5 Rules Contact Sheet

Color Ring Around Contact Sheet

Project 4 Rules

1. No Faces

2. No Flash

3. Explore the scanner as a camera

4. Must be in color

5. Explore staging

Photography Reborn Summary

The reading discusses the transformation of photography from analog to digital. Surprisingly, it considers digital photography to be more of an intimate practice than its predecessor. Keeping with my trend of commenting on the abundance of photographic resources available today, this reading casts more of a positive light on the trend than I had necessarily considered. As technology grows so do the possibilities. Photographers are able to capture, edit, print, and share their work within less than a day’s time. And, although the equipment might be more expensive, the time cost is significantly less because of the increased productivity. I suppose the intimate descriptor makes sense as the increased possibilities make it easy for the photographer to be more involved in manipulation of the image. They can control more variables, elements, and effects.

Perhaps a photographer can capitalize on the fact that digital photography continues to expand its realm of possibilities. Instead of being overwhelming and discouraging, it can be motivating. The digital world is fascinating and seems to be on an exponential growth pattern. And maybe the vast possibilities, which seem to clutter my creative and inspired mind space, can actually become more isolating and intimate than I have been willing to admit.

Seeing In RAW Color Final Photos

Art and Photography, Photography and Art

This weeks reading, Art and Photography, Photography and Art by Andy Grundberg, discusses the evolution that photography has seen as an creative medium. As it traversed different artistic movements it began showing a certain versatility that wasn’t available in mediums such as painting and sculpture. Photography became a means of commenting of culture rather than itself as art. It did not possess the vanity that John Szarkowski believed it needed in order to become the artistic medium that it sought to be.

Photography is unique in that it can not only stand as its own individual medium, but also can take the form of other mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, collage, even non-art. It has been embraced by so many different types of artists while still maintaining a very “common” reputation. When I say common I mean that photography struggles to gain prestige in the art world because of its versatility and availability. As I discussed with last weeks readings, those factors become an obstacle as well as a tool for photographers and artists seeking to set themselves apart through the use of photography. Perhaps the key is in embracing the very elements that make success with photography seem difficult

Contact Sheet 3

After Photography Summary

The reading After Photography discussed the transitions seen over time that led to digital photography. The author exemplified the evolution of painting into photography, compared the Internet to society’s fascination with fast moving cars, and also demonstrated the influences that a new medium obtains from its predecessor (TV from the radio, early photography from painting etc.). The reading seeks to demonstrate the increasing rapidity in which mediums are changing “for the better”. It seems to come across that the digitalization of photography (along with the internet) means a different experience aesthetic and artistic experience.

The tone seems to be split between critical and embracive regarding digital photography and what it means for the art world. On the one hand the possibilities are endless and on the other, it’s too easy. Photography, which threatened the success painting, has now split into 2 categories: Analog and digital. The latter seemingly farther removed from painting than the former. As a student of photography developing my skills in the digital age, I have a world of options and tools available for any type of approach I want to take with my photography. It’s not like the original masters who were experts at the fundamentals of photography. They had fewer chances to get it right and therefore had to be as precise as possible. Today, the discipline is much more lenient and could arguably be considered less specialized. The easy access to cameras, editing programs, publishing sources and the ability to self teach photographic skills, makes it much more difficult for photographers today to set themselves apart and create the unique, specialized images of the past.

Contact Sheet 2

Contact Sheets, Assignment 2