Author: Josh

Reflections Unit: Set 1 Red Selection Critique

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The above photos are the photos I selected for my red selection. They all represent my vision statement from the beginning of the project. In general, they include reflections on technology. For example, the first photo at the top left of the contact sheet features a reflection of a book through a camera lens. The camera is the technology being used, and in the reflection, the book cover has a cut-off word “dig,” the abbreviation of “digital,” therefore, I think this photo strongly relates to my vision statement. This photo incorporates the techniques of Lee Friedlander, my chosen photographer. When I analyzed one of his photos, I realized that there was a focus on the reflected parts of the photo. In my photo, I decided to draw attention to parts of my photo by making the rest of the photo dark colors such as black, grey, and brown. In this red selection, this photo relates most with my vision statement and my chosen artist. However, my favorite photo in this red selection is the photo at the top right of the contact sheet. In my opinion, the aesthetics of this photo are the most eye-catching compared to the rest of the photos I have taken throughout this set. The natural red tinting of the entire photo gives the feeling of heat, intensity, and wickedness. I like how the photo is blurred on the borders and is extremely clear around the main subject. This creates clarity around the subject and makes the eyes of the audience immediately focus on it. In addition, the main subject of this photo is a pair of AirPods, which is considered one of the most popular technologies in modern society. Therefore, the popularity of the subject can be symbolized by the red tinting of the photo. The rest of the photos relate to my statement of intent because they also feature a type of technology. For example, lights, audio mixers, fountains, taps, and security cameras. Overall, I selected these photos for my red selection because they resemble my original vision statement the most.

Reflection Unit: Set 1 Contact Sheet

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This is my first contact sheet for the reflection unit. Most of these photos were taken throughout the school. In general, the main subject of these photos are mundane installments scattered throughout the school. Some of these photos fit with my statements of intent because they include reflections of different types of technology. In some of these photos I used reflection techniques inspired from my artist of choice, Lee Friedlander. However, unlike Friedlander, all of my current photos are colored. At the moment, these are all of the photos I have on the topic of reflection but I will gradually take more photos in subsequent sets and select photos that fit better with my statement of intent. The color categories for this set are yellow, green, and red. Yellow photos are the ones that lack quality or do not fit with my statement of intent. Green photos have quality, but may or may not be related to my statement of intent. Red photos have quality and strongly relate to my statement of intent. They are the best photos of the entire set. I will do an analysis specifically on the red photos in the next post.

Artist Analysis: Lee Friedlander

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Below are six photos that show Lee Friedlander’s style in photography:

Lee Friedlander - Artists - Laurence Miller Gallery

Lee Friedlander: America By Car | Whitney Museum of American Art

Lee Friedlander Represented by Luhring Augustine and Fraenkel Gallery ...

Lee Friedlander: A Perfect Framing of American Everyday Life | The ...

Lee Friedlander Florida 1963 | Fotografie, Fotograaf

Lee Friedlander – America by car - Photolux Magazine

Lee Friedlander is a renowned American photographer who was active in the mid-1900s. He was born on July 14, 1934, and started taking city photos in 1948. Focusing mostly on the urban landscape, Friedlander has “an ability to organize a vast amount of visual information in dynamic compositions, [allowing him to make] humorous and poignant images among the chaos of city life, dense natural landscape, and countless other subjects.” (Fraenkel Gallery). Friedlander chose to take photos of the urban landscape because he was born in an urban area, allowing him to have insight into the environment from a young age and grow with a personal attachment to things within the environment.

I will analyze the photo below:

Lee Friedlander – America by car - Photolux Magazine

The photo depicts a view of the urban landscape from the interior of a car. The entire photo shows the landscape through a first-person perspective. Most of the photo is shown directly in front of the photographer, but a section is shown through a mirror behind the photographer. The reflected portion of the photograph shows a metal bridge with people walking on it. These people are apparently the only live subjects in the photo. Aside from the mirrored section, the scenery directly in front of the camera can be divided into sections. The division between these sections is very distinct because there is a thick car frame in the middle. The larger section on the left depicts tall buildings and architecture. The smaller section on the right depicts an intersection of a street with moving cars and a bridge overhead. There is a contrast between these sections. The section on the left suggests a thoroughly developed urban landscape, while the section on the right suggests a less developed urban area—the changes in the viewpoint intrigue the audience. When looking at this photo, my attention is directed to the left section as the general tone of the image is brighter and more appealing. There are distinct lines within the parameters of the photo. Aforementioned, there is a thick car frame in the middle right of the photo. In addition, the two distinct sections of the photos are framed by the windows of the car. The traffic light poles in the foreground and background are lines that serve to make the photo look more cluttered, emphasizing the bustling atmosphere of the city. Friedlander uses the concept of space to add additional depth to the photo. He captures the interior of the car to enforce a first-person perspective. It encapsulates the audience within the photo and makes them feel as if they are in the photo themselves. As a result, they can see what Friedlander sees. Overall, Friedlander uses the techniques of perspective, reflection, division, contrast, line, and space to make the audience feel as if they are immersed within the frame of this photo. I will make use of these techniques within my own photos to achieve similar effects.

Reflections: Reflection on Connecting

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I learned that various artists use different types of reflections in their photos to display unique effects that intrigue the audience. Furthermore, a particular type of reflection can represent a certain mood or/and message the photographer is trying to convey to the audience. The types of reflections in photos are often associated with the time and place the photographer was living in. I also learned that photographers use different techniques to capture reflections. These techniques depend highly on their personal style and purpose, so it is hard to find two photographers who use the same techniques in their photographs. Photographers can change the type of surface the subject is reflected in. They can also adjust the camera’s aperture to focus on minuscule reflections/large reflections. In the sub-genres of reflections, some artists inspire me because they use the concept of reflections as only a part of their photos. They use concepts from multiple other genres and combine them with the concept of reflections to create something truly authentic. Likewise, I will incorporate this in my photos.

Reflections: Statement of Intent

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Branching off of the ideas from my mind map, I decided that I would focus on reflections on non-flat metallic objects. However, I realized that the idea of non-flat metallic objects might be too vague and distant from our lives to make an impact on the audience. So, I changed my focus to reflections on the metallic surfaces of technology. It is still related to the initial idea of metallic objects but it has become more related to our personal lives since technology is an essential part of our lives. Technology can include: electronics devices, vehicles, appliances, etc.

Statement of Intent: The title of my project is Steel Visage. The intended feeling felt by the audience is confusion and mesmerization. This project relates to the idea of how we heavily rely on technology in our lives. This idea might be seldom recognized in reality so in my photos I am going to bring attention to it. Therefore, the audience should feel confused and mesmerized when they come across these photos. 

I will get inspiration and develop my ideas by looking for photographs by Erwin Blumenfeld that use innovative techniques to show the frontal and side views of the subject. This type of inspiration will be especially useful for my project because it would be difficult to capture reflections on the metallic surfaces of technology. In addition, I will explore the eerie psychological portraits by Blumenfeld to find out some ways that I could make my photos have an emotional impact on the audience. 

erwin blumenfeld

The photo above by Blumenfeld has a very profound impact on me because it depicts a women’s separated reflection in countless layers of mirrors. Compared to a photo with a reflection in only one mirror, this photo has more distortion and abstraction, giving the photo a more mysterious feeling. It makes the audience question the actual appearance of the woman, piquing their curiosity. I will incorporate this idea in my photos to have a more profound impact on the audience.

Reflections: Mind Map

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This is a mind map that explores various concepts that I might include in my reflections project. The three main subcategories related to reflections that I thought of were surfaces, self-reflection/identity, and abstraction. The different photos that I have included are connected to any ideas that they are related to. Photos with more connections are more representative of my ideas. After considering all of these concepts, I came to a conclusion that I would focus on reflections on non-flat metallic surfaces. The reasoning behind is that the the photo with the spoon at the bottom of the mind map connects to all three subcategories. Therefore, it represents the combination of all my thoughts on this project.

Researching the starting point: Reflections

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Lee Friedlander

Naoya Hatakeyama

Lisette Model

Antonio Gutierrez Pereira

Robert Holden’s Burning house project

Lee Friedlander developed the visual language of urban “social landscape.” Many of his photographs include fragments of store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, posters and street signs. Similarly, Naoya Hatakeyama explores human intervention with the landscape and natural materials, including city life and the built environment. Lisette Model, an Austrian-born American photographer primarily focuses on the frank humanism in her street photography. The aforementioned three photographers are all similar to one another because they all focus on the reflecting the urban landscape and exploring aspects of city life. However, these photographers use reflection in different ways. Friedlander uses the wing mirror of vehicles to reflect scenery opposite to the range of view of the camera. Hatakeyama uses water as a primary element in his photographs to reflect different types of lighting. Model uses windows to reflect both the human subject and the city landscape so that they overlap.

On the other hand, Antonio Gutierrez Pereira does not focus on reflecting the urban landscape but rather the personality and characteristics of a human. Like Model, he uses glass to distort the features of the human subject and reveal a perspective that has not been seen before.

Different from all of the other photographers, Robert Holden created a project where people would take pictures of belongings that they would bring if their house was burning, hence, it was named the burning house project. This project makes Holden different from the other photographers because it neither reflects an urban landscape nor the physical features of a human. Instead, it focuses on the internal reflection of someone by making them choose belongings that reflect on their daily life.

 

 

Photo 2 Initial Thoughts

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Possible Project Ideas:

1.

Close shots of small objects. I will attempt to create a scene from real life in the smallest scale possible. I will adjust the aperture of the camera to make the focus clear. I will use objects such as lego and figurines as subjects. The subjects in the photo will interact with an everyday object. For example, from the photo below, there are lego stormtroopers pushing a camera lens. For special effects I will use clay, paper, and glass.

2.

Photos of objects in colored latex coverings. I will use latex of a certain color and put objects associated with that color behind the latex. The only thing that shows in the photo is the color of the latex and shape of the object. I might use people as subjects for this project.

3.

Photos of objects in motion. This project will focus on capturing objects in motion using sports mode on the camera. Sports mode will ensure that the photos do not blur like they do on the iPhone. In addition, I will adjust the shutter speed of the camera to achieve the desired effect. I will use people as subjects and let them use props and equipment.

The three projects above will be done in sequence. Throughout the process, I might change a few ideas if the setting of a photo is different or if materials are unavailable.

Set 3 “Mindset” Red Selection of Studio Photos

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The above is the third and final set of photos I took for the identity unit. They are based on Irving Penn’s black and white fashion portraits. Irving Penn is the original artist who I analyzed in the responding part of the unit. The link to the post can be found here:

Identity: Responding

The first photo I will analyze is the photo to the right of the contact sheet. The primary subject is Joseph Song. He is wearing a pair of glasses that have the number “7” in each frame. This is to symbolize the belief that grades are the most important thing to a student because 7 is the maximum grade that a student can receive in each class. In high school, good grades are really important because they determine your future university, which can have a profound effect on your identity. The subject looks extremely proud, as can be seen through looking at his facial expression and hand gestures. He is proud since the only thing he can see are his good grades. The position of his head makes him look as if he does not acknowledge there is an audience, further emphasizing his pride. A black backdrop is used to contrast the light grey clothing that he is wearing. It juxtaposes the light grey and makes it stand out more. The light grey complexion of the subject’s skin then again contrasts the black glasses. Moreover, the black lenses contrast the white seven on the glasses. The constant juxtaposition of colors makes the entire subject stand out. This photo primarily focuses on the formal elements of tone and shape. It focuses on shape since the posture/ shape of the subject’s body can communicate another message.

The second photo (middle) shows the same subject as the first photo but in a different pose. This time he is looking directly at the audience. Instead of holding his glasses with his hands, his hands are holding his knees. This pose puts the subject’s head in line with his back. Compared to the first photo, the subject does not look as relaxed. The combination of the subject’s posture and the subject’s expression indicates that he is tired. However, the subject is still wearing his glasses, meaning that he is still pursuing good grades in school. The meaning of this photo is that doing your best at school can be tiring but ultimately worth it in the end. This is a message that is present in multiple cultures and shapes one’s identity. This photo focuses on the formal elements of tone and shape, just like the first photo.

The third photo (left) shows a different main subject compared to the two previous photos. The main subject is leaning back with his eyes closed. He looks generally relaxed. At the same time, a pair of hands is trying to put a pair of glasses on the man subject. Coincidentally, these are the same glasses that the subject wore in the two previous photos. One interpretation of this photo is that being around people who are working hard for good grades can make you work harder too. Especially in a school environment, the effect that others have on you can be profound. Sometimes, you are unconsciously conforming to their beliefs. In this photo, the main subject has their eyes closed and looks relaxed because he is not opposed to the belief that is being introduced to him. However, he does not willingly accept it either. He is accepting the belief not based on his personal judgment but because others around him share the same belief. Overall, the main takeaway from this particular photo is the idea that conformity can unconsciously shape one’s identity. Similar to the other photos from this set, this photo also uses the formal element of tone and shape.