Contemporary Landscape Photographer: Richard Mosse

http://www.richardmosse.com/photography.php?pid=1 

Biography: Richard Mosse, age 30, was born and grew up in Ireland. He now resides in New York. He studied at Yale, Goldsmiths, and the London Consortium, and strives to revisit and rewrite traumatic cultural histories.

Significance: Mosse’s breathtaking landscape photographs use unnatural colors to really spark visual interest. Recoloring an entire brown field red or an entire green area pink gives the photographs a truly unique, and completely unnatural feel.  

Composition: The framing of his photographs is very interesting. He has breathtaking viewpoints, but it is truly his color correction and contrast that separates his photographs from any I have ever seen before.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I cannot find an official description of this particular album, but it is entitled “Infra”. I think this is perhaps playing off of the word infrared since many of his photographs have a red or pink hue.

Method: Again, I cannot find an official statement, but the photographs look to be photoshopped with a huge amount of color correction.

Motivations: I am not sure of the official motivations, but the way some of the photographs are presented it almost looks like he is softening (or almost demasculinizing) an armed force.

Your Opinion: I really like this particular album by Mosse. I find the color correction to be stunning and really interesting. Seeing something that is usually so natural in such an unnatural way is really interesting and definitely something I want to try in the future.

Historical Photographer: Bill Brandt

Biography:

Brandt was born in Hamburg, Germany, although he disowned his German heritage after growing up during World War I. After contracting tuberculosis after the war, he was introduced to Man Ray. He then assisted in Ray’s studio in 1930. In 1933 Brandt moved to London and began documenting British society. During World War II his style shifted dramatically. He has a series of celebrated nudes and is also well known for his landscapes.

Significance:

Brandt has a series of stunning nudes and landscapes. He is also well known for his documentation of all levels in British society. He often uses wide angle lenses and distortions for unique shots.

Techniques:

Brandt uses a variety of techniques, but really captures interesting and often times unique perspectives, especially of the human body.

Motivations: When asked why his style changed so much after the war, Brandt explained that he lost enthusiasm for documenting. England barely had any social contrast anymore and documentary photography had become fashionable. So he wanted to explore unexplored avenues (nudes, portraits, and landscapes).

Blog Prompts 16-18

Please respond to the three following quotes.

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

I think this quote is interesting, however I feel like it is not thinking about the big picture. I feel like it is impossible to see people in new ways every single time you look at them. I think the “magic” of a photograph is found in capturing a moment that really defines who they are. The moment may already be very recognizable and not new in any way; however I think it can really speak as to who they are as a person, therefore having a powerful meaning.

“I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.” Duane Michals

I think this idea is important in some photographs, but not all. I think it is a very fun and interesting exercise to try and pull a deeper meaning from a photograph. However I do believe that in some cases a deeper meaning is not necessarily intended. I think this happens a lot with sports photography. I think the photographs are taken more for their visual appeal than for a deeper meaning.

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” ~Ansel Adams

I can definitely understand this thought. From my own personal experiences I can attest to some of the great difficulties of landscape photography. I still do not completely understand the best methods for taking landscape photographs. I can think of many times when I have given up after trying to take landscape photographs and they just turn out to be boring or unexciting.

Blog Prompts 11-15

#11____Memory of a Place: Try to imagine a place from your past. Do you have pictures of this place? Describe this place as you remember it. What might a photograph look like of this place if you were to go back and photograph it? What would it look like in the past? What would it look like to you today? Where are you standing in this place? What other items are in this place? What colors do you see? Are there other people or are you alone? Make a “written photograph” of this place using words/description.

I have a strong memory of the side of my house. It is an interesting location, for there used to be raspberry bushes. The bushes were at the edge of a woodsy area that was much more intimidating when I was younger. There was a tiny path that wound down into the middle of the woods, and I remember feeling like I was going on some sort of adventure when I went down them. The memory that is the strongest is from the summer time when the leaves were green and the foliage was thick.

#12____Memory of a Photograph: Which photograph from your past do you remember most? Describe this photograph. Describe how it makes you feel when you remember/think about this photograph. How have you changed? How has the place in this photograph changed? What would a reenactment of this photograph look like? Would you act or look differently if you reenacted this scene today?

I am not sure if I remember this photograph the most, but there is a photograph in my basement of me playing soccer for my high school team that really makes me laugh. I am running with the ball and my hair, being quite long at the time, was flying up the air when the photograph was taken. I also have a pretty funny look on my face as well. I remember playing the game when it was taken, and the photograph reminds me of the fun I had when playing soccer. I think a reenactment of this photograph could look pretty similar. However, since there is so much movement in sports I feel like it may be a bit difficult to capture that “exact” moment again. I still like to play soccer, but I am not able to play it nearly as often as I was able to when the photograph was taken.

#13____Human-Made Space: In the past, photographers who were interested in how humans impacted the natural landscape grouped together to form the New Topographics. “"New Topographics" signaled the emergence of a new photographic approach to landscape: romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal, focused on the everyday built environment and more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field.”http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibTopo.aspx

In addition, at the same time in history artists created (and still do create) “land art” in which they use materials found in the landscape to make sculptures that remain in the landscape. Many of these works now only exist as video recordings and photographic documents.

Pay attention to the number of ways in which you encounter humans’ interaction with nature and the physical land. Write these down. Using these as inspiration, describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might create that would be documented by a photograph. Describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might make in a man-made landscape that would be documented by a photograph.

I think one of the most interesting pieces of man made equipment found around campus is the trash can. As simple as it sounds, the trash can is a really important part of our campus. They are (usually) large green bins found all around campus; placed in an attempt to keep the campus clean and tidy. The campus would probably be full of much more trash were it not for the placement of trash cans. While I am not sure this would be a good idea (I would not want to be responsible for more trash being thrown on the ground instead of in these cans), I think it would be interesting to build a kind of tower out of these trash cans. We always see the trash cans by themselves sporadically placed around sporting events and whatnot, but what if the trash cans were all put together in one giant structure. I think it would be an interesting site to behold.

#14____Unknown vs. Familiar Space: When photography was invented, it became a way to document and reveal the specific aspects of both familiar and faraway places. Imagine a familiar place. Imagine a faraway place. How would you use photographs to convey the difference? Can you imagine any places that have been “touched” very little by humans? How might you photograph them?

When I think of a familiar place I think of home. It is interesting to think of how a photograph of home would differ from a photograph of a far away place like Tokyo. I feel as though the differences would be pretty obvious. I live on a dirt road on a two acre plot of land in a ranch house. I feel like that would be an impossibility for a place like Tokyo. Therefore the images would be quite different.

I personally havn’t really been anywhere that has been touched very little by humans. However I know that these places exist. The desert is the first place that comes to mind. I think there are a few different ways this could be photographed. I think being in the desert would provide an interesting perspective, perhaps in showing the great expansiveness of the desert. I also think it would be really interesting to see the desert from a top down perspective. It is a perspective that I don’t think I have ever seen.

#15____In-Camera Collage: Collage brings together two or more items that were previously separate. The resulting piece usually visually references the fact that they were once separate entities. Imagine an important place in your past. Imagine an important place in your present. Imagine who you were in both of these past and present places. Describe how you might use a slow shutter speed and/or double exposure to capture two moments in one image that tell a new narrative about these important places and how they relate to who you are and were.

I think this would be a very interesting project to try. I think picking the important places would be quite difficult. I feel as though there were many places that were very important to me as I was growing up. I feel like the most important place would have to be my home though. I lived in the same home throughout my life, so it has always been a place of great importance to me. I would say  my room in my apartment is kind of like my home now (or at least my home away from home). I think it would be interesting to combine the two places using a double exposure. Perhaps by looking into my room at home from the hallway, but then on the inside would be my room here in my apartment. I think this would be a pretty interesting photograph.

Memory Recreation

As I was sitting in my chair thinking of what memory I wanted to recreate I looked out the window. It instantly brought back memories of this summer. This summer I injured my foot leaving me unable to go outside and do anything for a few weeks. I would sit in this chair, practice guitar, and look out the window on days when I really wanted to go bike, or run, or do anything. In framing the photograph I chose to wear shorts (as I wore in the summer). I also included the crutches in the shot. I put on my brace, and chose to look out the window to attempt to portray my longing for the outdoor during this time I couldn't go outside.

Assignment 2: Portraits

For this photograph I photographed myself in the photo lab while partially covering the flash. I really enjoyed taking the eye pictures from the first assignment, so I wanted to have at least one photograph with a continuation of that idea. It is interesting to me how much emotion can be conveyed in the eyes, but I thought that including the lit up hands also added a dramatic element to the photograph. I stumbled upon this method by simply trying different things in the photo lab. The reflection is actually off of the computer monitor.

The next three images are somewhat in the same set; however, I did have some varying intentions with each of the photographs.

Post Critique:
I think after listening to the critiques in class, I would like to try and recreate this image some time with a few minor changes. I would really try and get it to be as sharp as possible. While I strove for that in the original image, I think absolute clarity would make the photograph "pop" much more. 

For this image, I really wanted to get an action shot of someone longboarding. I have been looking at a lot of longboarding photography lately, and it has really piqued my interest. Therefore, I decided to do an action portrait. For this image, I wanted to show not only the action but the emotion on his face (something that seems to be fairly standard with longboard photography). In order to take the photograph, I layed down on the cement and followed him with the camera, waiting for the right moment to take the picture.

For this image (and the next one) I chose to take the portrait in a slightly different direction. I omitted the face. I think this was an important decision, for it then become more of a portrait of longboarding itself rather than the individual. I really liked this idea of making a portrait of the sport, and so I tried to capture some of the “personality” of the sport in the photograph. Taking this photograph was also a fun experience. I was skating next to him and taking pictures as we went. It made doing some of the more technical photography aspects a bit harder to do (I had to rely on more automatic settings), but I think the different perspective made it worth it.

This image is similar in spirit to the previous image. I again omitted the subject’s face with the intention of drawing more attention to the act itself and the overall feel of longboarding. I was again following the subject on a longboard in order to keep up with him. I am trying to convey the feeling of longboarding through the photograph, so  I also decided to rotate the photograph in order to emphasize the lean you feel when doing these kinds of maneuvers. Unfortunately, since I rotated and cropped the photo the image could not be printed as big as I would have liked.


Post Critique:


I am honestly not entirely sure what the class thought about these longboarding photographs. I am not entirely sure I explained my reasoning well enough as to why I thought they were portraits (or maybe my reasoning was not good enough?) I have slightly modified these photos based on some suggestions in class. For example, in the first photograph I photoshopped out the bus stop sign so it did not look like the subject was about to eat the sign. Also on the second photograph I took out the handicap sign right above the subject's head for similar reasons. I have also received some positive feedback from some longboarding stores who are interested in this kind of photography. This is definitely something I hope to continue doing in the future.

Richard Avedon

Biography: Richard Avedon was born on May 15, 1923 in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx where he worked on the school newspaper. He received his first camera from his father as a going away present. After briefly attending Columbia University he started as a photographer for Merchant Marines, but he was then quickly discovered by the art director for the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. He went on to make quite a name for himself in photography even becoming The New Yorker’s first staff photographer. Richard Avedon passed away on October 1, 2004. Some of his most famous photographs are of celebrities such as Marlin Monroe, The Beatles, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Dylan, and Marlon Brando.

Photography Significance: Avedon captured many interesting photographs, often of celebrities and other famous people. His compositions were well thought out and his photographs became famous for both their subject matter and compositions.

Composition: In the two pictures of the Beatles shown above, the composition is very interesting. The black and white portraits are very interesting. They are balanced quite well, with enough contrast to pique interest, but not so much that details are lost. The gradient background also does a good job of being interesting without drawing too much attention and still allowing the subject to be visible.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea: With these Beatles photographs specifically they were used as posters (they were some of the first rock posters). I think these photographs work very well as posters. They are visually stimulating and document each member of the band.

Method: As aforementioned, the composition of the black and white poster was well done. All four photographs are well balanced and are taken in similar lighting so they go well together. The color photograph looks as though it has had many photo manipulations implemented. I am unsure of what specific processes were used to create this photograph.

Motivations: Describe their goal/intention for creating this image/s. While I did not find any specific goals or intentions for these images, it seems to be that his intention was to document The Beatles in a new and exciting format (in this case, a poster). He was essentially pioneering the rock poster; something that is quite interesting in itself

Your Opinion: Personally, I really like these posters. They are each visually stimulating in their own way. The black and white one is more serious and elegant, showing details and emotion in the faces. The photo editing of the color photograph is vivid, lively, and fun. It makes for a very interesting piece to look at, for it is very visually stimulating. I really like both of these photographs.