Final assignment

Thomas D Mangelsen is one of the premier nature photographers in the world. He has always been fond in taking nature photos and he is who I can relate to most. He’s seen that nature photos has been long since abandoned and now a day we’ve seen a lot of digitally manipulated photos that is easier to capture than the “long process wait for the right moment” to take a photo. The reason why I love taking nature photos so much is because I live in the city and we don’t see much nature such as mountains, wild animals, forest, lakes etc. But we do have the nature all around us that we don’t seem to appreciate much about the beauty such as the trees, flowers, plants, insects and so forth, maybe it’s because they are everywhere or too small I don’t know but we can make it look so beautiful capturing it on camera.

Thomas’s key three elements is patience, light and behaviour. His motive is to discover the wonders of the natural world. I relate this through the traveling photos I take as I seem to appreciate the nature more when I’m going to a different place such as Niagara Falls, Montreal, Mexico, Vietnam etc even so it’s the same sunset, same birds, same buildings, houses and trees. Here I have included some pictures that I have taken from various places.

Photo number 1 is a photo of a plant with a red insect sitting on the plant taken outside my boyfriend’s house. Viewing this photo looks so pretty and even so you may see this plant every day, zooming in on the photo gives you a whole different look of “wow” These are the little bugs that can be appreciated more viewed in a bigger size.

Photo number 2 is also a photo of a plant with a bug on it which was taken on a summer day at the zoo. Just as Thomas, he waits for the right moment to take a photo in which I took the photo right away before the little bug disappears. I also set my camera on a setting where it would focus on what I wanted to capture and blur the background.

Photo number 3 is a photo in Vietnam taken this summer, where it is taken in the evening time. As you can see near the beach and mountains it is pretty windy and you can also tell by looking at the clouds. This is also the path way which will lead up the mountain. I see mountains in movies all the time but seeing it in real life looks a little unreal because I don’t see mountains in real life often.

Photo number 4 and 5 are photos up midway on the mountain. The camera captures the mountains in different fades which I thought was really cool and the red and white band looks very olden day. The photo with my boyfriend on the scooter which bike looks very cool in color and brightness as it was taken in the morning, you can see after the dirt path way on the photo above it is now changed to concrete road. 

I hope you enjoyed my photos

Here are some of Thomas’s photos as you can see the similarities. 

PRESENTATION

Alterations are not allowed in press photography, but they are one of the tools used in contemporary art photography? Why?There are no limitations for contemporary art/photography thus allowing alterations. They’re photographs of anything the art chooses to express. Though press photography expresses the truth via photographs, which is why altered are not allowed. Press photographs on the other hand are stating a point about current events taking place all over the globe.It is a common knowledge that photographic manipulations and alterations are frowned upon and not accepted or allowed in press photography, because manipulations and alterations can hide the accuracy and the truth of the events that the press photography is presenting. On the other hand, manipulations and alterations is the most common tool used in contemporary art photography for different special effects to bring a whole new feeling into a photograph. In most cases art is visual and it depends on photographs and paintings; people might have different standpoints for or against art which can be straightforward or abstract, colorful or black and white. Since contemporary art and photography is formed only for artistic purposes and it does not have to represent the whole truth of a story, as a result, alterations and manipulations are a great tool to apply. In Comparison of art photography and press photography, art photography has an significant role of exemplifying the feelings and thoughts and produces give something for the viewers to think about. Alternations and manipulations on art photography can bring the art photographs to the next level of articulating their feelings. For instance, if an artist wants to express the happy mood or feelings in the photograph, the vivid and bright colors effect can help to emphasize the happy feelings more effectively. Also, alterations and manipulations can add to creative art, for example, it is often used in sardonicism. Artists use the alteration and manipulations as a method on photographs to poke fun at major social issues, which works very effectively it catches people’s attention. For example, we all know the brand, “Blackberry”. Its products such as playbook tablet and a lot of handheld devices, it is a primary hand held for emailing which makes communication unnecessary photographs below shows portrays that perfectly.

Compare photographs of Sommer, Adams and Klett versus Parkeharrison, Muniz and Crewdson. What happened to the photography? Is this its future?

                          Coyotes Trimmed 8x10 inch contact print, 1945 Frederick Sommer

                         Mourning Cloak (2006) Robert and Shana Parkeharrison

                                The beautiful Earth, Viz Muniz July 28-Aug 28,2007

Contemporary photos is art produced in the present time or ever since World War ll, knowing this I believe that contemporary art will continuously be created during our lifetimes being contemporary to us. Viewing Frederick Sommer’s, Robert Adams and Mark Klett I have seen a similarity of black and white photos as well as them being photos of detailed nature such as Robert Adams who takes photographs that focus on the frontier between humans and the natural world, Mark Klett taking photos of buildings landscapes and also Sommer’s nature photos in which I wanted to point out a coyote photo of his documenting that there was a system of hunting and bounty which left coyotes skinned and discarded, this reminds me of the Canada Goose Jackets whose fur is made from coyotes where I’ve seen all over Facebook awareness pictures of a bunch of dead skinned coyotes, viewing this makes me more aware of the animal cruelty and this awareness helps put a stop to supporting it. On the other hand I viewed Robert and Shane ParkeHarrison, Vik Muniz and Gregory Crewson and have seen a difference of colored photographs as well as them looking fiction. I think the artists alter the photos in contemporary art because they have created an artistic meaning like a different creative way to view the photo but still having the same meaning. Is Contemporary art it’s future? I say yes, I don’t think every contemporary photograph is a fictional picture it can also be realistic looking, Viewing various photos I believe that the pictures since war war ll is now more socially conscious relating to such issues as animal rights, environmental issues, globalization, feminism, workers health and safety, various cancers, AIDS and many more. Another contemporary photo which I thought was very creative was an ad seen on the highway of a skull which said “don’t let this be the last picture before you die” and this is for Drinking and Driving, I think this is a really smart picture which gets the meaning out of the consequences of drinking and driving, even so the picture is not a realistic picture it still documents the same meaning in a very creative way. Another is a Milk advertisement that had milk pouring in a cup that’s a shape of a tooth, milk is good for your bones and teeth and it is still giving that meaning in this photo. Basicly I believe the artist voices out what they believe in that is important to them and expresses them in a creative way.

Sources

http://arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/f/what_is.htm

readings & slides & viewing the photos of the different artists

http://www.vikmuniz.net/

http://www.edelmangallery.com/parke-counterpoint.html

Assignment 3

The difference and similarities of Press and Art photography

Press photography are photos that report various events and informs the audience about facts (like in the news and history books). Only acceptable change is to improve the quality without changing the contents and facts. The principles of journalism is: timeliness, accuracy, fair representation of the context of events and facts reported, and accountability to the public. With these points, the audience can see and believe what is actually happening at the time it happened. This is also similar to Art photography although I believe that art photography can be altered more to best suit with the photographer’s vision creating imagination for you to view it in their perspective, it doesn’t have to be within a time frame or accuracy but it is enhanced in a way to pin point a vision or memory.

 This press picture is taken by me when I went to Vietnam in the summer 2011, this shows how different the culture life is in Vietnam and here in Canada. The majority of people commuting is by scooter, this is also the year the government enforced all people riding scooters to wear a helmet. The reason why some people cover their face is because it's dusty.

This press picture is of a worker in Vietnam that I see every afternoon taking his afternoon nap. Whether you are working or just at home everyone in Vietnam takes afternoon naps.

This art photo is of Vietnam culture, the surroundings of buildings, people, stores that looks different from here. I'll also like to point out the landscaping that made me realize ordinary things can look beautiful if you pay attention to the details.

This art photo is at the Korean Airport, unlike our Canadian Airport this Ariport has a big unique slanted windows which I found very interesting, I really liked the shadowy parts with intensified the slanted windows and puts your focus towards that.

Is it ethical and acceptable to alter art photographs? Why? Why not?

Yes because it is art, you can enhance the meaning of the photo to make a point stand out, customize it to express yourself, more unique to describe you. I like art and taking pictures but a lot of pictures are the same as others but can be a different meaning so to express it visually I can alter the photo more uniquely to best express me. That’s why artists has a vision and creates a photo to get you to see the artist’s vision as well. Like Cartier Bresson everyone has their own style in taking photos, in his way he calls it “the decisive moment” and same goes for Kertesz who believes he has to be invisible to take pictures. Now a days it is so easy with the technology to capture and alter photos to our liking.  

Is it ethical and acceptable to alter press photographs? Why? Why not?

Based on the readings for week 9 it says the only acceptable change is to improve the quality without changing the contents and facts. The role is to report to the audience about facts and various events and by altering the pictures you may change the audiences belief in them. Altering photos can change the facts, moods, emotions and true meaning about them and viewing press photographs as a photo with facts, it will no longer be accurate.

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Resources

Week 9 readings, Week 10 slides, Readings2.pdf in week 10

Assignment 2

top is edited , bottom is not edited

 The editing site that’s I’ve use to edit both photos is Picnik. The picture of the wild animal is a photograph of what I took up in the mountains of Vietnam summer 2011. I have edited the photo by cropping the picture and zooming in to this to focus on this one animal and what the animal is doing. I’ve never seen a wild animal before and there was more than one, I actually thought it was someone’s but no one else was around. Just as the war pictures I wanted to capture the moment, and back then there was no zooming in on a picture, you’ll have to be close up. If I was close up taking the picture of these wild animal they probably would have attacked me, I wasn’t brave enough like Capa, experience what the animal is experiencing but I can see just by looking how happy they seem. I also like the fact that this picture isn’t what you see in everyday life because we live in a city full of buildings. We imaging only animals being in zoos and this picture that I’ve capture is a wild animal in its natural habitat. So to those who are viewing this picture can see and have a feel that there is so much to explore in the world such as animals in their natural habitat, other cultures etc; see what life has to offer. Art forms a story that we can share with others, just like the war pictures used as history to look back on.

This picture is also taken summer 2011 after the Vietnam trip, it is in Montreal at Mont Tremblant whom I road tripped with the girls to our friend’s birthday. This photo I edited several parts, first I have intensified the photo using “vibrance” so the colors would look richer like how it I seen it in real life. I also played around and used “sunless tanned” on two of my friends to have a summer glow which works really well; it shows how much you can change on people with all the options they have, with also all these effects that suits your mood. I added in some summer stickers that would remind me of what I did there such as a boat because we went on a boat, suitcase because we stayed for a few days, flip flops, drinks etc. I added in text to remind me the place and date, and lastly on a Polaroid frame which to me represents it like a memory. This relates with the war pictures because Im documenting the photo. With picture editing I can apply creative ways to customize and document my photo as well as editing them to look more realistic to how to seen it or how you want to see it.

Why the world loved first photographs

A history of photographs has evolved to many stages, perfecting them with technology, photos are now processed quick and cheap. Back in the days it was a luxury to get your picture taken; it was a social status that usually middle class and up had the extra money to spend for fun, it is also because back then only a few people knew how to create portraits, from miniatures, silhouette, physionatrace, to daguerreotype, cyanotype, waxed cyanotype negative, salted paper print, wet collodion negative, albumen print, carbon print, photogravure. People always tried to find new innovations to capture the pictures more accurately and also time efficiency. An example is an advantage of a collodion type picture over a daguerreotype is that it can produce on paper prints could be multiplied as charged for the same cost. Once photographs are created, the world loves it because now you can have pictures of your loved ones, sceneries, whatever to keep as memory. These are just like the miniatures but now they are more accurate to what you see and can be in bigger sizes.

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

Differences 

•  In the earlier days pictures are usually only taken on special occasions because it was pricey.
• Pictures are processed quicker now and cheap
• Cameras are cheap to buy with adjustable settings on how you like your pictures to look, high megapixels, easy to use, really clear accurate pictures.

Similarities 

• Still the same concept, both captures what you see, everyone still loves portraits. 

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

The photographer work of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre is an inventor for photographic images.

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

In the past not everyone used technology, it was very new and hard to use and today since a lot of things are technology we are used to it and easily to learn and adapt to using technology.

The picture I posted is a Daguerrotype of Morse in Paris by an unknown photographer. Daguerrotype was the first photographic process that was shown by Daguerre publicly demonstrating, revealing and publishing detailing instructions.

This is created by Albert Bisbee which is also a Daguerrotype. These daguerrotypes are all unique.

Sources

Precursors of the photographic portrait by Gisele Freund

Photographic processes British library

Daguerreotype – How does it look and what kind of picture it takes

Daguerre and the invention of photography – MET museum

Hi my name is Theresa Phan, welcome to my blog! My major is Human Resources Management and is finishing up my last year. Right now I am taking Photography Shooting The Truth and Im pretty excited about it because I love taking pictures and saving them as memories!

Im a very creative person although for this blog I still have to get use to. I love to draw, make scrapbooks, watch anime, travelling and outdoor adventures.

To your right I have posted a picture of a white rose that I have taken with my camera months ago. It was from my sweet boyfriend :) I love keeping memories so with the roses that I get I dry them and put it in a giant vase and as you can see I also take a picture of it too, to keep the beautiful memory.