Blog Prompt #20 Reply

“We therefore consume images fleetingly and randomly. It takes very special pictures to grasp and hold our attention. We need to be seduced by images that outdo reality through excessiveness—as in advertising and movies” (Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler). What do you think about this quote? How do you think that our lives are changing as the speed of our interaction with photographic images grows?

I agree with this quote because photography is becoming so much more common, that we must rely on GREAT photography to really wow the viewers. It is sort of scary to me as a photographer that just anyone can go get a pretty decent digital SLR for less than $500 and then suddenly think that they are a photographer, but as this quote says, the photos must seduce us and "outdo reality" of regular photography. Our lives will be more effected by this, because it will be much harder to sort through the quantity in order to find the "quality".

“But the term ‘Infotainment’ also implies this: with the gradual fictionalization of even the news, the old categorical oppositions of ‘documenting’ and ‘staging’, appearance and reality gradually dissolve. They are being replaced by a variety of hybrid forms for which it will be impossible, in fact pointless, to attempt to distinguish between fact and fiction. Even the accusation that ‘Infotainment’ is guilty of continuous ‘lying’ is therefore unjustified, for it is neither ‘true’ nor ‘false’. Like advertising, movies and all other genres that adhere to the laws of fiction, it works at a level beyond these oppositions—the level of ‘hyper-reality’, where reality is ‘simulated’.” (Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged PhotographyEdited by Michael Kohler). What are your thoughts on “Infotainment” and how it affects our lives? How does it affect the way we see and understand “reality”? How does it affect photography in general?

I have mixed emotions about this. I really LOVE the opportunity that photoshop holds and what it can do to photos, but I also feel that it has really changed the art part of "photography". If anything now, photography is becoming more of a mixed or hybrid form as mentioned above. I just think that it is crazy that people rely on photography as affirmations of certain buzz and news stories, even knowing how much computers can alter images and skew the truth behind them. That is like taking evidence statements at a crime scene from somebody that you know is completely capable of lying. This type of photography and "infotainment", by no means needs to stop, people just need to know that it should be taken more as a grain of salt.

Blog Prompt #19 Reply

I can't really think of anything that shouldn't be photographed. Obviously there are SOME things that shouldn't be if they are extremely illegal or looked down upon by the general public, but other than that, it seems like all things are a go because photography is such a free spirited art.


It's hard to think of things that cannot be photographed, but the only thing that I can think of is emotion. Yes we can CONVEY emotion through our photographs, but we will never know for sure what that person is feeling inside. Emotions run much deeper than our physical shell.


Something I would never care to photograph in my life is death. I think about how awful it would have to be to be a crime scene photographer and to have to document human deaths and blood splatter and so on. I just think it would pull me in way too much and make it personal because of the fact that those poor victims are fellow human beings and I just wouldn't be able to emotionally handle it!

Tom Friedman

The artist that I chose to research was Tom Friedman. The website that I found with information about him said that self-portraits make up a lot of his work, yet when I looked at the photo I didn't see the "self-portrait" anywhere. As I read a little further I realized that he does these in a very skewed and abstract way. I read that he actually uses a flat-bed scanner and drags the image while the scan is taking place to make these really abstract photos. This gives it a really abstract, dynamic, and almost landscape look to his work. "If one looks closely, Friedman's hair, belt, and shoes are visible as horizontal bands, almost like an abstracted landscape".

www.cartincollection.com/subject/friedman.html

Untitled, 1998 by Tom Friedman

Blog Prompt #16, #17, #18

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

Only because I had a GREAT imagination when I was little!!! I am a FIRM believer in having a great imagination. That is what makes verbal stories great as you picture them in your head, imagining what-ifs, and all that good stuff. There is a reason that we were given the ability to imagine and I think it is important to exercise that. Could you imagine how boring life would be without imagination? Ick.

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

Totally agree! Especially when I think of Ansel Adams' work and how amazing it is. It seems like nothing else could compare. It seems like as a photographer, everywhere you look, your mind is appreciating nature's beauty and wondering how it could be photographed. Then, you get this ideal photo in your mind and the hardest part is making it happen, if it is even possible. Then, after you photograph it, there is a large chance that it won't look half as good as what you pictured in your mind.

“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” Berenice Abbott

I sort of agree with this statement, because I can no way picture taking a photograph of the past or future. I guess I think of photography to technically sometimes and especially when thinking about this quote because I just picture a photo being taken at that moment. The minute you take a photo, it begins to become the past because that moment in time has already passed.

Blog Prompt #15 Reply

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 two photographs that you might take that could be collaged together to tell a new narrative about these important places and how they relate to who you are and were.


I think that I would photograph my shoes from the past and the present. I think the size comparison and watching them grow would be cool to watch not only me grow physically but by style too. You would watch me go through my tomboy stage as well as my casual and fancy and sporty times too. I think that there could even be a bit of symbolism behind it because of the places my shoes have taken me. May be kind of interesting?

Blog Prompt #14 Reply

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 picturing a familiar space, I think of my home. When picturing faraway, I picture one of our treestands. Although this isn't an unfamiliar place to me, it is very "untouched" by humans. It is very much a part of nature where I can sit and watch animals be themselves without them even knowing I am there. If I were to photograph this place, I would maybe photograph animals so that when viewing the photos, people would think to themselves, "How did she get that without them knowing?" If I were to photograph my home, I may photograph different parts that I would know just by feeling them. Perhaps the doorknob that I touch everytime I walk in the door or maybe my favorite cup to drink out of.