Photography & the Visual Verse @photovisualverse - Tumblr Blog

NY Times Book Article

Tiananmen Square ‘Negatives’: An Art Book or a Protest?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/books/tiananmen-square-negatives-an-art-book-or-a-protest.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0#

In Class Research Assignment: Examining Context: Roland Barthes Camera Lucida.

Camera Lucida is an interesting writing because it is somewhere between an academic/theory based text and a deeply personal writing from the author. It can be looked at in different ways and also referenced in different ways or categories of view. It’s not strictly an academic theory text, in my opinion, but it is often referenced in the world of academia and photo theory.

Find other 5 sources (papers, writings, etc) that cite Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes and list them in separate blog posts on your tumblr.

For each source that you find, answer these questions (guess if you’re not sure):

1. Who seems to care about Roland Barthes and Camera Lucida? What is the context, platform of discussion, field of expertise, or profession that Camera Lucida is being associated with? / Who would be writing these other papers or writings?

2. How are these Camera Lucida citings used? / What point(s) are trying to be made in this new writing?

3. What are they generally talking about in these other writings? What is it about?

4. From what source did you find this reference?

5. Can that reference source be associated with any context of profession or association? ---

Answer this question just once, not for all 5 sources:

If you were to look for another book to read after Roland Barthes Camera Lucida, in similar context, what would it be? What is the overall question that you are thinking might be explained over the course of theses two books? (What is the context that you have in mind?) You don't have to know or have read the book that you referencing. It might be one that just seems like it would contain relevant information.

Coffee House + Sushi Night.

The Den Coffee House and the Sushi Zone in Bothell, WA

Coffee / Sushi tonight + extra credit

Tonight is our class bonding night, also known as, get to know your class mates better night. It is optional but I would encourage you to come if you want to get to know your classmates better or meet some new friends. Bring some outside of class friends if you want.

As incentive to be there, I will excuse you from one previous assignment if you are missing any.

If you have done all of the assignments to date, you can be excused from a future one.

I will take roll tonight to give people credit for being there. Attendance is optional though.

We will meet at The Den Coffee House in Bothell at 7pm, and then walk over to the Sushi Zone at 8:30 for sushi priced at $1.50 each. They close at 9:30.

The Den Coffee House

10415 Beardslee Blvd, Bothell, WA 98011 (425) 892-8954

The Sushi Zone

10024 Main Street, Bothell, WA 98011 (425) 402-9988

Assignment for Thursday

Hey Class,

I'm sending an assignment recap for those who were not in class today and if any that were in class need more explanation or ideas.

Because it is such a nice day today, you need to go experience that and take advantage of the great weather to inspire some exploration with your camera.

Go shoot a bunch of photos and put 10 together in some way that makes sense to you. They don't have to tell a story, but they can. They can be all the same color or something like that or they can have a narrative story line, or they can represent sounds...? Just think of a way to connect them to each other in some way. How do these 10 photographs go together? It's up to you to be as simple or as abstract with that as you want. You may not know how they go together until after you go out and shoot a bunch of photos, and then bring them back and start looking for things that link them somehow after the fact, in review. Upload the 10 to your tumblr page. These are due on Thursday before class.

In class, I talked about how artists work (and do research). In particular, I showed the collaborative work of Alec Soth and Brad Zellar. They went out together on some trips and looked for things. As they found the things that peaked there curiosity, they followed those impulses with photography an writing. Alec photographed and Brad wrote or found relevant writing to put together with the photographs. As they travelled, they had no idea of exactly what they were looking for or what they might find. The knew some things that were there or had some ideas about the region, but really did not know what the photographs would look like or what the writing would be beforehand. They work off of complete faith in their creative process. These trips lasted for about two weeks at a time and they would then produce a newspaper.

They didn't know what the paper would look like beforehand. They had to collect the information, the creative products, and documentation, and then look at it and figure out how it all went together. They would begin trying to solve the puzzle as soon as the trip began. The pictures and stories would start to unfold and inspire them in mid-process. Some things, would just fit together easily and obviously and others would need further refinement and thought along the way. Essentially, the process was to go out there, look for things, collect them, and then make sense of it all along the way or after, then print a newspaper.

There were 7 newspapers produced.

After the newspapers were made, they were then used as source material for a larger photography book which is called "Songbook." So if we are thinking about this in terms of our theme of research, the trips to produce the newspapers, provided the research for eventually creating the book. It was a process of refinement and editing along the way and afterward.

Here is the description of the book from the Publisher:

"Songbook"

Known for his haunting portraits of solitary Americans in Sleeping by the Mississippi and Broken Manual, Alec Soth has recently turned his lens toward community life in the country. To aid in his search, Soth assumed the increasingly obsolescent role of community newspaper reporter. From 2012-2014, Soth traveled state by state while working on his self-published newspaper, The LBM Dispatch, as well as on assignment for the New York Times and others. From upstate New York to Silicon Valley, Soth attended hundreds of meetings, dances, festivals and communal gatherings in search of human interaction in an era of virtual social networks. With Songbook, Soth has stripped these pictures of their news context in order to highlight the longing for connection at their root. Fragmentary, funny and sad, Songbook is a lyrical depiction of the tension between American individualism and the desire to be united.

http://mackbooks.co.uk/books/1057-Songbook.html

A also showed this example of how they collaborated in class...

Here is a page from the newspaper (before the book). If you look at the photo alone it reads a certain way. The title adds some context, and the longer writing that Brad Zellar found adds even more of a context to how you think about the photograph. It gives it more of a depth beyond just the photograph.

From "LBM Dispatch #2 – Upstate"

USA. New York State. 2012. Nancy Zalewski. Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Ax Throw. World's Open Lumberjill Competition. New york State Woodsmen's Field Days, Boonville.

As the forests gave way to dairy farming, Boonville became the distributing and shopping center for a large and important dairying region. Here the milk strike of 1933 reached its height of violence. Bands of from 400 to 800 farmers stopped milk trucks on the highways and dumped the milk into the ditches. State troopers armed with clubs and tear gas bombs attacked the farmers, who fought back with stones, clubs, monkey wrenches, and curses. In the second week simple weapons gave way to high-powered rifles, and rioting to guerrilla warfare. – New York: A guide to the Empire State. New York Writers' Project, 1940

Assignment - Camera Lucida reading

Due: Tuesday, Feb 17

Read Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. Read sections 43 through 48 ( pages 103 through 119 ). The End.

Write down one interesting thought from your experience with the reading to talk about in class. Do you have an opinion on part of the reading? Do you relate to something in the book? Do you disagree with something? ect… Write down something about the reading to bring up in class and post it to your own tumblr pages.

Assignment: Camera Lucida reading

Due: Thursday, Feb 12

Read Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. Read sections 39 through 42 ( pages 94 through 102 ).

In Class Assignment: Context

Find at least 5 different vehicles for imagery (photos) and describe the purpose of the images. Answer these questions for each source. • What is the source? • Provide a link. • What would you say is the category of this source? • What are the images communicating? What idea? • What is the image there to do for whatever context they exist in? • Who is the audience?

Example: • What is the source? LA Times Newspaper • Provide a link. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-kanye-west-blasts-beck-win-grammys-neil-portnow-20150208-story.html • What would you say is the category of this source? News Website (Newspaper) • What are the images communicating? What idea? Beck is Mad at Kanye West for interrupting his speech. (Even though Beck is not actually Mad)

• What is the image there to do for whatever context they exist in? The image appears to be there to describe the story. However, it is not. The headlines say, "Grammys 2015: Kanye West blasts Beck's album of the year win." The combination of the words with the gesture of Beck's face and hand seem as if Beck is insulted by Kanye. Therefore it seems that the image is trying it's best to draw the viewer into reading an article about a potential argument between Beck and Kanye rather than to describe the total and actual event because Beck was not mad and Kanye never interrupted. • Who is the audience? People who care about music or know either of these two musicians. Followers of popular culture. Lovers of spectacle.

raychenphotography-blog

A story with 10pics

photovisualverse

Assignment (In Class)

Look at everyone’s blog postings of their picture stories. What and how are these visual stories communicating?

Reblog 5 stories that you are interested in.

Write about at least 4 of them whose picture stories are not easy to understand as a story instantly. The more abstract they are to you initially, the better. Choose stories that will make you have to use your imagination to come up with an interpretation.

Write your description of what you think is happening or the thoughts that you think are being conveyed in these picture stories by adding a caption to each of the photos in the story, in the comments of your reblog for that story.

In the comments section, label the interpretations of each picture in the story…

Example of the Comments:

1. There is a point of indecision and question.

2. There is unity and people helping each other make a decision.

3. They look at the difficulty ahead together..

4. Etc…

Class Tumblr Blogs

I will post the addresses of your blogs here as I receive them from you. It should look something like: whatever_you_decided.tumblr.com

email them to me at: [email protected]

Gabby - gabby4class.tumblr.com

Madyson - mphotographerb.tumblr.com

Ray - raychenphotography.tumblr.com