Collin's Way Of Seeing

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For the photo essay project my photographer, Ara Güler, chooses to do photography in black and white style. This had got me thinking about what effect does this have on the human perception of such images, verse those saturated with color. This study done by the Bernstein Center and the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience in Tübingen discovered an interesting answer.

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The Photographer I have chosen to analyze is Ara Güler. He is Armenian and resides in Istanbul. In 1958, Time Magazine opened a branch in Turkey and Güler became the its first correspondent for the Near East.

Initially this photograph drew my attention to the young boys face. The overwhelming joy In his face is almost contagious and you can't help but feel a connection to his friendliness. Drawn into this happiness, I then wanted to know from what is giving him this feeling. This is where I was taken slightly back. The boy is holding basic food items: loaves of bread and milk. Unlike my first impression of the child being of a lower class and genuinely just happy with having good to eat, after further analysis, he seems to be of middle to upper class. He is wearing a jacket that is resembling something similar to a sports coat and underneath is a sweater and beneath that even, another shirt. Having multiple layers of clothing exemplifies his status of appearing to have more wealth. Additionally, the cobble stone street made me think of a less developed area, until I recalled on past knowledge, that it represents more age of a region than development status. Furthermore, the buildings in the background look very well constructed for being in such a severely slanted region. For these reasons, I think this photograph is capturing a boy out running errands for his family and happy with life with seemingly no worries on his mind. 

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My feelings were of the most vital, the sine qua non, the fight to the death, the lie down in front of the bulldozers, forgo all good and water, but never, ever lose the farm variety. I had loved that farm since the day we got it. At age twelve I galloped bareback through pastures mined with groundhog holes, swimming Khalifa in the river to escape the flies, and fishing until it was too dark even to see the pale albino car floating in the shallows

Hold Still By: Sally Mann (90)

Here we get an in detail description of just how deep rooted and strong Sally’s feelings are towards the farm. She emphasizes this point by her sentence structure of multiple fragment examples connected by commas. Starting out the chain is the sine qua non, it is a Latin phrase meaning a thing that is absolutely necessary. She continues to exemplify her feelings by saying she would fight to the death, lie down in front of a bulldozer, give up food and water, all in the name of the farm. Her tone is very serious and not to be taken lightly. The fact that she would put her life in danger for the farm gives us an understanding of her strong feelings on a whole new level. The verbiage she uses is simplistic, just like the natural events she enjoyed.

The second half of this paragraph changes from displaying her feelings toward the farm, to the events she cherishes doing at the farm. The farm provided to her a sense of comfort and safe haven. She was able to bond with her horse which helped shape her into the woman she is today. The specific reason I chose this passage was because I can connect to her activity of fishing past dark. So dark to the point you ask yourself when you're done; What am I even doing out here still? When you're at your favorite fishing spot time seems to pass without you even noticing or even caring for that matter. You don't worry where you're at because you know where you're at. You feel at home and at peace and not concerned with all the badness that is in the world. This is another example of how comfortable Sally feels at the farm and the spiritual and physical connection she has to it. 

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This week’s show and tell post I wanted to highlight a company that was started by a couple of my high school friends. They are focused on digital photography and videography. They utilize video drones to capture amazing images from perspectives that most people have not seen or thought of. They even have a booming wedding videography sector that utilizes drone footage which adds a new twist to the typical wedding scene. I think these videos are a perfect example of their work, which really promotes opening up your vision and perspective on the world.

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As this class is very image orientated, I started to realize more and more that the world we live in is too. We are surrounded by images daily, hourly and for some, even faster. Through advertisements, digital or real world, things are presented to individuals and we must then mentally comprehend and form opinions on the matter. Those being positive, negative, I want, we must do sort of thing. This article goes into exposing how media can manipulate our opinions rather easily, if you're not careful. 

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Title: New York City Artist: Louis Faurer Year: 1947

While wandering through the MIA looking for an image that stuck out to me this was one of many. This particular photograph stuck out to me for the two contradicting yet intertwined worlds represented. Those being the business world and the less glamorous, frowned upon, world of “exotic” clubs. The main focal point in this photograph is the gentleman dressed in a crisp, straight edged suit and tie. Seemingly perm pressed attire accompanied by a starch stiff collar and a black hat. Additionally, a cigar clamped in his lips as the smoke hovers around him. Beyond the man there is a double door half opened with a stair case going upward to a location. There is a large black and white sign above allowing patrons to know where it leads.

This entire image as you can see is black and white, allowing the lighting of the shot to become a huge importance when trying to understand the image. The image appears to be split in half with the contrast from light to dark. The assumed businessman on the lighter left half and the darker show girl right half. This appears to separate the two worlds as I alluded two above but I noticed one specific contradiction to this good vs. evil separation. The gentleman’s pitch black hat. It is by far the darkest saturation we get from this image and it draws my eye to it every time I quick glance at the photograph. If we were to take this analyzation further we could make the claim that even though businessmen are seen as good, they can all have there own black hat actions in their personal lives.

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One of the frames that stuck out the most to me in the first few chapters from Fun Home was on the bottom of page 30. It was the map of the town with the correlating waypoints to major events or significant places to the father who had died. I found it very interesting that the father had some sort of an obsession almost with the figure of an obelisk and the meaning that he put upon it. Then to have some of his major points in life line up in the shape of an obelisk when mapped out seemed less of a coincident and more of on purpose. But Why? Why would you seemingly plan out your death? Could an obsession really drive you to make rash decisions? From reading on I believe that the father made no actions on accident and that his life was a twisted interesting knot of characters and books he was caught into like a web. This specific picture doesn’t have a lot of insightful text to go along with it as Bechdel is labeling the different points on the map, but she does bring up one thing. That the small circle where her dad’s life took place correlates to his provincialism or narrow-mindedness. Which is both misleading and accurate due to his deep complexity as a human.

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This image I got from the University of Saint Thomas’s Website really captures the spirit and culture of student life. I am a huge sports fan, no matter what the sport is I want to be there supporting our school. This image accurately represents my image-world here at UST because it encompasses my love of sporting events, as well as the wide range of people I have met and became friends with. It shows the student body surrounded around a single event, cheering together and unified as one. No one student sticks out and the appearance of those in the group do not matter, as we are all equal. Having equal opportunities and seeing every student as the same, is a huge mission here at UST. I believe this is what the University promotes through its branding and image-world. In almost every image the University backs and releases it is no accident that it contains images with a wide range of ethnicities and genders to portray the diversification and equality on campus. In this image the color purple and UST branded apparel further shows unity of everyone as there is no “competition” for who has the better brand apparel but rather just showing school spirit. If you look closely you will see a student in the bottom left corner crowd surfing. We can take this action and let it represent the larger picture that the student body supports one an other in times of need and won’t let you fall on the ground.

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 “Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow...Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again” (p.17-18). When finding this quote in Susan Sontag’s On Photography, this picture flashed back into my head. I found this quote to have a perfect correlation to my ski trip out to Colorado. When I try to recall the trip, I can't tell you every run I went down or what I ate, but I can recall a handful of images I took of the breath taking mountains. I think that Sontag would discuss the multiple dimensions and layers of this photo. She would most likely pick up on the solo line from a rouge skier taking his own ungroomed path. Additionally, she may comment on the rays of light coming down.