Nick Ut's Photograph Essay

As skeptical moderns, we often have trouble accepting drawings or paintings as historical records, but we tend to believe in photographs the way that we believe in mirrors; we simply accept them as the truth. Alexander Gardner's photograph Trossel's House, Battle-Field of Gettysburg, July, 1863 might therefore be viewed as evidence rather than commentary. Unlike some of Gardner's other "sketches," this picture includes no perfectly positioned rifles, no artistically angled river, no well-posed men in uniform—indeed, no people at all. The photograph's composition could barely be more prosaic; the horizon slashes the picture in half, and the subject, a white colonial-style house, sits smack in the center. Yet this straightforward, almost innocent

My genre of work is a mixture of sports photography and fashion photography, the reason for this is because sports photography focuses on the drama and action in sports, this contrasts with fashion photography as the photos mainly focuses on things such as clothing and makeup. The reasons i chose this type of photography was because the conventions of sports photography is dramatic, captured action and fashion photography is very over the top and colourful. I wanted to combine these two genres to create a series of original images that combine sports and fashion. I was inspired by the work of Jake Hicks because his work uses coloured gels to make the photos colourful and stand out. I was also inspired by the work of Zach Ancell, mainly because he used to be a division one track and field athlete, he then transitioned into sports photography which gave his photos complexity in the way the athletes would pose. Jake Hicks photos sexualises women, making them centre of the page and uses coloured gels to make the image more colourful so that it would stand out, the reason he does this because he is a magazine photographer and he wants to ensure potential audiences pick up the magazine featuring his photo rather than someone else whose is much brighter and appeals more to the audience member, when you look at these photos the model has to have some sort of trust or relationship with the photographer and have to be somewhat submissive. Zach Ancell on the other hand, focuses on the strength of any athlete. The models aren’t sexualised to the extent that Jake Hicks models are. I think he Ancell does this to show that people can be good looking without the need for pristine make-up or clothing. One thing both photographers have in common is that they portray their models as fierce and confident.

In Roger Scruton's Photography and Representation the author establishes the idea that ideal photography is not art. In the same breath he says that ideal photography is not necessarily an idea which photographers should strive, nor does it necessarily exist. Yet, he bases his argument upon the ideal. In reviewing his paper, I’ll take a look at why he painstakingly tries to make this distinction between ideal painting and ideal photography. His argument is based upon the proposition that photographs can only represent in a causal fashion, whereas painters create representational artwork via intentional relations. Scruton manages to create a solid argument, but in the end I’ll decide it is not a fair assumption to say that photographs

In Nick Ut’s photograph from 1973 ‘The Napalm Girl of Trangbang’ which is about the Vietnam war and these

On the 8th of June 1972, photographer ‘Nick Ut’ took an iconic photo of a group of young kids running away helplessly as soldiers escorted them out of the danger zone, (the danger zone was an explosion of napalm that burnt and basically disintegrates everything). Early that day Nick heard that there was fighting happening in North Vietnam near the occupied village of Trang Bang. He stopped on the nearby bridge with other soldiers and journalists. It was around 1pm when a south Vietnamese plane dipped down aligned with the highway and dropped the napalm bomb on the village, which turned out to be an accident. As thick black smoke filled the air, emerging from it was multiple civilians crying and screaming as burnt flesh fell off their fragile

Critically reflect on the positives and/or negatives of ethnic residential concentration as perceptible within specific landscapes in Sydney.

Marcel Duchamp stated that "It was his achievement to treat the camera as he treated the paintbrush, as a mere instrument at the service of the mind” (Biography.com, 2017). In addition, the photogram might seem expressive and abstract, yet on the contrary, it is the precise medium to document the everyday objects in an unrepeatable and somehow uncontrollable way. The artist cannot predict how the selected objects will be recorded under the light sources that were tampered with. From the first glance, the image completely dissociated from its original subject, allowing one’s memory to fill the gap. Yet below its surface, the image is an accurate documentation that captured a moment of psychical intensity. It revealed a new visual experience, using objects in the simplest way. One can say that the use of this medium disclosed reality more preciously due to its invisibility and mysterious representation (The Museum of Modern Art, 2017).

Edward Weston was seen as one of the leading pioneers of photography in the 20th century. His contribution to the world of photography is one that was able to bring new possibilities to the field. His style of photography was unique to him at the time and offered the art community very original works of art. This style of Weston’s was one of high resolution and clarity, though it did not come until midway in his career. Weston would soon collaborate with other artists that shared his tastes to form the f/64 group. Before becoming the world renowned photographer, Weston started as a humble and novice photographer (Edward Weston).

Have you ever taken a picture or been looking through a photo album and felt a sudden rush of emotion? Do you wonder what caused that emotion? Many find themselves captivated by a photograph and overwhelmed by the emotions that the photograph arouses. Believe it or not the arousal of emotion from those photographs was not caused by the content of the picture but by certain elements within the photograph. When a photograph is viewed it is not only the subject that triggers the overwhelming emotional response, it is the length of time that the film was exposed to sunlight, the way lighting is used and played with, and the strong detail of colors or lack thereof. While many believe that the subject acts as the primary stimuli to emotions, the

When going for a walk, a person takes in the beauty around them. On this particular day, the refulgent sun is extra bright, making the sky a perfect blue. White, puffy clouds fill the sky, slowing moving at their own pace. The wind is peacefully calm, making the trees stand tall and proud. There is no humidity in the air. As this person walks down the road, they see a deer with her two fawns. The moment is absolutely beautiful. Moments like this happen only once in a great while, making us wanting to stay in the particular moment forever. Unfortunately, time moves on, but only if there were some way to capture the day’s magnificence. Thanks to Joseph Niépce, we can now capture these moments and others that take our breath away. The

Memories can be as short-lived as the moments that created them. The recollection of events and the deterioration of memories over time is a constant process that cannot be stopped. This inevitable passing of memory is fused to the inevitable passing of human life. Emily Davis’s still life photograph of wineglasses is reflective and fragmented, allowing the image to act as a metaphor for this fleeting aspect of memory through its own memory-like qualities. The photograph is also symbolic of the transience of human life through the use of the traditional symbol of the wineglass, ultimately serving as memento mori.

The name "Photography" comes from the Greek words for light and writing. Sir John Herschel, was the first to use the term photography in 1839, when he managed to fix images using hyposulphite of soda. He described photography as "The application of the chemical rays to the purpose of pictorial representation". Herschel also coined the terms "negative", "positive" and "snapshot".

In war, photography and art again serve the purpose of acknowledging and sometimes protesting suffering. In the First World War cameras were used for military intelligence, to capture an event. "The caption of a photograph is traditionally neutral informative: a date, a place, names." A photograph is supposed to just record what happened and not takes sides. However, "it is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude." So the photograph is supposed to be neutral, but the photographer is still deciding what details to focus on. The caption has just facts on it, because supposedly that is what the photograph is recording. While it is true that photographs cannot explain everything themselves, they do serve as visual aids to, what otherwise be, a pallid world.

The violent markings of the photo album and its images, however, produce an equally powerful message that jars the memory as it disrupts and distorts the photographic chronicle of her life and that of her family and friends. The result is a complex visual experience that addresses the use of images in producing knowledge and making history.

Self-portraits have been used by artists for centuries to explore aspects of the self. They are the subjects they know best and artists have reflected this through their treatment of media, subject matter and techniques. Two artists who explore aspects of their personality and life experiences in their self-portraits are Frida Kahlo and Ben Quilty. Many of their artistic techniques can be derived from the same origins. Whilst there are similarities in self-portraits by any artist usually, you will find differences the norm. After all, this is what makes art and art form.