Google Reader Response #10

Deciding on which photographs to discuss was easy this week… George Georgiou’s Fault Lines/Turkey/East/West. The artist deals with issues very similar to those in my own photographic series yet interestingly he is discussing urban development in Turkey rather than in the US. The artist considers the struggle in Turkey between the creation of a westernized urban landscape with their cultural heritage. I really loved this quote from the artist - “Cites are becoming carbon copies of each other.” That is exactly how I have responded to the neighborhoods here is Orlando. It is interesting that around the world westernization and capitalism infiltrates building projects which serve to intensify a sense of alienation and sameness in sprawling cities. The artist emphasizes this by contrasting the repetitive infrastructure with the natural landscape surrounding it. Buildings appear eerily alike, following a box grid of rows. The stifling layout is emphasized by the billowing hillsides or greenery. Alongside the landscape images, Georgiou takes photographs of people with an interest in the affect westernization has on them. These people appear cold, unwelcoming, unapproachable and guarded. In many ways my response from the people is similar to my response from the architecture. Both have been greatly influenced by the west and seem unfriendly and unwelcoming.

Reading Response: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 contains so many interesting and controversial topics... It was fantastic! The first part I want to discuss is the issue of the female body in advertising. The chapter discusses the way photographs for advertising usual conform to the status quo in the hope of appearing neutral. However, in reality they are politically charged because of their perpetuation of dominant ideas. In fashion images, the women are constructed to perpetuate the typical gender roles. The author points out that just by focusing on hands, the viewer can see a clear gender distinction. The decorative feminine hand contrasts to the active male hand. The commodification of women is particularly evident in the cutting up of the female form in adverts to ease with the objectification of the female body. The woman is transformed into a sex object in the service of selling a product. The important point here is their influence on young women. I have known two girls with anorexia and I feel the struggles they experienced were greatly enhanced by the proliferation of images depicting the perfect body. I recently watching an extremely shocking documentary on PBS called Girl Model. It begins with hundreds of 13 year old girls wearing nothing but a bikini spoken about as if they were objects rather than people. One man says directly to a girl that her hips are too big and she needs to go on a diet... At 13 years old... and this girl was very skinny. These images on the one hand are ideals which women aspire to become and yet the reality behind the women (or girls) depicted is disturbing.  I really appreciated the authors emphasis on this continuing fight for equality because I too hear that we are in a post-feminist age by many students.

The other particularly shocking part of the chapter was the discussion of Toscani's photographs for Benetton. These shock tactics seem inhumane. There is absolutely no connection to the shocking documentary photographs and the clothes. There doesn't even seem to be a social message. Toscani did not ask the viewer to consider the issues the photographs might address. Rather, their purpose is simple to peak the viewers curiosity, to make you look. It is shock for the sake of getting attention. How could the company justify using a man who died of aids as a commodity to sell a product? I am amazed and saddened that these images did not lead to a loss of sales. I thought I would add a picture seeing as there was not one in the book. I hope I am not encouraging shock tactic advertising by doing so!

As photographers interested in exploring the denotative  deeper meanings and content, how do you respond to stock images which are basically stripped of meaning so that they can be re-purposed?

Google Reader Response #9

This week, Natan Dvir’s photographs from Fototazo caught by eye for their ability to force the viewer to look twice. On first glance, I simply saw another advertisement with saturated colors and idealized figures. Only when the viewer looks closer can they see the small people inhabiting the space surrounding these large-scale advertisements. One of my professors once said that we see more images in a day than a person from the Renaissance would have seen in their whole lives. How does this affect us? Is it possible to appreciate any image to the same degree when we are constantly bombarded with imagery? Dvir’s photographs show billboards towering over people, leaving the “real” people seemingly insignificant and distant. They continue their everyday lives completely oblivious to the monumental commercials towering over them. Frequently the billboards show idealized depictions of the human form dwarfing normal people walking along the street. But these billboards are normal. No one thinks anything of it. The streetwalkers do not stop to question the proliferation of commercial imagery. Dvir’s photographs make the viewer consider how we interact with large-scale advertisements and what this suggests about modern life. 

Work In Progress Critique #3 Response

 

This image fits particularly well with my concept because of the interplay between the overpowering structure and the absence of human presence. The photograph seems both intimidating and quiet. The building is approached from a low angle emphasizing its authority over the photographer. The dark set back passages suggest emptiness and a fearful environment. The building does not look like an appealing place to live. Here, the repeating forms are presented to emphasize the lack of human presence and the loneliness of this monotony.

For the initial manipulated image I hoped to add a sense of drama through my creative decisions. I emphasized the dark passageways to create a sense of emptiness. I focused specifically on enhancing the dominance of the structure.

For my second manipulation, I experimented with the way color could change the viewer's response to the building. The strange unnatural yellow projected onto the side of the building creates an eerie discomfort which is less prominent in the more naturalistic depiction. While the color is usually associated with warmth and the suns rays, its strange placement allows the building to seem surreal and almost dreamlike. Yet the buildings dominance remains, especially as a result of the cold blue reflected on one side and the dark mysterious set back passages.

I enjoyed this so much that I started experimenting one more time with the image, this time pushing the surreal element even further. I wondered how the image would look by creating an airy light atmosphere in conjunction with the overpowering structure. The building almost becomes ghostlike and even more frightening to approach. The absence of humans becomes more apparent as the viewer almost senses this building is from another world. It becomes harder to imagine that someone lives here. The building becomes alien, foreign and cold. I wonder if this pushes my ideas too far because the viewer may not be able to connect with the building as an apartment someone currently lives in... Does this make my message too overt?   

Google Reader Response #8

This week I wanted to respond to the Lenscratch Portrait Exhibition post. Continuing last week’s discussion viewing photography through a feminist lens, I could not help but respond to the way women are depicted vs. the way men are depicted in these blog posts. Scrolling through the photographs, the majority of the women are depicted in two different ways. Many of the women are presented as sexualized wearing revealing clothing or looking at the viewer in a seductive manner. They are objectified for their body and the photographer shows no interest in conveying a deeper message about who these women are.

 If not overtly sexual, many photographs show the woman as passive, looking away from the camera and allowing the viewer to objectify her more easily. Here is an example of a depicted couple with the man looking directly at the viewer and the woman averting her gaze (I can't help but think of Barbara Kruger's work). This subtle different empowers the man and disempowers the woman. 

In contrast, the men are depicted as strong, looking directly at the viewer and sometimes approached by the photographer from a low angle.

While of course this is not the case for all of the images for the portrait exhibition, it is interesting to see that these typical ways of viewing the different genders are still evident in portraiture photography. 

The photographs that subvert these norms are the ones that capture my attention the most. I am encouraged to consider the sitter in a new way and understand them as more than simply a gender type. 

Here the older woman is powerfully addressing the viewers gaze with an intriguing facial expression. I cant quite work it out. Perhaps she is showing a sense of pride or mocking the viewer in regard to the achievements she lays before us. I am forced to ask questions. I think of the woman as more than an object. I start to read the complex symbols laid out in the hope of better understanding the real person. 

Google Reader Response #7

This week I wanted to discuss the Urbanautica blog post about the series Animal Portraits by Dwi Putra Sepiyana. Formally these photographs are very simple. The artist photographed different animals looking directly into the camera lens with a plain white background. I couldn’t help but think of passport photographs and the desire to create an objective photograph of the sitter. By referencing this common photographic type used by humans and taking these animals outside of their natural habitat, the viewers is forced to interact with the animals in a different way. Perhaps the viewer notices different physical features or makes connections with human characteristics. The artist points out that the viewer responds differently to gecko, which appears to be smiling, to the toad, which looks grumpy. However, the gecko pulls this facial expression before it bites down on its food. The artist brings the viewers attention to both the similarities and the differences that we share with the animal kingdom by placing them in this objective space. The viewer is asked to reevaluate their assumptions about these animals and question what we can really learn from an external expression. 

Reading Response #4

I really enjoyed reading this chapter and there were so many interesting points so I’ll just pick out a few that caught my eye. At the beginning of the chapter, the author discusses 19^th century scientific uses of photography to categorize people and to understand their inner character through external clues recorded through the camera. Looking at photographs in magazines today, while these images are not in a scientific setting, similar ideas have stuck and I think we still associate external features captured in a photograph as containing the power to reveal a persons inner character. Photography and classification have continued through biometric security further connecting these 19^th century scientific yet usually racist images. I was shocked to learn that these technologies are set up to configure to the dominant or ‘normal’ white male and subsequently there is an inability for the system to register marginalized groups. I think this is a major issue that needs to be addressed and it suggests we have grown little from those initial scientific images.

I also found the feminist arguments addressed in this section extremely interesting. One point discussed by the author was that as capitalism has developed, there has been a rise in the fetishistic depictions of women. Life becomes more about commodities and photographs allow the viewer to more easily transform the woman into an object to be possessed. Moreover, I think it is interesting to consider the ways women adopt the male gaze. The recognition that we are being looked at as merely an object can cause the woman to view herself and other woman as an object. She surveys herself and other woman in a way that disempowers the woman whilst reinforcing the dominance of the male gaze. Magazines aimed at woman show other woman caught in unattractive poses and therefore encourage the viewer to objectify and mock the figure. A vitally important point made by the author was that while this seemingly comforts the viewer, in reality it encourages the woman to be more aware of their physical flaws. In my opinion, objectifying and criticizing another woman results in women remaining in a marginalized position. We rarely see photographs of men caught at a bad angle or having put on a few extra pounds. On the other end of the spectrum, women are depicted in magazines as perfection though extensive photoshop editing. Neither depiction is ‘true,’ yet the viewer adopts the male gaze, objectifies both types of depictions and recognizes the photographs closeness to reality causing her to question her own physical appearance.

Q. Is all porn objectifying to women? Or does it allow for a woman to own her sexuality?