Reading 6: The Photographer's Eye

In reading The Photographer’s Eye, I felt that I was back at the beginning of my photography practice. It went over parts of photographing that are essential and therefore become the base of the process. Since I am already aware of these aspects, I didn’t feel that I was being told anything new. However, there was a quote that I felt was significant in relation to being a photographer. Ivan’s wrote, “At first the public had talked a great deal about what it called photographic distortion…[But] it was not long before men began to think photographically, and thus to see for themselves things that it had previously taken the photograph to reveal to their astonished and protesting eyes. Just as nature had once imitated art, so now it began to imitate the picture made by the camera.” This quote sums up some thoughts I’ve had on being an artist from the beginning. Though one can receive training for art, I believe there is a natural sense for image making inside of artists. It’s a natural skill to be able to look at the real world and imagine pictures and crop images in your head. What one person may see as a normal tree another person may see as a photograph manipulated to show a different side of this common object. Certainly, as a photographer you begin to see the world in new ways with help of your imagination.

Reading 5: 3 artists

      For Reading number 5, I first reviewed the series Self-Portraits by the photographer Jen Davis. These images first caught my attention on account of the rich and natural colors. It appears that she utilized natural lighting mostly. However she accomplished these colors, they are very captivating. Not only are the colors mesmerizing, but they create an atmosphere to accompany certain images. Aside from the colors, there is great emotion shown in these photographs. I have no idea who this person is but I felt extreme sadness and loneliness looking at them. The woman isn't what would be considered beautiful these days, and she uses that to her advantage. Her photographs make you feel like you know her and that you are even feeling what she is. They bring out a strong emotional response as well as technically being strong images.

       Next, I looked at the series The Mark of Abel by Lydia Panas. I decided to look at this series because her style reminds me of Sally Mann or Nicholas Nixon. This automatically made me curious to see how a modern day photographer is approaching these kind of portraits. The series is definitely interesting to look at. All the images are of groups of people with a blank stare into the camera. It's especially interesting to compare older portraits with these on account of the diversity in people today. The blank stares don't tell the viewer much about what they could be feeling. Some seem to be more bored or sad, but I can't be too sure. They make me wonder who these people are and what is troubling them, if anything. Technically, I wasn't too impressed. Many of them are cropped at the top of the head or eyes. This works for some images, but for others just seem confusing and annoying. Basically, I'm not positive of the intent in any of these photographs. However, I still enjoy them as portraits of specific people.

       The third series I looked at was called The Devil's Promenade by Antone Dolezal and Lara Shipley. This series caught my eye on account of the surrealism it involves. It is a mixture of landscape, nature, and people. The mostly all have an unnatural look to them made possible by color. I'm not too interested in most of the portraits, but the images of nature and houses are what make it most exciting. Most of the scenes seem like normal images of a place at dusk. However, there are odd colors thrown in there that give them a mystical and eerie feel. This atmosphere is what holds my attention rather than having me scroll past. They feel like something unusual is happening and that I'm becoming a part of it.

Reading 4, John Berger: Ways of Seeing

      In the first video Berger mentioned something about photography that pointed its uniqueness as an art. He said that unlike a painting, a photograph can be any size and go anywhere. It is not confined to one wall and one size. This touches on the fact that you can do so much with photography. I see this as a positive quality and it made me proud to be a part of something so versatile. This was just a good opening to the series of videos for me. Something that he spoke about in the second video had me thinking. He talked about being nude and being naked. Portraying the nude in art is something that makes me think a lot about intent. I suppose it depends on the artist, but I just always wondered why it's done. I feel like some people just appreciate the figure, but other than I know there's deeper meaning. To add to my wonder of nude art, Berger mentioned that being nude makes you an object, while being naked is just for the clothed to see. I understand this as defining nude as an art form in itself, while the naked is just a person without clothes. I think this is something to thoroughly consider for artists making this kind of imagery. One of the aspects that I think about with these images is where is the line? What makes a nude art? I believe this is why I sometimes struggle with the subject and wonder if a piece of art is justified or not.