Virtual Essay

Option 2

Over decades there have been photographers with different styles. For this assignment the photographer that I would be focusing on would be Henri Cartier-Bresson. The reason that I chose Cartier-Bresson was because I really enjoyed his work and style-being invisible.
Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who was considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He also helped develop “street photography” or “real life reportage”. Cartier-Bresson didn’t start off doing photography in the first place; in fact, he was a gifted painter. He only became inspired after viewing a photograph in 1930 by Hungarian photojournalist Martin Munkacsi which showed three naked young African boys. Cartier-Bresson said once, “"The only thing which completely was amazement to me and brought me to photography was the work of Munkacsi. When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and went out into the street.” He then stopped painting and took photography seriously and acquired the Leica camera with 50 mm lens which became his partner for many years.
Henri used Leica 35 mm range finder cameras equipped with normal 50 mm lenses or occasionally a wide angle for landscapes. He wrapped black tape around the camera’s chrome body to make it less conspicuous. With fast black and white films and sharp lenses, Henri was able to photograph almost by stealth to capture the events. He also never photographed with flash as he saw it as “[i]mpolite...like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand."
After understanding some of Cartier-Bresson’s past and his style of photography, I went online and searched for similar photographs as Henri’s. Keeping in mind events, invisible and message; I found five photographs and would explain in this assignment why these photographs reminds me of Henri’s work.

Picture 1




Photographer: Kirstin Springer

Source:http://users.ipfw.edu/virtue/intl/Photo%20Contest/Photo%20Contest%20Winners%2007/39.e.%20Leanna%20on%20the%20Louvre%20fountain%20black%20and%20white.jpg
Picture 1, showed a woman lying on the edge of a well and people that sitting at the far back. This photograph reminds me of Cartier-Bresson’s work because people in the picture weren’t alerted and the photographer captured the moment or events of this currently place. As Cartier-Bresson started off from painting we could also see many of his work resemblance of painting, and as for this picture also gave that feeling to me. The following is a picture of Cartier-Bresson’s that is similar to picture 1.



Photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson

Source:http://edizioni.fotografiafestival.it/archivio/artwork_img/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Diep.jpg

Picture 2






Photographer: Loren Zeman

Source:http://users.ipfw.edu/virtue/intl/Photo%20Contest/Photo%20Contest%20Winners%2007/45.a.%20arms%20of%20the%20old%20mother.JPG
Picture 2 is an old woman holding on to her daughter/grand-daughter. This was a quick shot that came to the photographer mind, as the photographer, Zeman, captured the moments of a tired little girl wrapped around by this old lady and we could tell her age by looking at her hand and face. It captured an event that occurred at this part of the world and looking at this photograph it gave me this really warm and gentle feeling.

Picture 3



Photographer: Jon Akinson

Source:http://www.jon-atkinson.com/Large%20Images/La_Black_And_White1.jpg

Picture 3, we can see a little child sitting on the grass staring at the sky in a dirty shirt. The photographer captured the moment of a child looking lost and uncertain. This was accomplished by being invisible and knowing the right time to hit the shooting button.

Picture 4



Photographer: Ryan

Source:http://thewrittenroad.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/black-and-white-beach.jpg

Picture 4 is of a family of three walking on the beach on a sunny day. The photographer was invisible to the characters and captured this moment of happiness of this happy little kid holding on to the father and mother’s hand. He also made use of the beautiful site and turned it into a picture which could also be viewed as a painting.


Picture 5



Photographer: Patrick Scott Vickers

Source:http://www.scotrick.com/00_assets/00_blog/images/black%20and%20white%20tree%20by%20patrick%20scott%20vickers.jpg

Picture 5, the capture of this tree that lost almost all of the leafs. Spreading this very deem or sad feeling from it; the photographer has captured the message that the tree was giving.


We could see that no matter who the photographer was, they're always trying to capture a moment or events and trying to send us the viewers a message. As for these photographs that I had chosen, we could see some resemblance of Cartier-Bresson’s style

Assignment 3 Photo Journal 2

The main differences and similarities between art and press photography

Before the invention of cameras came, our ancestors carved pictures, events and art on the walls of stone caves. Then as technology evolved, we started to use paint brushes and paper to record events and expressed our ideas. As of today we’re able to record events and express art with the help of cameras and computers for technology effects.
In the world today photographs are wildly used to present events that occur in our daily life to the public, just like the many artists would use paint brushes and papers to paint different arts which are very similar in many ways. The two ways mentioned above could be both considered to be an art form. They both are presenting a message and a story to the viewers. They both used the same tools to help expressing what the photographers were trying to achieve. They were also recording down how the world was like at that current time; in the form of art, it showed the art style at that that current era and as for press, it recorded the events that have occurred. It could also be passed down as time goes by and the things snapped into the photographs would never age and be kept in that frozen position.
Some differences between the two would be, while they could both be considered as art, that press photographs should never be manipulated. Press photographs are presenting the truth of the events or message, therefore, however, if it was manipulated then it wouldn’t be considered to be true and real. As we could see from picture press photo a, the man rinsing his face after a gas pipe explosion, if it was manipulated then the truth would be lost. The background, expression on the person’s face and the environment are all aspect of truth which lets us viewers to see events that occurred while we might be enjoying our Starbucks coffee. On the other hand, manipulation would be fine for art photos, since the artists are trying to present his ideas to the viewers.
The photographs that I picked show different events that occurred and different messages that the artists were trying to present to the viewers. Ideas were different during the shoot of those photographs and different technology were used to help with achieving the effects.

Press photo a

Press Photo b
Photographer: Luiz Vasconcelos
Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/feb/13/photography1?picture=343222612

Art photo a

Source: http://tlodb.wordpress.com/the-one-behind-the-screen/

Art Photo b
Photographer: Michael E. Gordon
Source:http://www.michael-gordon.com/photo.php?id=148&gallery=new

Assignment 2 - Photo Manipulation

Being able to manipulate photo was one of the tool brought to life as technology evolved. Photo manipulation, in some sense, is similar to how painters or artists use their paint brush or eraser to fix up their paintings or sketches. Back in the days when technology wasn't as developed, photo manipulating was almost impossible, so, preparing for one photograph would take longer time. As time progressed, technology and cameras start to become more advanced. Without technology, problems could arise, such as an example of the red eye effect. As of now, technology could fix this problem easily; cameras nowadays would eliminate red eye effect automatically and easily. Moreover, with computers, many people would be able to edit photos with the help of different software. 

For this assignment, I used Adobe Photoshop 6.0 to edit the photos.

Photo A- a picture I found on the internet. It’s of the world’s last swimming elephant in an early morning. Source:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423748456155&set=a.423470516155.213232.27566611155&type=3&theater

Original

Photo A1

For A1, I used the effect of Tint Sepia which can be found in one of the Photoshop effects. Basically, what this effect does is eliminating all the colours and then replace them with sepia. In contrast to the original picture, the effect adds isolation and loneliness which I think shows more of the elephant being the last of its kind.

Photo A2

For this picture, the effect “Tiles” was applied. It did not make great alterations of the original picture; it just simply cut the picture into little pieces therefore making it look like a puzzle. The reason of using such effect was because I like how the picture looks broken, like it’s pieced together from many pictures.

Photo A3

The last effect I used for A3 was called the Lighting Effect. It created a brighter lighting onto the picture on the upper left hand corner. The effect deemphasizes the existence of the elephant on the lower right hand corner, sort of taking away the main character’s importance. However, the contrast makes the elephant looks humble and peaceful being the last of its kind.

Photo B-The second picture was also retrieved from the internet.  

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423474041155&set=a.423470516155.213232.27566611155&type=3&theater

Original

Photo B1

B1 was applied with an effect called angled stroke. What the effect did was altering the picture with brush stroke, so instead of looking like photo, it now looks like a painting.

Photo B2

For B3, I simply eliminated the colours and added sunlight on the upper left hand corner. The removing of the colours had made the picture look softer and the sunlight helped emphasize the young monks’ energy and playfulness.

Photo B3

As for B3, I used the effect “Cutout” to make it seem comic. The effect only carries colours therefore hiding the real characters of the monks, and the background, which leaving only happiness and energy of the picture to show. 

Assignment 1

1. What are the main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today? 

Filippos Margaritis, Athenian Family Group, 1855-60

Photography and portraits in the past possessed different meanings than it is nowadays. In the early days, they were only available for people with status, power, and wealth. Self-portrait back in the days represented self-image, taste, and high class. A wealthy person would use portraits to show off their high class and social status to the society. However, as technology improved day after day, it also became available to the middle class. As opposed to the past, anyone now can own a camera and take pictures of themselves anytime they want. Moreover, a lot of the pictures weretaken in a studio and processed by professional photographers unlike nowadays people can just go to Shoppers and develop the photos digitally.  

2. Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today?

Photographers in the past were people who had the skills of processing and creating images. It was mainly because the cameras in the past were hard to operate and use, photographers had to know them very well to take a picture. Also, developing pictures was time consuming and difficult to perform, unlike now, it can be done by just simply printing them out of a printer. Becoming a photographer not only required time but also money, considering the equipment was not cheap. In today's society, almost anyone with a passion in photography can learn the skills, since it's cheaper and common than before. 

3. What was the impact of technology on the portraits in the past and today? 


The impact of technology brought evolution on the portraits in the past. 

From painting portraits

to black and white

There are all brought by the revolution of mechanical reproduction. 

Resources:

   

and now portraits with colour

http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/product/44024/portraitofawomanakaportraitofmariegerome18671870

http://stathatos.blogspot.com/2011/06/frock-coat-and-foustanella.htm

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Portrait-de-Gerard-de-Nerval-2nd-Half-19th-Century-Posters_i1733779_.htm

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/new_official_portrait_released/ 

Introduction

Hi guys, this is my blog for the photography class :)
I'm currently in accounting of my last semester, so will be graduating in April.
The reason I took this class is because, like most people, I really like taking pictures!
I'm looking forward to working with some you!  :) :)