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Take It As I See It- San Francisco Edition

Ever since I was little I remember going out of town with my family whether it be San Francisco, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Pismo, Morro Bay, Santa Cruz, Universal Studios, etc. They would all mainly be day trips and I really enjoyed getting out of Fresno for the day to see other places or be around a different environment. However, in all these places that I’ve been too there lacks raw photography of what it’s really like. The main photographs include key landmarks of all these places such as the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, Cinderella’s Castle, etc. But, what they don’t show is the over crowded areas, homelessness, city trash, and other not so pretty areas. I want to capture the good, the bad, and the ugly to put into perspective of what the city of San Francisco is really like.

My overall objective for this project is to show the true form of popular cities in California, more specifically, San Francisco. I want the audience to see that not everything is as it seems when looking at different cities on the internet. I want to teach the viewers that though a place may seem beautiful, and a place they want to go everything has another side. This is not to say that one should not visit these places, but to show exactly what they are going into without surprise.

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Final Project Proposal

In this final project, I plan to go to the well know city of San Francisco. San Francisco is known for the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the famous show Full House. It is also know for its PRIDE if the LGBTQAI+ and it’s steep hills. California is seen as one of the most lively and colorful states filled with lots of different ethnicities, cultures, and opportunity. The way that I see California is much different than someone who does not live in California looks at it.  I want to show the true form of one of the main cities of California, specifically San Francisco. 

Ever since I was little I remember going out of town with my family whether it be San Francisco, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Pismo, Morro Bay, Santa Cruz, Universal Studios, etc. They would all mainly be day trips and I really enjoyed getting out of Fresno for the day to see other places or be around a different environment. However, in all these places that I’ve been too there lacks raw photography of what it’s really like. The main photographs include key landmarks of all these places such as the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, Cinderella’s Castle, etc. But, what they don’t show is the over crowded areas, homelessness, city trash, and other not so pretty areas. I want to capture the good, the bad, and the ugly to put into perspective of what the city of San Francisco is really like.

My plan in doing this project is to go to San Francisco this weekend and take images of scenes as they happen. These images will include the standard beauties of San Francisco, but it will also include the side that people don’t see. This includes Union Square’s homeless people, Pier 39’s trash, the crowds next deals, etc. I don’t need permission or access to take these images and the only equipment I will need is my camera. Everything will be raw and unplanned just as I see it and whatever catches my eye.

My overall objective for this project is to show the true form of popular cities in California, more specifically, San Francisco. I want the audience to see that not everything is as it seems when looking at different cities on the internet. I want to teach the viewers that though a place may seem beautiful, and a place they want to go everything has another side. This is not to say that one should not visit these places, but to show exactly what they are going into without surprise. 

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Motherf*ckers on Bikes

SE Racing was founded by Scot Enterprise in 1976 after winning the first National BMX Title in 1976. These Nikes are larger high quality BMX bikes that were named after ascot Enterprise hence the name SE. The community started these “Ride Outs” as a chance to get out and ride a bike again. Many cities around California host “Take Overs” with people gathering all around to ride the city in which it’s hosted in. Motherf*ckers on Bikes, or MOB, is a group started in Fresno, CA focusing on riding SE Bikes throughout the city of Fresno. Cities such as Sacramento, San Francisco host the larger scale ride outs while MOB hosts those smaller scaled rides in Fresno.

My brother was the one who encouraged me to go on a ride with him. Alex, my brother, saw a YouTube video one day of people doing tricks on SE Bike. Not knowing what any of this was my brother bought a bike found out about MOB and decided to go on a ride out with my parents. From this day his love for the bike life culture grew and he pushed me to come along. The first time I went on a ride was here in Fresno and I loved being outside and enjoying it with my brother. For this project, I went on a Ride Out around Fresno starting from Logan Park to Woodward park and back. The total amount of miles for this ride was 15 miles and it started at 1 PM and ended around 4 PM. All of the following images were taken on a bike while riding throughout Fresno.

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Photographer of the Week: Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a member of Magnum Photos and is known for his colors and esoteric composition. He has studied cultural peculiarities from Japan to America even Europe and Britain. Parr was born in the UK and studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic where he graduated. Parr became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1994 and has published over 100 books and edited 30 more. The photo book that I will be focusing on is called Home and Abroad which focused on taking the viewer through modern life. This included images of ideal home life and family followed by supermarkets, malls, parks, tourist spots, etc. 

This photo book was interesting to me because it was filled with so much color and because of this making them more eye-catching. I was also quite interested in the images that he chose to show and why he chose those specific ones. One thing I also enjoyed was that the images are not perfect as far as making sure everyone is in the frame, the angle of the image, and if there was too much background and not enough subject. I feel that in order to truly emerge yourself into an image you need to incorporate the background along with pieces like ceiling lights or the sky that one might see as not important. The images below are pieces for his work and express what I am discussing.

Title: Home and Abroad

Photographer: Martin Parr

Publisher: Jonathan Cape

Published: 1993

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Photographer of the Week: Bieke Depoorter

Bieke Depoorter is a member of Magnum Photos and became a member at only 25 years old after three years of receiving her master’s degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent in 2009. Bieke’s focus on her photographs is the relationships she creates with her subjects. The photo book that I focused on is I Am About to Call It A Day where she captures the lives of the strangers she encounters throughout America. She asked strangers if she could spend a night in their homes which brought forth images that were comical, melancholic, and even menacing. There are many images of people laying in bed or standing/sitting in their rooms.

These images were interesting to see because they were taken as if she wasn’t in the room with these strangers. The people seemed to have no care for this stranger being in their homes and the images feel as though you're a fly on the wall. I enjoyed this photo book because of some of the sentimental and questionable images, however, there were some images that I questioned why she captured them. These questionable images included the letter image and the hot tub image. Why not take a picture of them inside of the house? I question the true purpose of this book and what the message was to be thought about. The images below include the letter and the hot tub image along with other images from the book. 

Title: I Am About to Call It A Day

Photographer: Bieke Depooter

Publisher: Patrick Frey and Hannibal

Published:  2014

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Photographer of the Week: Olivia Arthur

Olivia Arthur is one of the Magnum Photographers and focuses on peoples personal and cultural identities. She was born in London and grew up in the UK where she studied math at Oxford University. In 2003 she started he photography journey and now the story that I will focus on is the Cairo’s Muslim Youth where it focuses on young Muslims living in Cairo promoting a message of moderate Islam. Olivia wanted to capture the change in attitude towards religion in Egypt through the hijabs worn by young women. The colors and patterns on the hijab give out a new feeling of religious pride and is an attempt to show that modern way of lige and religion can be compatible. Along with this Olivia captures images of young girls with hijabs doing everyday modern activities such as karate, teaching, taking the subway, etc.

I enjoyed reading this story by Olivia Arthur because my idea of people who wear hijabs and live in Egypt is all black with no skin showing because this is what was being shown here in America in those places. However, in seeing these images you see that this is not the case and people want to show modern Islam in a sense of merging with religion and not taking over or being separated from it. The images below show this and how much things have merged and how religion can be expressed in a modern way.

Story Title: Cario's Muslim Youth

Photographed by: Olivia Arthur

Published in 2009

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Photographer of the Week: Ryan Christopher Jones

Ryan Christopher Jones is a Mexican-American photojournalist and anthropologist originally from Central California that is now currently living in Cambridge, MA. The photo story that I analyzed is called Underground Lives: The Sunless World of Immigrants in Queens, or more specifically, “Amando’s Sunless World” which follows a man named Amando living in New York alone in order to make money for his family in Coatzingo. He only sees his family once or twice a year and when he does he is able to get out of the loneliness if New York and be with his wife, kids, and family. Ryan takes this opportunity to tell Amando’s story and how he works in the United State away from his family in order to provide money to his family.

I enjoyed this work and storytelling that Ryan provided about this one person because this one man is an example of many who do the same thing every day. I specifically enjoyed the images from Mexico where Amando is enjoying his time that he is sharing with his family and puts on a different hat while he is there. Everything is much greener in Mexico and the man in the photos look like two completely different people. The images below provide examples of how his life is in New York versus how it is in Mexico which I enjoyed comparing.

Info:

Title: Underground Lives: The Sunless World of Immigrants in Queens

Published by: New York Times

Date: October 23, 2019

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For my theme project I would like to focus on a group found here in Fresno revolving around what are called SE bikes. After winning the first ever National BMX Title in 1976, Scot started his own BMX company named “SE Racing.” It was his own company so he decided to name it after himself which is Scot Enterprise, or SE. This just explains the type of bikes that they use, but don’t think that they ride around the block and call it a day. Hundreds of people from different cities meet in one location such as San Francisco, Sacramento, and others just to ride in large groups and “Takeover”. There are smaller meetups here in Fresno with fewer people, but they ride different routed from Fresno High to Blackstone and West, Sierra Vista to Shepherd and Minnewawa, and many others all around Fresno. Many just ride around as usual, but these are larger BMX bikes meaning that tricks are performed on them as well. From wheelies to standing on the bike to jumping from one side to the other these people can do it all. It’s a fun experience and you get lots of exercise in the process along with get to meet some interesting people. All of these events are spread around by social media and friends and everyone is welcome to join.

These “Rideouts”, as they call them, and SE bikes are connected to me through my brother Alex. Alex was simply watching a Youtube video of someone on one of these bikes when he went up to my mom and asked if she could buy him one. Now, these bikes are not cheap because they range from $600-$1500+. It took a while, but when he finally got his bike the first thing he learned was how to wheelie it. He got so good that he can wheelie the whole block without stopping. Along with this he can do some tricks while wheeling. He’s the one who told me to go with him to a rideout and I loved just being outside riding around Fresno stopping at Dutch Bros and coming back. So far I have gone a couple of times, but not out of Fresno because those are usually on weekends and they are huge and can be dangerous with everyone trying to do tricks and go fast close to each other. I hope to go on a larger ride out soon and show the culture through my pictures.

In order for me to pull this off I will take some pictures and will be attending multiple rideouts with my brother along with having my brother and his friends come over and perform tricks for me to take pictures of. In this case I will just need my camera and no other technical equipment other than my brother and his group of riders. Now the outcome of this project, or what I would like for people to get out of it, is to see the talent and skills that it takes to do tricks on these bikes along with seeing the culture behind just riding these bikes. The people who ride are of all ages who just ride for the fun of it and not many people in Fresno know about it. I want to spread more awareness of these events and this activity to get more people out to ride and join us because the more people we have the more fun it is.

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Top and Bottom Lighting

The first image expresses top lighting because there is lighting shining down from the top. This was done with my flashlight in my room where all my collectibles are.

The second image expresses bottom lighting because the light is being shot from the bottom up which can be seen with the shadows on the figure's faces.

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Hard Lighting

This image was taken in my room and it shows hard lighting because of the clear lines of shadow on the objects. This was achieved through bottom lighting because the light was coming form under the objects.

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Photographer of the Week: Susan Meiselas

Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York and is well known for her documentary photography of human rights in Latin America. The photo book that I looked at was called Nicaragua and it was filled with images of people in Nicaragua just living. Though it was not Susan's purpose to take images of what looked like war this is what came about to the surface. I think these images were very impactful to see what was going on in Nicaragua at this time. There were images of people with guns, and tanks, thousands of people surrounding soldiers, and injured or dead people. This photo book really made me question what was going on at this time and why there was so much chaos or a sense of urgency in every shot. This photo book kept me interested as to what came when I turned the page which I really enjoyed regardless of the explicit and violent content.

Title: Nicaragua

Photographer: Susan Meiselas

Publisher: Aperture 2016

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Soft Light The first image is an image of my dog Lucky in the backyard staring at my camera wondering what it is. This image is an example of soft light because there is almost a distinguished line between light and dark shadows on his body but it is not clear where that line is.

The second image is a family's neighbor's dog who was nicely laying there watching the chickens in their coop. This is soft light because there is no distinguished line or clear signs of shadows, but there are still some slight differences in light. The plants have shadows, under his body lies a shadow, and the cement behind his as well.

Side Light

The third image is again of my dog Toby and he is standing looking at me as I call to get his attention. This is sided light because the light is coming from the side and you can clearly see his shower on the other side along with his face showing a transition from light to dark.

The fourth image is again my brother Alex who is wheeling down the street. He is giving an example of side lighting as well because you can see the shadows in the opposite direction of the light. His face is also lighter on the right side than on the left.

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Unity

This image is of my dog Toby and he is waiting at the door to be able to go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. Toby is an inside dog and because it has been raining lately he doesn't like going outside. This image shows unity because of the multiple neutral colors in this image. There is a brown dog on top of a neutral browns rug in front of brown tile. All of these are Earth tones and provide unity for this image.

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Rhythm

This image was taken behind my back yard and it is of my three other dogs: Lucky, Penny, and Paws. They were born in 2012 and they are all siblings to each other. Because of the angle this image was taken, it is perceived that the dogs are coming towards me, which they were. They also have some paws lightly off the floor or completely of the floor suggesting movement.

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Composition

This is one of the few flowers in my garden that are full and beautiful. The white from the flower and the green background give contrast to each other from light to dark. Along with this, there is an emphasis on the flower being the main focus of this image. Not to mention the textures of the flower and the plants behind it are opposites from smooth to rough. There is also much space in this image with objects in the front, middle, and back of the main focus.

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Contrast

This image is of a tree across the street from my house and it is an example of contrast because of the bright white and blue sky behind dark brown and green branches. The lighting from behind the tree makes the branches clear and easy to distinguish the branches and the leaves. Since it is Winter there are barely any leaves on this tree, but in the summer this tree gives lots of shade due to the large number of leaves it grows.

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Pattern

This image is an image of the pumpkin cream cheese muffin that I made for my coworker's birthday. I found a recipe on TikTok and decided to make them for her at 10 PM on a Sunday night. This is not your typical pattern as far as tiles on the floor or a mural of symmetrical shapes. Instead, this is a tray of muffins and though it is zoomed in you are aware the pattern of the tray continues through the sides of this image.