Self Image: Activity 1

What follows is a list of categories that serves to define and divide us. Make a personal list of the categories you belong to or have conflict with and visual symbols that are associated with each. Aspirations and expectations should also be listed.

Age/generation - This can dictate levels of independence afforded to the individual.
Gender - Our sex affects the way we are treated by some individuals.
Race - Prejudice and perceived racial superiority can affect hopes and aspirations.
Religion - Moral codes and ideologies that serve to guide, unite and divide.
Class or caste - A classification that an individual may never escape from.
Personality - Extrovert and introvert are classifications of personality.
Intelligence - educational establishments, based on IQ, often segregate us.
Political persuasion - Left wing or right wing. Each carries its own ideology.

Age/ Generation: This age for a girl differs from this age for a boy in several ways. For one, biologically we were made to mature slightly quicker than males. But in all fairness, some girls can be as equally immature. And another is the emotional and physical differences, which, in all fairness once again, some girls or boys lack whats expected physically or emotionally.But whats expected of both genders is fairly similar and seems to be more and less as we move from generation to generation. More, in the sense that we are the generation known for our progressing technology, we are supposed to be born knowing how to work the basics of the phones, tablets, laptops, televisions, etc. And less, in the sense that the education system has become the most important thing to focus on while we are young, where it used to be that working and providing at a young age while we have the energy was the most important. In this generation, expectations for scoring high in intelligence and having a high mental understanding is what's truly amazing today rather than scoring high physically.

Emma Watson

Gender: For a girl my age in this generation, I feel like there can be a lot of pressure. With the whole feminist movement, there is a lot of pressure to stand up and show just how independent young women can be; to work our way to the top, to be looked at equally, to show how capable we can truly be, and to be an example for other men and woman, someone people may look up to. And at this age, I feel like all of that starts here. About to graduate, start college, and figure things out for myself from there.

Race: People try to say that there aren't race issues, when even still there are. Although, we are definitely better, and still developing as time progresses, I do believe that we need to stop addressing everything by the color of our skin, stop making things bigger than they seem, and I think slowly but surely, people will begin to forget that we ever first noticed someones race when we first took a look at them. Diversity won't even be uncommon or something to be rewarded for, but just a way of life and maybe recognized once every few years for how far we have come. Race has never been an issue for me, I don't really care what door your skin is, or where you originate from or what your culture is like. If anything, I'm more fascinated to learn culture and origin, not judgmental about it.

Religion: Religion is extremely important to me in my personal life and to be able to have the freedom to practice my religion freely is such a privilege. Religion ties in with diversity, and it's also a privilege to have people accept you regardless what you believe in or whatever you have faith in. But being this age, some people feel pressured to lose faith in what they truly believe to conform to the people and life styles around them.

 

 

Class: I don't necessarily think class defines who you are or who you hang out with. Although, we do sometimes separate or attach ourselves based on what others have or how "popular" someone is. I'm in the middle class, not wealthy parents, but not poor either. Which most people are, but I don't think we discriminate based on the money our parents make, whether you have lots of money or whether you have enough money for necessities. 

 

 

Personality: I think personality has almost everything to do with the people you surround yourself with. Naturally, you surround yourself around people who have common likes and interests and humor; if you're outgoing, you usually become friends with other outgoing people. If you keep to yourself and necessarily like to be alone and can keep yourself company, you become friends with people who will understand and give you the space you need because they are the same way. Extroverts and introverts, although they do tend to mix, people get tired of others who can be too much like them and need something different, so they don't necessarily separate or discriminate, but naturally we just draw closer to those with similar interests. But personality is everything at this age, no one is ever alone, anything you find funny or interesting or repulsive or beautiful, someone is bound to agree. 

 

Intelligence: Personally, I tend to surround myself with people who are smarter than me, who know more than I do. Intelligence now is looked at at a much more positive perspective than it used to be. Although, being in high school, everyone is still looking to fit in and "be cool", someone with a higher intelligence is applauded and not laughed at by their peers. 

Time: Activity 4

Find a photograph where the photographer has used a slow shutter speed and describe the subject matter including the background. Discuss any technical difficulties the photographer may have encountered and how these mat have been overcome.

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With slower shutter speed photographs, a problem you may encounter is getting the aperture right. Having to change the shutter speed to something slower brings more light into the picture, so changing the aperture is really important. Also the model needs to keep still so that the only thing in motion and is blurry is the water running. And possibly one other problem might have been positioning the strawberries how they want, but other than that, this technique is pretty simple, as well as the photo. There isn't much to it. The sunlight, the water and the strawberries all compliment each other very well, and the sunlight really brightens up the colors of everything in this photo. I also really like the wood wall background.

Bill Wadman

This photo, was probably not as simple to take as the first one was. They look like they were set up in a studio with a nice dark grey background, and the model is very interesting in this shot. The first photo was very bright and gives this feeling of freshness and morning time, while the second picture is very dramatic and dark. With this photo, your aperture can probably stay at f/11 or f/16, because the shutter speed being so low will let the little light the studio is giving in for the photo. Looking at pictures like these make me think that the model is going insane, with her arms moving like crazy, you can't even see her face, let alone, her head. I imagine this shot was taken more than a couple times just incase of any mistakes and to give some options to the photographer.

Time: Activity 2

Find an example of a photograph where the photographer has used a very fast shutter speed and describe the subject matter including the background. Discuss any technical difficulties the photographer may have encountered and how he or she may have overcome them.
-Discuss what happened to the depth of field and why.
-Discuss weather the image gives you the feeling of movement, stating the reasons for your conclusion.

Diego Diaz

With a photograph like this, you sort of have to do it right the first time. I imagine you do multiple shots at one time so that way you don't miss a shot like this. Problems the photographer might have faced is setting up the right lighting and setting up the camera, model, subject and whatever is shooting the subject up correctly to get this shot right so you don't have to take this shot more than once. I like how he is completely still and unaffected by the paint or drink splattering in front of him.

Carli Davidson

There isn't anything distracting about the background which is good, this way it doesn't take your eyes away from the subject matter. This image especially caught my eye because of the silly face the dog has that you wouldn't usually notice if you watched the dog shake his face in fast motion, but to have caught his face in this picture is amusing.

Time: Activity 1

Look at a Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph and discuss why you think that capturing the decisive moment has added to the picture’s quality.

Henri Carter-Breson

The moment that was captured in this photograph has quality because it shows the fun, playful and adventurous side that children have. It's also very interesting because these kids don't show any fear as they climb up or while they are shoving each other on top, but in todays society
kids can't ride their bikes without a parent in a 5-foot radius, in fear, for both parent and child, that something might happen. 

Henri Carter-Bresson

 In this moment, it is very relaxed and quite. Unlike the first, with the children where you can imagine laughter, I imagine complete silence, bliss and concentration. Henri Carter-Bresson has a variety of photographs, catching different times we all sort of experience, and I really admire him for his style of photography. He catches the little moments in life and makes it art.

Landscape: Activity 3

Compare and contrast a landscape photograph with a landscape painting. Discuss the expressive possibilities of each medium using your examples to illustrate your argument. Choose your examples carefully as representative of the medium.

There are only so many perspectives a photographer can take a picture from, its hard to get a shot from different angles. A painter has endless perspectives and can honestly imagine and create a painting from whichever angle they want to. You can literally add anything you want to, something a photographer can't do. Although, the pictures of nature or landscape are beautiful considering thats what was already naturally there. And to be giving a form of art with your own style yet not much creativity, is still amazing. There isn't too much you can get creative with. 

Landscape: Activity 2

Find two landscape photographs that question social values or act as a metaphor for personal issues that the photographer is trying to express. Discuss whether the communication is clear or ambiguous and how this communication is conveyed.

The first picture shows a very natural and green area filled with trees and grass. And as you move outward and away from the center of this photo, buildings start to appear and fewer green is there. Then the buildings look almost like they are multiplying and increasing, where there are no more visible trees the farther from the center you go. When I saw this , I interpreted not just one meaning, but two. The first to come to mind was that although we have progressed over time and had advanced in many ways, such as technology, nature and earthy things are, and always will be, the center of life. The second meaning I interpreted from this photograph was that maybe the photographer was capturing how little we care about our environment, how technology and buildings are engulfing our earth, this has become acceptable to leave behind and its becoming a bigger problem while we advance farther and farther in technology. So I was thinking that maybe this was some kind of reality check, or a cry for help to save our planet.

The second picture shows a single tree surrounded by an abundance of water and some trees and mountains far in the background. I'm not sure if the photographer took this picture for just the pure beauty and rarity of this landscape or if there was some sort of meaning the photographer came up with while taking it. I usually can look at any picture and relate it to myself or to humans and society in general. What I see in this photograph is loneliness, and although the tree is abandoned and bare, away from anything like itself, it is rare and there is some sort of beauty and uniqueness. And what we see, especially in this society and generation, more and more teens are "feeling alone", for whatever reason, this feeling of unimportance exists, is spreading like a virus and is affecting teens around the world. And while they feel unimportant, dull, ugly, stupid, and a countless amount of other negative and untrue words, they fail to see the beauty of being separate and unique and their own person. No one seems to understand that being unusually rare and separate is what is truly fascinating.

 

Landscape: Activity 1

Bethlehem, Graveyard and Steel Mill - Walker Evans 1935 © Walker Evans Archive, 1994,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

View the image by Walker Evans on this page and describe what you can actually see (objective analysis) and what you think the image is about (subjective analysis).

Discuss how effective Walker Evans has been in using a landscape image to communicate a point of view. Can this photograph be considered as Art? Give two reasons to support your answer.

So what you actually can see is some buildings in the background, they look like some type of factories. and then close-up is a graveyard/cemetery. I'm not really sure what the pictures meaning is or what the photographer was trying to represent in the photo but maybe its very literal and there are a lot of deaths or were a lot of deaths caused by these factories. Or maybe it is saying that if you are living you are working in these man made factories that have taken over most of what was left of nature, and when you're dead you can rest in what is actually left of nature in the grass or weeds. I say yes, this is definitely considered art, its very dreary and beautiful at the same time. I feel like almost anything can be considered art, if someone can be influenced or inspired or in awe and find their own meaning for it than I feel like it is art.