Blog Prompts Week 2 (#5-10)

#5 Give your thoughts on one or both of the following quotes.
“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen

Photography is a very effective way to record human feelings, or something which are important to people. It built a bridge between the photographer and the viewer. It helped the photographer to tell what hi was going to say via the images.

#6 In your opinion, when is it beneficial, ethical, or appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? When do you think it is inappropriate or ethically wrong?
I guess most of the time it is appropriate to digitally alter the portraits, no matter to make it looks better, more beautiful, funnier, or anything else. But there is a very important premise -- the people in the portrait should know all about these. If the people in the portrait doesn't know about the changes of his portrait, everything but make the portrait looks better seemed to be inappropriate.

#7 Pay close attention to the types and number of photographic portraits you see in one day. Where did you see them? How do you think that the content of the portrait changes based on the context in which you see the image (news, facebook, magazine, advertisement, television, youtube, etc)? In other words, what is the difference between the portraits you see on facebook vs. those on the news? What is the difference between the “viewpoint” of the photographer in each situation? What is the difference between their “intents”?
The portraits in magazines or newspapers are useful tools which helped us know better about the articles and the news, they were not considered as the focus when I was reading the magazine. But, they are still very essential and they are vital needs in magazines or newspaper. For the photos in FB, they are always the focus when I was searching the website. I was trying to get informations from the photos which I considered as the focuses and then let the word descriptions as the tools. Same as me, I guess the photographers of the photos in FB wanted to show everything in his photo. But the photographers of the photos in newspapers were only concentrating on parts of the scene which could help the articles.


#8 “My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.” ~Richard Avedon.

Photographers love to put their own feelings, emotions, or affections into the frame. So the portraits were shoot in different angles, light situations, or backgrounds to show how the photographer think about the people in the portrait. If a man is sitting there waiting to be shot by a camera, totally different portraits of him will be created by different photographers.

#9 “You don't take a photograph, you make it.” ~Ansel Adams
(Actually I'm confused about this one…) I guess Ansel Adams was saying that a photographer can be the god of his compositions, his is the controller of everything. As the camera was in his hand, everything will be shot in the frame were under his domination.



#10 “All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.” ~John Berger


I am definitely agree with this. Paintings always shows what the artist want and they are more subjective. Unlike paintings, the photograph are more objective and actual. Although as I said before the photographer is the controller of his frame, but everything is there already, they are what/who they are.

R02

 

Untitled, 1930.

Marlene Dietrich phones her little daughter in Berlin from Hollywood.

by

SALOMON, Erich

b. 28 April 1886; d 7 July 1944

Salomon was a German photographer and one of the pioneers of modern photojournalism.
He first worked as a carpenter, later reading Law at Munich. His interest in photography was aroused by the development, by Oskar Barnack of the 35mm miniature camera. Unlike its predecessors, this new format enabled one to take photographs by available light.
He revelled in taking pictures in situations where cameras were not allowed, and of taking pictures of celebrities when they were off their guard, revealing expressions which they themselves might not wish to reveal in public. His camera was concealed in an attaché case.
He became well known when he published pictures taken secretly at a murder trial. These proved so successful that he became a full-time professional, specialising in pictures which showed the human qualities of celebrities and politicans of his time. He had quite a knack of gate-crashing, to the extent that one premier of France, Briand, once commented that meetings would never be deemed to be important unless Salomon was there.
Salomon also worked briefly in England and in the United States, and in 1931 published a book called "Celebrated Contemporaries in unguarded moments" - containing photographs of some one hundred and fifty dignitaries and celebrities of the time.
During the second World War he went into hiding, but was eventually arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he died.



Recreation

The original photo was showing a communication between a daughter and her mother who was living in another country. She was using an old telephone, which was the best and most popular way to communicate with people far away. So I chose to show this scene in a modern way, combine with many modern communication tools. Although the tools we use for communication are changing dramatically, the fact of communication between us and the others is staying the same. The facial expression indicated that the person was happy when she was making that phone call.

Contemporary Photographer

YeeLing Tang
鄧綺玲
http://www.yeelingtang.com

Tang was born in Hong Kong, China. She moved from her native with her mother and brother to the Netherlands when she was only four to join her father. She did not talk for two years, while her brother relatives haven little or no traumatic memory of the move. Perhaps her early experience of disconnecting from verbal expression provided a framework for her highly articulate sense of visual expression. Through her works we could find an exploration of the Western stereotype of young Asian women, and also the life of a migrant family through generations.