Natural Light Portraits

1. What lessons or experiences did you “synthesize and analyze” to come up with your original idea-- what was your assignment?

My assignment was to take a photo of a person using natural light as the light source in the photo. My original idea was to take some portraits of my friends, but using them seemed very staged. I wanted something in it's natural state so I decided to photograph my cousin's daughter Roslyn. Since Roslyn is a baby, she doesn't quite understand what a camera is so she just acted like she wanted to. This was difficult at some times but it worked out in the end.

4. What do you like best about your images?

I like that they came out well after I changed my direction from friends, to family. I'm glad that I was still able to create good images.

5. Did you have trouble with some part of this assignment?  

The only trouble I had with this assignment was getting the light to be exactly where I wanted it, especially with a model who moves a lot. I overcame that eventually and other than that I didn't have any problems.

Near and Far

4. What do you like best about your images?
I like that my images are landscape images but 2 out of 3 have water in the pictures as well. I love taking photos of the ocean or a lake (as I did here). I like that my images show the movement of the water and the flow it produces. Overall i'm pleased with my images but believe they could have been a bit clearer in the background.

6. How could you improve your image or process?
I could improve my images by playing with the controls more and using more of the skills we learned in class.  I have to learn how to really work with my camera and let it help me produce better images. Other than that I think my process of eliminating images and choosing the best ones is fine.

2. How did you evaluated your work, what were you looking to create for the assignment, and was this idea a good idea?
When I evaluated my images I looked to see that the subject of the photo was clear and that everything around it was as well made out as possible. When I looked through the images I took I made sure to look and see what I would have to edit if I chose that picture. I tried to evaluate all my pictures equally and in the end these were the ones I chose.

20 Photo Artists

Name: Tina Mondotti
Author: Margaret Hooks
Photographer: Tina Mondotti
Publisher: Aperture Foundation


Name: 150 Photographers On Their Art
Author: Brooks Johnson
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Aperture Foundation


Name: Nonfiction
Author: Mark Singer
Photographer: 
Publisher: Walker Creek Press


Name: Steichen
Author: Elliot T. Parker
Photographer: Edward Steichen
Publisher: Double Day and Company Incorporated The Museum of Modern Art


Name: Walker Evans
Author: Maria Morris Hambourg
Photographer: Walker Evans
Publisher: Princeton U Press



Name: Ideas Without End
Author: Richard Lorenz
Photographer: Imogen Cunningham
Publisher: Library of Congress Catagory



Name: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Author: Robert Capa
Photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Publisher: Aperture Foundation


Name: The Photo Book
Author: Ian Jeffry
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Phaidon Press Limited


Name: In Real Life
Author: Leslie Stills
Photographer: Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Carrie Mae Weems, Elsa Dorfman, and Cindy Sherman
Publisher: Library of Congress Catagory


Name: Black and White Photography
Author: Henry Horenstein
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Little Brown and Co

Name: 25 Lessons I've Learned About Photography

Author: Lorenzo Dominguez

Photographer: Lorenzo Dominguez

Publisher: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform

Name: Witness
Author: Ruth Gruber
Photographer: Ruth Gruber
Publisher: Schocken


Name: 50 Most Inspirational Photographers of All Time
Author: Chris Dickie
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series


Name: 50 Photographers You Should Know
Author: Peter Stepan
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Prestel


Name: Diane Arbus: A Biography
Author: Patricia Bosworth
Photographer: Diane Arbus
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company


Name: Mapplethorpe: A Biography
Author: Patricia Morrisroe
Photographer: Robert Mapplethorpe
Publisher: Da Capo Press


Name: Humans of New York
Author: Brandon Stanton
Photographer: Brandon Stanton
Publisher: St. Martin's Press


Name: The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers
Author: Scott Kelby
Photographer:Varied
Publisher: Peachpit Press


Name: Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits: Stories and Techniques from a Photographer's Photographer
Author:  Gregory Heisler, Michael R. Bloomberg
Photographer: Gregory Heisler
Publisher: Amphoto Books


Name: Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age
Author: Graydon Carter
Photographer: Varied
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

History of Photographers 19 & 20

Eliot Erwitt

Eliot Erwitt is a Parisian photographer known for his satirical situations in everyday situations which he captured in his photos. His family moved to the United States where he first started to become interested in photography. He studied photography at Los Angeles City College and he finished his education in 1950. He shot photographs all around the world becoming a 'free lance' photographer. He also is known for creating an alter ego that is a pretentious french man named André S. Solidor.

I like this photograph because the mirror image is so clear and the background is faded out and yet still beautiful. I like how Erwitt captured the happiness on the woman's face in the mirror and that he was skilled enough to do this. It's a very nice picture because you can picture the woman in the car facing the ocean even though this is not shown in the photo. I also find this photo very romantic, which makes it enjoyable as well. 

I find this photo very ironic and uplifting. It's funny how the seemingly normal couple are walking their tiny dog, until you get a closer glimpse at one of their legs. This photo implies a lot. The photo shows a dog's legs next to a person's leg, but which is the real dog: the man or the woman? One would figure it would be the woman walking such a small dog, but the boots suggest it could be a man as well. So who is the dog? That's what Erwitt wants you to think about. 

Marilyn Monroe. I can bet you've heard of her even if you aren't a fan of hers. Marilyn was a very complicated individual, much more than what she revealed to the public. I believe some of the madness in her mind was captured in this photo taken by Elliott Erwitt. From far away she looks just like Marilyn, an actress doing a pose like any other photo. But if you look closer into her eyes, there is something else there. Something that is very far from the happiness a great actress should have. Erwitt may have used humor in some of his other photos but he reveals a deeper meaning in all his photographs no matter what form of production he uses. 

 Dorathea Lange

Dorathea Lange was one of the most inspirational photographers of all time because of her skills when taking documentary style photos during the era of the Great Depression. She first learned the art of photography at Columbia University in New York. Lange also worked for the RA and the FSA. Her most famous photo is titled "Migrant Mother" and has been featured on many things related to the Great Depression and is still admired today. Lange died of esophageal cancer when she was 70 years old. When she entered the later years of her life she suffered a lot of health problems because of her suffering from Polio as a child. 

I'm sure you've seen this photo before whether in History class or everyday life. This is Lange's most famous photograph "Migrant Mother" taken during the Great Depression. The first time I saw this picture I had no idea who took it. I like this photo very much because it reflects the pain that not only a mother faces in a depression but the children as well. The hopeless look on her face reaches out to you and I love that Lange was able to capture this emotion. 

This photo is the definition of a documentary photograph. It is taken merely to see and know how things were during the Great Depression. This photo makes me sad, to see the conditions that people had to live in. Over all this photo is a great photo, it's clear and to the point. It shows the housing conditions and how many people live there. I don't think documentary photography is my favorite type of photography because to me it lacks substance. I wish there was more emotion instead of stone cold facts. 

This photo says a lot. It's ironic and sad that the kids are doing such a childlike pose when they look so angry and sad. These children probably had to learn to grow up at a very young age because of their situation of having to grow up during the Great Depression. This photo gives the impression that a lot of children didn't have time just to be kids, they had to take responsibility that most kids don't have to. I like the use of grey tones in this picture, while there are some dark grey colors there is never the harshness of black that some black and white photos have. This gives the photo a dreary, dirty quality that goes along great with the theme of the Great Depression. 

History of Photographers 17 & 18

W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith is a fabulous photographer who refused to conform to society's view of 'proper photography' with his brutal and vivid images of the chaos of WWII. He was also a well known journalist, his ability to take photos only increased his creative value. Smith entered WWII and took photos of the war as it progressed and was wounded while trying to capture the gritty photos. He worked for many different magazines during his lifetime including Life magazine. 

I like this photo because there is a truth behind it. I wonder who that man is talking to on the phone and what significance it had to the situation in the room, the women who look agitated and nervous. The ability to capture an emotion or a set of emotions in a photo is a wonderful thing and this is what Smith has done. He has made the situation more real, caught in the moment through a camera. 

This photograph makes me sad when I look at it. It's not just because of the probably dead child in the soldiers arms, it's because of the soldier holding it. These were once innocent men, not touched with the horrors of a brutal war, and someday long after this photo was taken these men probably still wake in terror from post traumatic stress. This war changed a generation. Once again Smith was able to capture this gritty reality in a gritty photograph.

This photo was featured on the cover of Life magazine. I like it because of the darkness on the man's face, not jut the shadowing but the dirt and sweat, and then the shocking white color of the cigarette he holds in his mouth. When men were away at war smoking was one of the only normal routines they had, the one thing they could control. It's ironic to think it probably held some sort of hope to them, "If I survive today I'll get my cigarette," they might have said. The determination Smith has caught in this soldiers eyes says, "I've survived another day and I've earned at least this." 

William Eggleston

William Eggleston is mostly known for his usage of color in his photographs, sometimes even especially bright. He believed that his artwork was so bold that it should hang in honor in many galleries all over the world. He was inspired by Robert Frank, a well known Swiss photographer. He was a big fan of dye-transfer printing because he loved the way it enhanced an image. He was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award in 2013. 

I like this photo because of the colors. It may be shallow to say but after researching so many black and white photographers it's nice to have some colorful image. But as we were taught in Photo 1 color does distract from the actual image and I think it does so here. It's a fantastic image but looking at it without all the colors and tones is it really that great? To me the colors make this image, not the subjects.

The effect one color has on a photo is amazing. The dark blue grey color of the sky mixes so nicely with the forest green grass it almost looks as if the sky and ground are blended together. Then you have the child in the shocking crimson coat which is what your eyes are drawn to immediately. The use of colors and color patterns in this photo is amazing and the vividness is also appealing to the eye.

The normality of this photo is striking, but once again color seems to mask the imperfections of the subject itself. The girl's face is very pointed and the lighting could have been better. But I think that's what makes this photo, that it looks like he saw a pretty girl and took her picture in the spur of the moment. That's why it's a good picture, because it looks like if someone asked why he took it the answer would be, "Why not?"

History of Photographers 15 & 16

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a well known Hungarian painter and an outstanding photographer. He created the Light Prop or Electric Stage which advances the art of photography dramatically. This allowed more light to create shadows in photographs that added depth to photos. Moholy-Nagy moved to the U.S. later in his life and lived in Chicago where he ran the New Bauhaus. 

I like Moholy-Nagy's photos because of all the light that is shown in them but I dislike the lack of activity going on in the photos. The only thing going on in this photo is the one ma hanging out of the window and he isn't even the main focus of the photo. The photo just seems odd to me and in a blank sort of way. I just don't like or understand it. 

This photo I like because of the angle. It's taken as if he was laying and hanging over these people whose photo he captured. I like that you can see the shadows and that it doesn't give you that same dry feeling the picture before does.  I also like the contrast of the three people wearing the bright white hats while the rest of this picture is very grey and dark. 

Once again this photo gives me that dry odd feeling that I don't like. The entire scene is too weird, the man's leg over the edge almost as if he is dancing to his death. The photo just gives me a feeling I don't like and the light is too bright and perfect making the viewer think that there is something bad happening with something pretty trying to distract you from the bad thing. It's like it's tricking you, it's an illusion. 

Andre Kertesz

Like Moholy-Nagy Kertesz is also a well know Hungarian photographer. He contributed greatly to photo composition and photo essay. Kertesz never felt that he got all the appreciation he should have for his photographs. He spent time in both Hungary and France where his most well known images were taken. In his free time he liked to photograph street people including gypsies and local beggars. Today Kertesz is receiving the recognition he so much deserved when he was alive. 

Kertesz took this photo "Circus," in Budapest and it's one of my favorites. I like that the light is soft and doesn't strain your eyes anywhere you look. I also like that you can't see their faces, giving the illusion are they looking at the circus or are they the circus? As you've probably guessed I adore photos with double meanings or long background stories so you can see why this is one of my favorites. It has great symbolism ad is an over all great image.

This is one of Kertesz's most famous photographs but I am not sure how to feel about it. It's very simple, it's just a fork which in a way makes it abstract which is interesting, and the shadows are very good as well. Overall this is a great image but I can't sense any meaning behind it which makes me feel like the photo is lacking substance. 

 

I like the shadows in this photo and how small the people look in this photo. This photo shows how much smaller human beings are and how we can make things so much bigger and stronger than we are. I like this picture because it's from a high up angle that you wouldn't see normally. I also like this photo because each one of those people probably don't know they are in a famous photograph, they have lives of their own they are worrying about all of those small dots have a different life and different thoughts. It's amazing that this can all be captured in a photo. 

History of Photographers 13 & 14

Edward Weston

Edward Weston is considered to be one of the most influential photographers of all time. The 40 years he spent on photography paid off, he had a very modern approach to photography, mainly photographing items he found intriguing, still lifes and nudes. His most famous photos are the ones he took of the trees that surrounded the town he resided in California. He only stopped doing photography when he developed Parkinson's disease and could no longer work. He worked in many different photo studios before finally opening his own in 1911. In 2010 two of Weston's photos were ranked as some of the most expensive photographs sold. 

This photo called "Nautilus" is famous by Edward Weston. I like this photo quite a bit because of the plain quality it has. It's just a shell and yet it is still an interesting photo. It takes talent to be able to make such a plain object look like a piece of art. I also like how the shell is darker around the front and not as light as the rest of the shell. Its something about the way the shell looks that makes this photo interesting.

I also like this image taken by Edward Weston. It's odd and unique and gives a weird feeling to whoever observes it. Weston takes extremely unique and weird objects and photographs them in such a way that it makes them look intricate and unique. I like that he is able to create art out of such strange objects.

 

This photo is entitled "Inspiration" and is my least favorite photo by Weston. I feel the name has no deep hidden meaning, what could a crushed vegetable have to do with inspiration? Weston has taken his weirdness to the very next level and I think it is a bit too much for this photograph. 

Lewis H. Hine

 Lewis Hine is mostly known for his use of photography when trying to help change child labor laws and social reform in the United States. Hine studied sociology and photography and learned to combine both to help people in need. He photographed many different working places with many different working conditions all to make sure that working people were treated correctly and to expose companies that were not treating their employees as such. In the Library of Congress there are over 5000 photographs of social reform taken by Hine alone. He is kind of like the original Mike Carroll, using his photography to help people in need.

I have mixed feelings about Hine's photography. His photos are all brilliant in certain ways but they are more documentary photographs than ones taken for artistic purposes. The photo here doesn't hit a nerve when looking at the blank faces of the people traveling to Ellis Island, it doesn't make your heart skip a beat. The photo is merely a moment in history showing little significance.

I like this photo because it can be interpreted many different ways considering the angle of the man when he is turning the lever. To me this man looks curled as if he is in an almost upright fetal position. This gives the impression that this man has been a mechanic all his life and this is where he is most comfortable. The photo is taken carefully and everything is crystal clear in this image, yet another reason why I liked it. 

This photo could have been so much more spectacular if the lighting was only a few shades lighter. The man's shadow also obscures the view, though maybe this was meant to be artistic. The picture just looks funny to me and at an odd angle which I don't like. This is perhaps my least favorite Hine photo because of the potential it had. 

History of Photographers 11 & 12

Edward Curtis

Edward Curtis is most known for his photographs of Native Americans and the American old West. He built his own camera when he first became interested in photography and used it for quite some time before purchasing a professional camera. He started  his own studio with a few of his close friends/colleagues.President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to photograph his children after he saw that Curtis won a photo contest. He had many studios in his lifetime, he left his first one and started a new partnership with someone else and soon left that one for his own self appointed studio in California. The photographs he is most known for taking are portrait style photographs of Native Americans.

This photo called "A Smokey Day at the Sugar Bowl" is my favorite photo by Edward Curtis. It's different from the photos he usually takes, its not a straightforward portrait, it's a beautiful scenic photo. It still sticks to his style of the old west and Native Americans because of the Native standing by the river. I think this gives the photo and even better effect because of the man standing and looking off into the distance, it gives the photo an eerie effect, but not in a creepy way, more like a cold feeling like you are actually there in the early morning fog on the river.

This is defiantly one of my favorite photos by Curtis.The view in the photo is astonishing and the men on horseback add to the effect of the vast empty space that the old west was. Whenever you watch movies where the setting is the Old West you almost always have a shot like this. When you think Old West in your head the image of horseback riders and a tall canyon immediately comes to mind.

  

This is an original portrait called "White Man Runs Him" by Edward Curtis. This is a typical straightforward portrait that Curtis was known for taking. I like portraits because they show the true person in the photo, no interpretation. It's just a person, facing the camera and being this close to the camera they can't hide anything. The camera reveals them and that's what I like. There is no smoke and mirrors, everything is legitimate.

Gertrude Kasebier

Gertrude Kasebier was an American photographer who shocked the world with her amazing pictures of motherhood, Native Americans and her fierce belief that woman could take beautiful photographs. Her unhappy marriage inspired some of her most famous masterpieces. She believed that photography was made for women with artistic taste and made it one of her most important goals, to make sure that every women would be able to be a photographer if they wanted to. 

 

This is a photo taken by Gertrude Kasebier titled "Miss N" and it is one of my favorites. There is a mysterious quality to this photograph that one simply cannot put their finger on. It's because of the look on Miss N's face that Kasebier captured; it can be interpreted many different ways. One could say that she was told a joke and smiled slightly, or maybe she's thinking a bittersweet memory, the reason behind the sadness in her eyes. That's what makes a photo great, the story it creates. 

 

This photo called "Blessed Thou Art" has a chilling quality about it. The way the child looks, dressed all in black when everything around is white and bright. Perhaps the reason the child is seen as a darker figure is because Kasebier did not like her husband, and felt the children were a piece of him. She constantly stresses the bond between mother and child so maybe the picture shows that even though the child has a bit of evil in it, it is still her child and she still loves her. 

Once again in this picture "The Clarence White Family in Maine" the mother and children are seen to have a noticeable connection. In the white light the mother looks almost like a holy figure and the boys are entranced by her. Kasebier was very influenced by the connection that a mother has with her children and this shows in many of her photographs including this one. 

Mike Carroll - Hand Held

Mike Carol was a fantastic photographer and this is shown in his movie "Hand Held" about his time in Romania and the experiences he had there. He has taken many photographs of the orphans there and many of these photos showed Americans for the first time what the conditions were like in Romania for an orphan child. Back when Carroll visited the orphanages the conditions were horrific. Baby's were lined up in metal cribs, nameless and forgotten. No human interaction went on between the workers and the babies because of the get of them growing to attatched. The orphanages were a nightmare, the children were lucky to survive them at all.


Today in Romania the orphanages have come a long way since then. The children live in much better conditions and adoptions have increased dramatically since the revolution. Children now are dressed in clothes and have much more human interaction than before. Still the human interaction isn't the best but it is a big improvement from before. The children in the orphanages are also getting to experience foster homes which they didn't have a chance to before. There are also a lot less orphans because women are not forced to have five children anymore. Many Romanian families adopt children and give them loving homes.

 

History of Photographers 9 & 10

Eduard J. Steichen

Eduard J. Steichen was an American photographer who immigrated to the United States from Luxembourg with his parents when he was a small child. He was a well known photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair Magazines. He was first interested in drawing and painting and gradually opened up to the idea of photography and bought his first camera. Some of his photography friends and him eventually formed a group called  Milwaukee Art Students League and hosted lectures about art. His most famous photograph is "The Pond- Moonlight" which is shown below.

This may be Steichen's most famous photographs but it is not one of my favorites. The composition is too dark for my liking and though the reflection is clear in the pond the edges are blurry and dark. This photo doesn't appeal to me, it's too dark and dreary. 

This photo called "Isadora Duncan in the Parthenon, Athens" is my favorite by Steichen. I like that you can see the detail of the posts beside her, the grittiness of them. I also like how she blends into her background, the only light in this picture. I like that he caught the shadows of the pillars on the ground in front of her and that you can see the light between them. 

This photo is titled "Experiment" and I have mixed feelings about this photo. I like the different colors that have been exposed in the photo but I don't like the gritty quality of the photo. It makes the photo look more like a painting than a photo and I don't like that, I think he should differentiate between his painting masterpieces and his photography masterpieces. His shouldn't incorporate that much of his other skill into his photography. I enjoy the color but the clarity could have been clearer. 

Walker Evans

Walker Evans is most famous for his photos that document the Great Depression. He is known for using wide format for all his photos. He took photos for the Farm Security Administration for quite a while after he campaigned for the Resettlement Administration. Evans stayed with three different families and took photos of them during the Great Depression and it was published in the famous book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

I like this photo by Evans because of the bright quality it gives especially on the house. Everything else is shadowed beside the main house, making it the subject of this photo, and it makes the house look even better. The contrast between the dark and light is especially important in black and white photos (at least to me it is) and this photo tells me that he took the time to find where the light was and how it would affect his photograph as a whole. 

I like this image by Walker Evans as well. This is from his well known collection, Subway. I like this because although there are two adults in this photo the child is the main focus of the photo. The woman's face is shielded by a newspaper and the man's face is only somewhat in the frame. It's interesting how he noticed this and took the picture. The child's face is also the brightest and we can see the whole face. It's almost as if Evans is saying that children have nothing to hide, but some adults do.

I like this photo because the image is distorted, yet it still remains to be a beautiful photo. You can see reflections on the glass and this blocks our view of the men eating lunch but it doesn't ruin the photo. The reflective surface merely adds to the illusion of the photograph. I like it also because its a simple photograph. It's just two men eating lunch and one of the looks like he is in the middle of a conversation. Yet the simplicity of the scene merely adds to the somehow glamorous effect the photo gives. 

Near and Far Pre Assignment

I'm looking forward to starting this assignment because after researching Ansel Adams I fell in love with his work. I like his landscape photos and I look forward to taking some of my own. Gloucester has so beautiful geography and this is a great opportunity to find a landscape and photograph it. I'm sure I'll have a lot of photos of the ocean for this assignment!It's also interesting to learn what parts of the camera help you take a successful landscape photo and I look forward to referring to the videos posted on the main blog in case I need help.

Shutter Speed Self Assessment

4. I like that my images came out pretty well (though I am not impressed by my third image of the coin) while the subjects were in the air. I like that my photos show that I understood the assignment and tried my best to succeed. I liked that this assignment was a challenge and that I was able to succeed and take some good photos.

5. On the first two photos of this assignment I had no problem because I used the professional camera available to us in class. When I was taking photo's of spinning coins I had my own Cannon camera which is not as professional as the ones used before (it's a small digital camera). Taking the photos was harder using my camera and I wasn't able to focus as well. Next time I'll be sure to use the cameras in class or try harder in learning about my camera and how I can use it to do assignments involving shutter speed.

6. To improve my images I could has focused the camera more (especially the coin one) and had it not so blurry. Once again it was difficult using my own camera to do this assignment. Next time I will defiantly be more careful with focusing on the subject of the photo.

Of Anna and Eve

Once I saw the post about  Viktoria Sorochinski on the main photo blog I immediately became entranced by her work. Her photos depict the mother, Anna, in more of a childlike way and the daughter, Eve, in a motherly way. Almost as if Sorochinski has switched the roles of the two girls to get across a deeper meaning. The expressions the girls have in almost all the photos caught my attention as well. One of the girls always has a blank expression on her face, a dumbfounded look. The other usually has a stern look on her face except for one photo when Anna is smiling a sad smile. These photos inspired me because of the emotional depth that Sorochinski puts in her photos, especially as an amateur photographer. I hope that in the future I can take photos that express so much more than shown in the photo.

These are a couple of my favorite photographs taken by  Viktoria Sorochinski.

These photos are not mine they were taken from http://www.photoawards.com/en/Pages/Gallery/zoomwin.php?eid=8-42830-12&count=4&code=

History of Photographers 7 & 8

Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge was an English photographer who was known for his pioneering work and his work in motion picture projection. He focused mostly on taking photos of open spaces and landscapes unless something architectural caught his eye. He liked using time lapse photography (taking pictures of things over time and seeing how they changed) such as building going up or being torn down. He also studied a lot of horses and how to photograph them but this came to a halt when Muybridge found out his wife was cheating on him and Muybridge murdered the man she slept with. He was acquitted on the claim "justifiable homicide." When Muybridge returned to England later in his life he died of prostate cancer.

This photo is called "Bridge of the Puerto Bello, Panama"When I was looking for photos to use by Muybridge I gravitated more towards his landscape photos than his time lapse photography. I like this photo a lot because of the dark color contrast of the picture and then the light reflection of the underneath of the bridge on the river. Without the river and the reflection this photo would look a bit creepier but the reflection gives it a very pioneer-ish look that sticks out to me. 

This photo is called "Yosemite" and this is another very genuine Muybridge photo. Just looking at this photo you can tell it screams pioneer and old west and that's what I love about it. It looks like a photo out of a history book. Even if he didn't realize it then, by taking these landscape photos he was still taking time lapse photos at the same time because now a days not a lot of places still look like this today. Capturing a moment so pure as the old west, uninhabited by humans the land never touched before, it's beautiful. 

 

This photo is called "The Ramparts, Funnel Hole, Hole in the Wall, Pyramid Sugar Loaf, Oil House and Landing Cove of Fisherman's Bay." This photo is very gloomy and gives off an aura of industrial revolution. It's different from his other landscape photos, it doesn't have that same pure energy of nature, instead it has workers tearing up the land and urbanizing it. I have mixed feelings about this image because I like the point he was making by taking this photo but I don't like the dark, dreariness the photo has. 

 Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was a Danish American and a former muckraker journalist and a documentary photographer. Riis loved taking photos of impoverished New Yorkers and was one of the first to use flash photography in order to take photos in darker places as he so wanted. Riis photographed the slums of New York and got some of his most famous photos from these adventures. 

This photo is called "Bandit's Roost" and is one of my favorites by Jacob Riis. I like how it shows just how gloomy and dark the slums of New York are and his photo doesn't glamorize anything. He really brought to light the bad side of new York without having it be a bad photo; he still manages to get good shots in difficult working conditions.

I like this photograph because once again Riis doesn't try to glamorize the poor life of the people of New York. I also like this photo because of the contrast between the white blanket the baby is covered in and the grey of everything else around it. It almost represents how the baby is still innocent of the world and doesn't know suffering like the child holding it.



I like this image because of the emotion it portrays. You can literally feel what these children are feeling because of the emotion portrayed on their faces in this photo. You can see the sadness and how they are struggling and it is a great moment that Riis was able to capture.