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RAGHUBIR SINGH PHOTOGRAPHS: A Critique

PHOTOGRAPHY: CRITIQUE A PHOTO EXHIBIT The exhibit that I chose to critique was Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs at the Met Bruer, from the recommendation of a friend. The Museum itself is a very imposing structure. You don’t notice it from coming down the block to enter it, but once you cross the street to take in the magnitude of the building you do. It’s not a smooth edifice but instead rocky feel similar to boulders. Huge geometric “boulders” also protrude from the rest of the building make the structure look very imposing; not necessarily uninviting but very imposing. When you walk in, there’s a build-up to the actual entrance because it’s inset instead of being right at the sidewalk. The reception area was very bright but was very structured. Usually when I get into museums, there’s artwork in the foyer or advertisements for the exhibits but this one was very straight to the point. There were desks for the guests to get their tickets, an area to sit, but that was it apart from the elevators. The people in reception were very helpful and nice, they even told me I didn’t have to pay even though I was a grad student; I felt bad and gave 5 dollars anyway. The actual exhibit is located on the second floor and when you arrive, you’re met with a very big wall with the words of the name of the exhibit super imposed in capital letters onto it in teal and orange colors; MODERNISM ON THE GANGES: RAGHUBIR SINGH PHOTOGRAPHS. The receptionist for this exhibit wasn’t really receptive, but I think that’s just because she was a guard. The environment is very clean and you notice that, at least from the entrance, that the frames for the artwork are all the same. The ceiling has these, what seemed to be concrete dropped squares; I wondered whether they were there for enhancing sound for the area or purely aesthetic. I believe in the end that it was for aesthetic purposes because the repetitive squares of the frames made your eyes connect to the ceiling somehow. If you follow the path that I did when entering the exhibit, you can follow the track of Singh’s life through his artwork. I started on my right because there was an excerpt of the artist describing where he came from and his various influences. The excerpt called him “a pioneer of color street photography” who “photographed nearly every corner of the subcontinent (India) from remote Himalayan villages to the bustling streets of Calcutta and Bombay (now Kolkata and Mumbai)” To the right of the elevators and left of the blurb, there was a room that seemed to be dedicated to Singh’s early work and his immediate influence of Henri Luc-Bresson. From here it was clear to see what the rest of this exhibit would look and feel like. In the middle of the room was a table with a glass cover that showed multiple examples of Singh’s published editorial works; these included Life, NYT Magazine and National Geographic. His nascent works were very telling and consistent but you could see as you went through the exhibit, how he built up his skills. One piece of work that I particularly enjoyed was the “After Crossing The Luni River, Barmer, Rajasthan 1975, Chromogenic print., 1988”. This print appeals to me because I think everything about it works. The background shows the remnants of monsoon season while the foreground shows the inhabitants continuing on with their daily life. The image also works because of the bareness of the background that is interrupted by the two trees on one side which makes your eye flow to the foreground which is filled with the people on the diagonal side; creating a sort of X dynamic with the composition. The photograph also works because Singh caught the essence of the life of the people. This image made be me feel like I was actually there, water and mud on the ground, wind billowing, baby crying, and life going on all around. From the first room, I went on to the middle section of the exhibit with the big wall and began in the left hand side. I immediately encountered what Singh considered to be his first successful photograph; “Monsoon Rains, Monghr, Bihar 1967 Chromogenic Print 1989.” The image depicts four women together on the banks of the Ganges in the Monsoon season. I believe this image is so successful because of how the women look in the image with the combination of the colors they wear. The one woman that’s standing up with the garment in her hand seems like a moving statue. She’s caught in a regular point in her life and environment but what we take from it is so much more because it isn’t our own. In this photograph, Singh managed to communicate multiple aspects of the Indian culture; the monsoon season, women congregating, their culture by being in the rain and more things that probably appear to Singh as opposed to his audience. If it weren’t for the heads of the women and different colors they were wearing, the image from a distance looks like and it’s one piece because their dynamic flows so well. You don’t capture too much of the vector in the image but you know the direction that it’d be going in which makes it appear much deeper than it appears. From the “Monsoon” I moved across the wall down to the back and around to the right side of the room. The next photo that caught my eye was “A Tribesman, Gujarat - Madhya Pradesh Border, 1980 Chromogenic Print.” The wheel in the image is enormous and takes up a little less than about half of the composition which is why it’s so eye-catching. The position of the man in the image continues the circuitous nature of the wheel which is why the image works so well. The subjects of the image, the man and the wheel, take up about the same amount of space, leaving a small amount of empty space which makes the entire scene more balanced. If something else was there, it would detract from the feeling of continuity that the main figures give you. The way the figures are in space makes your eyes roll across from left to right. As I move through the exhibit I go to the left of the middle area which opens up into another room that’s divided into two different spaces by a wall. This section of room has a blurb that lets you know that the the photographs that were taken focus on Singh’s time in Bombay during the 1990’s. The photo that really appealed to me was “Pavement Mirror Shop Howrah, West Bengal, 1991. The way that the image works is pure chaos, but that’s what I love about it. Bombay at that time was so lively and vivacious, and Singh was able to capture all of that with one photograph. The color, though it’s minimal, makes the image pop even more. The people pull in the culture of the area while the mirrors bring in different perspectives. The reflections are really the parts that are interesting because each one tells a different story which makes the image not just one scenario but a compilation of them all in one. The blurb mentions that the the image captures “the kaleidoscopic overload of Indian streets” and I believe that word fits perfectly to how I handled looking at the photograph. My eye couldn’t stop going from one angle to the other, from one mirror to the other; going back and forth. But perhaps the coolest thing about the photograph was that Singh himself was in it; in the top center of the frame. The blurb mentions that its deliberate but I debate whether or not it was. The mirror has so many vantage points that it could easily have been missed by Singh that he was in his photo at all. The final room that is in the exhibition leads from the end of the main room. The end room signifies the end of Singh’s career, which was done purposefully I imagine. The piece of work in this room that caught my attention was “Andhra Pradesh, 1996 Posthumous Chromogenic Print.” The photograph has two people in the image in the rain underneath a type of cloth or tarp. What makes this photograph interesting is that it was taken from the aspect of being in a car. The entire section in the exhibition of the end of his career was based on Singh’s “Ambassador Car” series. From the blurb on the wall, I learned that “Singh’s last major body of work was a series devoted to the ambassador car…for Singh, it was a potent visual metaphor for postcolonial India.” The image is constructed in such a way that we the viewer feel like we’re looking into a new world. The lush green of the content pulls back to color that so affects India’s culture. Behind the images of the end of the exhibit, there is a quote from Singh that says “ The Indian photographer stands on the Ganges side of modernism, rather than the Seine or the East River side of it. This leads me to believe that Indian photography needs to develop its own kins of adaptations to the modernist canon. - Raghubir Singh 1998 I think they included this quote specifically because of how much he affected the interpretation of India’s photography. He was able to look at all of his mentors, friends, and influences work and take that back to his own culture to exhibit the best sides of it.

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Creative Response - Vampires Homework

Response to creative approach utilized by filmmakers to convey their message The first person visual is fantastic, you really feel like the camera is you and your point of view. You immediately understand the title in the context of the first three minutes of the film. The feeling of the of the invasiveness is alarming. The invasive nature makes the people and film feel like it has no personal boundaries. It reminded me of paparazzi. Following someone around was a weird experience but helpful in the sense that you didn’t feel lost and sort of become a part of the plot; you become one of the vampires. You become one of the vampires almost by choice; one, because you are in the perspective that the camera gives you and two, because you are watching and continue to watch the movie. The filmmaker filming a filmmaker filming his subject. Almost a third wall break if you think about it. The sights of the film make me feel a little apprehensive with the homeless scene until you find out the intended purpose of the film. It’s very impersonal with the name calling that they give the homeless people I.E.: “crazy” You begin to realize how many homeless people are in this area. The inventory of the “homeless” people is so weird I.E. the different types. I really like the “Pain is Relative” guy because he suffers for his art. The children are creepy while they stare into the car when they’re driving away. The children at the fountain make me feel like they’re degrading themselves when they’re swimming for money; I noticed that one of the spectators feels the same. The protester at the fountain was relatable; his frustration was palpable and felt really true. I’ve heard his argument before with people; gringos coming to foreign countries only to take what they want from its people. To document their devastation, poverty and overall lower quality of life but don’t do anything to help. This made me realize how many points of view there are to any story and how important it is to understand different perspectives. When it came to the last scene, my immediate thought was how audacious this was; people playing homeless? The director…did he just do drugs in the bathroom? Or was that just me? The quick shift to color at the wooden house was very unexpected but a nice surprise. “The corollary is inevitable…cases of family abandonment abound… child vagrancy… juvenile delinquency…dementia… begging and illiteracy (used to be alcoholism) By the end… OMG THE GUY WAS A PLANT

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Soundscape 1

DOCUMENT IN WRITING A SOUNDSPACE "Where are we doing the call?" - Connor "White room." - John "Yeah." MUSIC Footsteps Okay so what is the difference... - Sean What other departments... - Sean Channel strategy - Rob So what... - Sean Still need overall... So the overall feel should be consistent a visual overall approach, not just visuals... MUSIC PLAYING ALL THROUGHOUT CONVERSATION It's like complicated because... - Sean So overall is going to be an overview - Sean The overall should have some examples of how this could work - Rob In the background - conference call Uhm, we have time on the calendar on speed essay to talk about the different editorial posts - Rob Like how does that explain the feed - Sean It's basically carving a space so that we have it writing. - Rob So it's like what we tried to do but... - Sean "So we're gonna need a designer as well" - Rob "What else?" - Rob ...Like a lite version of the strategy - Rob I just need a better understanding on what kind of project we're doing - Sean Here, let me share it with you and we can look at it together. - Rob MUSIC PLAYING ALL THROUGHOUT CONVERSATION "So just some quick background, refresher on some stuff we've learned..." - Rob Squeaking shoes Water coming out of dispenser Paper towel ripping Receding footsteps "So there are a couple of challenges." - Rob Conference doors opening, bangs against wall "...What does our feed look like if we have some assets." - Rob New positioning line, Manifesto, General positioning line... These all have to fit together Fridge door opening, closing "Regardless of what the...is..." - Sean "Brand always...product" "You know what I'm saying" "And then the trick is how do we tell that story...knowing that the key channels are instagram..." - Rob Faucet running Hands washing Footsteps Water turned off Salt grinder grinding Water coming out of dispenser "We should be ready to brief by Thursday" "I have faith." "If I have a couple minutes with him, I'll grab his ear too." - Rob MUSIC STILL PLAYING

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Soundscape 2

Could not discern what the lyrics of the music were say Just take it easy for now... thanks. - Lauren Okay - new girl Fridge opening & closing Lauren on the phone Greg - “O used to be at Laundry Service New music Footsteps coming Lauren - yeh he’s gonna set you up Cem - hi, I’m Cem Emily aka new girl - yeah okay, thanks - to Lauren Hi I’m Emily, do you need me to follow you Cem - no that’s okay Bowls clanking, faucet running Footsteps walking away Bag being opened, chips being eaten Dishes clanking Faucet running Hands moving Garbage opening Trash bag moving New song Paper towel ripping Hands using the towel Garbage opening & closing Dion - Let’s do it! Clement - let’s go! Chair creaking in John’s office Kiara - “it’s called desperation” Laughing Scuffing footsteps coming towards me, going New song George - Did you go to art school? Oh cool Conversing with the Joyride guy The sounds that made me want to open my eyes were that of looming footsteps. I’m at work so I didn’t want it to look like I was sleeping. Also I get a lot of deliveries so I’d open my eyes for sounds of trolleys or delivery signature machines going off or packages being dropped to receive them. I couldn’t discern responses in conversations. For some reason I could only hear the primary speaker and not the person with who me they were conversing. The dynamic of the sounds I heard were pretty repetitive; especially the kitchen sounds. There were some sporadic uprisings of sounds as more people coincidentally gathered at the dining room table or convened in conference rooms. The space in which my soundscape is based is pretty direct. The way that it’s set up is that of a pathway. You can tell that people are either going left or right of you. The music however is surround sound, especially in the main area which I’m located in.

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I love the sound of heels moving across a hard floor, it makes me think of power

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This is my combination of the Willy Wonka movie with the music from another movie called Stoker. Ever since I've seen the movie Stoker and heard this song, it made me think of the chaos that is this scene from Willy Wonka. In the scene from Stoker, there isn't any chais between the players on the screen so far as movement but there is psychologically which really makes the scene. In Willy Wonka, all the characters in the scene (besides Willy) are freaking out to his sounds, what they see and what he's saying which in conjunction with the music, heightened the scene. I wanted the music from Stoker to do the same thing that the original music from Willy Wonka did for the scene.

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Center of Attention photos

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Frank Film - Gestalt Homework

Frank Film The televisions in the beginning were very interesting to look at. The models were different but the fact that the size of the screens are relatively the same size appealed to me. The size of the screen got smaller as it got farther away from you and larger as it got closer. The size of the screen is what made me concentrate so much more on the screen rather than the background of the image or the constantly changing surrounding of the television screens. The overlapping voices were very annoying and made the experience unenjoyable for me. It was difficult to concentrate on the content of the "F's" that he was listening rather than listening to his autobiography that was playing as well. It helped inform on the context for the images but besides that, hearing the same voices speaking twice about different things was taxing; especially because of his monotone voice. He's been saving images for the past 5/6 years... because he "liked them", and chose the ones that "appealed to him". This made me think of the purpose and activities that happen with Tumblr. People save images, GIF's and videos that appeal to them or don't to share and sometimes even save them like he did here. Of course the images are digital and don't look like cutouts like they do here but regardless, the same thing happens; whether it's for the goal of saving just to save or to construct projects such as this. In this scene, a Gestalt Principle appeared with the blue and white tiles being together - Law of similarity The circles imposed with images of various natures was weird to see because it was at this moment that I began to see how his visuals were corresponding with his verbal aid. You saw fruits, apples, oranges, slices of oranges, the earth, some marble pattern that slightly resembled the earth's color pattern, multiple clocks with an array of faces, including the inner machinations of watches. After this is where I noticed that the images were no longer coming towards me as in the beginning or changing directions, but instead turning counterclockwise; which I thought was apt as it was actually showing clocks. The image which I believe was Ganesh showed another Gestalt principle - common fate. As you saw the different stages of the moon moving you knew what object to attribute the different shapes to. My favorite part of this piece of work was probably the part where he talks about his upbringing and the images corresponded to the scenes he was describing. As he was describing the humble beginnings of his home and the state of his parents marriage, you saw that the common household times such as the couches, kitchen appliances etc the amount decreased but as he went into how his childhood got better and his family began having more things, the amount of materials increased. I especially like the bit where he says he's the first of 5 kids and then the numbers 1 and 5 pop up; notably with the number 5 being surrounded with kid 5 times, another Gestalt principle. More Gestalt principles that showed up were the cigarettes that appeared in a line, the pattern on the tires, when the tire was pulled in half but you could still tell what it was, images of the woman's half face and how you continued to see it, the striations of color on the television that came later. The whisker glasses going across the screen was great. How the same glass started at the top with different levels of whiskey as it went across the screen. The glass and the level of the drink in them changed from side to side; getting larger from the top of the image where they start out as shot glass sizes and get large as they move their way down the screen from the top until they become full glasses. The Campbell soup cans showed another principle by how they floated around, the Frankenstein head with the bullet looking objects coming out of it, similar to the number 5 was another one as well as the many televisions coming together to form an even bigger shape.

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Closure Common Fate Figure-Ground Relationship Good Continuation Proximity Similarity Uniform Connectedness

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Artist: Kayli Quinn

Tumblr: http://flunkedpunk.tumblr.com/ 

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Artist: Phillip Orué

Tumblr: http://philliporue.tumblr.com/

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our 1st instagram post: @nycartscene

James Kalm visits the Hole Gallery’s exhibition, “Booby Trap,” a selection of figurative paintings. Featuring works by: Melissa Brown, Caroline Wells Chandler, Maja Djordjevic, Misaki Kawai, Anders Oinonen, Joakim Ojanen and Anja Salonen, these works all show an awareness (both conceptually and painterly) of the flattened pictorial space that, due to the ubiquitous presence of screens, has become an ideological position of perception. In a “bonus-round” stroll, we’ll check out Philadelphian artist Jeffrey Wright, who displays a selection of large format color photos documenting his cash stash, many with humorous back drops, cuddly pet portraits, or bizarre costumed selfies. FULL VIDEO on The James Kalm Report channel: https://youtu.be/S7_qebS35Z0 image: @majadjordjevic_ “Be Happy-I love you” (oil on canvas, 70.87 x 51.18 inches)

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Denia Al Anim  //  Ph: Nurulita

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through Oct 2nd:

“comics”   Ben Jones

The Hole, 312 Bowery st., NYC

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through Oct 9th:

“WITH THE THICKNESS”  Farrell Brickhouse + Lizbeth Mitty

The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie St,. NYC

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Born on this day, Man Ray excelled at capturing the surreal in the mundane, striving to “amuse, bewilder, annoy or to inspire reflection.”

“Untitled Rayograph,” 1923, by Man Ray © Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris