Between Death And Surrealism : Photography In Camera Lucida

Early Landscape photography used the same principles as painters in order to create pieces of art. Before the 18th Century, artists used landscapes as backdrops and as a frame for the principal subject. Towards the later part of the century, however, artists such as Nicolas Poussin started to romanticize the environment, instead using it as a principle subject in paintings.

Winogrand took photos of everything he saw; he always carried a camera or two, loaded and prepared to go. He sought after to make his photographs more interesting than no matter what he photographed. Contrasting many well-known photographers, he never knew what his photographs would be like he photographed in order to see what the things that interested him looked like as photographs. His photographs resemble snapshots; street scenes, parties, the zoo. A critical artistic difference between Winogrand's work and snapshots has been described this way, the snapshooter thought he knew what the subject was in advance, and for Winogrand, photography was the process of discovering it. If we recall tourist photographic practice, the difference becomes clear: tourists know in advance what photographs of the Kodak Hula Show will look like. In comparison, Winogrand fashioned photographs of subjects that no one had thought of photographing. Again and again his subjects were unconscious of his camera or indifferent to it. Winogrand was a foremost figure in post-war photography, yet his pictures often appear as if they are captured by chance. To him and other photographers in the 1950s, the previous pictures seemed planned, designed, visualized, understood in advance; they were little more than pictures, in actual fact less, because they claimed to be somewhat else the examination of real life. In this sense, the work of Garry Winogrand makes a motivating comparison to Ziller's

For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the

In “Why We Take Pictures,” Susan Sontag discusses the increase use of technology and its ability to impact the daily lives of mankind. Taking pictures is a form of self-evolution that slowly begins to shape past and present experiences into reality. Sontag argues how the use of photography is capable of surpassing our reality by helping us understand the concept of emotion, diversity, and by alleviating anxiety and becoming empowered. Moreover, according to her argument, people are able to construct a bond between the positive or negative moments in life to cognitively release stress through reminiscing. Therefore, Sontag claims that photography itself can help with reshaping individual’s perspectives of reality by being able to empathize with the emotions portrayed through an image. Thus, giving

Photography was an ideal medium with which to explore the payers of the unconscious mind. Modernist photographers experimented with double exposure and unusual new effects similar to those of visionary Surrealist painters and sculptors. A champion of the technique, Raoul Hausmann, called photomontage “the ‘alienation’ of photography”. By this, he implied that photomontage destroyed the role of photography as a medium of recreating physical reality. But the statement also suggests that by its dependence on fragmentation and dislocation, photomontage offered a visually and conceptually new image of the chaos of an age of war and revolution.

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

The photograph is a very powerful medium. The French painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed upon seeing an early photograph “from now on, painting is dead!” (Sayre, 2000). Many critics did not take photography seriously as a legitimate art form until the 20th century. With the

Each one brings something a little different to the table, keeping creativity alive. There is something to be said about an artist who has the ability to strip someone of all things superficial, and capture the root of their spirit. To me, there is nothing more beautiful than a photograph that speaks truth. Photography is one of the best forms of story-telling and the works of Leibovitz, Avedon, and Mark never cease to do just that. The daring traits that all three of these masterminds possess is what gives them the power to create shameless and provocative pieces that are both world-renowned and highly-respected. Without artists like these, the art world would not survive. Among the plethora of repetitive and monotonous works created daily, you need a Leibovitz, an Avedon, and a

Photographs are also manifestations of time and records of experience. Consequently, writings on photographic theory are filled with references to representations of the past. Roland Barthes (1981, 76), for instance,

NYC-based photographer Lucea Spinelli’s latest series titled Phōtosgraphé explores the movement of light in photography and the perception of reality. Spinelli reminds us instantly of photography’s purpose and origin. It is defined as a process of drawing with light. Its etymology implies a compound of the greek words φωτός (phōtos) “light” and γραφή (graphé) which is defined as “drawing”. The fleeting movement of the illumination becomes the paintbrush on its canvas, the film. “Like a human eye, the camera receives impressions of light reflected off the world around us. “

Through analysing and critiquing images, I encourage the students to have a critical eye of their own work and that of their peers. In this way, they take responsibility for their work and are able to defend it; moreover, they learn to take constructive criticism. Ethical questions may arise and are always allowed to be asked, discussed, and reviewed by the group. This variety of approaches helps develop in them an appreciation for theory, history, technical aspects and composition. I use the work of renowned photographers as a catalyst to inspire them as part of their

I will show analogue photography as constant experiment, of light as material and of the photograph as a concrete and generative object. I will challenge photographic codes of representation in favor of abstract works that are both self-contained and part of a larger dialogue.

After Reading Camera Lucida written by Roland Barthes, I was both confused and interested by his ideas. Though I did not understand much of the book, I was able to take a couple of his ideas and really think about how I see photos. In the future, I intend to use these ideas when I look at photos. One of his ideas that I was able to understand is the way he looks at pictures. The other one is his second definition of punctum.

Photorealism is a term that characterizes the artists whose work depends heavily on photographs and mixes together the real and the unreal. For example, Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère utilizes photorealism to depict a scene from modern Parisian life: a young barmaid stands behind the bar of a bustling night-club, confronting the viewer with a worn-out, emotionless expression and seemingly awaiting her patron's order or request. The painting plays with our sense of reality by showing a strange man and the misaligned reflections of the barmaid and the champagne bottles in a mirror. Likewise, in Picture for Women, Jeff Wall emulates the internal structure of Manet’s painting and incorporates elements such as the light bulbs and and poles to give the image spatial depth. This photograph shows a reflection in the mirror of a sparse studio room split into three panels with a woman on the left, a camera framed by a window in the center, and a man walking on the right. Both images utilize reflection to breach the limits of the naked eye’s perspective and evoke a sense of mystery and ambiguity. This paper will argue that in Picture for Women and Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Jeff Wall and Manet utilize female protagonists and the motif of the mirror to examine spectatorship and movement in still art and challenge our traditional sense of reality and the concept of the male gaze.

At the beginning of Little History of Photography, Walter Benjamin talked about the reason and purpose of his writing. He wanted to make a historical and philosophical review of the historical process of photography development. The photos of Paris street view, left by French photographer Atget, is highly valued by Benjamin and Atget’s work can be seen to “remove the makeup from reality” (Benjamin, 284). And this meaning is connected with the discussion about aura. Benjamin says that “indeed, Atget’s Paris photos are the forerunners of Surreal Realism managed to set in motion”, and he also “initiates the emancipation of object from aura, which is the most signal achievement of the latest school of photography” (Benjamin, 285). What he has been looking for are the things that have been forgotten, overlooked, and oblivious. So the photos he takes are back to reality. However, he objects to such pictures that “work against the exotic, romantically sonorous names of the cities; they suck the aura out of reality like water from a sinking ship” (Benjamin, 285). In another word, “suck the aura out of reality”