Thoughts on Daniel Eric Weiss

I really enjoyed looking at Daniel Eric Weiss’ work for a number of reasons. I find the technical aspects of his photographs to be incredibly successful; his use of light, strong tonal contrast throughout the images and the overall composition is very strong. Also, the fact that the majority of his work adopts the street photography approach is incredible alluring. I really love this method, which provides documents of the power of the camera to capture fleeting moments that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. In his work, Weiss exposes the nuances and oddities of everyday life. I particularly like the photograph of the silhouetted figures with the lit-building in the background- its simplicity and “pureness” is extremely aesthetically pleasing, I also like the lone helicopter and single bird in the sky photograph for similar reasons- it is a very simplistic photograph and captures the ironies apparent in our world. The juxtaposition of nature with a man-made machine is rather interesting and thought provoking. The fact that this photographer is our own age is pretty remarkable as well.

Photographing War

When looking at Gerda Taro’s and Tina Berman’s work, I reacted very differently to each body of documentary style photographs. Both collection of photographs speak to issues of war and the experiences of those fighting but distinct differences exist. Taro’s work, in some respects, mirrors similar “war-action photos” and for that reason, seems somewhat ordinary. I feel as though we as viewers are inundated with comparable war photographs that capture soldiers abroad, in the midst of violence and fighting. Emotions, injuries, and fleeting moments are conveyed through a single snapshot and are presented to convey the atrocities of war and the activity of soldiers overseas. Since Taro photographed during the early 20th century, I suppose that viewers who were exposed to her work as it was being produced responded differently than I, a 21st century viewer, did. I really enjoy looking at her photographs but my reaction is not as strong as when looking at Berman’s work. Her work, on the other hand, captures the injuries and disparities of soldiers after returning from war. The majority of these images are incredibly jarring and provoking, and present viewers with an often overlooked reality. We know that young men and women are abroad fighting, that they are risking their lives, but we rarely consider or are presented representations of what life after war is like for these people. Had I been presented with both types of photographs in the early 20th century, perhaps my response would have been different. Interesting that time seems to play such a huge role in how viewers react to photographs…

Free Shoot #11: While at Home

Thoughts on Panoramas

I throughouly enjoyed working on this assignment with Madelyn and found myself incredibly engaged throughout the entire process. Acting as the “Photomerge” tool for this assignment ourselves instead of having Photoshop do it proved to be incredibly challenging and required a lot of planning and careful execution. Yet, I find the product to be extremely aesthetically pleasing and unique and am ultimately glad we approached the project in this manner. Doing so also enabled us to print a nearly 7 foot long image which was rather fun and successful.

I really enjoyed the historical connection to Cassoni’s that this project embodied because it provided us with a direction and clearer purpose of what we wanted to capture…a “modern” Cassoni-like image depicting the “ugliness” of marriage. There were certainly areas Madelyn and I could have improved upon, as noted in critique, but overall I was very satisfied with our end result.

The Chandelier Debate

While it is certainly interesting to think about how cameralike devices might have influenced realism in 14th Century painting, I do not find Hockney's argument very valid. To claim that methods like the camera-obscura or a concave mirror to project images onto a canvas as the cause of the sudden burst in realism seems absurd to me. Is he seriously suggesting that all realistic painters adopted such methods and that this remained a secret....for nearly 6 centuries? I agree with Eleanor and can not help but wonder if Hockney is merely attempting to "shock" the art world with such claims. I think using photographic methods to work in other mediums, like painting, is a fascinating idea and illustrates the enormous potential of combing artistic mediums but I am not convinced that it was instrumental in the rise of realism. In another course of mine, we read an article about a well-respected scientific researcher who claims that AIDS is not caused by HIV but rather some other infectious agent and I can not help but relate this to Hockney. Both theories are easy to dismiss immediately because they defy our current knowledge but I think it it imperative to do more exploration and analysis before making any conclusive decisions. It's worth investigating.

Free Shoot #10: Light!

Practice Panorama