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Calle Suite Venitienne P1

What do you think of the premise of Calle’s following strangers randomly to photograph them?

It's an interesting premise that would have garnered different types of photos that could never truly be replicated. It’s an easy prompt that produces one of a kind content.

What directs her to go to Venice?

One of the people she followed on the street was coincidentally introduced to her later that night and he tells her about his plan to visit Venice.

Who is Henri B.?

Henri B. is the man she followed briefly before meeting him later.

What is the difference between the italicized text and the normal formatted text?

The normal formatted text is similar to that of a journal or diary entry, a description of what Calle did for the day. The italicized text is her thoughts on what happened and even regrets about what she didn’t do.

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The Genius of Photography S1E2 Questions

What did Lazlo Moholy-Nagy say about anyone who fails to understand photography?

They will be the illiterates of the future.

What is a typology?  What was the first typology according to the film?

Typology is accurate recordings of people, places, or things. According to the film the first typology was Anna Atkin’s catalogue or algae.

What does Joel Meyerowitz think of Eugene Atget’s importance to the history of photography?  How does he often look at his images?  Have you ever looked at one of your images in this way?

Meyerowitz calls Atget the “Mozart of Photography.” He looks at the images upside quite often, to understand them better. Sometimes I flip my artwork upside down but never my photos.

According to Martin Parr, the Film and Foto exhibition in Stuttgart describes what countries as the center of photographic activity in the 20s?

The countries active in the 20s were German and Russia.

The film describes the ways that WWII and totalitarianism impacted the practice of photography.  How do you feel as though the difficulties of our time may impact photography?

Many photos in Russia became censored due to political enemies being taken out and in Germany photobooks were even destroyed. Lots of photographs were lost or destroyed. The difficulties during our time will probably cause a new era of more “mundane” photos being taken, finding art in smaller places rather than going out like most would.

Why did many people come to August Sander to have their pictures taken?

They were getting their photo taken for passports for immigration.

What does Peter Galassi say is the genius of Walker Evans?

He presents his photographs as the facts, but he’s actually influencing how people view the world.

Who helped Walker Evans find his unique voice?  How?

He found his unique voice through Eugene Atget’s work. Atget’s work had been taken to the US.

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Ulysses Film Questions

What are the subjects in the image that Varda describes from early in her career?

Varda describes the dead goat she found and the nude men she had posed on the beach.

What do you think of the use of nudity in the film ?  

It's very casual. Most of the nude photos involve men, but their nudity is never the full focus of the photograph.

What does  the nudity convey in the photograph vs the motion parts?

Varda says her photos are dreamlike unlike most others. The casual nudity helps bring that forth.

What did Ulysses (the boy) do at the time that made Agnes (the filmmaker and photographer) think that he might remember the day on the beach captured in the photograph?

He made a painting of the photograph.

Why do you think that Varda explains the military, political and mass-cultural events going on concurrently with her photo shoot on the beach?

It gives a bit more meaning to the photo; a seemingly casual photo at the beach amongst the end of a war and the country in mourning.

What do you think of the myth and symbology that is associated to the photograph in the film?

All of the myths are very Greek based, which makes sense when Varda lists off the mythos she connects with the photo. They all center around a woman who is eventually killed or defeated by the hero of the story, which is very telling when seeing the dead goat. A lot of the stories and symbols seem to be about dead women.

What other observations did you get from the 30min film?

Despite Varda claiming that her photographs seem dreamlike, I personally felt that a lot of her work was more of capturing life in a moment. Even if the nudists are obviously posed, the nature of the photographs seem very natural.

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David Horvitz Lecture Questions

Pick three projects that you think are particularly interesting and write about what you think he did to start the project. I want you to describe what we would call the prompt.

Public Access was pretty interesting and I think his prompt might have been based on the experience of sharing art. It wasn’t necessarily the type of photos he was making that he focused on, but the idea of making them impersonal so that people could just take them and use them.

The idea behind Nostalgia to me is that Horvitz was thinking about how people’s brains process images and information. Exposing people to an image for a minute seems like a long time to them, but was it truly enough for the photo to be printed in their brain? He also released the project as a book, but all the images had been deleted after being shown so that would mean everyone who reads the book would have different images coming up in their heads.

Mood Disorder was also a project based on how people shared art, but it was a bit more personal and expressed an emotion. How people interpreted it changed how they used it when resharing it out on the internet. The prompt seems pretty much the same as Public Access, removing the restrictions of copyright so people could share and use it.

How does Horvitz make use of the pickpocket?

He hired the pickpocket to drop mini sculptures of seahorses mating into people’s pockets. Pickpockets know how to get their hands into people’s pockets without someone noticing so the sculpture probably wouldn’t be noticed until whoever it was given to got home or long after the pickpocket was gone.

How did Horvitz make use of Walmart?

Horvitz used Walmart to launch his artbook because he saw that it was already being sold there. It's an unexpected place but gives easy access to the public and there were already copies in storage.

How long are the images displayed in Horvitz’s project Nostalgia? What happens after the exhibition of the images?  How are the images conveyed in the book version of Nostalgia?

The exhibition was open for three months, but the images displayed were only up for one minute. After the exhibition they were deleted and in the book version were only presented as descriptions of the photos with the file names listed at the bottom.

Can you identify several favorites from those transformed “images”.  Why do you like these and how might they relate to your current assignment?

I liked the “image” of Horvitz’s grandma with white hair and the puddle reflecting sunlight. Without seeing a person I have to try to imagine what the image originally looked like, which is something that racks the brain because it requires your already existing idea of a person to help shape what you think someone would look like. The puddle reflecting sunlight is a simple concept and something easy to conjure in the brain, but you will never know what exactly Horvitz did that could make it stand out. Or even if the photo stood out at all.

When looking for seaglass for a sculpture project, what did Horvitz find that surprised him?

He discovered one of his images from Public Access on the front page of the site he was looking to buy seaglass from.

Which question that was asked at the end was closest to what you would ask him? Pressed to ask your own question, what would it be?

The question about his website and the fact that it's a narrative instead of actual pictures or descriptions is something I would ask. The answer was really interesting to me as well because he wants people to spend time on his site to understand his work. 

I would ask him about why he seems fascinated with how people perceive art, especially with works like that of Nostalgia.

What is your favorite work he discusses and why?

I really liked Public Access because of how interesting it is that Horvitz wanted people to take and use his work at their own discretion. It reminds me of the reason why we make art, to share it. Copyright laws protect artwork of course, but removing it allows it to be shared more openly amongst everyone. It was also really funny that Wikipedia wanted to ban him.

Write two prompts in the style of Horvitz.

Facing the sea, the subject is facing away from the lens.

A chair under the rain.

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Assignment Two: Photographing a Subject

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The Genius of Photography S1E1 Questions

What does the announcer propose is “photography’s true genius”? 

Photography transcribes a scene; it “teases” the viewers with its ability to show so much but also so little so they are often left with questions and wonder.

What was the inspiration of the first sculpture? 

A girl traced the shadow of her lover, wishing for a snapshot of him. But it inspired her father to create a sculpture.

What was the flaw in Fox-Talbot’s list of accomplishments?

He could not draw.

Does the Photographic medium care what is important and what is not important? - what do you think of this?  Do you prefer to start with an important subject for a photograph or not?  Why?

The medium doesn’t care per say about what is important and what is not. I think this is fine because what is important varies from artist to artist and to viewers, the thing that is important isn’t always what is important to them. I prefer to start with what’s important because it helps me focus and refine what I’m trying to make.

Why did Leland Stanford approach Muybridge - what problem did he want answered?

He wanted to prove that a horse lifted all four feet off the ground at one point while it was galloping.

What does Chuck Close say is the dilemma and the strength of the medium of photography?  Why?

It's the easiest medium to be competent, but the hardest medium to be personal. There’s nothing that can easily define that an artist took that particular photograph.

What kinds of uses of photography come under the term vernacular?

It’s photography that is not necessarily for artistic use; things like IDs, journalism, and other more everyday things.

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Assignment One: Another Kind of Light

For: ART003 SPRING2020

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Preliminary Assignment: Photograph an interesting shadow.

For: ART003 SPRING2020