Wake up on a cold morning staring at the slow whirring ceiling fan with arms crossed behind my head. Flip on the Love Theme from Spartacus recording by Yusef Lateef to fill my world with sounds that spawn a positive creative space in my mind. Brush my teeth in the shower, eat a quick bowl of cereal and sling my camera over my shoulder. Walk through the front door and step onto the sidewalk to wherever my intuition takes me. This would be an example of the beginning of a day filled with the satiation of random curiosities and urges, seeing the world differently by looking at people and objects through a viewfinder. No preconceived ideas or agenda, just the mystery and surprise that runs life. A typical day of street photography for me has been shaped by the life and work of two photographers: Henri-Cartier Bresson and Daido Moriyama.
Street Photography is photography that features the human condition within public places, but does not necessarily show the street or urban situations. The focus is on the human touch on our world. It could be the flashing smile of a random passerby in the street or focusing in at the glints of dazzling light striking a metallic staircase. The main point of street photography is stepping outside of your usual area of life and sometimes and walking into situations that can express a similar feeling you received in that simple moment of time. Henri-Cartier Bresson coined a phrase in photography that will be a staple in the art forever-the Decisive Moment.
Henri-cartier Bresson was an iconic photographer from France who was considered the father of photojournalism. He birthed photojournalism when he covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth for a French weekly editorial Regards. In the...
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...ly see certain things that anchor your thoughts and feelings into a scene at the perfect time, and if you are ready you take a photo. It seems so simple but it really is the culmination of your thoughts, feelings, ideas, views and political thoughts. Your background and interests shine through your exposures. These two photographers had a deft hand at capturing that “moment”. They were able to capture beauty by pressing their view of life onto a piece of paper. Before exploring photography, light was just an object that was sometimes here and sometimes not. Now I have learned, through these photographers and my own experiences this semester-that light (physical and metaphorical) is malleable. You can bend, shape and see the light in so many ways-its all up to your eye. These two just found their own way to see the light, and by doing so left a mark around the globe.
For Emerson, the reticent beauty of nature was the motivator. To him, photography should be recognized because its still-life beauty was able to persuade the public’s appreciation of the life and nourishment
This British photographer launched his career as a society photographer in 1926 (A Gallery for Fine Photography, 2001). His first camera was a Kodak 3A which was a very popular model in its time. Beaton used this camera to teach himself the basics of photography often using his family members as subjects. Ignoring his dislike of further education Beaton studied history, art and architecture at ST John’s College, Cambridge (Search.com Reference, 2010). In time he came to be known for his portraits of celebrities, royalty and high society (A Gallery for Fine Photography, 2001). His most popular images were his fashion portraits depicting elegance, glamour and style (National Portrait Gallery, 2009).
Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were painted on the walls of caves found in southern France. Former director of photography at New Yorks museum of modern art says that “The progress of photography has been more like the history of farming, with a continual stream of small discoveries leading to bigger ones, and in turn triggering more experiments, inventions, and applications while the daily work goes along uninterrupted.” ˡ
Unger’s lecture explained how each photo represents stories of experiences, experiences shown clearly through Pomerantz’s camera lens.
Street art and graffiti has the capability to change lives, as is seen in documentary “Exit through the Gift Shop.” In the film the audience meets Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant currently residing in the United States, and learns an odd habit he acquired at a young age. He always had to have a video camera rolling; he was constantly documenting his life. He was obsessed with remembering everything that happened in his life so he got every part of his life recorded.
Susan Sontag said photographs sends across the harmlessness and helplessness of the human life steering into their own ruin. Furthermore the bond connecting photography with departure from life tortures the human race. (Sontag 1977:64)
My ties to Cartier-Bresson and his work start from the beginning of my career as a photographer. He was totally responsible for bringing photojournalism into the mainstream art world. Just for this accomplishment alone Cartier-Bresson has made it possible for many documentary photographers to work today.
Contrasting with the calm around him is the hectic pace shown across the street where people are quickly going about their lives. The blur shows the pace at which everyone moves; they are all lively in the sun of the day. All of the people in the background have different responsibilities and life styles as shown through the captured moment of their busy days. Having expectations in life such as having a family, a job or just seeing the world, makes it a necessity to work and be active through the
To begin with, photography appeared to me as something entertaining a simple step in which one took a camera and simply shot a photograph of oneself or a friend. When I was handed my schedule for Mrs. Jones’s class, I felt as if this class had in store a special reward for me. As the days went by, Instead of being anxious of getting out of class I had a craving for additional time in the class. The class kept my eyes glued to the screen ...
"History of photography and photojournalism.." History of photography and photojournalism.. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .
more usual thing to everyone in daily life and its aspects in photography creativity is going to be
Have you ever seen a painting or picture that captivates you and directly stirs up emotion within you? More than likely, you have. Usually, viewers merely observe the picture and enjoy the way it looks and how it makes them feel. But, have you ever asked yourself, “why?” What about the picture makes it pleasing to the viewer? With each strategy the photographer uses creates their own touch and passion that floods all over the picture. The emotional connection nearly goes unnoticed for when the picture is well photographed, the viewers experience the sensation in their subconscious. This is one of the most powerful tools that a photographer holds in their hands. If one can become a master of manipulating how the photo affects its viewers, the said photographer can potentially maneuver people’s minds and thoughts with one click of a button. The time spent with my mentor has opened up the door for me to tap into that power though the use of background, focus, shutter speed, angles, and most importantly, lighting. Even with all these techniques, the person behind the camera must remember that creativity must be at the forefront of all operations. Caleno (2014), when writing about the basics of capturing a beautiful moment in a picture commented, “If we want to be creative we must drop these pre-conceptions and start looking at things from a small child’s innocence.”
Women desire to become beautiful and powerful, even if they don’t say it in words. And the Photographer plays with that concept and creates that desire, that you can become that person you see in the photograph. And live that lifestyle. Photographers use techniques from the cinema/cinematic, to create the desire of viewers/Buyer/Consumers. The cinematic techniques made it possible the way people lived and the...
By definition street photography is art that shows human beings in different conditions, good or bad, around public areas. It is believed that street photography originated in Paris. The city of Paris helped to define street photography as a genre. In the Unit...
In this essay I will investigate the idea that photography has become a part of one’s everyday life, when we are taking a photograph we are actual taking a memory and making it ‘Immortal’. Freezing a portion of one’s life also becomes a social activity and the reason that one would pick up a camera and snap that ‘important’ event, would seem to be a very ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ part of one’s life, we also seem to think that it gives one an opportunity to be ‘accepted’ into today’s society, social networking sites have become the hart of the social climax of our forever snapping community. It was estimated there is over 16 billion photos on instergram [__]. We also seem to be documenting one’s life and using that frozen moment to express are feelings, such as joy, excitement, anger, proud(?) or even love. We also use photography in are society as a why to pass information, its become a massive part of are social network. To do this I will be looking at how humanity throughout history have photographed parts of their lives to create a memory, a ‘immortal’ memory.