final project reflection

Overall, I am very satisfied with the results of my final project and would even be compelled to make more. This project was very intensive in every way, from the shooting to the Photoshopping, but I really enjoyed the whole process.  I had a fairly good conception of the images when I began shooting for each of them, although ideas changed slightly as I reviewed the images I had available to me afterwards. I especially liked going out to different locations (including the zoo) to capture settings and animals to be composited into the images. Finding the costumes for each one was also fun; I had an idea of what I was looking for, for each photograph, but the image solidified itself after something was found. For example, in ‘the dinner,’ I knew the type of set up I wanted, but the finding of matching plaid clothing, in red, completed the feel and color palette of that image. In addition, it was also interesting to find/work with animals in incorporated into images. Because most animals will not pose, I took many photographs and then later added them into the image. Only the dogs were actually on location on the table, but they were originally on a towel. In fact that whole room was recomposed in Photoshop because I lacked a wide-angle lens, so it is no longer a real space. In other compositions, such as ‘washing,’ everything was photographed at once, except for the chicks added in later.

I found as I was making the images that I started to create a storyline between them. This was the effect for which I was going. I wanted to create film or storybook like images, rich in detail, a little macabre, with a strong sense of narrative. I did not want to tell the viewer what that narrative was, but rather let them explore the image and create their own. I feel I was pretty successful in this respect; this, and the fact that I really enjoyed the project is why I would not mind creating more. In fact, I have one image that I began shooting for, but could not complete in time; perhaps I should finish that and make more…

Final Project

Response to Carl Mydans

History by Carl Mydans

Carl Mydans: Photographs, 1935-1958

Carl Mydans, Life Photographer Who Chronicled Wars and the Depression, Dies at 97 - New York Times

What I am impressed by in Carl Mydans as a photojournalist (and also in his writing) is how in the moment he seems. It feels like he really threw himself into whatever his assignment, carefully observing and calculating the people around him. I find it interesting that Mydans “specialized in getting one picture that told the story by itself” (Grundburg) instead of utilizing a series. This seems like perhaps a unique and valuable quality in a photojournalist. In lieu of relying on multiple images, it appears Mydans really considered the moment he captured in his frame. Perhaps this is why I find some of his photographs more compelling than other photojournalistic pictures. The photographic agency seems deliberate often by use of framing and cropping. For example, the two images below use extended “blank” space in framing the subjects and giving them context – a composition I find more compelling than a closely cropped image of their bodies.

Perspective also sometimes seems to consciously place the viewer. For example, one image of the French woman having her head shaved places the photographer viewer in a position as if everyone is turning their heads to look at him in an unabashed confrontational manner, giving the feeling that they could also assault this viewer if he reacts in the wrong way. In another, the vantage point is even below that of the Frenchwoman, giving the onlookers a looming quality, again placing the viewer in a situation as if they must choose whether to go with the crowd or risk themselves.

 In another  photograph of two German soldiers Mydans places the viewer on the exact same level as them, some how lending them more humanity, their eyes though downcast, still visible. The almost gentleness in this picture is perhaps an unusual quality in an image of the enemy.

Finally, I find it intriguing that Mydans was so meticulous in documenting his pictures. I assume all the captions and long titles accompanying the pictures are his words and this gives an interesting, more direct and personal reading to several of his photographs. I think that his photographs would not need captions for us to read the history in them, but because Mydans produced them with subtitles as a photojournalist, I believe they should be considered with them.

response to elsbeth's gleaning

When looking at the images from the powerpoint my sense of discomfort arises not really from looking at sexualized and graphic images, after all it is just human bodies and nothing particularly new (I wouldn’t say that be have be exactly desensitized, since these types of images do still elicit reactions), but from how often bodies are distorted in order to be erotic and the references to violence. With fetishism and BDSM you can say that the individuals are consensual of the situations they are in, but something bothers me when I see images of women in submissive/bonded roles, inflicted with implied pain, or bound up in clothing contraptions. I can’t help but think of how it alludes to sexual violence against women and its place in our society.  It reminds me a something I read several years ago, I think by Susan Faludi, that fashions in the 80s included torn or ripped clothing for women, seen as sexy some how, but really suggesting sexual violence, such as rape. Whenever I see some girl wearing intentionally ripped clothing, I cant avoid thinking about how such signals have been normalized in our culture. So, when I see these sort of things in pornographic or erotic images, I am a bit angered that women are being subjugated and made uncomfortable that the chose to be so. Of course in images where women are the ones are in control, I don’t feel this way. Is this because of my gender? Because see this is a “role reversal” and a change from the “normal?” This further points out that women as submissive has become a normalcy in our society. Are women expected to be submissive and allow others to control them? Does this mean violence against women is, though objectionable, also seen as normal, and so made “invisible??”

Furthermore, I was struck by the distortion and constraints placed on the human body. Somehow non-real (typical) proportions, such as extremely large breasts on slender bodies, have become the erotic for our culture. Something that cannot be (usually) achieved has become the fantasy, which just says something about the limits we place on ourselves as a society. Additionally, I noticed that when used, clothing, in addition to revealing, also placed restraints and referenced bonding. Again, this alludes to sexual violence and needing to exercise physical power on someone to get what you want. Even when a woman is in the dominating role, her clothing confines her literally or figuratively (I think for example images of thongs and fishnets recall ropes, etc. and so reference enforced restraint). I suppose this is why, in the end I cannot understand practices such as these, although I’ll leave to each his own, because it so often restricts the female body whatever the role, and even if not for the pleasure of males, it cannot escape this connotation within our society. Maybe this is trying to change and reverse this imagery, but I don’t think violence references need to be continued. Even if not inflicted, it still remains. Why do we tie something down? Because we don’t want it to escape, we desired submission. We want to control it, implying that the controlled doesn’t want that situation. So even if there is consent somewhere in such a scenario, the fact remains that it refers to a controlling implied-violence situation.