leibovitz.adams.carletti

Annie Leibovitz was one of the first photographers I ever learned about. When I first saw her work I was truly inspired.  She was able to create beautiful pieces of art with traditional people and celebrities. When Annie creates something no one doubts what she does. Although recently she was put down for recent photos shoot with Vanity Fair Magazine and the young Miley Cyrus. To the general public these photos were seen as provocative, but to someone who looks at these photos though an artist eye they can’t truly see her vision and what she was trying to say as an artist. When reading about her and looking at her work; not only did her work inspire me, but also the way she started working. She pushed to get a job she wanted and because of that she had great success. Another thing that inspires me about Annie is that when she was chosen to be on the cover of time magazine she only took a picture on her in a purple cloak with only her hand being out. She said that she wanted to do this because her hand is the one thing that made her who she is and without it she wouldn’t be able to be who she is today. I think because of that cover it made me respect her more as an artist.

 

 

Ansel Adams work can only be described as breath taking.  I could spend hours looking at his pictures and what he is trying to portray. He gave me a new look on what America can look like. Many people do not appreciate how beautiful America can be and Ansel made people see the try beauty that is America. Many times when his pictures were taken people did not know where he took them exactly. It was later discovered that if they took the position of the moon they can find the exact location of where he was standing when the picture was taken. This proves that photographs can be used not only for art but for geographic purposes. As a photographer, Ansel inspires me because I enjoy taking landscape pictures and his work shows me that I can be able to take landscape pictures and have them last for years and years.

 

 

 

 Claudio Carletti is an up and coming photographer. I first saw his work over Christmas break and truly loved it. Since he is undiscovered I think that is one of the reasons why I love his work. He takes photographs because he wants to not because he is being told to, which is something that I love to do as well. When I first met his and talked with him about his work he says if people don’t like his work he just says that it is art and with art come opinions. When he said that I truly embraced it. What he said is true as long as you are proud of your work it shouldn’t matter what anyone thinks. He takes pictures of what is going on in his life and what is around him. He says that what makes his work special is the lighting. Talking with him was a big eye opener for me. If help me focus on what I want to do with photography.

 

photographic exhibition

 

 

The photographic exhibition I attended was over Christmas break. Unfortunately I did not write down the name of the artist and I no longer remember it. I could also not find information of it online. Thankfully I know the name of the exhibition which is America: A Growing Society. I went to it during my first visit to Austria. It was interesting to see how artist from another country viewed America back in the time that it was first becoming a powerful nation.

 In the exhibition it was many photographs of developing America and the people in America at the time. Some of these photograph I feel like I have seen before in something like a history text book, but other photographs that were of the people of the time depicted emotion in their faces. This is something that I want to be able to do as a photographer. It is one thing to capture some one of in a picture but it is another thing to capture the emotion that was happening during that certain time and place where the photo was taken.

Most of the photos were taken around the 1930s to the 1940s. It mainly focused on the cities of New York and the south. Most of the photos were in black and white and some of them were in sepia. They were displayed in black frames with white matting. I feel that the artist did this because he wanted the public to focus on the photograph and the message he was trying to portray. I feel his message was that of growth. Most of the photographs were taken during the great depression, a difficult time for American. Each photo showed the emotion of nervous fear, but with a sign of hope.

Not only did the exhibition have photographs with people in them but they also had photographs of landscapes. I personally enjoyed see those of the landscapes because I like to see what America used to look like. I like to be able to see what America used to look like. I find exhibitions like these very inspirational because just because at current time my photographs might not mean something to people now, but in the future my photographs could really impact someone just like these photographs have impacted me today.

 

 

city around mountains

my book is done

…. here is where u can find it on blurb

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/654419

Change of topic

 

I had to change the theme of my book to my Austria trip. I had to change it because I was not able to get the amount of photos I would need in order to fill my book. I think that I would still be able to create an original book.

Don’t Judge a Book By it’s Cover

From the first day of class when I herd about the book project I tried to think of an idea. To this day I still do not have an idea of what I exactly want to do. I go back and forth everyday and what I want to do. When I think of my book I want to represent myself as well as those around me. I start to think about what I love to take pictures of, which is people, and nature. I want to be able to find a way to incorporate the two. I have had one idea that I have liked but I am not sure if I want to follow through with it because it can be quite a challenge and corporation with my friends.

Theme would kind of be, what make you who you are. I would take many of my friends and ask them to describe themselves. I will put their quotes in my book. I want to photograph each person in there simple, natural state. For example, a white backdrop while my subject is wearing a black shirt. I’m still trying to decide if I want those portrait shots to be black and white.  Then depending on what people describe, I would photograph them to represent what and who they are. I would shot very non-candid shots just them being themselves. As if they did not know that I was photographing them. As the last shot I would take my subject and put them in what they feel is the location that helps makes them who they are. Instead of them being in a natural state I would set the theme of the photo to be very glamorous or high fashion to create and edge. Kind of to be like what people see of them what we see and what they really are.  Also I’m not sure if I want to end the book by doing one for my self. I know that I want to do the people who help make me who I am and them what makes those people who they are. 

It is very hard for me to be able to explain this book because I have so many thoughts going through my mind and what I really want to do. I know that I have to settle on a topic, but I don’t want to settle to discover I could have done something greater with my book. As well I don’t want people to not like or understand the meaning or theme of my book.  I know that I have my own style and many people might not like what I do.  I have not began photographing any one yet because I was not sure if this is really what i wanted to do.

Oceanside

this photos i took while standing on the pier in oceanside. i think i stood on the pier for hours before i took pictures that i actually liked i felt that other might like as well.

Collier Schorr

 

Collier Schorr is an influential artist of our time who uses her work in order to send and show a message. “I’m trying to create tribes of people” she was quoted saying about how she wanted to show the relationship as well as the similarities and differences between many people. For example she want to show men who looked like women or women who looked like men, or the differences between a German and a Jewish boy. Collier has a broad rage over work. One of her subject she chooses to photograph would be that of a high school wrestling team. She chose to photograph wrestlers based on the facts that is was an unusual sport that was outside the norm; and that these boys made themselves somewhat of outcasts because the chose to play a sport that was not usually chosen by young boys to play. Collier had assistance in her photography by an outside source in order to help her understand what was happening during the wrestling match. As an athlete, from personal experience it is easier to photograph a spot when you have knowledge of the sport. She loved to express the emotion in the boy’s face, especially when it came to devastation and exhaustion. She did not just want to show one side of the sport but all sides, even the devastation of losing. One of the things that motivated Colliers inspiration was that she was interested in the life she would have had if she herself were a boy. Personally I think that is a question that many people ask themselves, how they would be if they were an opposite sex. So I liked that fact that she used that for inspiration because many people would not. Although Collier has done much work with wrestling, my personal favorite was that of the German boys and her work in Germany. Being able to personally relate to the matter really sparked my attention. Many times in history, history is only told from one perspective. Collier wanted to show not only the side of the Jewish people but that of the Germans as well. As a Jewish woman, Collier had this view of Aryan men as well as a fear. By her photographing a large blonde man she was confronting an Aryan myth. Many men involved with the Nazis party were not evil but more manipulated and were forced to believe and act a certain way. Collier began photographing German boys in American army uniforms as well as Nazis uniforms. She states that the attitude in the boys changed drastically when they were in the Nazis uniforms. When they were in the American uniforms that had a carefree attitude, and in the Nazi uniforms they were tense and gave off a very uncomfortable feeling. Germans today like to barrier what happened during WWII, by having it illegal to wear the swastikas and well as behave in a Nazis was. I recently just returned from Germany and Austria where i learned that Germans and Austrians do not raise their hands in class to ask a question because to has a reference to Hitler and the Nazis party. Collier knew that there were many things buried in the German landscape. She wanted to make something that remove the myth and leaves something more human. Collier wanted to make work that spoke to as many people as possible.

 

 

Sally Mann

Sally Mann is a woman who knows how she expresses herself and the type of image she wants to create. She does not care what other might think because she creates her photography for herself. In one part of the film she is take photographs of dogs bones. She later says in the film that after they decided to do a show of dog bones many began to question….. why dog bones? She takes photographs for what they are, sometimes there are no deeper meaning other times there are. Sally comes off as a woman who is very resourceful, she uses what is around her. it was a meaning of expression and that is why she takes pictures. She did not photograph her children because she was interested in photographing children rather her children were around and therefor made for an interesting subject. The impression that I got form her work is that she wanted to be able to express the simple things of life, rather then the busy world that most of us live in today. she was trying to maintain beauty and a sense of what is around you. Personally i enjoyed her work with her children in it, rather then that of her landscape photos. It was a shame that she began to feel that the photos with her children began to look too much like fashion because it seems that in current times we do not have photos of people’s family members in the artistic way, but rather the commercial and posed way. Not that Sally photos of her children were not posed, but they were posed for art not for a typical photo.

James Nachtwey

 

El Salvador, 1984 - Army evacuated wounded soldiers from village football field.

After watching the video on James Nachtwey it really gives me a new perspective on what photography can do to a person. James ricked his life everyday to be able to capture what was happening in the world around us. If it wasn’t for people like James then many would not know of the horror going on in our world today, and in the past. By him being in the condition and witnessing what horrible things that were happening it must have been hard not to be able to reach out and help. By him taking the photos and publishing them he was in a way a messenger for the people who were suffering. Like he said in the video, after he published the photo of the man without an arm and a leg, people reached out and discovered what they could do to help him and his family. It is people like James that risk their lives in the hope that what they do will eventually save the lives of others.