We Are Family

Question: Who said: "the camera gave me the license to strip away what you want people to know about you, to reveal what you can't help people knowing about you'?

Answer: Diane Arbus


Question: Do you think that photographers tend to pray on vulnerable people?

Answer: Honestly this is not a question that has a yes or no answer. Sometimes it does appear that photographers can pray on those who are vulnerable. However other times they would take photos of people who would not be concidered vulnerable such as the wealthy. But the big question that then arises from the first question is who do we consider vulnerable, some can be physically, ecomically or mentally vulnerable and who determines who is who.


Question: What is Larry Clark's Tulsa project about?

Answer: It is a project about the youth of a suburb involving sex, drugs and guns from Clark's hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.


Question: What is the title of Nan Goldin's most renowned work?

Answer: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.


Question? What is Nobuyoshi Araki's and what does he photograph today?


Answer: He believes that if you don not shoot photography than you do not remember life and so now he only takes photos of thing's in life he wants to remember. Today he photographs his daily life and the people he encounters and events which take place.


Question? What was Richard Billingham's work about?

Answer: His work was about the working class life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain and in particularly the life of his separated parents. His father was also an alcoholic.


Photographer:  One photographer whose work I really enjoyed from the film was that of Larry Sultan. This reason for this was he was capturing everyday life in the Reagan era USA, of his parents and family and although the pictures are very bright there feels that there is an underlying sense of darns and despair. It is almost as if they are not real.

Airbrushing and Slimming

Airbrush Original

Airbrush Re-done

Slimming Original

Slimming Re-done

Photo Montage

Super Man and Background Finished

Original Background

Super Man Original

Punisher and Fire

Punisher Original

Explosion Original

Photoshop: Black & White + Photo Manipulation

Brian Before

Brian After

Guy Before

Guy After

Aquarium Original

Aquarium Copy with Crop Tool

Four Courts Original

Four Courts After

Dublin Docks Original

Dublin Docks Colored Pencil

Dublin Docks Glass

Dublin Docks Craquelure 

2 Girls Original

2 Girls in Red

'The Genius of Photography: Right Place, Right Time'

Q: What is described as 'one of the most familiar concepts of photography'?

A: Henri Cartier-Bresson was the first person to create the 'Decisive Moment' concept which has now become described as the most familiar in photography.

Q: Should you trust photography?

A: It is widely regarded that we should not fully trust photography. Arthur C. Danto the recently deceased american art critic once said "it was a huge mistake to trust the photograph from the beginning.

Q: What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?

A: The Leica was revolutionary because it was compact, quite, a new lens and also it allowed the photographer to have one eye to the side, viewing what they were capturing as the view was now close to the edge of the camera.

Q: What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?

A: George Bernard Shaw once said that he 'would exchange all the paintings of Christ for one snap shot'.

Q: Why were Tony Vaccaro's negatives destroyed by the army censors?

A: Acting as the armies official photographer Vaccaro was under army regulations to use a Speed Graphic Camera, however this was far too big and difficult to carry around so Vaccaro decide to use an Argus C3, developing the pictures in army helmets. His photographs were extremely graphic capturing images of dead GI's and the army felt the public was not prepared to see these images and so destroyed the negatives.

Q: Who was Henryk Ross, what was his job?

A: Henryk Ross was a Polish Jew living in the Lodz Nazi ghetto in Poland. He was employed by the Department of Statistics for the Jewish Council as a photographer. He did this was also capturing the horrific treatment the Nazis inflicted on Jewish people, while also maintaing a good relationship with the German occupiers, by taking propaganda photography for them.

Q: Which show was a 'sticking plaster for the wounds of the war', how many people saw it and what cliche photograph did it end on?

A: The Family of Man was the show, first shown in 1955, which was described as a 'sticking plaster for the wounds of the war'. It was seen by over 9 Million people and it ended with a photograph by photographer W Eugene Smith which was called 'The Walk to Paradise Garden'. It was a picture depicting two children waking into sunlight with blackness behind them depicitng the cliched idea of a bright and prosperous future lying ahead for everybody.

Exposure Exercise = Aperture and Shutter Speed

Great Depth of Field

Slow Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Shallow Depth of Field

Panning

Photography Proposal - Graves/Graveyards

Mark Collie once wrote “You can outrun the Devil if you try, but you will never outrun the hands of time.” This to me has always been a very strong statement. I see it as quite possibly the most apt declaration about life. It calls to mind the one true connection everybody on this earth has and that is the awaiting embrace of death. Death has always interested me but more precisely graves and graveyards have interested me, the final resting places of people who have passed.

Death is a mystery, what lies beyond, is there a heaven or is there just nothing? Yet final resting places are not. Some people have very unassuming markers while some have lavish and exaggerated monuments.

With my project I propose to capture these final resting places, from the simple and modest graves to the more prolific and overstated. I propose to show the contrast of one persons’ final resting place to another, including the older graves which have become worn over time to the newer more crisp forms. I would like to show how as time passes graves become more beaten and old looking because as the time passes the family members of those who have already gone begin to pass themselves and how graves stand unvisited and untreated with no flowers on them while others are covered in flowers and sometimes gifts. Also I would like to try and show an understanding as to why people come miles around sometimes other countries to visit certain graves such as those of Michael Collins or Phil Lynott.

I would also like this project to capture the haunting aspects many feel when in a graveyard. I aim to capture the stillness, quietness and the somewhat otherworldly feeling that can overcome a person while walking the aisles between graves (perhaps maybe catch a spirit on camera). The project will hopefully try and show an understanding of the idea behind our final resting places. Why is it that we choose to be buried and why do some choose to be cremated and is there a universal fear of death?

The project has a start date of October 13^th 2013 with a proposed final date of March 14^th 2014. For it I will be using a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS. To accomplish my project I will be visiting many graveyards across Dublin at varying times of the day, the reason for this is that I believe that the lighting will be a major factor in obtaining the images I want. I will be photographing a wide variety of graves, including some of famous people, and to this I will certainly need to communicate with those who operate the site. I also intend to gather pictures of people who are visiting a grave, although this may be a little bit more difficult so I may make it easier by using friends and family members as my subjects as this would be more appropriate.

Finally when my project is complete I then plan to publish the best images I have gathered and publish them in a book and also plan to show them in an exhibition. My aim will be to show the frailty of life, the waiting hands of death and what becomes of our names when we finally do pass. It will not be a bleak outlook but rather it will ideally just make people stop, think and perhaps realise how precious life is and perhaps make them remember what is good in their lives. My aim is also to maybe make people think twice when they are passing a grave and perhaps think about what kind of person they were.

 

War Photographer - James Nachtwey

Why did James Nachtwey become a war photographer?

James Nachtwey made the decision to become a war photographer in the early 70s when the Vietnam war was ongoing. It was the images which were coming out of Vietnam which pushed James to his profession. He believed that these images showed the straight forward truth of the cruelty and horror of the war and became deeply affected by these and decide to follow in the tradition. He felt such high emotions that it was the witnessing of human history, the history of real and ordinary people with human experiences and emotions. It was not until a night in 1980 when when he eventualy woke saying he was ready for the task and decided to head for New York.


What conflicts and issues did he cover in the film?

In the film James covered a variety of issues, at the beggining we were witness to his first conflict which was after the war in Kosovo. Here we saw pictures of the aftermath of war including the ruins of buildings, the loss of possessions and displacement with families and we also saw the effect it has on human life.

The second issue which James covered was poverty in Jakarta where he was photography the conditions in which people live. People who from his own words are "not drug addicts or dropouts" but rather people who have come searching for a better life who now find themselves sleeping beside and in-between railroad tracks. Here he also photographed a man who lost his leg and arm when he was hit by a train and through the images shows how he lives and copes while having a family to care for.

 We also saw James cover a continuing conflict in Ramallah, Palestine and after this we then saw his work in relation to famine in Sudan.

What do you think of his approach to photographing people in crisis?

James Nachtwey has a very tough job in that he is capturing such an emotional aspect of life, one filled with death, murder, chaos and so much heart ache. It was clear from this documentary how much his work affected him yet he handles himself with such composure and deals with it in a very respectful way. It is clear he does not intrude upon peoples lives but works towards making himself welcome by his subjects. James says himself that "normal codes are suspended... I would not be taking these photographs unless I was accepted". It is an approach that he handles with great care and balance, while looking for the shot he still shows certain amounts of humanity and not losing himself.


What kind of personalities do you think photojournalists have to have?

There has to be a sense of disconnection or separation from your surroundings because in order to cover certain stories you would need to be able to hold your emotions in tact and not let them control your actions or your work. However there must be a good balance because when we see James with people we still see his sense of humanity in dealing with others especially ones in the situations he is capturing. You would also need a strong will of character so as not to lose everything your own personal self belief and morals.


What kind of subjects does Stern Magazine cover?

Stern Magazine covers many of the same issues which James covers in his work from war, famine, poverty, conflict, basically it covers social documentary.


What pictures end up being used?

The pictures which will make the final print will most likely be the most striking, the hardest hitting images. Sometimes the most shocking or violent.

Photo Marathon

Love is in the Air

Street Art

Halloween

Dirty Old Town

Street Style

VILNIUS: Photographs of Old Town

Currently the Gallery of Photography in Dublin is hosting an exhibition called Vilnius: Photographs of Old Town. It runs from the 3^rd-15^th of October and in this exhibition it is the work of photographer Kęstutis Stoškus which is on display. Stoškus is a Lithuanian architectural photographer from the town of Dūdlaukis and has put his talents towards showing piecing some of the architectural qualities of the old town. After graduating from economics Stoškus turned his attention to photography and has been working in the field since 1985. He regularly works in the medium of black and white photography and rarely do people feature in Stoškus work and in this exhibition that trend continues as he focuses more on allowing the buildings/architecture, his main interest, and their surroundings to take centre stage.

Cathedral from Tilto St.

When you first set foot into the exhibition especially if you come in not knowing anything about the photographer you quickly realise this artist clearly feels more content with using black and white images. This was something that first grasped my attention as black and white would be my preferred option in many cases. With certain photographs such as Cathedral from Tilto Street, the black and white give off a certain dream like quality with the foreground almost completely engulfed in darkness, getting brighter as we move close to the Chatedral which is then almost wholly white showing perhaps a sense of a religious calling. 

Cathedral Vilnius

Another image in which the black and white ads to the image is, Detail of the Interior of the (Franciscan) Church of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in this image the opposite technique used in the earlier photograph is used and now we have a bright foreground with a darker background. With this applied the image seems to convey a darker meaning, perhaps the road ahead is a dangerous path and one must go with caution. Other photographs which really benefit from the black and white are the Rasy Cemetary pictures of which there are three and also one called Bernadine Cemetary where in all of these images the black and white really convey the nature of cemeteries and the fact that they are where the dead rest, it is quite an interesting collection of photos to make one question life, death and the unknown. On the flip side however there are some photographs that feel too intense or that the light has taken a lot from the image. One such image is Panorama of Old Town with Gate of Dawn where the white of the snow in the image is far too strong and detracts from what could be a nice photo.

Overall the exhibit is interesting look into a town that I had never heard of before but it is a fascinating display of black and white photography which in my personal view contains elements of religion, death, humanity, the unknown and a sense of loss.

Vilnius

Fixing The Shadow

Fixing the Shadows is an interesting BBC documentary charting the the history of photography. It begins with the idea of photography and what it can actually mean to certain individuals and meanings that can be drawn from it. It looks at the mysterious power which a photograph can hold between not only those who see it but those who are in it and the stories which are being told along with the questions being asked. The documentary examines the intrigue with which photography is still connected with today.

We are introduced to the idea of a camera obscura which is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen or clear surface. It is used in drawing and was one of the inventions which led to photography and the camera. We are also introduced to Andre Kertesz who is described as one of the forefathers of what is now modern photography. Along with Kertesz, Englishman Henry Talbot made major contributions to the development of photography as an artistic medium. His work on photo reproduction led to the creation of the photo glyphic engraving process. As with many inventors and artists Talbot had a rival in the form of Louis Daguere who was famous for the daguerreotype of photography. Although Daguere's biggest problem was that he went in search of fame while Talbot looked at developing his medium and ultimately it was Talbot who found the fame Deguere sought. The biggest issue for Geguere was the daguerreotype method could not produce multiple copies of a photo.

Nelsons Column Under Construction - Henry Talbot

We then see with photographers such as Eliphat Brown how photography travelled all the way around the world with some of her photographs from Asia.

Eliphat Brown - Japanese Women

As we progress we later see how artists changed their painting style to incorporate the cropping styles used in photography. While certain photographers and artists from today such as William Burke explain how their art has developed and exists today thanks to the expanding life of photographers and photography.

William Burke - NY Crime Scene

Finally we learn how George Eastman founded the Kodak company in 1888 which still exists today and how their Brownie Camera opened up photography to the entire public while the rest as they say is history.