Angela Strassheim

This artist used to be a forensic photographer before she got her MFA from Yale. She was born in minnesota into a conservative Christian family which was the background for her introduction into the photography world. She did a series called "left behind" which was based on her person observations of her own family and community. This helped to solidify her position as a innovative photographer and helped her to gain popularity. In her compositions none of the subjects smile. She has a way of creating shots that are real, captivating and containing a slightly ghostly quality. She historic paintings as a reference for her work such as Botticelli's "Venus", Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and Dali's "Floating Christ".

everyday photograhpy

I think that I see thousands of images on a daily basis. From facebook to commercials, they bonbard us at every turn we take. It seems as thought they are a natural part of everyday life, so much to the point that we hardly stop to consider them unless we are interested in the medium ourselves. The difference between say an image captured for facebook and an image made for the sake of advertising is immense. While the profile picture is in a way a type of advertising since you are advertising yourself, it is completely different from say a perfume ad. Most profile pictures feature either the person or something that that are really into at the moment. They can be captured through a cell phone camera, a point-and-shoot, or anything else that is easy and convenient at the time. However, one does not expect an ad for an expensive fragrance to be captured with something as crude as a cell phone camera. You want to sale the fragrance to the right people and it is more appealing if it is done in a way that pays attention to even the smallest details. When taking a shot for facebook, most people don't stop to think that they are selling themselves, or an image of themselves and therefor it becomes acceptable to use almost any type of camera. Especially when that is what you have on hand the majority of the time. Facebook is a place where you can just be yourself, show off what you do or talk about how you feel and not worry about whether or not an image is too blurry or not good composition.

ethics in photography

When should one take liberty with a photo and digitally alter it to mean or say something other than what was intended? I think that this is a matter of personal preference. For me, I would never take the work of someone else and alter it with the intent of calling it my own. However, I do think that changing a photograph to fit the needs of a situation can be beneficial in certain instances. For example in the photo showing the effects of the depression on families, the photographer asked the children, who were laughing to turn around so that their faces would not be featured in the photo. While this may seem to be unethical, the truth is the depression was hard on families and to get that point across poignantly the photographer had to alter the composition of the picture. In the end, it is up to the artist what they will accept and will not.

photographing the soul

“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen




“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” ~Mary Ellen Mark




I do think that there is truth in this quote. In a way, you are taking a part of the person you are photographing. You are shooting with an idea in mind, wanting to convey something about that person and that moment to others who look at the piece. You are trying to leave a part of what makes that subject who they are on the film and most times you are hoping that it will leave an impression on the viewers soul as well. Photos have a way of relating feelings, emotions and stories to viewers in a way that no other medium can do. Because of this power, photographs do record a portion of the soul. It is also a way to record and relay history, a way to tell the story of the earth and what man has done to it whether it is for better or worst. Since images have a way of touching people like nothing else, photography can be one of the most valuable tools we have to teach each other about ourselves.

assignment 2 (0)

Here is my recreation of an image by Camille Vivier. She is a fashion photographer who is represented by Bird Photography out of Paris. A lot of her work seemed to be sort of ethereal. I wanted to translate the same type of feeling into my recreation. It was simple enough to light, just used the light through the window and a slow shutter/wide aperture. I was not able to get the lighting I wanted on the left side however, I wanted it to be a little darker than it is on the face.


from Ten Magazine by Camille Vivier

a thousand words

“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.” ~Lewis Hine



I found that this statement really had me thinking of which medium could relay more. While I would like to say that this is a very true statement, I find myself struggling to totally agree with it. I myself love to write and create pictures with only words. I love to let people see what they want in a scene that is described with words that I picked carefully to create a world. I like to see what can be accomplished with words. In fact, when I was a little girl, I preferred to read the books with pages upon pages of words and only used the picture books if I wanted to look at pretty drawings. This is what the writer side of me thinks.

But I am also a very visual person so I believe that pictures can convey feelings and emotion that words cannot relate even with the most poignant descriptions. There are times when words are just not enough, or even when they are not needed at all....in that case I will be brave and admit it, if I could tell a story in words alone, I wouldn't need to lug a camera around.

exquisite photographs

“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.”~Duane Michal

I think that there is more truth than not in this quote. In a world where all images can be doctored or totally even fully digitalized, there are very few images that are what they appear. Not only can photos be enhanced color wise, they can be restored, have other images added to them and a multitude of other options by anyone with access to an editing program such as photoshop. But I can't help but think that this is one of the main appeals of this medium. You can take an image that has no interest what-so-ever and change it into something that can move hearts and souls.

Here are the final images that I selected for assignment one. I have to say that I really enjoyed working on these photos more than I expected to. We all know how the first assignments can be and on top of that I have four other classes.

From top to bottom the names of the pieces are "nature repetition" "deadpan" and "against the black". I'm not necessarily sure if these are my strongest shots, but I kept coming back to these after about four hours of trying to narrow over 420 shots down to 3.

nature repetition

For this shot I tried to focus on getting as many of the rocks into the picture as possible without anything distracting like signs being included in the shot. I hardly cropped it at all, just took it in a little on both sides and down a little at the top. I wanted the emphasis to be on both the implied line of the rocks and the curve of the road. I also wanted to suck the viewer into the picture and kinda force it to be looked at from bottom to top. The lighting is all natural afternoon light. Actually there wasn't much light since it was just after the rain...however I think the lighting worked well to help get the overall point across. You really do feel like taking a walk when you look at it. I took the shot with a wide aperture and a slow shutter speed since it was fairly dark because of the cloud cover. I didn't use a tripod at all for this shot and I am quite pleased with the stability of the camera without it. Since I happen to enjoy taking walks, that was my motivation for this shot.

deadpan

I saw the stick....I guess that was the motivation. It had all these white speckles on it, I thought it was dazzling...it stopped me in my tracks at least. I wanted to get really close to it, I wanted to be flush with the ground or as level to it as possible...an ant's eye view. The lighting is the same as for nature repetition....it was the same afternoon.

against the black

This one was mainly done in response to the prompt dealing with the backgrounds. I just happened to use a subject i really liked...jewelry. I tried to find different pieces that stood out and then mix them with ones that are more plain. The light was daylight at around noon, I took them inside. Because I used a wide aperture and a slow shutter speed, lots of light was able to be reflected onto the lens. For this shot I didn't use a tripod although it was my first choice. I just couldn't get close enough to it for my tastes and since I'm pretty new at this camera thing, I didn't know which lens to change in order to get the closeness I wanted so I just nixed the tripod all together.

Part II

For the most part I think that these images were easy to look at and interpret. From what I heard in class, most people really enjoyed the third shot because of the texture so I think that it was the most successful. Since I had no ideas about subject matter for these shots I found it hard to explain why I did what I did in the photos. I will have to think about concept more before I begin to shoot for future projects. I would try to get more depth in both the second and third photos to bring out even more of the textures. The first two shots would have to be the start of a series something like "city nature scape" and the third would have to be "afternoon teatime" reflecting the idea that when we are younger we love to dress up and play.

"after the moment" by me

This is the photo that I took after debating about just doing a recreation of the shots that were handed out. I thought that maybe I should try the film angle and decided to capture the next scene in the sequence. The original shot kinda made me feel like it was a moment waiting to happen. The way the legs stretch out towards the door as if waiting for someone else to walk through them...I thought "the next scene should definitely be a little more intimate, after the "moment"." The artist who composed the original piece was Bil Brandt. He was a famous photographer in London (born of German descent, he disowned the heritage and would later claim to be born in London)and was most famous for his series called "shadow of light".

What's In A Word?

Photograph...what does this word mean? What do you see, what do you picture when this word is uttered?

I instantly see black and whites...call me classic, but that's the image that flashes into my mind when I hear this word. I see thousands of black and white rectangle images, laying all over an oak floor that's stained dark and is cool to the touch of my fingers as I reach out and take hold of as many of the images as I can. I can see their finish, matte and not glossy, ancient...some even have the tint that the older photos tend to get as they age...sepia...images of people that I've meet, people whom I never want to forget, places that I've seen, places that I want to go...all this I can see on these photos as I pick them up from their place on the floor. All preserved, all protected, all safe inside this magical paper that records the most important moments...the most important things.

This is what that word means to me.

A World Without Photos

Have you ever sat and thought about what the world would be like without photographs? The thought had never occurred to me. I have grown up in a time when this has never been even a fleeting thought. Pictures are all around me, from the moment I wake until the moment that I go to bed. But what if those pictures did not exist? What if we lived in a world that was totally devoid of photographs? Would our memories be duller? Would we care so much about the past if we could not see images of them in the present and preserve them for the future? Would it make us value each day more, if we knew that we could not see it again the next day?

In a world without photographs dare I say there might be a tad bit more honesty? Advertisers would not be able to use photos to sell their products. They would not be able to tempt and sway us through the beautiful images on glossy paper. Or maybe drawings would take their place?

This moment
this time is...
so precious
so fleeting
and
rare
is there a way to capture
to freeze
in time
all I feel
all I think
all I am?