Last Class and Final Project

Tonight is our last class. I am really going to miss it. It was almost like a meditative experience in the darkroom on Sunday mornings when hardly anyone was there. Just hanging out over the chemical trays walking through the process....many, many times. There was a direct correlation between the size of the test strips I used and the amount of unused photo paper I had left. As the count went down, so did the size of the test strip. It became a challenge placing the test strip in just the right spot to get the reading needed for the final print.

I wanted to go home after the work I did in the darkroom on Sunday to do the spotting...so I ran over to the Camera Company in Norwood and bought a bottle for $4. It was worth it to sit at home and touch the prints up....once I figured out what I was doing! While I was at the store a young woman from Adam's class was buying more paper and another student from Bridgewater College was buying supplies for her final project!! That time of year. I was also able to buy some black wooden frames at the Dollar Store in Brockton for $1 each. Touched up with a black marker they work quite nicely.

I have more than the 10 prints that were required....I tried to leave some behind but it seemed to put a hole in my story...and I really, really enjoyed doing this project. It is so completely outside of anything I've ever attempted or even thought about. I would love to do more like it.....

Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone's projects tonight. I have sugar and chocolate chip cookies in the car (not homemade although I wanted to).

Dreams of Breaking Out of my Cube

I'm sitting at work right now..been here since 6:30am...and yes, it's a Saturday when I should be home dusting or vacuuming or running errands. Yuk! I'll be leaving within the next hour and am anxiously looking forward to having my two teenage models show up for the photo shoot. They couldn't make it Thursday and they couldn't make it last night but will definitely be there tonight. I hope the weather holds up. I have some ideas on the shots I want to take. Hopefully I can get the rolls shot and then developed tomorrow to begin working on some additional prints. I don't know the sequencing yet or how it will play out but I think that will be some of the fun part at the end...once I've got sufficient prints made. Anyway, I thought I would take a break from the stress of this job and daydream a little about being outside of my cube in the real world doing something that is 300% more interesting and fun!!! Until next time....

Girl on Park Bench-Emmanuel's Print

Print Analysis

I have Emmanuel’s portrait of the girl on the park bench. A few things stand out from the photo right away. The girl is situated slightly off center and her head is turned to the right, she is not looking at her photographer. Her hands are inside her jacket pocket and she is sitting very erect. She doesn’t look relaxed. Instead she appears to have something on her mind.

Also noteworthy is that to her right is just enough bench space for another person. She is not in the center of the bench, there’s a great deal of room to her left. But to her right, the space is more limited, more intimate. Someone is missing from the photo that should be sitting on the bench to her right. Did that person just walk away and she is looking at their departure? Is this person on the way to meet her and she is looking in the direction from which they should be arriving? Based on the controlled emotion showing in the girl’s face, I would have to say the person is one she if very close to, in a relationship with, such as a boyfriend. And the relationship is in a turbulent state. She is now not sure what to do or where to go….so she just sits and stares at nothing, seeking control. Maybe the argument happened days ago and they are meeting for reconciliation….and she is trying to keep her emotions stable.

This photo could be the beginning of a relationship or the end of one…or one of the many low points that accompany most long-term ones. Her lack of eye contact with the photographer is very telling. She chooses not to engage, has effectively locked out anyone from seeing inside her head, knowing what she is thinking. The photo is very low key, the only bright spot is her slacks and sneakers, her legs and feet, that can stay immobile, paralyzed by her emotions. Or they can enable her, free her to move on.

At first glance Emmanuel’s photo is a very nicely crafted print of a young girl sitting on a bench. Upon further reflection, I see a deeply emotional and telling photograph of young woman at an emotional crossroad.

The Role of Photography in Communication

One of the definitions of communication is the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. Years back, communication was delivered mainly through words with photographs for emphasis. I think, today, the balance has shifted toward photographs and video to deliver the message and away from the written word. Admittedly, television, with the power to deliver live feeds from battle fronts, natural disasters and school shootings has been a main contributor. However the emergence of the internet has made the photograph just as influential. This combination, along with the hurried lifestyles we all live today make it so much easier to just ‘surf the net’, peruse the photos and their captions and move onto the next item. No longer do we need to read the details, we have it all in one photograph and a few lines. Dozens of photographs can be uploaded to the internet for world wide viewing in mere minutes. Why would an individual spend countless hours writing descriptive details of the horrors of Iraq or the suffering of Katrina victims when they can shoot and upload hundreds of photographs that say it all? Last week, our professor mentioned the Civil War and the photography that took place then. I have a book on the Civil War at home as it is the one time in history I wish I had more time to spend understanding. Anyway, Richard, my 10 year old grandson was over. He, like most kids, has a non-existent attention span. However he pulled this book off the shelf and within 10 minutes, he was immersed in the Civil War. I explained high level what it was, why it occurred and how terribly tragic it was but the pictures in the book said all the things I didn’t say. He began to understand that this was a very sad and awful era in our history, he asked many questions and every time he comes to the apartment, he grabs the book. He’s not reading it, (although he is fully capable) he’s looking at the photographs and asking questions. So maybe the role of photography in communication is to get to all the people too busy to read, too young for a measurable attention span or those who want to know it all, about everything, right now. Sure, they may read more into a photograph than is there, or misinterpret, but this will spark conversation and that, too, is communication.

Lunar Ec;lipse

I had a tough time trying to capture the lunar eclipse, which occurred a few weeks back, with my digital camera but I did get a few half-way decent photos. The ones I took with my manual camera aren't very good as I did not have a telephoto lens and, subsequently, they came out looking like a white spot on a black background. My digital has a telephoto lens built in (but kept trying to adjust itself automatically). Anyway, I thought I would post these three. It will be a few years before we see another...maybe by then I'll have a lens worthy of capturing it!

Interesting Web Site

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this site already but there is a pretty nice website, photo.net, that has lots of photos to look through if you are just surfing around the net. The photos are uploaded by various photographers and the site is well organized. You can look through photos based on category, when they were uploaded, read critiques by members, etc. There are a wide range of categories to look through; Landscapes, Architecture, Street, Flowers, Fine Art, Events, Documentary, etc. The photos are color and are all digital but they are still nice to get a feel for composition and ideas for future projects. Speaking of motion the other night, there are some real great shots under the Sports category and grittiness of life is fairly evident in many of the Street shots. I included a couple I liked.

The sports one I like because of the way the rider is silhouetted against the light at the back of the tunnel and in the water on the street. The photo is dark but you can still make out the detail in the walls of the tunnel (even the grafitti) and what looks like street transit tracks on the street. I think this photo says a lot about teenagers, riding from the light of day, their youth, into the unknown world without hesitation or fear. The silhouette leaves his identity unknown making him any teenager in any city.

The street shot got me because of the sadness I see in the child's eyes and the look of despair in his dad's face. The child is zipped inside his dad's jacket to keep him warm. I sense a note of resignation in both their faces, how this can be apparent in a child so young I don't know but I think the photographer caught it well. The empty coffee cup is a mystery...did he just finish a cup of coffee or is he holding it out in the hopes of a handout from a passerby? The viewer can interpret this as he wishes.

Light & Shadow Assignment

I'm having lots of fun with this assignment...especially finding many different light sources, both inside and out. Not sure how the night ones will come out...I drove down to the Scituate lighthouse tonight (it's lit up in the evenings) and took a few shots...being there at night is a much different feeling than in the light of day. I hope that shows through in the photos (if they come out). Also, the light coming in my bedroom window this morning produced some great shadow effects on the wall. Had to stop what I was doing to take a few frames...