Focal Length: 50, f/36, 1/50, ISO: 200
Focal Length: 50, f/5.6, 1/1,250 ISO: 200Monday, February 25, 2019
Depth of Field Assignment
Focal Length: 50, f/36, 1/50, ISO: 200Focal Length: 50, f/5.6, 1/1,250 ISO: 200
Book Assignment #2- Chapter 3
1. Barrett's thesis for the chapter is that with photos in order to fully understand them you must try to figure out what the photographer is trying to get across. You do this by interpreting the photo and make your own assumptions on the content. To do this you have to not only think about what the photo means to the artist but also about what the photo means to you. By putting those thoughts together you will be able to make a good interpretation of a photo. Because of the way that you make these interpretations they will be different for everyone and not one photo has only one interpretation.
2. The author of this Chapter uses many primary sources of actual photographs as well as the interpretations from critics about those photographs. One photo he uses a lot is PLATE 5 which is a photo by Harry Callahan titled Eleanor which, is a photo of a women with her left forearm across her forehead and her right hand grabbing her left bicep. This photo is accompanied by three different interpretations of the photo to show that there are many different approaches/styles of interpreting a photograph.
3. Interpretation is when we look at something and make sense of what we are seeing and make conclusions on it based on what we think. To do this we have to ask ourselves a series of questions that have to do with what it is that we are physically seeing as well as to what we think think the subject is trying to convey. With the series of questions we are able to draw our own conclusions as to how to see the piece.
4. Barrett thinks that it is important to interpret photos because he thinks that in order for them to be fully appreciated and understood we must go through the process of asking the those questions. He believes that every picture has something special to say and people need to recognizes its communication and expressive purpose. With taking the time to analyze the photos we will be able to uncover the truth.
5. The three types interpretive perspectives are A Comparative Interpretation, An Archetypal Interpretations and A Feminist Interpretation. The other interpretive strategies are Psychoanalytic Interpretation, Formalist Interpretation, Semiotic Interpretation, Marxist Interpretation, Interpretation Based on Stylistic Influences, Biographical Interpretation, Internationalist Interpretation and Interpretation Based on Technique. The one that stood out to me the most was probably the example of the Psychoanalytic Interpretation probably because you can take something so simple like naked dolls and turn it into something so meaningful. It is really powerful to try to analyze something that another person did and try to figure out what they meant by all of it. I feel like you can do that with a lot of things and not just this example of dolls. Everything means something so, I never expect anything to not have a purpose.
6. What the author is trying to say in this section is that you can't just say anything that comes out of your head and say that it is an interpretation. You have to be convincing to other people that you somewhat understand what the artist was trying to get across. This means that your statements must be insightful, meaningful, revealing and plausible. To do this you must correspond with the artwork and make sure that what you are talking about goes along with what you are seeing and also it must be coherence and make sense on its own.
7. The point that Barrett is trying to get across in this section is that someone's (even the artist's) interpretation is one of many. Photographers sometimes don't know/ don't want to put their reasoning behind the photo that they have created. Because of this, it is up to the critics to make sense of all of it. With this, there will be many different opinions about what one photograph actually means and so therefore, one on interpretation is correct over the other. Even if the artist has something to say about his/her piece it is only one person's opinion over hundreds and everyone will see it differently.
8. One key point i've learned by reading this is that there really is no wrong answer and that all interpretations are valid as long as you can back it up. You can base interpretations on not only intellectual endeavors but also on what feelings you get from the photo. Art is there to trigger something so let it. Another thing I learned was that, there is a direct difference between significance and meaning which I did not know. According to the chapter, Significance is more personal and it is based on what the person analyzing the artwork finds important. Meanwhile, meaning is way more objective which refers to what the photograph can infer on its own and not what is inferred by the one person.
9. Barrett sums up the chapter by talking about the community of the people that interoperate these photos. He states that they are very particular with the interpretations that are presented to them because they know the worth of the photos and the worth of art in general. They have a very specific dialogue that they follow when talking about these works and Barrett says that if we follow what he states in this chapter that we will be able to comment on these photos with them in a educated manner.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Cataharine_Ficarra reading assignment #1
#1. Barron's thesis for chapter 2 is that a photo's description is just as important as the photo itself maybe even more important. It gives the viewers facts about the photograph as well as analysis of the photos.
#2. In this chapter Barron uses a number of examples of photos and their descriptions to prove his point. He uses "Thirteen year old Rattlesnake Skinner", Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Still #13" and Jan Groover's "Untitled" piece. He also uses quotes from the critics that created the descriptions of the pieces and what they were thinking as they we figuring out what to use as sources for the description.
3a) Descriptions are normally paragraphs that lists facts about the piece of artwork. It will normally state the photographer's subject matter, for and media as well as a little bit about the time the photo was taken and information about the photographer. This information can either be from an internal or external source.
3b) Subject Matter is the actually thing that the photographer is photographing in the photo. The Subject is what the photographer is trying to get across when looking at the photo.
3c) Form is the way that the subject is coming to life or the "shape of the content."
3d) The medium is what the art is made of. This can be simple or complex.
3e) The style is a characteristic of a subject matter that will indicate a distinction between that artist and others.
4a) Comparing and contrasting according to barron is looking at an artist work and finding similarities and differences between that piece of work and another work of that artist or a different artist.
4b) An internal source is something that can be captured by looking at the photograph itself. An external source is when you go looking for a source in a a library, the artist themselves or a press release.
5a) The relationship between descriptions and interpretation is very circular and moving from whole to part and from part to whole. The person who is interpreting that picture will look at the description and the descriptions will persuade the critic to feel a certain way.
5b) The relationship between descriptions and evaluation is that the evaluations are almost always mixed into the description of the piece whether it be positive or negative. This making the evaluation visible for all to see.
6a) I think the author of this chapter was trying to say that it isn't easy to write a description for a photograph and that there is a lot of thought that goes into creating one. The other though that i think they were trying to make was the idea that viewers will see this description and form an opinion about the piece so that critic writing the description must try their best to be as unbiased as possibly so that the view can form his/her own opinion.
6b) The one thing that I learned from this reading is that there is a lot that goes into the description of a photo. I just assumed that it was the last thing that was done and the artist did it super quickly to label their work when that's not the case at all. Seconding, I learned the different between subject and subject matter. I assumed that they were the same things and that there was just two different names for it.
6c) The author's conclusion really put an emphasis on the fact that the description of a photo is no joke and that it should be taken very seriously. It should highlight the photo's individuality as well as give criticism. They then leave us with the principles for describing photos in hopes that someone will use it to write educated critics.
6d) I was a little surprised when reading the article especially because I though the artist wrote the descriptions for the photos were written by the artist themselves and not critics. I also didn't know there were so many rules and regulations to writing a critic. In my opinion it seems like a lot.
#2. In this chapter Barron uses a number of examples of photos and their descriptions to prove his point. He uses "Thirteen year old Rattlesnake Skinner", Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Still #13" and Jan Groover's "Untitled" piece. He also uses quotes from the critics that created the descriptions of the pieces and what they were thinking as they we figuring out what to use as sources for the description.
3a) Descriptions are normally paragraphs that lists facts about the piece of artwork. It will normally state the photographer's subject matter, for and media as well as a little bit about the time the photo was taken and information about the photographer. This information can either be from an internal or external source.
3b) Subject Matter is the actually thing that the photographer is photographing in the photo. The Subject is what the photographer is trying to get across when looking at the photo.
3c) Form is the way that the subject is coming to life or the "shape of the content."
3d) The medium is what the art is made of. This can be simple or complex.
3e) The style is a characteristic of a subject matter that will indicate a distinction between that artist and others.
4a) Comparing and contrasting according to barron is looking at an artist work and finding similarities and differences between that piece of work and another work of that artist or a different artist.
4b) An internal source is something that can be captured by looking at the photograph itself. An external source is when you go looking for a source in a a library, the artist themselves or a press release.
5a) The relationship between descriptions and interpretation is very circular and moving from whole to part and from part to whole. The person who is interpreting that picture will look at the description and the descriptions will persuade the critic to feel a certain way.
5b) The relationship between descriptions and evaluation is that the evaluations are almost always mixed into the description of the piece whether it be positive or negative. This making the evaluation visible for all to see.
6a) I think the author of this chapter was trying to say that it isn't easy to write a description for a photograph and that there is a lot of thought that goes into creating one. The other though that i think they were trying to make was the idea that viewers will see this description and form an opinion about the piece so that critic writing the description must try their best to be as unbiased as possibly so that the view can form his/her own opinion.
6b) The one thing that I learned from this reading is that there is a lot that goes into the description of a photo. I just assumed that it was the last thing that was done and the artist did it super quickly to label their work when that's not the case at all. Seconding, I learned the different between subject and subject matter. I assumed that they were the same things and that there was just two different names for it.
6c) The author's conclusion really put an emphasis on the fact that the description of a photo is no joke and that it should be taken very seriously. It should highlight the photo's individuality as well as give criticism. They then leave us with the principles for describing photos in hopes that someone will use it to write educated critics.
6d) I was a little surprised when reading the article especially because I though the artist wrote the descriptions for the photos were written by the artist themselves and not critics. I also didn't know there were so many rules and regulations to writing a critic. In my opinion it seems like a lot.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Assignment #1 Part #1
Overexposed: IOS 200, f/6.3, 1/40
Bracketing is when you take three photos of the same subject with different exposures. One with the recommended settings, one overexposed and one underexposed. To achieve this I manipulated the shutter speed of the camera. From the neutral photo to the over exposed it was 2 1/3 stops backwards and from the neutral photo to the under exposed it was 3 1/3 stops forwards.
Neutral: IOS 200, f/6.3, 1/200
Underexposed: IOS 200, f/6.3, 1/2,000
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#1. Barron's thesis for chapter 2 is that a photo's description is just as important as the photo itself maybe even more important. ...