Digital Photography

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Assignment 2: Self-Portrait Photographer (Man Ray)

Man Ray (1890-1976)

Self-Portrait with Camera (1931)

Self-Portrait with Gun (1932)

Self-Portrait in Turban (1948)

Self-Portrait in the Studio 31 bis,
rue Campagne Première (1933)

Man Ray was an American modernist artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. He shaped his elusive identity in the many self-portraits he made. He once described himself as an artist who “so deforms the subject as almost to hide the identity of the original and creates a new form.” By experimenting with techniques such as cropping, multiple exposures, and the camera-less rayograph, Man Ray demonstrated how mutable the representation of any person, object, or artistic medium can be. In one of his significant works, he uses solarization, which involves exposing the film to bright light during the development process (normally done in a pitch-black “dark” room) to reverse some of the highlights and shadows. Also, in many of his other self-portraits, Man Ray assumes various roles, creating alter-egos and embracing a stereotypical artist persona in a beret, scarf, and cloak. He projects an earnestness and seriousness, with his business-like apparel and demeanor, suggesting the confidence with which he approached his art. Man Ray showed himself in profile in one of his self-portraits, intently adjusting the focal range on his view camera as if for a portrait session. He directs the camera in the photograph at the audience, while the camera taking his picture remains invisible. Man Ray solarized the print, using a process indelibly associated with him. He was best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32357038@N08/8262215429/in/photostream/

https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/46697/man-ray-self-portrait-with-camera-american-1932/

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/357191814191016660/?d=t&mt=login

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/man-ray-18901976-self-portrait-in-turban-c-6225059-details.aspx

https://www.brucesilverstein.com/art-fairs/frieze-masters7/selected-works?view=slider

Assignment 2: Self-Portrait

For this self-portrait assignment, I did not have a professional camera to use, however, I used my smartphone and played with its camera to produce images of myself while seeking out new and different perspectives. In some of my self-portrait photos, I tried to play with exposure, brilliance, shadows, highlights, contrast, sharpness, etc. Also, I tried to choose my color scheme which includes black and white and neutral and minimal colors. These add dramatic effects to the results while creating a simple image (that describes my simple character/self-portrait). Furthermore, I also added a little filter in some of my photos to intensify the effect. Moreover, in some of my images (excluding self-portraits in front of the mirror), I placed my smartphone on tables while setting up a timer. I also tried to zoom in my camera and to crop some images to put some significant focus on specific details. Lastly, I used different mirrors to capture myself and my surroundings, and in some, I partially hid my face behind objects while created a soft-focus effect with some household materials and even Christmas lights.

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Research Assignment 1

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1985 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange’s photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange’s photographs are all black and white because during that time, traditional media that produce photos that are only black and white were primarily used. Also, most of her compositions were centered, have symmetry and texture, and give big impacts that also display sensational stories about the subject. Her camera gave a voice to people who might have been forgotten. Lange used the lens as a tool to lead a “visual life” to communicate the difficult beauty and power of what she witnessed. As a young woman, Lange’s ability to work well with people led to her success as a portrait photographer.

Untitled (Hongkong) 1958

Damaged Child 1936

Greyson, San Joaquin Valley, California 1938

Migrant Mother 1936

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange

https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/media-arts/dorothea-lange-migrant--mother/

http://100photos.time.com/photos/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/55653?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=0&page=6

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53221?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=3373&page=1

https://www.moma.org/artists/3373

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/46342?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=0&page=2

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 20, 2009) was an American amateur street photographer who lived her life in obscurity as a nanny and caregiver in the suburbs of Chicago while producing an expansive body of photographic work that became a media sensation in late 2010, nearly two years after her death. Maier photographed the urban human landscape over the course of three decades. Her preferred subjects were children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly. Some of them were aware of her and some were not. She also made a number of self-portraits. Vivian Maier’s art had different kinds of composition: centered; irregular; focused; abstract; etc., that gave depth to the meaning and the story of her pictures. She worked in a black-and-white documentary style until the early 1970s when she took up colour and also began to adopt a more abstract approach.