#devinjohnson

After reading "On Seeing Red," I realized things about the color red in an artistic sense that I never thought about before. Firstly, the fact that there are such a vast amount of shades of red is something that we all know but never reflect on. The reading actually made me see all these in my mind, and even look some of them up, to contrast them and understand that they could all represent different meanings or feelings. The passage itself seemed to be a collection of random events throughout history or the author's life where red was present which made it a bit confusing to follow but interesting to see how important red is as a color. Even though there are various hues of red, artists still tend to use it sparingly because it can be very striking and the smallest bit can help something stand out. Reading this made me think of all the art I've ever seen and where/why they use red.

Due to the sheer amount of photos I see online everyday, on social media or various websites, I think of those mostly as normal photos, with cinema or professional pictures as good ones. Yet, in this essay, Steyerl is saying that almost everything that is easily accessible is a "poor image." This seems to come from a mindset that prioritizes and reveres "true" art and photography, which means not heavily editing or formatting or compressing, because then it would lose its value. I was surprised at this at first because I never necessarily credited pictures with value, unless it was an extremely beautiful and well-shot picture by a pro. Yet when Steyerl began introducing the metaphors of photos and media too the economy, it started to make sense. Everything expensive and of value is limited, or else it doesn't mean much in this world of capitalism. It's just like NFT's (non-fungible tokens), where only the original holds value and only that one can be traded and sold.

I will say, however, that I do not fully agree with Steyerl on his stances. I believe that these images, although sometimes in worse quality than the original, have the potential to hold just as much, if not more, value in other ways. An edit or reformatting of a photo can enhance the pixel quality or resolution, but it can also add personal value. If someone were to sell a baseball fanatic a picture of Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth that was edited from just a picture of the one of them, the new "poor image" would probably have more value to that specific person than the original. In this case, it is all about perspective.

Discussion Questions:

1. Does a "poor image," as defined by Steyerl to be something reformatted and changed, always have to lose value?

I focused on the dialogue between photographers Benjamin Berry and Chester Toye. Not only did the actual pictures they sent speak to me, based off of the lighting, composition, etc, but I was also intrigued by how they interpreted and continued their dialogue. They seem to switch what aspect of their partners photo they want to "respond" to and either try to imitate it, portray the opposite, or include a specific part while everything else in the picture is different. Take these two images for example:

The first, from Benjamin, is blurry and grainy showing the face of a white man but you can't see too many specific details due to the lack of focus. Chester decides to respond with a portrait of a Black man, where the details in his face are also not easy to see but this time because of the shadow cast upon the subject. It seems like the strategy here was to imitate the concept of a slightly unknown subject, while still giving some conext to the photo through background or lighting. There is also a juxtaposition as one man is white and the other is Black, also as one is smiling and one is not.

I was also interested as to how the photographers switched how they wanted to respond. Unlike the previous two, these next two photos create dialogue in a different way:

Here, neither the composition, lighting, nor meaning of the photos are necessarily similar, but in Benjamin's with the sun's glare at the top of the building you get a sense of looking up at the sun on a bright sunny day due to the angle of the photo and the beautiful symmetric rays that this reflection of the sun gives off. But in Chester's photo, we see a black and white image of a man looking up in the distance, as if Benjamin's photo was taken from this perspective. Chester also switches from it being a bright sunny day to making it seem a little more gloomy due to the monochrome colors. This creates the dialogue of the man looking forward tot he sun in the other photo to maybe look forward to bright and sunny days.

Another thing I wanted to mention was how the photographers continue the dialogue. At times there is an abrupt shift between pictures after sets of two (Benjamin sends one, then Chester responds with something related, then Benjamin starts the cycle over with an unrelated picture), but then other time it progresses as follows:

This essay was by James Baldwin was an intriguing read, especially since it was so different from our normal readings. Baldwin uses this essay to elaborate on his complex relationship with his father, and the plethora of issues that they had to deal with both within the family and in the larger society. Baldwin and his siblings had to deal with a rather cruel father, yet he also attempted to show them love and affection. The essay goes on to talk about the intricate feelings, words, and actions that occurred by his father, who they later found out to be mentally ill, which led him to be the person he was then. Not only did his fathers treatment and development influence the way they grew up, but also the way they interacted with the larger society, mainly white people. He was taught to not even trust one of his white teachers, leading to a Baldwin who would throw water in the face of those who deny him access to restaurants or anywhere else.

Baldwin also makes parallels and connections between this story with his father and with his understanding and relation to racial issues in America. He states that a lot of his, and other Black people’s, hatred and rage came from the way they were raised compounded with the way they are treated. People are distrusting and paranoid of others in the world, as Baldwin couldn’t even trust his own father, let alone a random white stranger. Baldwin shows a correlation between the way people acted during that time period, and the way people were treated (based off of their race).

The questions that I pose are these:

1) Do you think that Baldwin would have changed his relationship with his father if he came to these realizations before he died?

Magnum Photos is a prestigious international co-operative photography agency founded in 1947 by the 4 photographers Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour. It was created based off of the desire for these and other photographers to express their emotions and views on the world as World War II had just ended, and there were various conflicts and impactful events occurring that needed to be captured. The agency was innovative in the way that its photographers had the freedom to go where they want and shoot what really inspired them, and they would be supported by the agency in publicizing and spreading their photos. This allowed them to not be stifled by the normal constraints of magazines and newspapers and really get the best pictures showing their real truths about global situations.

I chose to focus on photos by Nikos Economopoulos, a Greek photographer who joined Magnum in 1990. A lot of his projects focus on inhabitants of Greece, specifically borders between groups inhabiting the country such as the Greeks and Albanians, and other migrants coming into the country. I decided to look into Economopoulos because I liked what and who he was focusing on as you get to see different aspects and perspectives of different groups of people in the same place.

Albanians trying to go to Greece, 1991

Illegal immigrants. Kakavia, Greece 1990

Albanians living in Greece, 1990

A Muslim gipsy holds up a chair without losing balance to prove his sobriety, 1991

The Central Railway Station. Tirana, Albania 1991

A gipsy musician playing at a feast, 1998

The Salt of the Earth was truly a very eye-opening and impactful documentary, especially compared to the other documentaries about photography that we've watched in class. This was not only about photography, but about a specific man's photography, and what he was trying to portray with it. Following Salgado from a young economist to a global adventurer and photographer allows the audience to get a behind the scenes understanding of his work, what it means, and why he made this his life's passion. Salgado's pictures all mean something. He captures the cold, heartbreaking, disastrous, shocking truths that occur all over the world that a lot of society normally ignores. Famines in Ethiopia, refugees fleeing their countries and gathering in camps, gold miners slaving for a chance at wealth, all of these are things that Salgado forces us to see and think about the causes. After the Susan Sontag reading, when I thought about people photographing graphic events like these I was sad because it seemed like they wanted that moment to live forever in time and that they didn't really care what was going on besides for the picture. But after watching this film I can say that Sebastiao Salgado was not this type of person, and everything he shot he truly cared about.

I chose to look at Julia Margaret Cameron's photos in the book "Julia Margaret Cameron: Complete Photographs". The cover is here:

Henry Taylor | Study of King David, 1865-66

I chose this image because it was taken/developed in a way to align with what I take to be the meaning of the photo. We see a king sitting in a throne with a look of despair on his face as his head hangs low. This is accompanied by a stark contrast between him and his surroundings which are pitch black - a good match for his mood.

Julia Jackson, 1864

I chose this image because its clarity of the subject really stood out to me when compared to a lot of other images of this time, among Cameron's photos as well. You can see there was a low aperture used to create a blurry background, giving more focus to the woman in the photo and the details of her face and dress. This photo and others portraits of women were usually taken with much more light and distance than with male portraits because Cameron would try to capture all Beauty present.

Herr Joachim, 1868

I chose this because the composition of this picture really stood out to me. This was one of the few pictures in this collection by Margaret Cameron that wasn't just a normal head and shoulders portrait with the addition of the violin. This is a part of a set of photographs of famous men of science, letters, the church, etc.

Laura Gurney, 1872

I chose this because I liked the angle at which the photo was taken, turned towards the way the child is looking but they are still not looking directly at the camera. The light edges around the picture also add a softening effect, adding to the effect for the image of the angel presented by the subject. Images of children such as this one were popular with Victorian artists who liked to use children's innocence as subjects for their art.

The Whisper of the Muse | Portrait of G.F. Watts

These images when first released were both criticized and celebrated as some people thought they were childish and ludicrous, while others praised her for being able to capture groups of people staying relatively still as opposed to in portraits. This image in particular stood out to me because of the different shades in the different people and objects in the picture. Even in the violin alone, the shades of contrast vary which adds dimension.

The Rosebud Garden of Girls, 1868

I chose this photo because Cameron was able to capture all 4 of these women's faces full of emotions at the same time at a point where they all seem to intersect in terms of what they're feeling. It's also cool how none of them are looking in the same direction but we can still see everyone's facial expressions clearly.

So like a shatter'd Column lay the King, 1875

This stood out to me because of the qualities of the photo's subjects. The contrast between them and their background is so stark, but the contrast within their bodies and clothes are very low, to the point where they almost just seem white at first glance. I would want to know how this picture was developed in order to get this effect.