Six Final Selects

Final Book Project

Inspired by William Eggleston I hope to capture and enhance the ordinary content found in recognizable space through color. My pictures will be of my recent travels to Florida and Philadelphia in addition to all of the space accesiable in New York City. I will bring out the color in my photos by lowing the exposure as well as zooming in to the point of colorful interest. I am going to show a variety of photos which may include or not included people. The color
I will focus on may be of natural environments or tactile man made objects.

Photographer Assignment

William Eggleston

Book Ideas

Pops of color around the city:

I will wander and discover recognizable and unknown parts of New York City paying close attention to where vibrant color is alive. I hope to capture bright and electric color within nature, architecture, clothing, and more. Also, I will manipulate my images to bring out the contrast and saturation within the photographs. This will help to enhance the resemblance of color through my images. The color may also be visible through contrasting colors in the environment.

Home:

Throughout New York City I have some places I find I spend the majority of my time at. The locations I will focus on are: East Village, Upper East Side, Brooklyn Heights, West Harlem, Chinatown, and Jersey City. These diverse and different areas are close in proximity but not in culture or environment. I hope to capture the essence of how it would feel to be in these locations. I will capture photographs the eyes can easily see as well as more unusual perspectives. 

Assignment 4: Composition

Line

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Shape

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 10 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Repetition 

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 25 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Contrast

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 9 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Texture

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 9 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Rule of Thirds

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 14 Shutter Speed: 1/1000

Complementary Colors (Blue and Orange)

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 18 Shutter Speed: 1/500

Monochromatic Colors (Black and White)

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter Speed: 1/800

Assignment 5: Exhibition Review

I visited the Staley Wise Gallery located in Soho to view David LaChapelle’s exhibition of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” The Gallery was on the third floor of a multipurpose office space building in a small suite. The suite was small and had white wooden floors to match the white walls. The exhibit was in the shape of a “Z”. It had three turns which created more wall space to display artwork. All of the artwork were photographs of various sizes. The smallest were around two feet by one foot and the largest were around four feet by five feet. The photographs were evenly spread out on the walls allowing consistency and clarity while viewing. David LaChapelle is known for the unusual trust between himself and his subjects. He mainly photographs extremely famous celebrities such as: Elton John, David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton, and Courtney Love. He is interested in displaying the obsession society has with public figures and the absurdity of fame. The consistent subject matter of his photographs are the celebrities themselves. Through the objectified person his subject reveals the infatuation society has with fame. LaChapelle’s use of vibrant and creative use of color is the main component of his form. The way he manipulates his photographs he creates bright, color, almost neon images. His style is very unique he also shoots photographs of celebrities in a colorful scenarios which may seem comical at first. By simply viewing his work one can create the internal context that he has a large interest of manipulated portraits of public figures in odd and unusual circumstances. Through research I gained external context that David LaChapelle made his name by photographing famous celebrities for advertising purposes. Eventually he hated the process of working with celebrities and making this type of work. He moved off the grid and joined a nudist colony swearing to never photograph celebrities again. Today, he found an outlet with his talent of shooting public figures but distorting our expectations and showing the negative reality of fame. Personally, I have never seen photographs of celebrities in such bizarre circumstances, therefore I do not believe his photography can compare to any other photographers. While viewing, I found some of the situations the subjects were in to be funny until I looked deeper into the reason and purpose why some of them were put into these circumstances.

The photograph I will evaluate is “Courtney Love: Water 2” which was taken in 2007 of Courtney Love. The subject of this photograph I believe is to demonstrate how Courtney Love feels suffocated and drowning within the confines and pressure of fame. The Subject matter is Courtney Love herself. The Form of this photograph uses color very lightly. The water is blue with a white light in the far distance and the subject and other items are a darker shade of blue and black. The artist left a lot of negative space available on the top of the image and the content is confined to the lower half of the photograph. The style is dramatic and allows the viewer to almost imagine themselves the situation underwater, but the bizarreness of the objects with her do not. From viewing the photograph I can internally see there is a person I assume to be underwater drowning or escaping from something. Through my research of Courtney Love I gained that she had a rough experience growing up. She has been in juvenile prison and tossed around her two parents in different states. What stood out to me in this photograph is that it was one of the only ones the subject’s face was not visible, it was underwater, and the use of color was the tamest. I was interested how the artist was still able to evoke the same emotion from me in the tame photo the same if not better than the large and vibrant photographs.

I thought the show as a whole was quite interesting and thought provoking. I really enjoyed how the photographs presented the recognizable concept of fame but altered the experience into something I have never seen before. All of the photographs had a full emotional reaction to me which was complete in each experience. It varied from a comical instant reaction which sometimes changed to a negative reaction when I looked further into the work. I think the author was trying to express the absurdity and obsession society has with the idea of fame. I definitely agree that he fully achieved this objective through his work. The photographs put celebrities in unusual and sometimes impossible situations which clearly translated a vast majority of internal feelings. Something which surprised me about the work was the trust LaChapelle had with his subjects. At the exhibit they had two of his published books on display which I also skimmed through and I am interested on doing more research about this artist. Overall, this was an eye opening experience that there is so much art on display in the city and I look forward to taking advantage of more opportunities like this.

Shutter Speed: 1/1000 Aperture: 4.5 ISO: 1600

Wide Aperture/Low Number/Shallow Depth of Field 

Shutter Speed: 1/25 Aperture: 29 ISO: 1600

Narrow Aperture/Small Number/Deep Depth of Field

Reading 2 Assessment Questions

1. “To interpret an image is to make sense of it. To interpret is to see something as ‘representing something, or expressing something, or being about something, or being a response to something, or belonging in a certain tradition, or exhibiting certain formal features, etc.’”

2. The author supports all of these ideas about what the message and being a photograph represents through interpretation through the reading. He defines interpretation clearly to understand exactly what it is as well as creating a quality system in order to understand reliability.

3. Barrett defines interpretation as analyzing an imagine and discovering your own viewpoint of what the photo may represent or be about. The interpretation is the being of the photograph beyond its tactile presence.

4. Interpretation is important in the criticism of photographs because it provides the reader more information about how the photograph may relate to a certain time in history or to other works of art. It provides more in depth descriptions of the photograph for the reader to fully digest and understand.

5. I was interested in the interpretive strategy of Intentionalist Interpretation. This interpretation is based off of attempting to analyze a photography by figuring out what the artist’s intensional creative purpose, meaning, or intent was when they created and published the work. This interests me because I am commonly told that art is subjective and open to one’s personal interpretation, which I completely agree with but I think this approach is worth doing. It is rare an artist makes work without an intent or vision behind the message it will portray, so I think this strategy would be very helpful.

6. The author is trying to explain that not interpretations of a photograph or art are necessarily incorrect or false, but there are interpretation that are more likely or less likely to be accurate or possible. An interpretation is not a direct opinion one gains from a photograph, rather it is corresponding and relating to content in the photograph to come to the conclusion.

7. The author is explaining how when a photographer presence an image they may believe their work has a very clear and deliberate intent but often their work reveals more than they think it is capable of. It is sometimes difficult to figure out what a photograph is about simply by viewing. Also, it is sometimes distracting and misleading when a viewer reads what an artist’s intent was suppose to be.

8. Feeling about a particular piece of art can change drastically over a short amount of time. In order to cope with that responsibility I learned it is helpful to define what my gut feeling about a photograph is quickly and see how that evolve over further investigation. Also, I learned an interpretation can be implausible or unreliable of it does not pertain to the work. An opinion cannot be wrong but there is a system to see how creditable the interpretation is.

9. The author concludes explaining how the community of interpreters is especially important when selecting the best interpretations. Each individual has had a different experiences throughout life which shapes our perspective and ultimately our interpretation of photographs.

Assignment 2 Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: 8.0 ISO: 1600

Slow Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed: 1/40 Aperture 29 ISO: 1600

Reading Assessment 1

1.  “Descriptive information includes statements about the photographer’s subject matter, medium, and form, and then more generally, about the photographer's casual environment, including information about the photographer who made it, the times during which it was made, and the social milieu from which it emerged.”

2. He further defines and explains what subject matter (pg 21-26), medium (pg 29-31), and form (pg 26-29) is. Also, Barrett explains how there are many more components which go into a photograph that build the environment. He goes into depth of how a message and social context (pg 34-35) can be interpreted within photographs internally as well as externally (pg 33-34).  

3a. Description is the logical way of examining the photographs based off of what it displays by simply observing and stating facts not opinions or interpretations.

3b. Subject is the interpretation of what the photographer's message or intention they are trying to portray. The subject matter is the physical object or thing within the photograph that helps convey the meaning of the photograph.

3c. Form is the content which builds the photographs structure such as: dots, lines, shape, light, color, texture, mass, space, and volume.

3d. Medium is how the objects or things within the photographs came to be. It can be simply a colored digital photograph or if the photographer altered the environment that would also be considered the medium.

3e. Style is how the photographer chooses to use all of the above elements in order to personalize and create their artistic vision and recognizable quality.

4a. Comparing and contrasting is taking a piece of work and finding similar qualities and differences with all types of work which could include the photographer’s own work or others.

4b. Internal sources of information is what the view can decipher in the photograph based off of what they see. External sources of information is when a viewer uses outside research to learn more about a particular piece they cannot retrieve from just looking at the photograph.

5a. Barrett believes that description and interpretation are related and constantly working in a balance with each other. In order to describe something one must interpret the content in the photograph to create understanding of what it is. When one interprets a photograph that have to have some understanding of the descriptive content in the photograph.  

5b. Description and interpretation work in a circular context constantly in relation to one another. One must understand the content in order to construct an interpretation.

6a. I think the author was also trying to make the point that photography is a subjective art that can be artistically interpreted in many ways but there are fundamental components which are facts was derive from the photographs that all people can agree on. Barrett is making the point that there is a lot of other obstacles and other factors that are in play when creating a photograph which is not possible to have knowledge of my viewing the piece of work.

6b. I learned it is difficult to simply describe an image soley without using other techniques such as interpretation. I also learned that the subject and subject matter are related but completely different ideas. Subject is what the piece is trying to portray to an audience. The subject matter is the material within the photograph that helps translate the subject.

6c. The author concludes explains the importance of description to readers. He cites that photographs should not be looked at are real life or real events rathers as a picture construct. Photographs have values such as lines, form, subject, etc. and it should be looked at as such.

6d. I think this reading definitely informative and gave me a vocabulary which enables me to speak about photography from a more educated viewpoint. Also, it made me think of photography in a different way artistically. I understand that dance can be interpreted and critiqued in many different ways based off of a set of values and photography is no different.

Assignment 1 Part 1

SS: 1/200 F11 ISO: 400 Meter: 0

SS: 1/200 F5.6 ISO: 400 Meter: +2

SS: 1/200 F22 ISO: 400 Meter: -2

Bracketing is taking the exact same photo several times but adjusting your exposure by changing the shutter speed, F stop, and/or ISO. I kept my shutter speed and ISO consistent throughout the whole process and changed my F stop. In my first image I set the F stop at 11 in order to balance the amount of light. Then I over exposed my image by adjusting the F stop from 11 to 5.6 to allow in even more light which was a 2 click increment change. To under expose my image I brought the F stop back to the even exposed F11 and altered it to 22 to let in less light. This was a 2 click increment change. 

Assignment 1 Part 2

I found this photograph on www.dancersamongus.com. The sense of urgency and danger of the train quickly approaching the subject caught my eye. I instantly reacted in fear when I viewed this photograph. Also, I enjoy the use of color in this image. The women dressed in red and green and the hints of blue in the skyline creates depth and connection in the whole piece. The Photographer is Jordan Matter in his collection of "Dancers Among Us".



I found this photograph on www.manray.net. The essence of mystery and unknown distraught made me eager to know more about this photographs meaning to the photographer. The subject is a fashion mannequin with glass eyes and mascara applied to its eyelashes. The tears are glass crystals applied to the face. The play of reality and artificial humanity is interesting to me. The photographer is Man Ray entitled Glass Tears and created in 1932.