Reading Response 1# : JR
I enjoy how visually intimidating the works of JR are. Not in the sense that they strike fear but the closeness and involvement with the subject are very striking. It's great to see how seriously he's taking photography to the point that it has clearly become art. It is no longer about the subject itself, instead, it asks the viewer to consider the context of the photo, the photographer, and the subject. Similar to how artists have their own context or lack thereof to deliver the intended motif. These photos have meaning but the feeling that it creates in people I doubt could ever be shared. I'm called to believe that the sheer size of the installations is enough to capture that territorial feeling he mentions. However, to somehow capture these subjects in a way that any emotion could be implied, JR harnesses these contexts for the meaning to be as grandiose as the scale of the print itself. The meaning doesn't have to be slapped on top of the image because its scale lets you know the importance. It forces you to stare and reevaluate/reconstruct these "simple" images. I feel like it's akin to minimalist art. The act of invoking any kind of emotion in you makes it art itself. Its goal is to occupy your headspace, these photos force themselves into yours. It creates a connection. A connection that is likely different for all that come into contact with it. For him to go on to create the Inside Out Project, I think it could have a positive impact on humanity as a whole. To make the same connections with each other, and still want to understand more
"Actually, the fact that art cannot change things, makes it a neutral place for exchanges and discussion."
“...this is not a social or political project. It is first of all an artistic one, which is why I am not a spokesperson for the youth of Clichy, so I don’t search to change things in that way, but it is really a project we did together. I am very happy that in fact, through these artworks, the image of these youngsters change.”
"To change the way you see things is already to change things themselves."
"Inside Out also performs it own urban speech act, whereby the mise-en-scène of the image—its literal production mounted live in city space—utters the invisible visible: the forgotten present. It is territorial without necessarily taking up physical space."
Reading Response #2
The spirit of the American settlers exists in people who live in mining/desert towns. Smaller communities, a natural surrounding landscape, dust fills the air from the breeze because every road isn't paved but produced by its citizens' marching feet. These towns have a rough gritty personalities, but the people that reside in them are still people. They've inherited this land and the personality that comes with it. Schutmaat's work reminded me of migrant portraits. The rawness of the shot can be felt. If these subjects were photographed in a lightbox, they would come off as having some kind of historical importance. A politician, an activist, or maybe even a photographer themselves but these locations provide that same feeling of significance. All of his landscape photos could be "the site of the first... " and no one would question them. The same goes for Adam's work around desert-like conditions containing modern suburbia these places are empty even while filled with occupants and history. The photographer can wander through almost as if a spirit. A piece of the abstract stuck with me as it summed up both bodies of work very well. It read, "...these apparent non-spaces are transformed into a new architecture by means of man ́s intervention..." The same could be reflected on to the person behind the camera intervening in this place so "away" from everything else. There are people everywhere not just in major cities, or what's portrayed on TV. I know this comes off as a well-known fact but I think we'd all be surprised how many communities like these dot the US that we collectively will not stumble upon without intention. And once a photographer has the intention to do something the feelings that are discovered along the way, typically defy their goals in the first place.
Motion Experiment
I intend to capture the range of the human body by getting my MMA roommate to throw combos at the camera. I always found the art of fighting to be interesting and plan on entering the field myself. I discovered that having him move in such a flurry with the background mostly still resulted in boring photos in my opinion. Telling him to throw these combos with a consistent speed was difficult. So I decided to become a human rig of sorts adding some "head movement" to make some of the shots seem faster. Most of them came out blurrier in the compression than how they looked on camera. I plan on fixing the raw files to match my vision.
f/5.6 13/10 sec 13.31mm iso 100
f/5.6 4/5 sec 13.31mm iso 100
f/5.6 3/10 sec 13.31mm iso 100
Reading Response 3
The application of someone's perception of another fueling their own self-needs leads me to think about id and ego. Especially with the possibility the fisherwoman never existed in the first place. Toni Morrison seemed to just want some kind of company. She remembered the fisherwoman asking her how she was doing, that she didn't live in their village, and that a friendship was blossoming. Still, she is only recalled as "Mother Something". The identity of the fisherwoman doesn't matter to Morrison as she only needs her as a reflection, not a companion. A similar point could be made on Lauren Greenfield's most important photograph. As rude as it might sound the subjects aren't important. At least not as important on what they represent. I find it amusing that "Mijanou won the title of 'best physique'" is included in the byline as it does give her a personality. A person to attach the photo to instead of what the culture represents. It makes sense that the project was dropped the same way Morrison's fisherwoman can't be found. These "characters" are only supposed to act as a reflection of something larger. It doesn't have to be global scale, but it has to represent/reference/include some aspect of being a piece of something else. That's more difficult with a "main character". Meaning if the viewer doesn't have something to reflect upon, let it be awe, speculation, envy, etc the piece will not be able to be absorbed for more than what it is. Connecting this back to the theory of id and ego, I believe that we have a want to listen but a need to be heard. I don't blame Morrison for not remembering the details about the fisherwoman. As the positive feeling she got (pre-the feeling of betrayal) is worth more in the moment than the possibility of a long friendship.
Reading Response 4
This interactive website felt like a pop-up book. Seeing that it was intended as a book, I feel would've taken away from how much the project was able to express. The pairing of audio, imagery, and text was beautiful. Some sections even had me nostalgic for some towns I grew up in. The candidness of these structures (if that makes any sense) reminds me of houses I've visited. Friends I don't talk to, "enemies" I wonder if they're still mean to people. I even had to google to see if a couple of neighborhoods and apartment complexes were still there. Some things have been renamed or just straight gone, but the concept of that community they had with Pine Point is really admirable. Hearing that they had a reunion of sorts I wish was more common in things other than school-related activities. Really just the option to check up on them in a way other than social media. I enjoyed the way the project's chapters fell into place telling this story of first their own memories of the town, then how others are doing in the present day, leading to Richard having this "redemption" arc of sorts being the curator of the website while experiencing MS. It's really a beautiful thing to see so much history collected in once place, when it was the government's idea to wipe it off the map after the mine shut down. I wish there were more community-ran digital time capsules like these. Just my thoughts though.
Evidence
Assignment
For my project, I wanted to pursue both complex and simple shapes around my apartment. I semi-trailed my roommate for a day/picked around the complex looking for signs of people. I didn't want to do direct trash like cigarette butts or other litter. Instead, I wanted the same interaction that comes with something like a still-lit cigarette. What's evidence of humans to me is interaction. We change the world around us, mimicking nature all the same. We've brought nature into our homes to feel closer to it, without being in it, because we have molded it to our desires to some degree. "Plastic houseplants feel lame lets a real one and trap it away from other plants." "I don't feel like hanging clothes on the line, let's invent another firebox." " I want that creature in my house." When put this way makes us seem we can do whatever we want as a species. We've solved the "problem" of escaping nature to some degree. It's in this detachment I feel there is a discussion to be had of how we got to this point and how normal they've become. I pursued shapes around my space that on a surface level seem uncomplicated. That's because, at a surface level, they are. Water on Wood is just that. But the history and travel for these two objects to meet nowadays is longer, more expensive, and more complex than rain falling on a tree stump. This is because of humans messing with stuff, point-blank simple. The same theme could be argued for each object captured. Humans just mess with stuff. That will be the evidence that we were here.
Lighting
