kjnick

english 202

[kjnick]

Claudia Rankine

After considering the first 12 pages of Rankine’s lyric, I thought about my daily experiences. I grew up in a sheltered world. I was homeschooled until the sophomore year of high school when I attended a private, Catholic college preparatory school. Some would say that I had an odd schooling record, and I would agree. Because of the sheltered environment I was in, I was not exposed to diversity, nor was I taught how to approach it. This has been something I have been interested in since I went out into the larger world and started to experience our culture for myself. Rankine devotes one page to her observation of rain and trees, knowing what it would look like, but needing to see it for herself for it to be codified. As I’ve experienced more and more of my generation’s culture and diversity and just the UST environment in general, I have become more accustomed to the different approaches that people my age take to their daily lives and the encounters people have with each other. Rankine writes about a sort of monotony in those types of encounters, and I have begun to feel it too. Either people are becoming extremely diversified themselves and learned in identity and social justice, or they are ignoring it, confused like I was. Rankine writes about racial slurs and inappropriate comments. Whether people know what they are saying or doing or not, those types of inappropriate encounters happen daily, especially at private institutions like UST.

[kjnick]

Chibok Schoolgirls

For my show and tell I thought I would bring in a little current event. I’m not sure if any of you remember or not, but 2 years ago a terrorist group called Boko Haram quick refresh: radical Muslim group trying to eradicate all Christian and Western influence in Nigeria) kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria. Since then only about 60 have been accounted for, and the Boko Haram has recently requested 50 million dollars for the release of the rest of the girls. There are a lot of questions and opinions surrounding this, some of which are the following: Should the US get involved? Does the US have an imperialist agenda? Should we give money to an acknowledged terrorist group? Is there anything that we should or shouldn’t do?

here’s an article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/09/boko-haram-demands-50m-ransom-for-release-of-kidnapped-chibok-sc/

[englishjennybrings]

For my photographer, I chose Graciela Iturbide. She has a distinguished style that she developed when she was just 11 years old. She captured many of her images in Mexico, where she is from. 

I chose this photograph to close read because the contrast of it caught my attention. I feel as if we see more pictures with a dark background, focused on something light. This photo is the exact opposite, where the woman is darker than the sky. You can see the mountain range off in the distance and I think this resembles a lot for this photo. The mountain range shows that there’s something out there. The woman looks as if she is advancing toward the direction of those mountains, as if they are her destination. I only assume they are her destination because there is nothing other than those mountains out there. If you look past them, it resembles a “desert wasteland”. I noticed this pattern in a lot of Graciela’s photographs. She has many with the desert-like background, often with a subject in the center in a darker color. In fact, I believe she is trying to point something out by switching up those colors and creating this contrast in her photos. The woman is wearing a dress, which really struck me as odd since she is in Mexico. When I think of Mexico, I think a hot, dry climate. A dress that thick and long is the last thing I would want to wear. So is it the time period the reason she’s wearing the dress, or is it for something special? It could be either or, since I cannot identify the objects she is holding. I like to think of this landscape as something resembling the Earth and how there’s so much that one person hasn’t discovered yet. She appears to be looking down at the ground too, which I think means she doesn’t necessarily know what’s out there. Could the woman potentially be a worker of some sort, doing a job for another person? If so, does she feel trapped and unable to explore this “unseen world”? This is my favorite way to interpret this photo, considering we cannot see her face. Faces tell a lot about a photo, but this one has none. I like that her expression is up to the viewer of the photo, it leaves a lot more to the imagination. It leaves more room for the viewer to be creative.

[punctumproject]

Jenny explores the work of Graciela Iturbide and notices the image’s composition and powerful contrasts, as well as the subject’s dress and body language. 

[kjnick]

I saw this picture on my feed and had to comment on it. Am I the only one that finds it creepy? I think I’m looking at it in a completely different way, which is cool, because it showcases that people can interpret the same picture in many different ways and come up with countless conclusions. For me her figure is just so eerie. The way her shoulders are arched and her arms are placed, how long her hair is, the way the dress is cut... the first connection I made in my mind was “banshee”, which is totally weird. I think the item in her right hand is a portable radio though, so there is some sort of statement on sound or music in this photo, and banshees have to do with sound? This is kind of a comical close reading for me, as you can probably tell. My mind is running wild with ideas. The fact that I can’t figure out what’s in her left hand makes it even more scary for me. And the element of light also plays a huge part. The fact that she is the darkest part, and her long hair and upper figure is such a contrasted part accentuates the parts of the photo I find uneasy.

[kjnick]

I chose the photographer Sebastião Salgado, born in 1944. Salgado is a photographer from Brazil who works solely in black and white. He has traveled the world and been to over 120 countries documenting the human experience and social inequalities.

The picture I chose to close read for this assignment is one of a little girl. The first thing I noticed about this pictures was the subject’s eyes. They are an efflorescent white against the rest of the picture. Her eyes led me to consider her face a little longer. The path I followed was the highlights in the contrasting darkness. I went from her eyes, to the bridge of her nose, to the curve of her lower lip. After I studied this for a little bit, I came to the conclusion that her facial features are so very large and beautiful. Compared to her slim facial structure, some would say that they are oversized and disproportionate. However, I think she is gorgeous. Although you can only see a little bit of her wrist, it is clear that she has elongated hands. She may have a slim stature now, but I can image the way she will grow into it. I already feel a sort of attachment to her. The way she is peering up at the lens with a sort of half smile and her little arms crossed suggest a sort of admiration of the man behind the camera. She has such a timid facial expression. Her shirt (or dress as I imagine it) is oversized which adds to the feeling of her extreme smallness. Although the contrasting emphasis of this picture is on her face, my punctum is actually in the umbrella she is holding. I love the way the light comes through the holes in the weaving and I think that it adds even more to the idea of what kind of little girl she is. I can just imagine this slim figure walking through the streets with her little umbrella and bare feet. Hopping here and there, twirling it every once and a while, and hardly glancing up to look at the world around her. She lives in her own world, humming to herself and staying out of trouble.

[kjnick]

Show & Tell

Today’s Best Photos - National Geographic https://apple.news/AfgxlVVmcS0mBiTIqHDRpag

National Geographic is one of my favorite magazines and this is a fun online blog they do every day featuring 12 of their favorite photos uploaded to their designated archive. Nature is also one of my favorite subjects when it comes to art, so these are always absolutely breathtaking to me, but include a wide variety of photos.

[koriremergallery-blog]

Even the children understood the distinction. Once Jessie was trying on dresses to wear to an opening of the family pictures in New York. It was spring and one dress was sleeveless, but when Jessie raised her arms she realized that her chest was visible through the oversized armholes. When she tossed that dress aside, a friend of mine, watching the process, asked with some perplexity, “Jessie, I don’t get it. Why on earth would you care if someone can see your chest through the armholes when you are going to be in a room with a bunch of pictures that show that same bare chest?“  To which Jessie replied with equal perplexity at the friend’s ignorance: "Yes, but that is not my chest. Those are photographs."  Exactly.

Hold Still: Ubi Amor, Ibi Oculus Est (153)

I was definitely stricken with surprise when I read this passage in Sally Mann’s Hold Still. What Jessie said was so simple yet so powerful coming from her. It was surprising to see how much she really understood the complexity of the photos that her mom takes and their meaning at her age. She knows the pictures don’t define her or who she is. She knows that they are just photographs taken for the mere art of the picture. Sally Mann felt this way about herself too. She didn’t want to be defined as the creepy mom who took nude picture of her children. She felt that she was not being their mother while taking these photos. She was being a photographer. Jessie understands there is a distinction between the relationship with her mom and with her mom when she is taking the pictures. Sally emphasizes this thoroughly in her book and her daughter realizes this too. Jessie isn’t herself in those photos, she was just modeling and creating an image with the photographer. 

Sally Mann has a very confident and proud tone in this paragraph because she is talking about a time when her daughter dumbfounded someone who questioned her decision and feelings about the photos. Jessie knows exactly how her mother feels about these images, and she feels the same. Since Jessie seems almost confused as to why her mom’s friend would think otherwise, it shows how confident she is in her answer. She is confident in saying that it isn’t actually her chest because, as she says, its just a photograph and not the real thing. 

The structure of Sally’s sentences help with powerfulness of the statements. For example, by saying “Exactly” at the end of the passage, Sally is completely agreeing with Jessie and knows that it couldn’t have been said any better. Another thing I noticed was that she also repeats herself when she uses the word “perplexity.” She definitely did this on purpose to make it more impactful because she could have easily used another word there instead. She did this to show that adults aren’t always the ones with all the knowledge about certain things. The friend questioned Jessie as if she completely understood how Jessie felt about the pictures of herself, when she was actually wrong in that aspect. Sally even specifically says her friend was ignorant for thinking this way. 

When I read this paragraph I almost felt proud of the girl myself for standing up for how she felt and her decisions. It was definitely a punctum moment for me because I was happy that she was able to show her reasoning to an adult and make them feel like they didn’t really understand the situation that Jessie was in. Nobody in the media understood either, and that was exactly why they got a bunch of controversial trouble for publishing this book. 

(via koriremergallery)

This passage stuck out to me as well, but for a slightly different reason. Although I thoroughly enjoy Mann's photography, I am not able to side with her argument that her pictures are not representations of her children. I myself am not very offended by the nakedness she photographs, but am--very fitting with this passage--perplexed at how Mann can insist that these pictures are merely pictures and nothing more. As Sontag would say it, even though these children are Mann's herself, Mann is stealing parts of her children when she photographs them in their most vulnerable moments.

I was also very impressed with Jessie's response to the prying adult and happy to know that Jessie respected her own privacy and physicality enough to want to be comfortably modest in public. The nature of Mann's photography seems to suggest that such children that we have described as "feral" would not know the difference between revealing clothing or appropriate clothing for the public eye. From this exchange it is clear that Mann's children are highly intelligent and able to understand enough of what they are partaking in when they pose for their mother. I find it highly admirable that Mann has been able to communicate to them a sense of her art and passion and that they willingly oblige.

[kjnick]

Seven different days we had tried, maybe eight--but I knew we had it at last. No one was more relieved than Emmett, who had given up all those afternoons to the demands of the light--and of his mother. Children cannot be forced to make pictures like these: mine gave them to me. Every picture represents a gesture of such generosity and faith that I, in turn, felt obliged to repay them by making the best, most enduring images that I could. The children, picture after picture, had given of themselves when the dark slide was pulled, firing off a deadly accurate look into the lens; a glare, a squinty-eyed look, a sad expression, whatever I asked for, as professional as any actor. And in many cases, they did this while hot, hungry, tired, or, like Emmett, shaking with cold.

Hold Still by Sally Mann, page 126

[kjnick]

Birdman Production

Wikipedia says that, “Despite all the preparation, a typical shooting day would begin with rehearsals. These usually lasted most of the morning, after which photography followed.[44] The meticulous timing for the scenes meant that takes were canceled because of the slightest mishaps. Emma Stone, in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, recalled how a six-minute take of the scene where Riggan first meets Mike was ruined after she walked around a corner too quickly.[45] Takes were also repeated if a scene’s rhythm did not feel right to Iñárritu, or if he and Lubezki were not satisfied with a shot’s framing.[28] As shooting progressed lines of dialog would also be dropped, giving Iñárritu more options during post-production.[36] Because of this, the number of takes for a given scene was high, usually twenty for the shorter scenes,[28] the takes running smoothly around the fifteenth.[39] Chris Haarhoff described it as “a type of dance where everyone would hopefully try to peak all at the same moment.” The locations sometimes placed restrictions on the takes too; the live Times Square sequence was shot only twice since they did not want to attract the attention of tourists.[28]” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_(film)) 

I found this fascinating. Iñárritu and Lubezki (co-directors) attempted something that had not been done before. It took an enormous amount of preparation, practice, and work for all of the people involved in this film for them to get it right. From what we’ve seen so far I would say that the filming and acting is brilliant.

[kjnick]

"To Be Alone With You" I'd swim across Lake Michigan I'd sell my shoes I'd give my body to be back again In the rest of the room To be alone with you To be alone with you To be alone with you To be alone with you You gave your body to the lonely They took your clothes You gave up a wife and a family You gave your ghost To be alone with me To be alone with me To be alone with me And went up on a tree To be alone with me and went up on the tree I've never known a man who loved me

I invite you guys to close read these lyrics. Sufjan Stevens is an amazing songwriter. Why do you think that is? What makes his verses work?

[johnspunctumproject]

“Each day of my vacation, I fled to the local college library” (Bechdel, 217).

This quote jumped out to me immediately as I read over it. This quote stood out to me because it made me realize how to Alison, the library is more of a home to her than her real house. Through her childhood, her house was nothing more than a cover-up for her father and a place to live where she had little to no family time. Unlike her house, the library has served as more of a home, as it has helped her understand her feelings for other woman through books that would be impossible to get if she stayed home with her parents. Instead, she “flees” to the library where she hears the “siren’s” call to read and understand what she is feeling. 

[kjnick]

The first thing I noticed was that she used the word “fled”, which suggests that she is running away from something. Is she running away from the suffocation that she feels from that house, or the truth that she feels looming over her head? I love books. They offer an escape from current reality and allow the reader to experience a whole different world. Any book worm knows that because that’s part of the pull to keep reading. In this case I think Alison is hungry for information, for the truth, for answers to how she feels. Through books she really comes to find out who she is. And later, she uses them to understand her life’s storyline and her father.

[punctumproject]

Travel Photos Are Instantly Better With Dinosaur Toys

Paraguay photographer Jorge Saenz uses classic perspective tricks to bring dinosaurs to life in his epic travel series #Dinodinaseries. His photos document the dinosaur tourists' travels around South America, a journey that began with Dino the green Brachiosaurus in Bolivia.

[kjnick]

I love this. It really showcases our ability as humans to imagine and re-create. I couldn’t help thinking back to one of my favorite childhood series as I looked through these (“Land Before Time”). What’s more is that the photography is stunning. I love nature and landscapes and I think that Saenz found beautiful stages for his creativity to come to play. It’s things like these that help me appreciate the internet and social media as a means for discovery.

[kjnick]

When I was younger I used to write. I’m not sure if it was actually writing, because it was basically me just jotting down little thoughts I had and putting them on paper. One time my mom saw me doing it and asked me what I was writing and I said it was poem. I have no idea how to write a poem, so it definitely wasn’t a poem. This was something I typed out when I was procrastinating in 10th grade.

[molly-moriarty-blog]

      This black and white image at first invites its viewer into this home, but the gaping doorway and the narrow, claustrophobic staircase give you an uncertain feeling. The shadows cast in the scene give it a stagnant, silent feeling. You can just imagine the musty, woody smell and the echoing creaks of your footfalls. Although the clean lines, sharp angles, and high contrast look modern and polished, you can imagine the old feel of the house and the roughness of the wood. The yawning entryway and the staircase that winds out of sight, into the dark, are both inviting and foreboding, making the viewer both nervous and curious

       There’s not a distinct foreground subject and background like in some photos we looked at - the edge of the door protrudes towards us, and the staircase winds back into shadow. The photo encloses the entire doorway, and the viewer feels like they’re standing, looking into the doorway. The doorway sprawls over the middle third of the photo and dominates the frame vertically. However, the photo feels unbalanced – the light and dark don’t weigh equally on the eye, and the photo barely feels grounded by the chair on the right hand side. Otherwise it would feel crooked and empty.

       I think the imbalance, the contrast, and the general conflict of feelings in this photo are meant to make the viewer feel uneasy. It’s simplistic and familiar at first, but the longer I looked at it, the more confused I became. The title is “The Upstairs,” which sometimes has a heavenly connotation, so these feelings of unease and curiosity could be imparted intentionally by the artist.

       The most interesting point about this photo is that it’s not really a photo. I looked at the small image for a while in the gallery before realizing that some of the lines weren’t straight – it looks like a painting. The placard states that the photo “captures an oil painting of the same year that was itself based on a photograph of a Quaker home from more than a decade earlier.” This sort of created conversation of images is particularly interesting for this class. The original painting is in color, which speaks about the photographer’s choice to make it black and white. Charles Sheeler could be trying to communicate the unreality of images, or could be toying with the relationship between photorealistic art and whether it can be replaced by actual photographs.

[kjnick]

Wow, Molly. This description and analysis is so interesting and thought provoking. I could definitely imagine the creaking footsteps and musty smell. This photo reminded me of my grandparent’s old house when I saw it in the museum. What I thought was interesting was the fact that the top staircase is engulfed in shadow. It definitely adds to that mysterious and haunting feeling you talked about. I had not noticed that it was a picture of a painting because I didn’t spend enough time looking at it at first, but now that you mentioned it, it adds more complexity. The fact that the photographer chose to take this in black and white is an interesting decision. The play of the shadows adds to the analysis and makes it more of a black vs. white, good vs. evil interpretation. I for one don’t know if I’d have the courage to go up that staircase.

[kjnick]

I wanted to see if I could find a picture by Diane Arbus where the subjects of the portrait looked genuinely happy. This is the only one. I was initially surprised that none of her other photos seemed to have a positive undertone, but I was not surprised that the one I found was of children. Because Arbus used her camera to convey a sense of beauty or ugliness in normalcy, she got real emotions and feelings of her posers. Children don’t have a care in the world. They know how to push things that are bothering them to the back of their minds. I think that adults and adolescents have a harder time doing that. Notice too that these two children are of different race. This picture was taken in New York City in 1960. At that time there was much less talk of racism and cultural normalcy. It was common for biracial children to play in the streets without a second thought. It seems that these days a bystander is more surprised if they see that. They might even try to snap a picture to prove what they saw. Maybe Arbus was communicating the nature of humanity through this picture, or maybe she thought it was odd. It’s hard to tell.

[kjnick]

[punctumproject]

Punctum Prompt #4

[Due Thursday March 3rd] 

Using the ekphrasis prompt, draft creative and critical ekphrastic responses to the photo you selected from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Then, share some combination of them here: you may weave them together or separate them into two short sections. Aim for 300 words, and include your photo if possible! Be sure to include the photograph’s title, artist, and year.

[kjnick]

The Bechdel House

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/garden/03bechdel.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2

Here is an article on the Bechdel house years later. I find it interesting that no renovations or further work has been done on the house at this time. It seems odd, like a lone remainder of a past from another life. It gives testimony to Bechdel’s autobiography and touches on some of the things about that home that she found so disconcerting throughout her childhood. From the pictures, it looks exactly how I imaged it would look. Alison did a great job explaining its characteristics and trying to show how it looked in her sketches.