jiajiezhao30

[jiajiezhao30]

Final Portfolio

[jiajiezhao30]

When I was young, I didn’t like to be in the photo, so I missed a lot of records of memorable experience like family tours, that makes me so regret when I grow up, So I am happy to be in this course, because that gives me the chance to learn about photography and use those skills to record every wonderful moment I see, keep them in the photo and share with others. 

As Covid-19 keeps people at home for years, in this period when everything is getting better, I got more chance to walk outside, so I decided to take photos at places that are far away, but I finally have a chance to go to, and the beautiful scenery near home, not only to show the beauty of the scenery to those who also have few chances to go outside. But also, to convey one thing to everyone: Just like what the reading exploring color photography from Robert Hirsch trying to tell us, it is all about the language of vision. Even if it’s just at home or nearby, as long as you look carefully and watch from different angles, you can find that at a specific time, a specific From the angle of view, the scenery that you usually take for granted will show a completely different beauty, a tree near your house, a lake you walk past every day, has its unique charm in some time, even your house can look good if you look at it in different colors or angle of views.

[jiajiezhao30]

Mini Research About Nobuyoshi Araki

“Yoko and Chiro, took in 1988, Chiro was born in 11.23.1987 in Yoko’s house in her hometown .”

Untitled, Chiro, My Love, 1988, Nobuyoshi Araki

“Yoko, Chiro and Araki, took in 1989”

Untitled, Chiro, My Love, 1989, Nobuyoshi Araki

“Photography is to take the photo of what you love, the closest thing to you, which is human. ”

Untitled, 2004, Nobuyoshi Araki

“I take photo of these tied naked girl is to say that sex and death is not two opposite things in extreme, death is somehow within sex. Anyway, death is necessary.”

Untitled, 2004, Nobuyoshi Araki

Nobuyoshi Araki took two works in his lifetime; one is a flower and the other is a woman. In the lens of Araki, flowers and women are equally fragile and fragile, both high-spirited and decayed, both innocent and erotic. As of his work about portrait, he likes to take photo about tied naked women. In his word: ”I tied women’s body because I know that I can’t tie their souls.” Sometimes it contains sex, and sometimes it contains more of death. And in his idea, they are not separating. One thing in his portrait photo is that it usually contains clear view of the model’s face, and from his work I noticed that he likes faces with story very well. For skill, he tends to use feeling, moving around and look at the view in different angles, when the idea comes, his hand will press down the shutter automatically. His work was identified as erotic photo, but in my opinion, it does contain humans wanted, but with the depression feeling under the Japan society, being tied and exposed is a meaning of freeing or satisfying human’s desire, challenging the society and the traditional ways of thinking, that’s why he is accepted by the society and being famous all over the world.

But from the fact of most of his work contains erotic element doesn’t mean he is a erotic man. In fact, he is a sensitive and his live is like a series of wave. He met his wife Yoko and get married at the age of 20, she helped him on writing article on his publishing sets of work, they were considered as the model of wonderful couple. but Yoko got bad illness at the age of 42 and died just after half a year. After the passing of Yoko, he can only take photo of sky for a long time, and later on he started to take photo of flowers because he brought some Unflowered flower to the hospital, and at the first day of the death of Yoko, those flowers bloomed. That’s also a reason why he connects his work with death. During his time with Yoko, he took lots of photo about her, both on work with his erotic style and warm family photo. That can be seen from his work “Chiro, My Love”, which he took photo about living with Yoko and Yoko’s cat Chiro, which he said he hate cat since they smell bad but took good care of it and it stayed with Araki for a decade. In this series of photos, you can feel his love to Yoko and Chiro. Instead of showing emotion from their face he chooses to take photo more casually, but you can still feel that they feel nice and safe in the photo. One thing you can see in common between these two sets of photos, is you can feel him trying to capture this moment and feel his idea even if he is not giving any information about that. Like the second photo I choose in  Chiro, My Love, nobody is looking at the camera, but from the pose and the position you can tell that they feel comfortable and safe when other is nearby. In the first photo I choose as representation of his tie photo you can feel the women is not feeling so and of being tied on the tree and with her legs open by force, you can feel some erotic but more hope and struggle. And in the second photo for tie photo, the bandage and snorkel give a feel of the approaching of death, but what you can feel is not only death, but also the desire of being living, somehow in the erotic way.

For what I feel of looking at his work, I feel more of reading a book, it is kind of emotional but when you start reading it, you feel like you are at the winter in Japan back to that year, where you see snows outside of the window, and inside you have your cat and who you love.

Works Cited

 “From meeting to say goodbye with Chiro, my beloved cat, I will remember you forever.”

https://lp.p.pia.jp/shared/cnt-s/cnt-s-11-02_2_f56ddef8-5ccf-4785-9c91-ca00be0148d0.html

“Keep photographing though, Nobuyoshi Araki’s life and mood as a photographer. ”

https://nostos.jp/archives/110076

“Photographer  Mr. Nobuyoshi Araki and his way of living”

https://share-photography.com/araki-nobuyoshi/

Wiki about Nobuyoshi Araki in Japanese, English and Chinese version

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8D%92%E6%9C%A8%E7%B5%8C%E6%83%9F

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8D%92%E6%9C%A8%E7%BB%8F%E6%83%9F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuyoshi_Araki

[jiajiezhao30]

Cotton Reading Response

Yang Yong --- On Edge-12-6, 2011 Tang Contemporary Art

This photo is taken in 2011 by Yang Yong and published on a exhibition called Yang Yong 2016 in Beijing, China. The title of this series of picture are called On Edge with numbers after. I am guessing that is the date when this photo is taken. The photo is taken in Hong Kong for sure since the red and white symbol in the photo means MTR which is Hong Kong subway. The scene shows a people standing at a road to the subway surrounded by fences with the information of the construction on it, he is standing at the darker place and facing to those buildings with bright light. His legs seems standing steady and powerful but his hands are in relax and it gives me a feeling of this people is just standing but somehow feeling confuse about where should he go.

While reading Chapter 5 of The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton, Yang Yong's work called Fancy In Tunnel in 2003 attracted me, he photographs friends to evoke the attitudes of young urban people living in China, does remind me how people are thinking about their life while living in this environment alone. Then I went to look up his work, and most of his work is not showing a certain perspective but you can somehow feel it from the location he choose or the item he photographs, just like the photo I choose from his exhibition. When I look at his photos for the first time you can tell what is in it but you can't tell what he want to express, but once you look closer to the environment and the pose, maybe the expression on the person's face if there is , you can feel something from it, how is the feeling or emotion this photo is showing, what is the idea the creator wants you to feel, all of these information are sending to you in the photo with using his technique of photographing, that's why his work attract me and make me choose.

[jiajiezhao30]

At Costco – a daily shopping under The Pandemic

The original idea I came up with for this documentary project is to visit different places where people go for fulfilling their basic needs of eating: restaurant, supermarket, and grocery. For that I took pictures from different location but end up realizing that I need a more specific theme since all these photos doesn’t have any transition in between. So, I choose this topic, what is it like at a normal Costco in a normal day, under the time when Covid-19 is still around us. With the policy set up and the measures provided, what is the difference between our way of gaining daily wants and needs before the pandemic and now. Is it getting better? Or it is getter worse and worse.

[jiajiezhao30]

Exhibition Review Of Laurence Miller Gallery

TOSHIO SHIBATA  “Five Decades”     June 12 – August 23, 2019

http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/exhibitions/toshio-shibata3/selected-works?view=thumbnails

-- Okawa Village, Kochi Prefecture, 2019

I visited the exhibition called “Five Decades” in Laurence Miller Gallery. the artist of this exhibition is Toshio Shibata. From the information shown he is globally recognized for his photographs of infrastructure within the landscape. There are 43 arts displaying in this exhibition, and these photos across a huge timeline as the name, Five Decades, it contains work from his student period in painting and printmaking from the early 1970s to the recent photo of infrastructure within the landscape in 2019 which are the most famous. In this exhibition, we can see from his earliest painting work, then his first forays into photography about focusing on one isolated building at night, to the next stage where he chooses to capture the highly abstract black and white photographs of the man-altered landscape, and finally to the stage where he transit from black and white photography to color photography and continues to work on this day.

Throughout his arts, one thing I notice is he use lots of comparison in his work, like the comparison of color in his painting, by using many types of color to create an image, it brings variety of color to the painting but the shape of it forms unity as you look closer to it. Then to the comparison of black and white as he just started to use camera, to adding the comparison of movement in his photo and to the stage where he changed to color photograph.

-- Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, 2008

The photo in the front and this photo is what I choose as they attract me the most and also contains the element I would like to explain in his arts. In the first image, my first impression to it is the beautiful scene with geometric forms, with parallel perspective to two sides of the bridge and extend to the end with the forest, from simple triangle shapes to complex organic forms, gives me a feeling of exploring deeper and deeper, from peace to the exciting of facing unknown dangerous, the comparison of color between bright red and deep green combine with the space, makes me like I am in Japan’s village and trying to go into the forest. The second image shows a waterfall, it seems it is formed by a dam. In this image I notice the waterfall at first, the water is in clear blue and is moving, then I notice it is surrounded by browns which is the mountain with old trees, they look so quiet with no movement, forms a nice comparison to the moving waterfall. Imagine you are in a quite mountain in fall, leaves are done falling, everything is in silent. Suddenly you find a waterfall moving so fast within this quiet, isolated by the mountain, it is so huge and beautiful, so this image really shows me how great this view is, and it is like you walk into the scene of the art when you are looking at it.

This exhibition with arts about the infrastructure within the landscape, leading you into the beautiful of the nature, building and to the creator's mind, what he shows is the beauty of Japan views, with the stages like an evolution process, from present to the past, showing how well the view is changing and how Toshio does to appear these beauty to us, the shape he choose, the angle and the comparison of color he use really can attract people’s attention easily, and seeking for more and more of his arts, just like me. His work tells us beauty is around you, in your daily life, sometimes you just need to look at it in a different angle or just make your step and seek for it.

[jiajiezhao30]

Organic Forms

This photo is shot at the yard of my house at 8:20 Sep 17th by my iphone12 pro, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.6 aperture.

This flowerbed is in my yard, I was thinking about taking photos of the whole flowerbed, but eventually I decided to focus on the most beautiful flowers and blur the flowerbed but include the fence in the photo.

[jiajiezhao30]

Geometrical Forms

This photo is shot at hylan plaza in Staten Island NY at 17:40 Sep 23rd by my iPhone12 pro, and I used the ultra wide lens of it which is f/2.4 aperture with 0.5 times wide which is 120 degrees of view.

As I first saw this roundabout, I have a feeling to find geometrical forms space here, and after walking around, I took this photo with circle, two rectangle on the side with glasses windows divided in square shape, the elevator is in triangle shape and there’s other shape like trapezoid from the lines on the ground.

[jiajiezhao30]

Chaotic Spaces

This photo is shot at hylan plaza in Staten Island NY at 17:34 Sep 23rd by my iPhone12 pro, and I used the Telephoto lens of it which is f/2.0 aperture with 2.0 times wide.

This photo is taken when I am playing with the camera on my phone, as I zoom in and zoom out on the bridge and try to see things further, I found this view that combines several clear views and formed a chaotic spaces, which contains the Roundabout, the lanes, the parking lot, the moving cars and further view of trees.

[jiajiezhao30]

Empty Spaces

This photo is shot at hylan plaza in Staten Island NY at 17:27 Sep 23rd by my iPhone12 pro, and I used the ultra wide lens of it which is f/2.4 aperture with 0.5 times wide which is 120 degrees of view., Centered with the bridge and the Roundabout, parallel vision on two sides.

This is also a view I found while driving through the plaza, actually at further space in this photo is where I took the public spaces, I found them huge difference so I took some photos under the bridge and some on the bridge.

[jiajiezhao30]

Natural Light

This photo is shot at Seaside Wildlife Nature Park, Staten Island NY at 07:11 Sep 21st by iPhone X, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.8 aperture. For showing comparison of sky and land, and also for highlighting the sunshine coming out, I choose to have almost 50% of sky and 50% of land In this photo so the sunshine will be in the middle.

I woke up earlier that day and drove my sister to work with my mom, after sending her to work we went to the park and had a walk. I found this beautiful view but my phone left on the car so I borrowed my mom’s and took this down, wished I could use a better camera to capture more detail about this view.

[jiajiezhao30]

Outdoors

This photo is shot at the yard of my house at 10:20 Sep 18th by my iphone12 pro, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.6 aperture.

This photo was taken by me to send to my relatives for showing how good the weather is and how beautiful the grass are after I did the mowing. When I was looking the photo in my phone and I found this nice photo.

[jiajiezhao30]

Indoors

This photo is shot in the living room in my house at 18:23 Sep 19th by my iphone12 pro, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.6 aperture.

I was sitting in the living room and watching video on my phone before dinner, then when I looked up, I found this angle showing an indoor space, so I opened the camera and took this photo. Although it is not parallel between two ways at the left and right side in the photo, it shows a closed environment, which is what I want.

[jiajiezhao30]

Mixed Lighting

This photo is shot in my bedroom at 16:50 in Sep 19th by my iphone12 pro, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.6 aperture. I tried best to focus on the bottle itself and blur the environment. 

In this picture I used my lamp and the room light as light source to try to make mixed lighting, but turned on the flash light accidently and the result is not that bad. I had the photo of the reflected light and the bottle itself, but from the angles this one with the bottle itself maybe better. 

[jiajiezhao30]

Public Spaces

This photo is shot at hylen plaza in Staten Island NY at 17:30 Sep 23rd by my iPhone12 pro, and I used the ultra wide lance of it which is f/2.4 aperture with 0.5 times wide which is 120 degrees of view.

This afternoon I drove out to return something, when I went pass the plaza, tons of idea shown up so I stopped and took this photo.

[jiajiezhao30]

Private spaces

This photo is shot in my bedroom at 16:39 Sep 23rd by my iphone12 pro, and I used the wide lens of it which is f/1.6 aperture. For a clearer view I choose to decrease the exposure to - 0.3. 

This little desk is what I have for my private spaces. I was thinking of taking the whole bedroom, but it turns out this is the most representative of what my private place is, a computer with monitor, keyboard and mouse in blue light which is my favorite color, water, vitamin d candy, my games and my graphing paper on the side of the photo. 

[jiajiezhao30]

Willis Reading Response

-- Photograph by Ewa Ahlin / Getty ,  “To the Lady Who Shared Thirteen Pictures of Black Babies and White Babies Holding Hands on My Facebook Wall “ By Ariel Felton

“The majority of the African American children who took the test indicated an overwhelming preference for the white doll and a rejection of the brown doll. “

--  “Picturing Us” by Deborah Willis

This quote is an experimental phenomena that have been found from The Dolls Test, a test devised by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s. which they asked a children in black to select a doll with black skin or a doll with white skin they prefer to play with.

From the quote we can find that there were huge inequality back then between children in black and children in white, or people with black skin and with white skin. Most of the children in black believe that doll in white, which revised to group of white skin is better then the things in their color, and when they grow up with this idea, it evolves from idea between children to idea of everyone.

Surly now a days there are lots of people who fight for equality, seeking for a world with less and less of racism, we don’t talk about some of the aggressive action people took here, but the world had changed a lot, and that's why I choose this photo and think it relates to the quote. My idea is: even though there was a bad idea in those people in black’s mind and makes them feel they are worse than others, but I am here with this photo I found to counter this idea. People are changing, and the children, as a creature from the world with the clearest mind, can ignore the prejudice of different colors of skin and shake hands, talk and play together now. What shows in this photo would be a wish in the past, but it is our present and our future, even though we are born in different environment, but we are born to be equal, we are just human in different colors and have our unique personality, the history is to remind us what mistake we had and show us a brighter way that we can seek of. And in the future, people in different colors won’t feel bad of what colors they are, and everyone can work together to make this world better.