1. Ernst Haas

The photographer that I chose is Erns Haas t who is a great Austrian blurry photographer. Most of his photographs are based on the context of a blur. Moreover, as you see those photos above, he utilizes many different subjects in his pictures, such as flowers, horses, skis, cows, etc. Also, most of his photographs have blur on both background and subject, which shows that he tried to express beauty by only using the blur. This characteristic is one of my reasons for choosing this photographer because my vision is to make photography only blur. Another feature of him is that his photographs fit one of the characteristics of abstraction. Since he uses blur for both subject and background, it is hard to recognize the photography subject. Lastly, his photographs blur because the subject’s speed is fast, such as horses, cars, people, etc. Furthermore, the quotes below also made me choose this person because the part that says “You can put this feeling into a picture” shows that we can also express the feeling using the blur. I always wanted to express my emotion/ideas using blur photos. Therefore, I can tell the concept by watching how this photographer said his view using blur photos.

Quotes:

“You become things, you become an atmosphere, and if you become it, which means you incorporate it within you, you can also give it back. You can put this feeling into a picture. A painter can do it. And a musician can do it, and I think a photographer can do that too and that I would call the dreaming with open eyes.” Ernst Haas

2.

There are several reasons I chose this photo; one reason is that it has the characteristic of abstraction, which is the image’s subject is unclear. The second reason is that a photo that I want to take is a photo that has blur in both subject and the background, and this photo is an excellent example of it.

One unusual thing about this photo is that other blurred images usually blur only the background or the subject, but this photo blurs both.

I think the focus is the best-representing element for this photo because one typical characteristic of the blurred image is that the focus is unclear.

This element is essential because the focus is the characteristic of the blurred photos. Moreover, the element focus distinguishes blurred images from other images because other images usually have a clear focus, but blurred images don’t.

As I mentioned in upper sentences, the artist makes the photo abstract by putting blur to both the subject and the background, making it the viewers harder to recognize the subject, mainly this photo.

I like this style because he expressed the beauty of the photography even though everything is blurred, and I always wanted to tell beauty by only using the blur.

Therefore, when I take photos, I will also make both subject and background blurred and express the beauty of the photography.

3.

My vision is to take photos with blur on both subject and background with many various subjects, and the message or emotion that I would provide in the pictures will be diverse, but there will be many photos with a message of hope. I will take an image in the style of Ernst Haas, who is famous for taking blurred photos with both blurred subjects and backgrounds. I am particularly inspired by…

In the first and second photos, I think the photographer symbolizes the sunlight as hope, which is what I would want to take. Also, in the third photo, the photographer made the photo’s mood using the power of blur photos. Therefore, I want to take pictures of many different subjects and messages/themes/emotions using the technique blur.

https://padlet.com/kevinkang11/2dng1m6l9esgkhp9

The beauty of blur

The message/goal of my photography is to make the audiences realize the beauty of the blur photographs because most people think blur photos are not a good style. I want the audience to be surprised because the blur photos are beautiful. I will be inspired and developed by looking at a famous photographer’s photographs related to the blur. Also, I am inspired by the photographers who only use blur in their photographs to express beauty. I believe that blur photographs are one of the best photography styles, so I want to know more about this.

Which ”element(s)” is/are best represented in each picture?

For 1,2,6,10,11, I think the shapes are best to represent these five photos. For 3,12 I think the texture and repetition are best to represent these two photos because there are repetitions of small dots/lines and those repetitions are forming the texture. For 4,5,7 I think lines and shapes are best to represent those three photos because those photos include lines and lines are forming long rectangle shapes. Lastly, For 8,9 I think repetition is best to represent because for picture 8, there are repetitions of the circles and there are repetitions of the square in the 9th photo.

Try to capture photographs that look like drawings.

Compare your images with the drawings. Which ones worked and why?

1 This photo is a photo of my closet, and it is one of the best photos that worked for the first design, because similar to the first design, there are totally different colors and each color is taking up about a half part of the photography.

2This photo is best represents the second design because just like the design, the photo includes a clean background with the square spaced thing at the top right corner of the photo.

3 This photo is the towel, and it is representing the third design because if we look close to the towel, there are small circles repeating which is just like the third design.

4 This photo is representing the fourth photo because half of the photo is covered with horizontal lines and the other half does not.

5 This photo is representing the fifth photo because there are two vertical lines, which is identical to the design.

6 This is the light for the hallway of the ISB, and it is representing the sixth design because it contains clear background with the circle in the middle.

7 If you look at the shelf part, there are two vertical lines and one horizontal line that goes through those two vertical lines.

8 This is representing the eighth photo because it is containing several identical circles on the clear background.

9 This photo is representing the ninth photo because there are a lot of identical square shapes in the photo.

10 This photo is representing the tenth photo because there are blank spaces in top left and down right of the photo which is just like the tenth design.

11 This photo is representing the eleventh design, because similar to the 11th design, there is the subject in the middle and blank space in the top left and right corners.

12 This photo is best represents the last design because the design includes the repetitions of the short lines and same in this photo, there are lines repeating.

Which ones didn’t work so well, and why?

1 Good

2 It would be better if the square on the top right corner was smaller and more square.

3 It would be better if the small circles were less compacted.

4. I cannot identify the subject of the photo.

5 I cannot identify the subject of the photo.

6 Good

7 It didn’t work so well because the thickness of the lines are different unlike the design (the horizontal line is thicker than two other vertical lines)

8 It would have been better if there were more circles, the photo would have been more identical with the design.

9 It was good even though there were some circle-shaped lights between some squares.

10 It did not work so well because the width of the subject in the 10th design should be different, to be more specific the width of the subject should be the longest in the bottom left corner and as it goes to the top right corner, the size should shrink. However, the size of the subject was constant.

11 Good

12 Good

1. 
2. The author utilized shapes, lines, and tone. Because there are lines that make the shape of the shadow. Also, the shadow part and non-shadow part are making tone.
3. I would name this photo, ‘Beauty of shadow’ because the shadow in this photo is beautiful due to its shapes, tone, and lines.
4. I think photos using shadow usually provide the background of the shadow to make the photo look nice, but in this photo, the author did not make the background clear and made the photo look good only with the shadow.
5. Describe the use of line, shape, pattern, texture, tone, and focus

Lines: The photo is containing the lines of the shadow to make the photo look good.

Shapes: The photo contains beautiful shapes of the shadow, also making the photo beautiful.

Pattern: Some part of the photo is repeated.  Especially this part.

Texture: The texture of the background seems to be hard (Because it looks like wood)

Tone: The photo contains the tone of the shadow part and the non-shadow part, making the photo beautiful

Focus: The focus of this photo is the shadow and the author tried to reveal beauty only through shadow. Also, it is hard to recognize other things like the background since the background is not the focus of this photo.

6.  I like this photo because it is different from other photos, this photo does not use a background to show beauty, but only uses shadow to reveal the beauty. However, other photos utilize a beautiful background to make the photo look good.

1. Formal Elements are the fundamental elements of photography and the mixture of those formal elements make up photography.
2. 6 types of Formal elements

Line: There are 3 main types of lines, they are vertical lines (up and down), horizontal lines (right and left), curved lines, and diagonal. lines. Also, they are the most fundamental elements of photography because it creates all other elements especially, shapes. Moreover, another unique type of line is converging vertical lines, photographies with this line usually contain several lines that go toward a direction which makes the audiences feel like the lines are going to meet.

Shape: Shape is the second most fundamental visual element. It means recognition, it helps the audiences to convey the nature of the subject including what the subject is and what the subject is like. Also, shows how well the subject interacts with surroundings. Lastly, the number of shapes affects the number of the focus point. For example, if there is one dominant shape, there will be one clear focus point.

Repetition/Pattern: First of all, those two elements are not the same because the pattern can be repetition but the repetition can’t be the pattern. This is because the repetition is when color or shape or line is repeated, but the pattern has the characteristic of the repetition and the complex pattern (like yellow-red-blue-yellow-red-blue). Therefore, these elements usually corroborate with shapes or lines.

Texture: It usually emphasizes the texture of the subject. For example, rough walls and soft beds. There is usually coraborate of the lines because the lines in the photography show the texture of the subjects.

Value/Tone: The value is the range of white to dark, which shows the darkness/lightness of the photography. Moreover, the tone just represents the mixture of the colors. With these elements, we can describe gradation, which is a change of color but with detailed colors.

Focus: This is used toward the things that the photographer wants the audience to be focused on. Also, one type of focus is no-focus which the audience cannot find the subject easily.

3. Example

Line: This photo is a great example of the line because it includes horizontal lines, vertical lines, curved lines, and Diagonal lines which are the main lines used in photography.

Shape: This photo shows that the shape shows how well the subject interacts with surroundings because the shape of the paper formed the shape of a man’s face.

Repetition/Pattern: This photo is a great example because since this photo is repeating the same windows, it is both repetition and pattern.

Texture: This is a great example because by looking at this photo, we can realize the texture of the photo, rough and bumpy texture.

Value/Tone: This is a great example because it shows the gradation of black to white.

Focus: This is a great example of focus because it well expressed no-focus photo which means that it is hard to recognize what the subject is.

4. I think it is hard to take a photo that includes only one formal element because all the elements are related to each other. For example, if I take a photo of a box, there will be a shape because of the shape of the box, and also there will be a line because of the edge of the box. Even if you take a photo of a line, there is shape and line.

1. How can photography change our relationship to things?

Because most photography includes certain message toward somethings, the audience who realize the message will change the relationship to the ‘somethings’.

2. What is pictorialism?

Photographic aesthetic and a set of principles about photography’s role as art. Emphasizes beauty of the subject rather than documentation of the reality.

3. What is abstract photography?

The non-objective photography so, people can’t find out what is the subject of the photo, immediately after they see the photo.

4. Write a (very) short biography of Albert Renger-Patzsch (just 1 or 2 sentences).

He associated the New objectivity group and often used straight photography.

5.  From looking at his images above, What types of subjects do you think Albert Renger-Patzsch preferred to photograph?

I think he prefers abstract photos which we can’t identify the subject easily. Also, photography uses repetition. And some wrong photos are the wrong photos in which the subject is zoomed in a lot but, it still looks good.  Also, emphasize the value of the subjects’ beauty without manipulating anything.

6. Why do you think he entitled his famous book, ‘The World is Beautiful’?

This is because he prefers straight photography which emphasizes the real beauty of a subject so, he entitled his book ‘The World is Beautiful’.

7. Why do you think Edward Weston moved away from the soft-focus of pictorialism to the new Straight photography movement? – the idea that ordinary objects and scenes can be photographed to reveal their beauty

His forward-thinking mindset gave photography a much-needed modern/new touch. Or maybe he is influenced by other photographers who use straight photography, such as Albert Renger-Pietzsch.

8. Give examples of one of his pictorialist images and one of his straight images.

Straight Pictorialist

9. How has Aaron Siskind (above been influenced by the Straight Photography Movement

His original style was about abstract photographs but, after getting influenced, he became famous for picture making – with close-up framing, as well as an emphasis on texture, line, and visual rhymes and create abstract of the real world.

10. Name some other photographers that have been influenced by a straight photograph

Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, his son Brett Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Dody Weston Thompson, and Berenice Abbott

11. What makes the work of Andreas Gursky and Uta Barth abstract. Are they straight photographers? Why?

Ulta Barth’s works are abstract because some of his artworks are cut and there are no titles, which makes it the audience harder to identify the subject of the photography, and he is a straight photographer because by making the subject of the photo half, the photography expresses the real beauty of the subject. Andreas Gursky’s work is abstract because it is hard to identify the subject. Also, his photographies expresses the beauty of the subject in his photos.

In abstract photography, the audiences need to take time to identify the subject/object of the photo. This is because the objects and subjects are challenging to recognize because of materials/environment such as darkroom, very lightroom, something that reflects like a mirror. In the end, the audience will try to think about what message the photographer is trying to send by the photo.

Wrong Photo__Kevin Kang

1. I think the rules of photography were made to identify a good photo. This is because there are so many photographers with unique thinking, and if we accept all those ideas, as a rule, there will be so many rules which make photography complicated. Therefore, those rules are the general ideas from many photographers which make the photo look good. 
2. I believe photos should include precise subjects to help audiences well-understand the image. Also, I think they should be good purposes to make the audiences interested. 
3. If the wrong part of the photo helps the photographer describe the purpose of the photography, it would be good to break the rule. Also, if the photo context breaks the rules like John Baldessari’s photography, it would be acceptable to break the rule. 
4. Yes, because I also broke some rules of photography before I knew them. For example, I did not know the rules of third, so I usually took full-screen photos when I took pictures. 
5. First, the wrong photos can be great because they include their identity and characteristics. Also, the context is pivotal in photography because if people can not understand the message and the purpose of the photography, the photography would be less valuable because there are no people interested in it, which means that no one would like it and buy it. 

The context is pivotal in photography because if people can not understand the message of the photography, the photography would be less valuable because there are no people interested in it, which also means that no one would like it.