Virtual Essay

My choice of photographer is André Kertész (2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985). He is one of the world’s leading photographers who ‘influenced a subsequent generation of photographers including Man Ray, Brassai, Maholy Nagy and Cartier-Bresson’.( 2007, Phillips de Pury & Company)[i] He’s known for his intuition and innate ability to effortlessly capture and freeze the moment in his pictures. He is not a photojournalist but known as a photographer who had ‘the soul of photojournalist’.[ii]

It was very interesting for me to see his ‘Distortions’ series. In his ‘Distortions’ series, I could see his artistic side. “Distortions” is ‘a series of about 200 photographs of two nude, female models in various poses with their reflections in a combination of distortion mirrors, in some cases the models, were so distorted that only certain limbs or features were visible in the mirror's reflection.’(2011, Photographynow)[iii]

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[i] http://www.phillipsartexpert.com/in_the_know/lot/andre-kertesz-distortion-no-40-paris/

[ii] Week 9, KerteszCartier-Bresson From Shooting The Truth, Gordana Iccevska

[iii] http://www.photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363&Itemid=334

Distortion 1, photographed by Soyeon

Distortion 2, photographed by Soyeon

These two pictures are my own version of Distortions. In the first picture, it is interesting that everything is distorted but the camera and invisible parts in the biggest distortion mirror are visible in those two little mirrors below. The second picture provides an interesting contrast between the distorted image of me and the old lady standing in the back between distortion mirrors. Before I encountered Kertesz’s distortion series, I’ve never given much thought on the distorted image other than the fact the subject looked distorted in a funny way. I think similarity between Kertes and mine is, other than that the images are distorted, that every element of reality is still reflected in the images and tell their story in a distorted way. Isn’t every photograph somewhat distorted in its own way?

Kertész’s pictures are inspired by his life. For him, camera was like a notebook that he recorded every event happening around him and every moment of his life. “My work is inspired by my life. I express myself through my photographs. Everything that surrounds me provokes my feeling”(Shooting the truth, Iccevska)[i]

He successfully captured ‘images of ordinary life in a style without pretention. He made a visual record of his daily life.’(2011, Photographynow)[ii]

My pictures below are visual records of my daily life. My third picture was taken at school during a break. This is my favourite out of five pictures I took. This moment I captured in this picture is the slice of the most ordinary life of mine. It’s my everyday life, so very ordinary but this image makes this ordinary moment very special and precious. I like how everyone looked different and how everyone’s showing different facial expressions when they are all in the same place at the same time with the same purpose, though it is not well composed. This one picture would tell a lot more than one page of my daily journal.(I used to but don’t actually keep a journal anymore though. I take pictures instead. I many times get pleasantly overwhelmed by how just one small picture can bring those memories all alive. I then walk down memory lane.)

After I took this picture, I could understand what Kertész meant by saying “The subject offered itself to me and I took advantage”.

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[i] Week 9, KerteszCartier-Bresson From Shooting The Truth, Gordana Iccevska

[ii] http://www.photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363&Itemid=334

At break, photographed by Soyeon

Rush hour at King station, photographed by Soyeon

             This image also shows my daily life which I don’t enjoy very much every time I go through it. This is a part of my daily life I can never get used to and never get comfortable with. It’s the rush hour. I believe everyone in this picture feels the same way I do. We are all heading for different destinations but we are here at the same subway station all waiting for the same train. I wanted to freeze this moment without them noticing that I was taking a picture. My last picture is a picture of my shadow. Whenever I go, my shadow follows everywhere. I usually never pay attention to my shadow. Who does? I was walking down the street looking for and waiting for the moment or the scene to offer themselves to me. Then I found something that drew my attention. It was my shadow. It was me. After all, I’m the one that is always standing at the very core centre of my daily life. My life revolves around me, not the people around me, not the events happening around me.

            I believe this is what Kertész meant by saying “My work is inspired by my life. I express myself through my photographs. Everything that surrounds me provokes my feeling”(Shooting the truth, Iccevska)

Shadow of me, photographed by Soyeon

Resources

Week 9, KerteszCartier-Bresson From Shooting The Truth, Gordana Iccevska  

http://www.phillipsartexpert.com/in_the_know/lot/andre-kertesz-distortion-no-40-paris/

http://www.photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363&Itemid=334

DB12 - Presentation Week 12: The impact of digital technology on photography

1. How digital technology changed the role of photography in the society?

Flickr, Deviant Art, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, Snapfish…these are just a few of the sites for you to share your photos with anyone you like!  Gone are the days of gathering around the photo albums, now we gather around our computers, iPads, iPhones etc.  A few of us though still might be inclined to pull out the old albums!

We used to keep and organize the pictures in a photo album usually in a chronicle order for future reference, sharing experiences and communicating with family and close friends. Photography was a tool to save precious memories of past events such as family activities, parties, marriage, trips etc. 

Charles Cuthbert, Moray, Ramona, and Islay Mary Sinclair, in front of the Bungalow, Norway House, circa 1908.  Source: Hudson's Bay Company Archives 1981/39/224

Digital photography is everywhere you look.  It’s impossible to go anywhere without seeing some form of device being used to capture a moment.

Before digital you could feel confident that you would not have your picture taken without your knowledge.  Most people would ask permission before taking your photo.  Today anything goes.  Not all of this is good.  I witnessed this first hand at a baseball game where a group of young girls were quite taken with one of the guys sitting near them.  They took his picture without his knowledge but one of his friends noticed and let him know.  It seemed so invasive and inappropriate for her to do this.  He was quite upset but what can you do at that point?

Photography has been used to capture memories, record history and for communication.  There seems to be a marked decrease in accountability and respect for others when using photos.  They are shared instantly on the web through social networks, free for anyone to manipulate as they like.

Digital photography allows us now to share our lives with other instantly which can be great when families are separated by distance.  How we choose to use these pictures depends a lot on our integrity and respect for others.

Digital photography still serves as a tool for remembrance but now plays bigger role as tools for self-expression, self-presentation, identity formation, instant communication or social bonding.

Anthropologist Barbara Harrison (2002: 107) found in her ethnographic study that now people are using photograph as a self-expression tool rather than a memory construction tool.

Due to the development of digital technology, cameras are getting smaller so it’s easier to carry anytime anywhere and getting easier to use so everyone can take a picture without any required skill. “Cameras have increasingly served as tools for mediating everyday experiences other than rituals or ceremonial moments.”(Harrison, 2002)

Digital camera made it so much easier to take and delete pictures. Unlike analogue camera, no need to spend extra money on buying films and no need to wait until the films have developed to see the pictures. This made it so much easier that people take pictures until they have the image of themselves as they want to be seen. Digital technology allows subjects more control over pictures than ever. Using Photoshop individuals can brush up their images as the way they want to look by beautifying faces or slimming bodies. Retouching and manipulating of one’s self image is commonly done as a way of forming identities.

Image: by casillar, photobucket.

 Photo manipulation is an art in itself, that requires a skill and precision as we know, it is one of the most creative art forms to come out of the digital age.  There are some incredibly talented people out there.  Here are a few examples:

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Digital photography has also changed the way we communicate.  Cameras and camera phones are an integral part of our lives. Individuals now, especially Youth share these pictures on their blogs or social networking sites such as Facebook. They use photos to communicate with their peers.  It’s almost like an online photo journal of what’s going on in your life, right now!  Photography does not take on the same meaning for the youth of today, pictures are fleeting and temporary, not meant to be saved.

A study showed that “teenagers regard pictures as circulating messages" (Jose Van Dijck, p.61). Digital photographs are now sharing the ‘moments’ rather than ‘memories’. Showing and reviewing pictures between peers have become an integral part of communication and socializing. They want their pictures confirmed by their peers because those pictures are showing who they are and the more they like how they look in the picture, the better they feel about themselves. It’s about self-esteem.

Facebook Album

 There are some of us though that still place great value in our pictorial treasures but there are so many more pictures to go through now with our seemingly unlimited storage…it will be interesting to ‘see’ the coming changes in this fast paced field.

2. What has been the impact of digital photography on journalism?

Digital photography gave photojournalists more control in the process of taking pictures. Digital camera allowed photographers to check their pictures right after the pictures taken. Photojournalists can easily delete them if they weren’t taken as photojournalists intended them to be.

New digital cameras free photojournalists from the limitation of film roll length, as thousands of images can be stored on a single memory card. They don’t have to go in to darkroom and put films in to wet chemistry anymore. Content remains the most important element of photojournalism, but the ability to extend deadlines with rapid gathering and editing of images has brought significant changes.  Now, equipped with a digital camera, a mobile phone and a laptop computer, a photojournalist can send a high-quality image in minutes, even seconds after an event occurs.  Camera phones and portable satellite links increasingly allow for the mobile transmission of images from almost any point on the earth.[1]

The new technology has also created a subculture of amateur photojournalists who share their “news” photos on podcasts, blogs and online news, not going to the traditional news outlets.  Their photos therefore cannot be checked for authenticity which is worrisome to say the least.

We need to remain faithful to the tried and true, traditional news sources if we care about getting the truth. There is a fine line when it comes to altering a photo for the news. It’s the end result that really matters. Photojournalists should ask this question to themselves. Do the changes you make to the photo distort the truth and at what point do you stop making changes…

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism

Nikolai Yezhov and Stali before and after alteration

Postproduction has been always an issue and existed in the dark room. Development of digital photography gave photojournalists more power to control and manipulate their pictures. Postproduction now is a lot easier and faster. Photographers now play with their images on a computer screen using various editing programs. As digital technology advances, ethic issue becomes more important. When the image is so finely photoshopped, it would be so hard to tell if it’s altered or manipulated to serve the photojournalist’s purpose better. Audiences will take the photo as it is and believe it without knowing that the reality captured in that photo is distorted. Photojournalists gain more power to manipulate not just the images but also the audiences. Audiences on the other hand become more vulnerable. 

Digital photography made photojournalists’ job a lot easier and faster. This convenience however comes with more responsibility. Photojournalists have to be always well aware of their job, that is telling the stories as they are without altering to fit their intention.

The digital manipulation by The Economist for its cover, left, of a news photo taken by Reuters photojournalist Larry Downing, right, is a recent example of the ethical challenges posed by imaging technologies.

The core of the profession has remained the same: to record the human condition as openly and honestly as you can. Photojournalism is more than megapixels and binary ones and zeros with digital signaling.  It’s a process of thought and emotion from people who are not only trained in all of those technical aspects, but are caring and involved documentarians who identify and capture the essence of their subject in many different types of media with many different situations on a daily basis.

The effect that new technologies will have on this industry can be of concern. We do have faith that there are enough ethical photojournalists out there that will uphold the standards that are set today.  All the amateurs out there can be more of concern. Who will be checking their sources and making sure they are the “real deal”.  Will people care enough to do something about it?

References

Week 12 Slides, Creating the moment/truth: Digital Photography

Week 12 Digital photography: communication, identity, memory by J O S É VA N D I J C K

Photojournalism in the Age of Scrutiny by Kenneth Irby : http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/78172/photojournalism-in-the-age-of-scrutiny/

Pictures from

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/28/familymemory.shtml

http://mymerrychristmas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14768&page=3

http://www.solemagazin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/miley-cyrus-twitpic-1024x965.jpg

http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2009/photoshopped.jpg

www.webdesignerdepot.com/.../40-examples-of-incredible-photo-manipulation/

http://www.instantshift.com/2009/07/20/80-excellent-examples-of-photo-manipulation-art

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150309371445713&set=a.10150253364090713.475937.504585712&theater

Part 2: Press photography versus art photography

 Art photography versus Press photography 

Adam Magyar, #1089 (2008), London, recorded time: 46 sec. 

Tono Stano , Sense, 1992

Photograph courtesy Olivier Laban-Mattei, Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, 2010, in Pattan, India. 

 

1.    The main differences and similarities between art and press photography
2.    Is it ethical and acceptable to alter art photographs? Why? Why not?
3.    Is it ethical and acceptable to alter press photographs? Why? Why not?



Art and press photography share similarity in that both serve as a tool to convey the messages photographers want to send. Both reflect the reality.

Art photography allows photographers to get creative and digital editing of the image or staging the scene to more effectively tell a story/message. Art photography also allows audiences more room to interpret the messages. First picture was taken with “the same technology as the finish line cameras at the Olympic Games, which take thousands of images a second and records through a 1 pixel wide slit”. The photography used this technology to slice the time and space and reconstruct the image by placing them next to one another.(Kottke, 2010) On the other hand, press photography has to inform audiences what happened, when and where it happened so it should come with the captions. Its purpose is not just to inform people but also to raise people’s awareness on certain issues.

Altering art photographs is acceptable because art photography is a way of expressing and telling photographer’s message/story, not a way of giving information. Postproduction process of digital editing of art photographs is allowed if it can help telling a message/story more effectively. Third picture is a great example of a vivid moment captured in press photograph; a young dead child was being thrown away onto the piled-up dead bodies at a morgue in Haiti. A dead child being thrown away as an object maximized the impact of this photo and told everything, how tragic, disastrous and devastated the situation in Haiti was and what people in Haiti was going through.

Press photographs however should not be altered because altered press photographs can mislead people into taking the manipulated and distorted truth as the truth. They should tell the story as it is visually.(Poynter, nd) They should be presented to the audience as the moment was captured/recorded. Audiences tend to take these pictures as they are without analyzing.(Shooting the truth, Iccveska) If press photographs were altered and the audience found it out, it would only mar the credibility of press photographs and photographers.

<Sources>

http://www.newsu.org/courses/language-image

Kertesz Cartier-Bresson From Shooting The Truth Gordana Iccevska

<Pictures>

http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/adam-magyar.jpg

http://www.tonostano.com/index.php?page=folder&id=1&num=5

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/321/cache/world-press-photo-best-pictures-contest-2011-olivier-laban-mattei-port-au-prince-haiti-morgue_32153_600x450.jpg

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wpph2011/s_w16_06128820.jpg

Photo Manipulation

#1

New York Time Square

  It never gets dark at Time Square. All the lights and signs and boards. They all are competing each other that who has the most colorful color and is the brightest and is able to grasp the most attention from people.

  The glamour of Time Square starts from here inviting us. I loved how well the subway sign harmonized with its colorful surroundings.

  

  I first cut out a bit of the bottom and right parts of the picture so that it shows more of boards and signs. I selected each one by one using drag tool and colorized each one by one by adjusting hue and saturation in Photoshop. I gave each one of them different level of hue and saturation. I adjusted hue and saturation accordingly to the point where adjustment brought out the essence of the color. I for example wanted red really red. I wanted it look provocative.

  My camera unfortunately failed to capture the scene as the image developed in my head when I first went to Time Square. I wanted to bring out its colorfulness and made it more vivid. After editing it’s now closer to the impression of Time Square I got then.

True face behind those signs and boards are the real reality here. It is business. It is money. 

Original Image

#2

New York Street

  There are so many big cities in the world but out of all of the cities New York stands out. To me it seems like New York is a city that sells itself. The city adorns itself with so many advertisements.

 People seem to be accessorized to make the city more appealing. What characterized the city? Who/What characterizes this city, people or advertisement?

  In the first picture, I emphasized the advertisement. I selected each one at a time using drag tool. I brought out the color using hue and saturation tool. I wanted brownishness to spread out very delicately over the advertisement boards because I thought brown could add more elegance to them. I’m not sure if I executed it well. Lastly I grayed out and blurred everything else.

  In the second picture, using the same tool, I emphasized people, street and cars instead. Those I think that give the real liveliness to the city. I again selected each one at a time using drag tool. I colorized each one by one by adjusting hue and saturation. I especially intended to bring out the color of yellow cab which a lot of people now immediately associate it with New York City. It wasn’t easy to select yellow cab only. I was going to use Magnetic Lasso tool, but cabs didn’t stand out against the background enough. I once enlarged the picture and using regular Lasso tool instead I followed the contour of the cabs precisely. Frankly it’s a little bit of hassle because I’m not very good at it and once I miss one spot or misplace the cursor, I have to do it again. I however liked the result!  I grayed out the advertisements and this time I blurred them using a filter. 

Original Image

*Pictures taken by me