Google Reader Response #1

"For me, wonder is a state of mind somewhere between knowledge and uncertainty."

I subscribe to a lot of fashion blogs, because I am, like many others girls, have a slight obsession with fashion. I see fashion as not only a way to express your personality, to "look" a certain way (ie. 'nice'); it is an art.
I also like fashion blogs because fashion usually deal with people, their stylists, their models etc. I like looking at photographs of people. Even just one picture of someone can tell you a story of that person. I guess it is true that picture is worth a thousand words. Anyway, people intrigue me. Every little thing - a mole, a scar, the way their hair falls in their eye - tells me something about the person. Maybe that's why I love being a psychology major, I just love reading people, getting to know and understand people.

Anyway, this relates to why a blog in the LPV magazine caught my eye. It was series called Contract Killers. The first picture of the post looked like something from the fashion blogs I follow.

Another post that caught my eye this past week was from the Lenscratch blog, work of artist Caleb Charland. He does a lot of work with light and long exposures - something that I've recently started experimenting with. There's something so magical and mystical (depending on how you use it) about light. Maybe it is also because of the human condition to favor and gravitate towards light (for light makes life, evolutionary psychology). Anyway, light has such power to create the mood, the whole vibe of a picture. I would love to experiment with light more, in a conceptual way like Charland does.

Reading Response Ch.1

Ch. 1 describes the time and space of photography, it's ability to capture a moment in time, and accurately. It is no wonder that photography had it's initial function of documenting visuals. As the chapter continued to explain the history of the function of photography, and it's transformation into a tool for artistic expression, I find it interesting that this can be interpreted in different ways.

First, people use it as a way of artist expression because now, you can digitize it or even create a set to photograph something that isn't real. This to me is the magical, or even mysterious characteristic of photography. Another aspect of photography as art is that the act if photographing is not merely snapping to document. It is an art to be able to capture this specific moment in time, the essence of the object inn that instance. This is also why I belief in the true art of a candid portrait, like the work Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange. A picture like that can tell a story, draws the viewer in, makes them ask questions.

Photographs are time-specific (p.33), do you think photography only really draw attention to that specific time the photograph was taken, or does it also address the other times in relation to it, hence enabling a story-telling process?

D+ Flare it!

always loved lens flare photos... been having some fun experimenting with my Diana F+ external flash.

Top 3 Chapters

1. (Chapter 5) Commidity & Culture
   
2. (Chapter 4) Subject as Object
   
3. (Chapter 2) Surveyors & Surveyed