Self-Portrait Before and After

Before

After

Week VI - Reading Quiz "The Man Who Makes The Picture Perfect"

- Reading Quiz -

1. What is Pascal Dangin’s job? In what ways is it creative?

Pascal Dangin's job is a digital retoucher for fashion's and Hollywood's most famous photographers.  Being a photo retoucher/editor is a creative job because "he's not someone who just pushes a button."  Dangin is able to express himself using his editing techniques through the use of his computer.   He thinks about what he does and how his "retouching" will effect the look and perception of a photo.  

2. What is his attitude about the ethics of the job he does?  

Dangin believes that the world we live in, everything is "glorified"; Everyone wants to look good.  We live in a society where a majority of what we see, has in some way, been retouched or edited.  We live in a society where everything is one big advertisement.  Dangin said "we're selling an image."   Some people believe that Dangin's job is sometimes "excessive", yet he likes to stay true to what 'the eyes can see,' since the idea of "pure beauty" is hard to find in the society we live in.     

LOOK Critique

Week 5: Black and White

- Original -

Converting this photo to black and white gave it more of an old-time photograph feel. When I look at it, the mood it presents in nostalgia or remembrance, like I am looking at tangible memory.  

This version of the black and white photo has better contrast.  I feel like it not only presents a sense of nostalgia or remembrance, but it could also be used as a post-card you find at a gift shop.  The shadows are more distinct and well-defined.  The reflection off the glass building is  not as visible as the first, however it gives the image a darker feel to it.  

Week 5 Reading Quiz - Tomatsu and Moriyama Readings

-Week 5 Reading Quiz-

1. What does the phrase “The man who said ‘I saw it! I saw it!’ and passed it by” mean in terms of photography?

The phrase "The man who said 'I saw it! I saw it!' and passed it by" means (in terms of photography) that everyday we pass streets, landmarks and objects we interact with on a daily basis and over-look them as something that can be seen as works of art (photography).  In photography, one must 'look'... just by looking the photographer faces the subject 'head-on' and learns about the subject "inside and out".  Everything that he/she comes in contact with is worth looking at, can become works of art, and can be "photo worthy", if he/she just takes the time to STOP and just LOOK.

2. Drawing on the Daido Moriyama essay and our class discussions explain in your own words how photographs can “contain the living pulse of the human being behind the camera”.

Photographs can "contain the living pulse of the human being behind the camera" based on the sheer fact that what you see in a photograph is based on what the photographer SEES.  Photographs may not tell it's viewer the 'whole truth' but rather the 'truth' or point-of-view of the one who is taking the photo.  Yes, in photography, one can focus on the lighting, the subject/object in the frame, how the subject/object is framed and a number of other techniques, however, what the viewer sees may not be interpreted the same way as how the photographer had envisioned it, yet we still 'see' the life that he/she put into it, we see their 'truth', and their connection with the subject matter, their 'pulse'.  

Before and After

Before

After

Reading Quiz - What The Eye Does Not See

“The link (with the human eye and its usual optical radius)... is not really needed” - Ossip Brik "What the Eye Does Not See"

The concept of the "link between the human eye and its usual optical radius is not really needed" in terms of photography and film is due to the limits one faces when things are only viewed by "the human eye" or at "eye-level". These two mediums (film in particular, and later on in photography) have been able to transform the way we look at different objects.  They capture moments or views that our eyes can't see or even process with out the help of these mediums at a radius that our naked eye can't view on it's own.  In film and in photography, we don't need to use the connection with our eyes and our optical radius, the camera can act on it's own when we simply change the angle in which the camera is placed.  

Looking At Photographs - Garry Winogrand's Untitled

Garry Winogrand

Untitled (1962)

The photograph that captured my eye, almost right away, was Garry Winogrand's Untitled.  As Szarkowski says, Windgrand's picture is "so rich in fact and suggestion."  Photographs sometimes tell a story to it's viewers.  In this photograph, however, the viewer isn't exactly sure what "the story is".  Unlike "conventional" portraits, the subjects (the couple) are not in the middle of the frame, however, the viewer's eyes are still directed to them based on how Windgrand has positioned the couple in comparison of the first fence, directly behind them.  The couple is looking at each other, not directly into the camera, it's as if he was trying to capture/suggest an intimate moment between the two, in what looks like a day at the zoo.  The vertical lines of the cage draw away the viewer's attention, again, allowing all the attention to be drawn onto the couple.  The little objects that are seen in the background are not really in focus, even though the animal is white, and stands out against the gray shadowy background, his gaze seems to be focused on the couple as well.