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Reflection on assignment #5

In this assignment, I would say that it’s the most enjoyable one throughout the semester. This is because I could choose whatever topic I’m interested in. in this assignment, me and my partner chose to focus on the facial expressions of the teenagers while they’re playing a football match, so me and my partner went to El-Mohandesin and decided to stand in front of a school waiting for the students to finish their classes. Then, we saw around 6 boys holding a ball heading to such a street in front of the school, so we followed them. We asked them to photograph them while they’re playing the football match and they were very helpful. I would say that it’s a little bit challenging because me and my partner are girls and for sure there has to be some kind of harassment resulted from some boys ( not the participants in the project ). On the other hand, the timing to take shots was good for us as it was from 2 to 3:30 when the sun was shining, and this is an important factor to produce photos, having a good quality. Overall, this assignment taught me not to by shy which is good for me to take any shots I want. It was a really interesting experience for me. 

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The photo essay approach of the final project 

This project represents the facial expressions of the football players ( teenagers ). Some photos reflect these players while they were getting ready for the match, including some details. While other photos reflect players' nervousness during the match. Moreover, there are some photos reflecting how the players feel when they score a goal

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Test pictures for the final project

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The visual Research for the final project

this project called “ebola football survivors club, Whitehill”, done by Tara Tadros. there was a family called “Erison Turay” in West Africa and there was a deadly virus called “Ebola” killed over 11,000 person. The family considered “Ebolla Survivor Soccer Club” as a way to fight the negative diagnostics in the community.

Basically, as it seems in the picture that there is a boy playing football outside his home and he looks cheerful, so we can infer from his face expression that he enjoys playing football. Accordingly, this is exactly what we want to achieve. we want to reflect the children’s feelings through their facial expressions during the match.

so because our project is concentrating on the facial expression of teenagers( whether the children look happy or sad or even nervous ) during a football match whether in the street or any else where, we chose this picture as it represents the idea that we will be working on.

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Schedule to follow for the final project :

THE OLD SCHEDULE TO GET PHOTOS:

NOV, 19

Nov, 21

Nov, 22

THE NEW SCHEDULE TO GET PHOTOS:

NOV, 30

DEC, 1

DEC, 4

DEC, 7

DEC, 8

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The outline and the pros and cons of the final project

The visual approach of our project is the photo essay approach in which there has to be a story behind what we see in the picture, so the project will be about the feelings of the football players before the match, during the match and after the match. These feelings can be inferred from their face expressions. Accordingly, we will capture pictures of different kinds of facial expressions of the team. For example, when there are happy and cheerful faces, we can infer that the players who have these kinds of faces are from the winning team. On the other hand, when we see the football players having sad faces, we should infer that these players are from the loser team. Also, during the match there has to be some nervous faces and surely this is because there’s a chance to score a goal, but the players don’t take advantage of this chance. Regarding the pros of the project, there has to be different places to go to capture people with different ages playing football. Moreover, this kind of project has no any kind of manipulating privacy, so we will not find an obstacle to capture any football match. As for the risks that can be found, if we decide to visit a low social class place, there has to be any kind of bullying to face. Additionally, we should aware of the timing to capture photos to produce a good quality to the photos.

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Heba Khamis ( Banned beauty )

the photographer here used a photo essay approach to tell us a story about the practice of breast ironing, this is obvious in the pictures that the photographer used.

I would say that the genre of the photographs could be a documentary or conceptual humanist. this is because there is a story behind the photos which is the practice of breast ironing.

may be the photographer was always searching for black people as to be as similar as the cameron ones, so she could deliver the message of the practice of breast ironing in cameron. Also, she could face some obstacles taking pictures as majority of girls refuse to be captured. I would say that the photographer was waiting for the captured people to look very upset with what was happening to them. 

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Heba Khalifa ( from inside )

as we see in this project, the visual approach that the photographer used was the photo essay approach as this photo includes somehow a story, and it is not a series approach as there is no similarities found in this picture. And, the story behind this project was to tell stories about women during the revolution time ( 25th January revolution ) in Egypt.

the genre is a documentary humanist telling a story about the photographed woman

the photographer was trying to photograph what happens inside the homes during the revolution time, and this is by photographing the woman when she was sitting in front of a table for example, trying to show emotions and feelings through photographs 

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the attempted one.

this photo was taken in my home, in my father’s office

the lens of the focal length is 18mm

shutter speed: 1/10 ,, aperture: f 4.5

this is a picture of my father’s hands and my cousin’s hands

the point of view is the hands of both my father and my cousin

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The original one: the research part

Touhami Ennadre is the one who took this picture. this picture titled “hands”. Ennadre was born in 1953 in Casablanca. This picture produced in Southeast Asia in 1978. In This picture, the artist concentrated on hands. As it seems, the artist succeeded in making the hands look monumental, giving the body parts some sculpture effect. Importantly, he depicted two hands of different ages (young and old), this is to bring out the contrasts in the skin textures. The child’s hand holding a hand of an elderly person. The skin of the old person seems so papery or leathery, weathered by the experiences of long life. It’s important to know that if anyone afraid of ageing or death will find no comfort in Ennadre’s photographs. This is because he fearlessly tackles the difficult themes from birth, depicted with brutal realism, and the dying process, which starts from this very point, to death itself; as archeologically discernible in the ruins of Pompeii, as the death of animals in slaughter house or in the form of fossil, as a death of suicide, and the death of deaths of the 20th century. There was a series called Trance of 1993-1995 dealing with a completely other world, that in between world of consciousness in which Haitian devotees of Voodo immerse themselves. The black void in which Ennadre embeds all his subjects corresponds directly with the theme of death. Ennadre rejects the superficially and arbitrariness of our visual culture and tunes the palette of his colors to a sonorous black, liberating a profusion of values within this asceticism.

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What makes a photograph famous ?

if it’s come to photography, I would say that photography is neither only about taking good pictures nor holding a camera. It’s actually more than so. photographers have to be creative and crazy with the ideas of taking photos. photographers have to be able to deliver the messages through their photos. they need to think creatively before taking photos. photographers should realize that they have to exert some efforts to change an ordinary photo to extraordinary one. Accordingly, the famous photographs have to have some characteristics. For example, the photograph should have a message to deliver. It has to have some extraordinary effects, lights and shadows. The good photograph has to have some kind of balance of the focus, lights, shadow, contrast. Some photos need to include some things from reality, however, some photos would be prettier if they are not related to reality. so, it depends on photographs perspectives while taking the pictures.

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what did you learn from street photography ? ( reflection )

I would say that street photography requires so much effort to exert. I also would say that street photography is much more challenging and some how dangerous. If it’s come to capture an extraordinary photos we have to keep our eyes everywhere. l learned that I have to quickly realized whether the person would like to be captured or not and this is through the eye contact between me and them. furthermore, I would say that street photography helped me to know some background about the social lives and perspectives of lives throughout people’s faces’ expressions and features. To clarify, if you take a photo of someone you can identify whether this person is happy or not, is satisfied or not. Also, I learned that the background of portraits have to be clear as the people have to be focused. In the beginning of the field trip I was a little bit shy to ask people to photograph them but by practicing it became much more easier for me to ask them and accept their replies. some people refused to be photographed, others were welcome, and others were asked me to photograph them. It was a great experience for me to deal with other social classes. The overall field trip was interesting and informative. I really liked it. I can consider this assignment as my favorite one. We need more field trips :) 

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During my journey to El-Moez street, I met lots of people having different stories. However, this woman affected me a lot because of her sad story. This woman as you see is an old woman having wrinkles on her pure face. She suffered a lot in her life facing a lot of problems. Most importantly, she said that after her husband death, she couldn’t survive as she was surviving when her husband was alive. She has three sons and two daughters but they left her alone and rarely do they visit her. This is why she always feels like there is no one surrounding her after her husband death. Moreover, she complained about the high prices within the country as she couldn’t afford to buy her needs. And, the only source for her to get money is the pension, and for sure this is not enough for her to buy her needs. I completely got upset when I listened to her story and I wish if I could help her anyways.

“ after my husband’s death, i found myself alone, my sons and daughters rarely visit me because all of them are got married having a great responsibility, i don’t feel shame as they left me alone, but sometimes i really need them to be beside me, i can’t live the life that i was living when my husband was always here for me, i can survive, i can’t feel the true meaning of happiness, i couldn’t afford my needs, i only get money from the pension and this is not enough to meet my needs, i really miss my husband”

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while I was walking in El-Moez street, I saw this girl looks a little bit nervous and I decided to talk to her to know what happens to her. I stopped her and asked her “ can i talk to you,“ and she said yes for sure. Firstly, we introduced each other asking about names as ages and so on. I would say that she is the most weird person i met in this street. She is 14 years old, she comes from a low social position, her parents are divorced. “ i always feel that there is something missing in my life,” she said. when I asked her to tell me why is she so angry she said that she broke up with his boy friend. and this is not the first boy friend , he was the fifth one. For me, it was a weird situation and i was not having any replies on what she said. She is so young to be in a relationship!!. Before leaving her, I started to give her some pieces of advice to not trust any boys at this age. 

“I know that I’m too young for telling you so but i feel comfortable whenever i talk to someone that listens to me, i broke up with five boy friends, all of them cheated on me, they always like to have more than girl friends and i don’t know why, my parents are divorced and this is why I always feel that I’m missing something, I’m missing the true meaning of being surrounded by lovely family, i don’t know what I’m doing in myself”

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“don’t trust anyone except your family,” he said. Again, during my journey in El-Moez street, I met this Surian guy. I would say that he was completely depressed because of what happened to him. Surely, now you are curious to know what happened to him. Well, he has no family here in Egypt. Why?. As we all know, that there is a continual war happening in Suria. Based on that, he lost most of his family members during the war. Fortunately, his luck was good because he succeeded to escape from what happening in Suria and come to Egypt. Now, he works as a sales man in a small shop selling Hookah’s  ( shesha ) staff. And, he is some how satisfied with his life that he lives right now.

“ Once i came to Egypt I wasn’t able to survive whether physically or psychologically, I have no family here, I lost most of them in Suria, they were suffering alot then they died, I wasn’t having any option except leaving Suria and come to Egypt to start a new life here, I successfully built my career and opened my small store selling Shesha staff, and a piece of advice to you based on my experience, just not to trust anyone except your family”

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One day, I went to El-Moez street because there was a field trip. While I was walking in the street, I suddenly met this guy. Actually, I would say that he was awesome and friendly with me, and he asked me to take a photo with each other and upload it on social media and I did so. The story behind this guy can be represented in the following. “ I want to be a musician but I can’t,“ he says. When I asked him what’s your obstacle in your life that pushes you to live your life, he said that he always dreams to be a popular musician but his socio-economic level and environment don’t allow him to achieve his dream. Consequently, as you see, he is selling flutes. This is because the flute is his favorite instrument to play music with.

“you know shaimaa i’m so satisfied with my life I’m living right now, I’m selling what i love, however, i wish to be a better person but I don’t have a chance to achieve my dream, I always dream of being a musician but the environment surrounding me is not giving me a chance to be what i want to be, but I always proud of my self, proud and thankful for what I’m, and most importantly I love flutes”  

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Photo 9: B&W and it’s colored version.