are always at work in the city, no matter what time of day or where their work may take them or even what their work consists of. People are always working in New York because it is the home of passionate, ardent people. The city is full of people that are bursting with diversity, dreams, hope, and true beauty, people who harbor unknown potential and vibrant, colorful souls. I believe that was the concept Hines is trying to portray in “New York at work” because the work that people do defines who they are and that is why they share it.

-Briana Roldan

Hi Everybody,

Here is a sentence. It wasn’t much was it?

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Homework for Monday, September 28:

1. Read Esmeralda Santiago–the last of the nine articles for Essay 1. This essay is in our textbook.

2. Revise and proofread Essay 1 so that you can turn in a polished essay on Monday.

Helpful tips for revising, from Purdue OWL:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/05/

Helpful tips for proofreading, from Purdue OWL:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01/

3. On Monday, we will turn in Essay 1 in a paper folder with the following documents inside it:

– Final Draft

– All previous drafts

– Peer review sheet

– Assignment details

Let me know if you have any questions, and,

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Four Ideas on Home

Fall 2015, Prof. Scanlan

Maya Angelou (American Author and Poet): “I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.” (from Letter to My Daughter, by Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 2009).

Gaston Bachelard (French Sociologist): The home is our “first universe” and our “first world.” Such space is important, but size does not matter; a simple hut has more dream potential than a mansion. What matters is the degree of intimacy and intensity of our experience there. (from The Fate of Place, by Edward S. Casey. Berkeley: U of California P, 1998. 290)

Svetlana Boym (Russian-American Literary Critic): “To feel at home is to know that things are in their places and so are you; it is a state of mind that doesn’t depend on an actual location.” (from The Future of Nostalgia, by Svetlana Boym. New York: Basic, 2001. 251)

Immanuel Levinas (Lithuanian-French Philosopher): “The privileged role of the home does not consist in being the end of human activity but in being its condition, and in this sense its commencement.” What is accomplished by the home? These four: our ability for recollection, our ability to have intimacy, our ability to work, and our ability to make representations of the world. (from Totality and Infinity, by Immanuel Levinas. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1969. 152-4.)

Hi Class,

To review: please read three articles in our textbook The Place Where We Dwell:

1. Bilal Rahmani      2. Colin Powell        3. Alfred Lubrano

Then write a draft of Essay 1. Make sure to print out and study the assignment details before beginning. Bring your 2-3 page typed draft for peer review on Monday. Please bring your draft to our 11:30 class. We will work on sentence structures in the lab.

Also, I found a textbook after Wednesday’s class.

Email any questions, and,

Best,

Prof. Scanlan