Photos Along With Library Assignment!

Child with Hand Grenade in Central Park, NYC 1962

A Child Crying, N.J. 1967

Library Assignment

At the library, I looked through mutiple photo books and quickly was able to decide if I enjoyed the style or not. The first book I looked through was by Alfred Stieglitz. The photos were ok, not my favorite. I really enjoyed one photo called The Steerage, 1907. However, overall I thought the photos were a little boring and did not really capture me, as others might.

Another photographer I looked at was Graciela Hurbide. Her photos were a blend of Mexico and her own thoughts. However, I thought they were a little repetitive. I felt that some were really well done and different but overall it would be like looking at another photographer who took pictures of Mexico. I did enjoy however one picture called procession, chalma, state of mexico, 1984. I really enjoyed the way the picture was taken at an angle and really showed a candid view of Mexican culture.

I also did not really enjoy Edward Weston's photos as well. They were a little bland and did not spark my interest.

After looking through more I realized I enjoyed the candid shots, or portrait shots that seemed true. Peter Hujar's portrait pictures I liked. The people or animals he took photos of were usually alone and either gave the feeling of lonliness or a peaceful feeling. They either seemed content alone or unhappy alone. The catacombs pictures were really good and sparked my interest.

Arthur Tress was a photographer that I really enjoyed. His pictures were very theatrical and stood out to me. One I thought was hilarious. It was one of my favorites. Although it was wierd it made me continue to look and laugh. It was called "Man with Mickey Mouse" New York 1976. It was really interesting and different. It was a man naked on a bed with a goofy hat on looking at an inanimate Mickey Mouse. However, some of them were also plain photos such as the "woman sleeping on lawn, san francisco, california, 1963. However, I still enjoyed it because it seemed sincere.

The photographer I enjoyed the most was Dianne Arbus. She had a wide range of photos but they were all taken randomly. She states that "the subject of the picture is always more important then the picture." She seemed to take pictures that reflected the feelings from the person or scene versus a specific feeling of hers. My favorite picture from all was A Child Crying, N.J. 1967. This picture was the most honest and that is why I think I loved. It was so sad to look at but true. I liked Mother holding her child, N.J. 1967 and Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC, 1962. They were all different pictures throughout the book but really captured the subjects or scene. They had a wide variety of people which captured real life versus the small old people in the pictures.

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"Patience is a virtue." That line never meant so much to me as it does today. I thought this photo class would take up time, however, this pinhole process has been a long frustrating process for me. After spending the entire weekend and beginning of the week at the lab, facing late nights and exhaustion I kept getting to the point of giving up. During the pinhole process I went through three cameras. Finally I got my granola bar box to work. In the beginning I had no negatives that developed. Eventually I made another camera and the negatives started to come out, however, they were warped. I was not sure why this was happening. It was now Sunday afternoon and still no pictures to use. Therefore, I decided to create my last camera. Finally the negatives were coming out but it was a process trying to figure out the exposure time, ghosting, etc. Making the positives was another process, while trying to figure out test strips, filter level, etc. Finally at the end of the process I was happy with the photos I finally was able to achieve. It took a looonggg time and I was starting to get impatient and frustrated I was wasting paper. However, I waited and continued with the project and finally had pictures I was proud of and that related to each other how I wanted them to. Overall this first project made me love and hate the photography class. There were many emotions that came to me during the photography process. However, I feel that in the end, it teaches us about patience and not taking for granted the actual cameras we are going to use and to really focus and work hard until you find that perfect picture. No matter what obstacles you face with the process you need to just keep going!