#19

1. I don't think that there's anything that should not be photographed.  There can be a concept behind every photograph and I don't think that any image is ever wrong.

2. Something that cannot be photographed is sound. You could capture an implication of sound but to photograph the actual sound that is being made is not possible.

3. Something that I don't want to photograph is sports because I don't have much of an interest in them.

Luis Gispert

http://www.luisgispert.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=5

Luis Gispert is an American photographer and sculptor.  His work focuses on hip hop and youth culture.  A lot of his work has to do with space and landscape.

#16 #17 & #18

"I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know.  It takes no great power or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph.  The magic is in seeing people in new ways." 

16. I agree with this quote.  I think that it is boring to see an image of something that you have seen before and know well, it's more of a challenge to try to capture something that you have never seen before.  It's more magical to see what's underneath rather than what's on the surface of an image.

"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer-- and often the supreme disappointment."

17. I agree with this quote.  I think that landscape is a difficult image to capture and make interesting and that a lot of times people look at a pretty landscape and try to capture the image but end up disappointed.  I think that this is because when you look at a landscape you are seeing a wider view than what the camera sees and it is hard to find a frame in the landscape that looks interesting.

"Photography can only represent the present.  Once photographed the subject becomes apart of the past."

18. I agree and disagree with this quote.  I think that it's true on account that once you take the image that is an event that happened in the past.  However, I think that you can take an image that represents apart of the  past, present, or future.  It may not have happened in that time but you can create a scene that implies that it was.

Assignment 3(0)

The memory that I decided to recreate was a memory of middle school. I remember sitting in one of the seats by the door and always being distracted by the people walking out in the hall way so I decided to take an image of one of my classes and take a photo of someone walking out the door to recreate the distraction that I experienced when I was younger.

#11 #12 #13 #14 & #15

11. I can image the hallway in my old elementary school. The image in my mind of this is pretty foggy because I haven't been in so long but I remember tan colored lockers and speckled green tiled floor. I imagine the hallway empty except for maybe one kid walking. It's weird going back to places you used to spend a lot of time in when you were younger. I remember going back when I was in middle school and the lockers seemed way smaller than I remember and the ceilings were a lot shorter than I though.

12. An image from my past that I remember vividly is one of my sitting holding a doll. It was around Christmas time, I remember this because there were poinsettias sitting next to me. I was gripping my favorite doll and had a huge smile on my face. I was probably about 4 at the time so it was when I still lived in my old house. Since then I've matured, grown, and my interests have changed. If I were going to reenact this picture I would be holding something else, probably an iPod, to show my interest in music and it would be in my new house, rather than the old one but I would try to make my expression similar because I've alway been a happy person and that's the one thing in the image that hasn't changed really.

13. In our society people seem to think that we own the earth so there are constantly new buildings being built and new roads being paved. If I were going to do an image of land art that described todays society and our relationship with our planet I would take an image of a construction site.

14. When I picture a familiar place I think about MSU campus. If I were to capture this image I would do it when there were a lot of students walking to classes to show the business of the campus during the day. A faraway place would be my cottage in Charlevoix. To take an image that shows the difference between the two places I would take an image of a field or the woods because Charlevoix is much more natural than State's campus. Near my cottage there are a lot of untouched areas, if I were to try to capture it I would take an image of just the landscape to show the organic beauty of the town.

15. I would take an image of someone jumping on a trampoline to show who I was as a kid and the innocent activities that I would do. I would pair it with a picture of someone at a college party to show what I do in my free time now as opposed to then.

Assignment 2

Composition: I chose in this photograph to make the lighting brighter in the right corner, so much that that some the the details were lost, so that the details in the hands are more dominant. I wanted the hands to be the main focus to emphasize that we use our hands to express ourselves. I decided to use a lot of contrast to make the image more dramatic to show the importance of our hands.
Concept: This was one of the images for my self portrait. I wanted to show that I am very expressive with my hands. My jewelery is a big part of my self expression; I wear a lot of rings and bracelets, some have sentimental meaning, to show my style and creativity. I also use my hands to create artwork, which will hopefully one day be my profession, so my hands are very important; without them I wouldn't have a career.
Method: For this image I brainstormed to come up with this concept. I wanted to create a portrait without using a face to stray away from what I normally do as a challenge for myself. I experimented with different positions with my hands to find which one looked most natural.
Motivation: My intention was to create an image with a large depth of field and to make a self portrait without using my face.
Context: I was inspired by self expression. I wanted an image that showed my jewelery and personal style because my image is a part of my personality. I use my piercings, jewelery, and dreads as a way of self expression. It shows my personality on the outside to show my creativity and even past experiences. Plus I make a lot of my own jewelery so it's a way of wearing my artwork on my body.

Composition: In the frame I wanted to include the Aum symbol and make it more prominent while still having emphasis on the fairy, especially the wings. That's why I made the Aum more centered in the frame and put the fairy in the corner but concentrated the light on it. I wanted the wings to be the most prominent part of the fairy and the rest of her to sort of blend with the background.
Concept: In this image I wanted to create a portrait of myself that showed my inner personality, rather than just what I look like. That's why I wanted to include the Aum. This symbol is a major party of my personality. Although I'm not Hindu, Aum symbolized what I believe and how I try to live my life. It means that there is no beginning and no end and to embrace all that exists. The fairy symbolizes my interests. A major part of my personality is my creativity and I'm very interested in the fantasy world, especially fairies. Also since the Aum is turned on its side it resembles the Um, which is a symbol for my favorite band Umphrey's McGee (it's the Aum distorted to look like the letters u and m). Music is also a very big part of my life, my favorite thing to do is see live music.
Method: I came up with this idea before I took this image and constructed the scene, more specifically the costume and set up lamps and a make-shift tripod.
Concept: This portrait reminds me of the work that the portrait photographer I worked for does. She really tries to capture the person's personality and style and really encourages them to use props that represent them. It's different because she does portraits for senior pictures, photos of models, musicians, etc. and wants to show what they look like, so the face is an important part of the portrait, while mine is more focused on personality.

 

Composition: I chose to get really close to the subject in this shot. I wanted to show his the relationship between the subject and the guitar, as well as the relationship between the photographer and the subject. I wanted a lot of light behind him making him stand out and be the main focus in the photo.

Concept: My image is about the subjects personality. I wanted to show him with his guitar because he is very musically gifted and is very passionate about music. You can tell by the emotion in his face that he is completely focused on what he is playing. This was for the set to make a portrait of someone close to you, I chose a best friend. I got really close to the subject to create a feeling of intimacy between the photographer and the subject. When I made some adjustments in photoshop it caused the photograph to look sort of grainy but I decided to leave it because someone mentioned on my blog that it reminded them of Woodstock, and he would someday like to play in a band at music festivals.

Method: For this photo I observed my environment and just let him play while I took images.

Context: This photograph is implying that relationships with inanimate objects can be deeper than just materialistic. He loves his guitar because of his love for music, creating it and performing thus bringing joy to others. I was inspired by his zeal for playing music and I wanted to capture him in the act of creating it.

Composition: In this image I chose to make him the main subject but also have a busy background with other people so that there wasn't too much emphasis on him. His face has no lighting on it because I didn't want to make the photograph appear staged and he had enough light on his face to show detail.

Concept: This image is about adornment. I chose to show him in his own clothes in his natural environment. I tried catch his goofy personality, while also showing the party in the background. The party going on behind him represents his "leisure" activity.

Method: I observed my environment for this image and decided the put Trav in his natural environment.

Motivation: My motivation was to use adornment and set up an image that described the subjects personality.

Context: I wanted to capture an average 21 year old kid at a party. I was inspired by the MSU party scene and thought that this described it perfectly-a dirty house with a lot of girls dancing in the background-and could relate to a lot of people my age.

#8 #9 & #10

8. I can see where he is coming from. I think that photos represent the artist and their style, also their composition and concept of the image shows who they are as an artist. However I feel that when other people look at photographs they tend not to think about the artist. This is actually the thing that saddens me about art is that a lot of people look at artwork and see strictly what's sitting in front of them and love the piece instead of giving credit to the artist and understanding their intention.

9. I agree and disagree with this quote. I think it depends on the image. For instance if you're doing a shoot in a studio with props and a model you're making the photograph. However if you're taking a picture in nature I think you're taking a photograph and making into a piece of artwork.

10. I agree with this statement until the vary last part. I think that photos do help us remember things that we forgot, where as paintings are of what the artist remembers (for realistic art mostly). When you are painting a portrait of someone you paint what you remember seeing where as a picture captures everything that is there, even the things you forgot. However I don't agree with, "a photo more than a painting may change meaning according to who is looking at it." I think that paintings have more room for different meanings because they aren't an exact image of what you see; there is more distortion in paintings which I think evokes different meanings and emotions.

#5 #6 & #7

5. I would agree with Mary Ellen Mark, you should be straight up with who you're photographing and tell them your intention for the photograph. I think that what she means by taking a little bit of their soul is that you are photographing and taking a little bit of their emotion with you because what you take an image of someone you capture their emotion-whether it be body language, facial expression, or whatever-and a little bit of their soul and personality show.

6. I think it's beneficial and ethical to alter portraits when you are changing it to make the photograph look better, or to alter it to depict different emotion. For example changing the contrast or covering up blemishes. I think it is inappropriate when you are changing an image for blackmail or something like that.

7. In a typical day I see more portraits on facebook than anywhere else. I think that these images are used to document people's lives and their personality so that other people can get to know them via internet. These pictures are most commonly taken by friends who's only intention is to take the picture, there is no thought process or concept behind most of the images. They are strictly superficial. Whereas portraits taken by photographers for the news or advertising are trying to show emotion or have content, they are more theoretical.

#3 & #4

3. I would agree with this statement. I think that in photography you take a snapshot of a subject, but to pronounce it as photography as a form of artwork makes it have a deeper meaning. I think of photography as images that were thought out before taken to inflict emotion on other people, rather than an picture taken at your friends birthday party. Photography is like any other art form, it has a concept behind every composition. So, I think that photography does deal exquisitely with appearance a physical sense, but it's much more than just the subject matter and what it looks like. The photographer is trying to draw a response out of the viewer, so it's not as it appears to be.

4. I agree and disagree with this quote. I think that when trying to describe a story about physical appearance it is much easier to have an image. For example if you were trying to tell your friend a story about the hiking trip you went on, it'd be much easier to show them photographs, rather than trying to describe with words what it looked like. However I think that when trying to tell a story with a plot, one with an actual story line, it'd be much easier to just describe it with words because a still image of the scenario would only show you how things look, not what happened.

1/2 way critique

Prompts 1 & 2

1. Our world with out photographs would be extremely different from what we're used to.  Advertising would change a lot, especially for fashion. It would all have to be done by hand, which would also create a higher demand for illustrators. Sharing experiences with people would be different, we would no longer have images to show people what we're describing we would have to use words.

2. Photography to me means capturing a scene from real life and turning it into a piece of artwork.