Photography "My Life in the Time of Covid-19"

Ultimately my series for the final project is going to be in the subject of Covid-19, so my hands were strongly tied for this series. I decided to put a focus on things my family bought for us to more easily survive this pandemic. The first photo is of an adjustable dumbbell we bought days before the store that sold them closed. The only things that I could show in that photo was the adjustment labels, so I took the picture from overhead. The second photo is of the toilet paper that we bought. In total I think it is 150 rolls. I had to ensure that the entirety of the rolls were visible in the photo. The last photo is the best one, albeit imperfect. Its of the box for the Nintendo Switch that we bought. The Switch itself is not the interesting part. The interesting part is the effort that it took for me to get the switch. I had to watch a stores website for days waiting for them to go on sale (and they would sell out in less than 1 minute). I then had to drive an hour each way to go pick up the Switch. All of that isn't shown very well in the photo itself, however I did tilt the box such that the curbside pickup sticker and Switch logo are clearly visible. Since this was a documentary series and the subject was more what we bought instead of why we bought it there was less of a conveyable message through photographic techniques. I have a really good series coming up that is much more comprehensive of life with Covid-19 so hopefully that one is better.

Week 10 Exhibition Analysis

I chose Karen Knorr's Gentlemen.

1. These photographs are taken for those who aren't conservative members of the white male, upper-middle class in England. The point of these photographs, is to put a spotlight on the beliefs and standards of said class. The beliefs are presented in a way that makes it seem as if a member of that class is explaining their values to a young one who they want to be like them; this is of course presented in a tongue-and-cheek manner.

2. This was taken in the 80's so it is difficult for me to label this type of masculinity since I haven't encountered it much. However, the men in this series appear to be representing a time much earlier than the 80's. Sure, they are older in these pictures, but the time period the appear to be dressed for, and the time period represented by the rooms they are in look to me more like the 30's and 40's. Reading the captions reinforces this idea because they are heavily focused on things like honor and pride. These ideas don't hold very strongly amongst men these days.

3. Some of the other series showcased masculinity in ways that I had never associated with masculinity. Almost none of the photos were of men doing manly things. It was as if they were showcasing femininity dressed like a man. For instance, one series used the clothes of the men as the primary way to showcase a person's masculinity. Masculinity has nothing to do with the clothes someone wears, it is the differing perspective that men have that makes it masculinity. Clothes cannot properly represent that.

4.
       i. Rotimi Fani-Kayode

a.  Something that is notable here is that the background is left in focus. I don't know what the meaning behind this picture actually is, but I can tell this focal choice allows the subject to be compared to others in the background, along with making it easier for the viewer to gauge a time-period for the photo.

b.  Based on the content of other photos by the photographer (which include men who don't adhere to norms), I deduct that he is LGBT. Given the masculinity subject of his photographs, I think the overall message might have to do with the fluidity of masculinity, and that you can be masculine while doing unmasculine things and exhibiting unmasculine behaviors.


       ii. Richard Billingham, Ray’s a laugh

a.  This photo was taken with a wide-angle lens, despite one not being necessary to capture the subject. This was done as much as is possible without cutting off part of the subject of the image. The photographer also took the photo on the level of the subject, despite him being on the ground. These two choices frame the subject well. One other think I will note is the use of the colour blue. Every photo had bland colour, except for something being sky blue.

b.  This photo does an amazing job of conveying the disgusting nature of his fathers' alcoholism. He is wearing a suit, and slumping on a broken toilet. The toilet, in my opinion is the dirtiest one I've seen in my life. This shows how bad the situation is in the eyes of the photographer. The other photos in the series were also dirty, but this one was by far the dirtiest.


       iii. Mikhael Subotzky Prisoners sleep in an overcrowded cell

a.  Obviously the biggest choice here was taking the photo from above, as opposed to face-on. This choice allows the photo to highlight the overcrowded nature of the prison while also showcasing each individual as a person, instead of a prisoner. Aside from that there is some use of colour here with the blue clothes of the prisoners.

b.  The photo appears to have be trying to bring attention to prison overcrowding, along with advocating for the decriminalization of crimes that really aren't crimes in order to alleviate this. Additionally it comments on the condition of the prisons, the prisoners appear cold and underdressed here. The photographer might be a former prisoner.

Week 10 Activity 1

Top left photo:
1: This photo likely represents the refugee aspect of the article, since multiple people are shown traveling. Amongst the 4 photos this one does the worst job of representing the article.
2: The photo supplements the idea that the refugees were poor, and struggled when they were traveling.
3: It shows some malnutrition for the people who are affected. The techniques used do not emphasize this, however.
Top right photo:
1: This photo if of a child who has arrived at an aid camp. He appears to be sick in some way and is being treated by a physician. This explicitly visualizes the last bit, almost to the letter.
2: It doesn't make a comment. It verifies what the article is saying. The kid is clearly sick, by the looks of it from malnutrition.
3: It shows how much the refugees are affected. Whatever the nurse/volunteer is putting onto the child; I've never seen anything like it before. In my mind, that means his condition is really bad/unusual. Also since I've never seen that before it will always stand out to me.
Bottom left photo:
1: This photo also illustrates the extent to which these people are undernourished. Its even sadder to see how young this child is and how much he is in need of food. The article, of course talks about these people not getting enough food and water so this photo makes sense.
2: This photo doesn't make a comment on the article, it does make a comment about the efforts of people who are in the position to help. It does a really good job of emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.
3: What changed for me is this picture actually energized me towards the situation. That is, I feel the urge to do something about it. This is easily the best photo of the four.
Bottom right photo:
1: This appears to be a photo of the affected traveling to a new area. This was mentioned in the article in the second sentence.
2: The photo does a good job of painting the journey as 'dry', as the article puts it. Although it isn't obvious, there are barefoot people in the photo, which is what the article said.
3: This photo diminishes the journey that these people had to make. As bad as it sounds, the photo makes the journey appear possible. I'd have liked for the photographer to have taken a photo during a much tougher leg of the journey.

This photo is easily the best one of the bunch. As I stated before, it paints a strong tragedy (severe malnutrition) onto someone who deserves it the least (child). It has shock value. I can imagine many others choosing this one as the most significant.

Week 9 activities+homework

Mohamed Bourouissa:

1.      The main message here is about African-American culture. Some of it is good, however some of it has to do with police brutality.

2.      This is conveyed mainly through the expressions on the faces of the subjects. In some pictures the subject is crying, in others, they are smiling.

Anton Kusters:

1.      The series is about the expressions of pain of those who were present in the Nazi concentration camps of WW2. The pictures are of the blue skies at significant concentration camps. It offers a contrast between the innocence of the blue sky and the cruelty of the concentration camps.

2.      This is only conveyed with an explanation, however the coordinates of each photo are given so technically the viewer can find the meaning with research.

Mark Neville

1.      These photos are about the conditions of life for farmers in Britain. It was taken shortly after the vote for Brexit, so it intends to justify the vote for leavers.

2.      Again, this message can’t be directly gleamed from the photos; you have to have a description to know what they mean. However you can tell a lot just from the quality and age of the things in the photos: they are old and damaged. These people aren’t doing well financially.

Clare Strand

1.      This series is about the reception of information in the digital age. The artist takes typical images, and blocks them with either boxes filled with numbers of typical pixilation.

2.      This series does a better job of sending the message than the previous one, however it still struggles to and needs an explanation/description to really deliver a message. The only thing she does special here that actually contributes to the message is the pixilation/boxing of the photos.

Ultimately, I believe Kusters should win. His photos do something that none of the others do: they stand on their own. Although it isn’t strong, since you have to look up coordinates to figure out the message, once you do, the message is clear.

Photographs analysed:

Clare Strand:

Mark Neville:

Anton Kusters:

Mohamed Bourouissa:

My Photo:

Caption 1: Gym, condition: used
Caption 2: Just finished a long, hard workout!
Caption 3: So many choices for workouts, I'll spend more time picking one than actually working out!
Cropped version (cropped to the tv stand in the middle left of the original):

Caption: We can't even afford a tv!

       I care very much about the gym and working out, even moreso since being quarantined to the house with nothing else to do. The first caption (the best one), references two ideas: the gym is clearly messy, and the gym has clearly been used. This photo could be put into a series highlighting the life of me under quarantine and the caption would be perfect. The other two captions both build on the idea of a messy gym, but in different ways. One uses the mess to imply that many things were done during the workout, while the other uses the mess to display the many things that can be done in the gym. This photograph did not leave much room to crop it and completely change the meaning, however, since everything I've done with the photo builds upon the idea that the gym is of high quality (for a homegym), it is a nice contrast to point something out that is clearly lacking. We used to have a tv for the tv stand but we gave it away. The room hadn't gotten much usage since then so we had no need to replace it. 

Week 8 Homework

By: Elliot Erwitt

A.   This is a photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a picture of him hitting a front double biceps pose in the same clothes in the same room. He is also flexing while holding the photo.
B.   There is minimal use of light, since there are so few shadows. However it does appear that there is a window to the left due to Arnold's left side being brighter than his right side.
C.    There is no mood to the photo. It appears bleak, but Arnold has a slight grin on his face.
D.    This is a photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a photo of himself.
E.     The photo appears to be a photo about who Arnold is. He is flexing in the smaller photo, and he is the GOAT bodybuilder, so this is definitely a portrait of Arnold himself.



Recreation:

Response:

Creating the recreation was easily the funnest time I've had making a photograph in this class. I consider myself a bodybuilder so not only is the recreation effective at mimicking the original photo, it stands true to me. It took me about an hour to get this photo thought because I had to build a tower of chairs to balance my phone at eye level. Lighting was impossible to get right and I had to zoom in on this photo to get some furniture out of the photo. Besides that I think this photo came out really well.

Week 5 Photographic Series

So I did not take a picture of a series presented in class so I chose one from online. I think this one captures the spirit of the assignment well. 

Last impressions (typing it since I had a lot of thoughts)- Looking at the picture, you not only see a reflection of what she went through over the course of her life, but you also get a glimpse of how she is dealing with it. In her age 24 and 39 photos you see the face of someone who is in pain. When looking at photos of her when she is older, you still see the pain, but you also see some restraint in her face. It is almost as if in her 40's she internalized the idea that the pain won't stop; she had to accept her situation, no matter how bad is seems to her. This also implies that she has a reason to put forward the persona of someone who isn't in pain. Potentially for her children?

Photography Week 4 Portrait analysis