Modern Day Gregory Crewdson Summary

A reoccurring topic of the essays, concerning photography, discussed during the course is the future of professional photographers/photojournalists. Some believe that the easily accessible spread of amateur photography can and has put a strain on the works of professionals. However, with magazines such as National Geographic still in print after over a century, it raises some questions. Though the spread of information, and thus photography, has increased the platforms and need for professional photographers and photojournalists still exists.

The original thought that photos were far superior to other visual aids have been re-evaluated in consideration of graphic artwork. The invention of photography initially provided the belief that a photo was simply a reproduction of the original. The progression of improved photographic equipment supplied the photographer with the choice of what to include or exclude from a picture. As an example, Jacob Riis transferred his belief of a sturdy, upstanding family with high morals into his photos by taking pictures of families in their apartments. However, his photo labeled “Five Cents A Spot” reflect an alternate picture of men and women packed in one apartment supported his viewpoint of the people’s poverty. Considering the subject matter of his reports it is a small wonder that his photos were not connected with a direct bias for both article and

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

Meanwhile, photography as a commodity in the industrial world at that time, its status in galleries and museums is determined by the price it sells, which means the higher the price is, the higher position it stands. This situation increases the gap between this photography and another type of photography, which works simply for exposing abuses caused by jobs, races, sex, social classes and etc. that people are unfamiliar to accept and consume.

Before photography was considered a medium of personal art, it was used for the sole purpose of portraiture. Carte de visites, daguerreotypes, and even tintypes were all used as a way to convey a person’s physical appearance into a print. As camera technology evolved, so to did the way photographers take portraits. It skipped from a stale faced man behind a backdrop to colorful and interesting photographs taken of people from all walks of life. Three of the innovators of modern portraiture are Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn and Diane Arbus. These photographers changed the public appearance or ordinary people and celebities while integrating their own original ideas.

When photography began to gain not only popularity, but accessibility, it became a topic of discussion on its place in art. Whether if it should be considered a fine art or whether its place lied in documentation. However, even with documentation, a broad assumption was that there could be an immediate trust. Gardner’s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter proved that was not always the case, that although documenting the truth of the brutality of the Civil War. The addition of the shotgun that added the idea of fighting until the last minute was actually fabricated creating a disillusion. That photography is meant to depict a standstill truth subject, but viewers of photography can forget that it is still an artwork. That a photo is an image set and

In the video Brief Encounters, Gregory Crewdson depicts multiple scenes that he claims to have artistic quality. He creates “objective documents” that replicate the reality in front of him (Wilson). These photographs are staged and virtual as they deviate from the natural events that once happened. It is here that Crewdson’s photography is seen as a “newcomer… [compared to the] long established forms of pictorial representation such as drawing and painting” (Wilson). This stance comes from the fact that not only were these photographs staged but also edited. The effect of this practice could be explained by the trend of society in conforming to perfection. This can be seen in portraiture, where some photographic portraits cause “moral violations [to] the subject’s right to control

“Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself.” – Berenice Abbott.

Art critic Robert Hughes once said, “People inscribe their histories, beliefs, attitudes, desires and dreams in the images they make.” When discussing the mediums of photography and cinema, this belief of Hughes is not very hard to process and understand. Images, whether they be still or moving, can transform their audiences to places they have either never been before or which they long to return to. Images have been transporting audiences for centuries thanks to both the mediums of photography and cinema and together they gone through many changes and developments. When careful consideration is given to these two mediums, it is acceptable to say that they will forever be intertwined, and that they have been interrelated forms of

Hardly any money can be made with photography, and that fact is hard to argue with. Photographs only sometimes only give inspiration, nothing else. They do not contribute to society at all and just provide a distraction from the “real” world. Also, photographs only capture a moment in time that will never change. The object might have been beautiful then, but what about of the object now? Photographs never tell the whole story, rather a glimpse of that moment. Additionally, photographs can easily be manipulated in third party programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. Photographs never show an object for its true beauty because of this fact; it is far too easy to change an object and make it inaccurately show what an object actually is. For these reasons, many people advise Pphotographers to should spend their time focusing on a sustainable, real

Commercial art is cheap and overrated. This is a widely held and accepted belief among the public and the artist community, despite the majority of the public owning commercial art over classic or completely unique pieces of art. If art is reproduced over and over, then it is less valuable. But if more people enjoy it enough to buy the reproduced work, then it is more valuable because it is better received. This has been a conflict for decades, especially during the Victorian era, where photography was discovered as a technical skill rather than an artistic one; this is reflected in the literature of the time, specifically Romance of a Shop by Amy Levy. She uses this novel to argue that artists who produce commercial art still have artistic

The documentary photographers work is known to be long-term projects and includes verbal and some physical contact with his subjects. Durning factual and written work connected layers of life was shown by the photographer. Fantastic photos are taken which includes good lighting, sharp focus and amazing detail in their work, mostly these photos are planned upfront. The framework makes the photo an incredible piece of art. Good documentary photography is easier to sell, there was and still is a public demand for portraits. Documentaries were known for tradition and the photographer had no need to categorize his work, the importance was to document these photo. Photo images described , prohibited, unseen, or difficult to access places or situations. In the USA photo images traced the headway of the

"A photograph is not merely a substitute for a glance. It is a sharpened vision. It is the revelation of new and important facts." ("Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History."). Sid Grossman, a Photo League photographer expressed this sentiment, summarizing the role photography had on America in the 1940’s and 50’s. During this era, photojournalism climaxed, causing photographers to join the bandwagon or react against it. The question of whether photography can be art was settled a long time ago. Most major museums now have photography departments, and the photographs procure pretty hefty prices. The question of whether photojournalism or documentary photography can be art is now the question at hand. Art collectors are constantly looking

Though, this only inclined her behavior and her competitiveness grew at an enormous rate. Cesily worried for her daughter’s safety, thus on their thirteenth birthday, she awarded her with her first camera and gave Saffron camcorder- changing their lives forever. The word photography is defined as the art or practice of taking and processing photographs. To Caraway Clove- it’s more than just a craft. It’s more than just possessing a camera in her hands, and her hazel blue eyes against the eyepiece. With photography, it was taking your time to focus on a single element, watching how it moves, and how you can change your point to view. The fine art bestowed the chance of a lifetime of altering life by holding time still, something Cara desperately wished she could do. With a single snapshot, she could capture the beauty a flower beholds and tell a story. A single picture can be the loudest scream. Photography transcends time. It takes you to places you have never been. It makes the world a smaller place. When Caraway photographing a landscape, Saffron, plants, animals or the stars in the sky; Her worries in life just fade away and she becomes one with her subject and the

Photography is a field that is steeped in ambiguity, it is an art form, a form of evidence both in scientific and legal processes, it is used heavily in advertising and also in journalism. Photojournalism relies on the “truth claim” of photography, that if a subject was photographed it existed in that way. Yet the majority of a photographer’s photos do not make it into the display whether in a magazine or exhibit. While showing the entirety of the photographer’s series might be argued to have more truth since it removes some of the curatorial process, photography’s power is found in showing a specific scene. Freezing time in a key moment to convey the overall feeling is effective for conveying a message, one can be impacted by the photograph. However photographs cannot express the story they capture on their own. Whether they are displayed in magazines or exhibits, photographs are accompanied by text giving the context of the situation. In the exhibit “The Making of an Argument” Russell Lord focuses on Gordon Park’s first feature for Time magazine, “Harlem Gang Leader”, to deconstruct the process from the photographs to the resulting magazine article. Taking into account the selection of photographs to fit a narrative and the relationship between the captions and the photographs. Using this initial analysis as a base I will be analyzing the editing and manipulation of photographs in “Harlem Gang Leader” to analyze not only Time’s argument but Lord’s, to prove photographic