Photography Through My Own Lens

 Lee Friedlander started his photography career by taking photos of musicians for their album covers ("Lee Friedlander"). These covers would be square colored pictures and it was how he was able to make a living as a new photographer. He later moved on to street photography where he'd take pictures of people living their every day lives, of reflections in glass windows, and of his own shadow. Interestingly enough, while his facial features were never seen in the photos containing his shadows, these pictures were considered to be self-portraits as they show his sense of humor and light-heartedness. Personally, I think what Friedlander does with his street photography is really interesting. He goes to the city, where there are all these moving pieces, and manages to capture them in a way that makes any individual subject feel interconnected in the web of the city. We even see this in some of the photos with his shadow in the foreground. Some may say that his silhouette take...

Man Ray started out as a painter in New York in the early 1900s. After traveling to France he moved to portrait work to make ends meet where he accidentally created what he called the "Rayograph." Ray stated, "I had finally freed myself from the sticky medium of paint and am working directly with light itself" ("Crimes against Photography"). From there on he spent more time in the darkroom experimenting and discovering new complex compositions that "evoked space and movement" ("Crimes against Photography").  Looking through Man Ray's work, I wasn't drawn to any of his Rayographs in particular. I understand that they brought about a new era in photography, but none of his compositions really inspired me in any way. I believe this is because the concepts he mistakenly created are widely used today in what we call photograms. What he did to his sheet of exposed paper is something I have already learned how to do in class. In additi...

 Referring to Marvin Heiferman's article "Photography Changes Everything"     As a student majoring in film-video arts, I have always seen photography as an artistic medium used to create a narrative or express an argument whether it was personal or on the societal level. Right now, I am taking a narrative film class and our first project involves using only photographs and narration to tell a compelling story. Every video is a series of photos that together make up a sequence. Taking film down to frame-by-frame allows students to learn the importance of planning out the angles, lens length, and depth of focus you can use to express the message you want your audience to understand. Photography to me was just a form of artistic expression that you could use to map out your creative works with things like shotlists.     After reading Heiferman's article, I realized that photography is truly everywhere around us. Not every image has to have an artistic, creative el...