Responce to Joe's presentation on DAWOUD BEY

So Joe was nice enough to send us the link via email for Mr. Bey's website to listen to the audio. I went back to listen to Kevin's blurb, the kid we talked about in class, and it defintly put the picture into more context that way than just reading it. It does what its supposed to do, which is give these kids a voice to be heard. I do think that is important and would be much better to see it in the gallery setting though. It does seem like it was kind of rehersed alittle though and i'm certian he asked him a bunch of questions most likely and just chose one that went well with the picture. I like the work as a whole and gives a nice commentary to social/urban peoples. I really think that what kevin says makes sense in a bad english sense and holds true to life in general, although i can not relate to his situation i certinaly can understand his thought process. I also would like to say that Dawoud is one of the coolest names ever!

class yesterday

I really feel that we had a good discussion yesterday. but i really feel that the same 5 people always talk, i would like to hear from people who dont talk that much.
I personally liked the work of Tim White. I think that his pictures are great. In photography i dont really think that their always has to have some deep meaning to a photograph. Why cant we take pictures that are just what they are? Last semister thats what i had a piff about with my classes. I wanted to take nice postcard pictures that are "what you see is what you get" type photograph.there isnt any hidden deep meaning. its just a picture of a beautiful sunset. This is a picture i took in the adirondack mts. this past summer.
Whites pictures are celebrity pictures. Pictures of famous people. I'm fine with that. I do agree with the statement about some of his pictures being compared to senior pictures. But i also agree with the fact that because his work is so straight foward there cant be much to say about the
"art theory" aspect of his pictuers.

class on wedensday

So i have never heard of that benniton ad thing before. i think its really interesting and serves for a good purpose. What question i bring up is if it goes under the category of propoganda or for an anti-ad? as for the propoganda its more of an awareness ad more than anything i think. I'm sure not everybody really thinks about that kind of stuff all the time. If only the ads reach even one person it does its job. its controversial so that brings up the point of why it isnt in the US much. we never have alot of those ads here. i think if i was driving down the highway and i saw the ad with the nun and preist kissing i'd probabily do a double take and think to my self. what the heck? as well as the one that really grabbed my attention was the black woman breast feeding the two kids. thats something we would never see in the states. especially say in our southern ones. its really a touchy subject still even though we are in the 21st century.

Past due blog, monday, april 2nd

the picture of the kid sitting on the ground and the photographers all around him....my thoughts since i didnt get to talk. We were discussing ethics of this situation. i think that its ok for this scene to be staged because i think its something that could happen if someone didnt intervine and hlep their situation.
if the situation was actually real then that would be a different story. it would depend on the ethics of the photographer. really it is not his/her job to provide these people with help or food. not as a photogapher anyways. as a human, thats a different issue. when we see people in help or need we should help them. the only bad part of this situation is that the person is not should we say qualified or trained to help possibly then they could be worsening the situation. i saw a movie, i cant think of the name, but it was one of the recent war movies where there was a photojournalist with the troops and he was there when they got attacked and the soliders gave him a weapon. that photographer should be trained in some kind if they choose to go to the battle. he was just there to take pictures not fight the enemy. so those are my thoughts. stay tuned for more!

Past Blog Catch up 2.5 Sontag...

Yea.... so the first part of this essay is about the debate on photography as an art form which we've discussed to death so i'm not going to get into that.

ummm....So I know who Susan Sontag is and I do respect her but I honestly think her writing is merly just opinion and observation really. And although she brings up alot of good points its really hard for me to take her seriously because she is not a photographer or even a photo critic. Its really just like me saying i was an expert of food or a chef, but i dont cook food, prepare it or even watch them make it. I just like to eat the food... but thats about it. So I've decided to write an essay about what i think.wow, that was harsh of me, but thats just my opinion.

I agree with her when she says that there are an unlimitied number of pictures to take, cause there are so many different views its insane.
The idea of comparing a camera to a gun on the other hand, wow, its a crazy analogy but the fact that we use terms like 'shoot' and 'load' and how we 'aim' our cameras at things and then take the picture. thats an interesting idea. So those are just a few of the points that I wanted to talk about. thanks for reading.

Past Blog Catch up 2.12 Man With a Movie Camera

I really enjoyed watching this movie. I think that for the time period it was done in it was way ahead of its time. In this movie the camera and the camera man go pretty much everywhere possible. I find this newly discoverd idea of ordinary people seeing things that you normally wouldnt see in everyday life extraordinary. Its like when video was first taken on the Moon, that must have been crazy to be watching that liveish. Just because for centuries humans were trying to reach the moon. Much like our modern day Mars missions as well. With this guy climbing up smoke stacks and going into really hot conditons with the extent of basicaly being in a volcano kinda all that molten metal just in the air. Crazy! That was my faveorite part. NOT to mention this crazy notion of the fact that this crazy cameraman,ha, had yet ANOTHER guy following him around recording him! OH MAN that is just awesome. two crazy guys. shouldnt it be call "the men with the movie camears"? lol.

Past Blog catch up 1.31, Benjamin/Political Ecodmy of the Photograph

As true as it may seem or whatever I really just think that its a coincidence that socialists and photography emerged at/around the same time. Maybe thats because i'm into democracy and what not though.
Anyways I wana just say that i didnt really enjoy reading this chapter, thank goodness it was short. I really had a hard time reading it because i didnt feel like listening to all of that socilist/communist bullshit. Thats basically the way i fell about this jargen. I understand the importance of it though the points made about the debate on photography as a fine art form was interesting. It really depends on the way people want to view the photograph in my opinion.