tuesday, 10-16

Photographs! Lines in the photograph depict motion as well as depth. The first photo we observed in class comprised of a line of spectators across the top and a line of police leading down to the woman resisting, trying to push the line back.
The second photo depicts a line of tanks being held up, effectively stopped, by a pedestrian. The lines of the street and the arrows on the blacktop all direct the eyes towards the lone pedestrian. One man really can make a difference! One man stands up against 4 tanks; he represents courage.
Daguerreotype-Predecessor of the modern photograph. Frenchman Daguerre invented a way to preserve an image for posterity. Before Daguerre, there was no "past" except as it was remembered or written. Suddenly, there was a way to preserve how things looked! The difference between the photo and the painting is that a painting is shaped by the painter's perspective. Photographs and daguerreotypes are unbiased.
There is no way to cheat photography (well, now there is); photos are honest, they tell it like it is!
Stieglitz revolutionalized the photograph industry. He took photography from documenting and reproducing for posterity to ART! He captured life as it happened, creating a genuine impression of the past instead of historical documents.
Dorothea Lang was a photojournalist. She also brought photography to yet another new level. She did the migrant mother we looked at earlier this semester when we looked at how poverty is depicted.

Assignment: On Sunday at exactly 12 noon, point my camera out the window and photograph something! Anything! Think of placement and depth. For example, don't split the frame in the center with a tree trunk. Between noon and 12:10, take several, and then blog about what I see in the picture.