mike priebe.

English 202: Ways of Seeing

[collinswayofseeing-blog]

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. 

[punctumproject]

Check out Collin’s write-up on Ara Güler’s work–and the remarkable emotion and feeling in this photograph.

[priebemike-blog]

I think you did an exceptional job of analyzing this photo Collin. I got the same feeling that the boy was out running errands for his parents or someone. I felt the contagious joy expressed on his face when I first looked at it as well and I feel like he is very joyous because the milk could have possibly been his treat for running to go get the bread or whatever it is in his other hands. I was gonna say that he was of the lower class until I read your close detail that you noticed with his clothing; that was a good catch. It’s really intriguing to think about how this boy is just strolling through the city on his own, but now today you never see young kids like this on their own running errands or just out an about. I got the feeling that Ara Guler just saw the boy running and quick asked him to stop and smile for him. It funny how children actually like to be photographed, but most of adults hate to be photographed. This supports the statement, that when we are growing up, it is embedded in most people’s minds that they don’t want to be photographed because the majority of everyone loved to photographed when they were young.

[priebemike-blog]

This photographer was astonished to find his photo in ISIS propaganda

Photographer Brian McCarty is no stranger to photo theft. His photos have been used for commercial purposes, without his permission, "lots and lots of times." But what he didn't expect, was to see his image used in ISIS propaganda.

I found this article on a photographer whose work was taken and converted into a piece of propaganda for ISIS. The irony that they talk about in this article is that this photo that he captured was inspired by artwork drawn by a little girl in Gaza. The little girl drew a photo with missiles, guns and soldiers really depicting what she sees in her everyday life. When talking to the little girl about what she had drawn, all she talked about was how she was afraid of the missiles and didn’t want to get killed. This piece of work inspired by the girl, is basically being used to go against the girl. 

[priebemike-blog]

The photo that I selected was captured by the photographer, Martin Barr. Barr believes that the overwhelming power behind published images are propaganda. Barr counters this propaganda by embracing criticism, humor, and seduction through his photography. His photography shows viewers how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value. Parr provides us the ability to look at a familiar things in a completely different way than how we are used to. 

I found this photo very intriguing because of the relationship between the dog and the man present. Everyone’s always heard a dog being referred to as “a man’s best friend” and captured in this photo it really does not look like that the two subject are “best friends” by any means. In this image, it seems as if each of the two are isolated in their own personal way. If either the man or the dog were removed from the photo, I feel that the photos would be much more common. Or if the dog was in the man’s lap, it would show their loving relationship towards one another. This photo was not staged and Barr was able to capture a situation that would not be common to see, but now seeing it in this photo a viewer may now be more susceptible to see this same situation in every day life. 

Also, another detail that interested me was that the background and foreground. In the background, there is absolutely beautiful scenery, but neither of the two subjects captured were looking towards the beauty. I don’t exactly know what message the photographer is trying to convey, but personally I felt that one way of interpreting it would be is that we as society do not need to search for the beauty, because beauty is all around us in our everyday life. We as the viewers do not know what either the dog or the man are looking at, but they could be admiring something else that may not seem beautiful to one person, but to them it is something special. 

[priebemike-blog]

Peter Bart On ‘Deadpool’, The Blockbuster Whose Success No One Can Explain

Given the fact that it’s a game-changer (yes, one of those), it’s important to take in Deadpool in its proper context. This means venturing to your neighborhood megaplex and sitting through the har…

I chose this for my show and tell, because there has been a lot of talk about why this movie has been so successful. It is not a very long article, but the comments were very intriguing as well as one quote that stood out to me in the article which says, “They did everything wrong and it turned out right.” The critics have been either very for this movie or many very against it. I feel this piece of work could be compared to Sally Mann’s work. This movie has drawn a lot of controversy because it is completely different than any other movie. I feel that this film got so successful, because they took the chance of stepping outside of the Hollywood norm and it really paid off for them. Would Sally Mann be as successful if she would not have stepped out of the societal norm and not have captured the images that drew magnitudes of controversy? 

[farisbaadhaim-blog]

What momentous family event did we not celebrate on the farm, what birthday, holiday, anniversary? There is no sinkhole into which we have not poked our walking sticks, no time-stretched initials carved in smooth beech bark that we have not traced with our wondering fingers, no deer trails unfollowed, no cliff from which haven’t dislodged medium- sized stone to make large-sized holes in our waiting canoe below, no deeply romantic swimming holes unsounded. The farm is a constant for all of us, glowing steadily in the unreliable, teasingly labile shadow of memory.

Hold Still (Mann pg 91)

This was an interesting paragraph that caught me when I was reading because of the continuous repetition of the word no before each statement that Sally Mann wrote in this paragraph.

Sally Mann is saying stating that she doesn’t have to follow societal norm because if she were to follow the societal norm she won’t be able to express who she really is and her will have no meaning to her. That is why Sally Mann is emotionally connected with farmland. When Sally and her family are on their farm it’s a sanctuary for them not to follow societal norms and that is when they feel free and able to express themselves.

The uses of the words “no” and “not” have a strong meaning when using them during an argument because it shows you stand for an argument. Sally Mann is arguing about how to express yourself you don’t have to follow societal norm. In this paragraph I found words that have a connection like sinkhole, unfollow, carved, time-stretched, dislodged, unreliable, and unsounded have sense of meaning of not following a straight path. That is all comes back to how Sally Mann works when Is on her farm.

The last sentence of this paragraph “ The farm is a constant for all of us, glowing steadily in the unreliable, teasingly labile shadow memory.” show the connection that Sally Mann and her family have with the nature in their farm. When reading that sentence you get to see the true emotions that the Mann family has for this land that they call home. This also show that each Sally. Larry, and their Children’s have strong and different connection to the farm. Since the farm is constant and the only thing that changing is the memories that they are collecting over the years they have lived on that farm.

(via farisbaadhaim)

I very much like what Faris is claiming here in this interpretation. This was part of the quote that I used and I too agree that the farmland allows Sally Mann freedom from society. She is able to do what she wishes how she wishes without having to worry about what others are going to think of her actions. Your explanation of the use of “no” and “not” are spot on in my personal opinion and I believe that they add so much power to the claims that she is making. Also, I’m so glad that you made a specific reference to the last sentence in the paragraph, because I too believe that this sentence not only stands out in this passage, but also in the rest of the book. The evidence is clearly shown in this passage that Sally Mann and her family have an exceptional connection with the farm and that the farm itself has an almost human-like reassurance for Sally that she needs to express herself as freely as possible. Very glad to know that this passage stood out to not just me. Very nice to get someone else’s view on it. 

[priebemike-blog]

...of the three of us, I was the one with the closest proximity, the greatest ability to maintain it, and arguably the strongest feelings about it.      And boy, were they strong. 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 food 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 carp floating in the shallows.      ...The farm is a constant for all of us, glowing steadily in the unreliable, teasingly labile shadow of memory.

I chose this passage from pages 90-91 because I found everything said within these quotes extravagant and very relatable. I was very please with the structure that she used within this passage. She starts it with an arguable statement saying that she was the sibling with arguable the strongest feelings for the farm. I found it intriguing how she used the word "arguable" within her arguable statement and not just saying straight up that she had the strongest feelings. Following the statement, she provides a wide intensive variety of evidence as to why she has the closest proximity and the strongest feelings. With all of the words used within this passage, I felt a very passionate tone coming from Sally Mann and that is one of the main reasons I selected this choice. One statement that stood out to me was the last sentence which I included stating, "The farm is a constant for all of us, glowing steadily in the unreliable, teasingly labile shadow of memory." I found this really intriguing just because I can personally relate to her connection with the farm that she grew up spending countless hours on. I don't think she could have explained a farm's significance in any other way that would be more powerful; over the four generations that my farm has existed, it has not changed much at all but it holds a countless variety of memories through all of the generations. When the day comes that my father passes, I know I will think of this passage when me and my brother receive the land. Like Sally Mann expresses in this statement, I feel as if I have a closer connection to the farm than my brother does. I explored and took advantage of everything on the farm, whereas now kids, including my brother and his generation, spend way too much time indoors with their modern technology rather than embracing the beauty surrounded around us just outside of the front door of our house. The passion expressed by Sally Mann is contagious for me and that is what I find extremely beautiful.

[priebemike-blog]

Title: Untitled

Artist: Nathan Lyons

Year Captured: 1957

From being raised on a farm my whole life and my dad, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather all being farmers, I definitely feel a connection to this photo. When I look at this photo, my eyes are drawn to the two big doors on the barn. I feel the photographer used the straight on angle so that a viewer’s punctum would be the doors. The focus on the doors, in my opinion, is to express that there is more to this photo than just an old barn. When I look at the doors, I get the feeling that if these doors are opened, a family’s rich history is going to be revealed and stories about this farm are going to be told. All of the blood, sweat, tears, and hard work put into establishing this farm decades maybe even centuries before this photo was taken are held within those two barn doors. The time of day in which the photographer captured this creates a really nice shadow over the much of the photo. This shadow to me shows hard work; most farmers work from dusk till dawn, so these barn doors could have just been closed and the farmer could have just got done with a long day and now finally is going in for the night with tommorow’s agenda in mind. With the photographer, using black and white photography, this technique adds even more age to the barn. The ruggedness and age that this photo depicts gave me the feeling that this barn could represent family. Like most families this barn has been through a lot and has had its ups and downs, but most importantly it is still there just like family. No matter what your family goes through and how worn down it gets, it will still be there regardless. Each and every family holds a rich history, including mine, and when I think of a visual that would represent my family’s history it would definitely be a photo of the barn that I saw every morning when I looked out my house’s front window growing up. Everyone else’s interpretation of this photo would most likely vary from mine, but that is the beauty of photography. 

[priebemike-blog]

I chose this scene in the book on page 47, because it had really caught me off guard when I read it. This scene surprised me because in the first photo she is riding her bike back in shock which would be completely normal for anyone in this given situation. But then, in the second photo she is wrapped in the arms of her significant other which still would seem normal without the words, but then the words say that she cried for only two minutes. The “That was all” caption box was really powerful in my opinion, because it shows the difference between her relationship with her father and most people’s relationship with their fathers. If my father had died, I would cry for more than two minutes without a doubt, and this scene really expresses how much their relationship differentiated from most. Then below those two photo, it is a photo of her and her brother seeing each other for the first time after getting the news of their father’s death. In this photo, rather than the two running towards each other in tears like most siblings would do in this situation, both of them are just casually standing there looking at each other with a grin on their face. I think that she included her girlfriends facial expression to show that her girlfriend really discovered how different their family relationships were in that given moment. Her girlfriends face shows utmost confusion as most people would have had the same reaction, including myself while seeing this sibling interaction. We as the audience knew that she had an odd relationship with her father up until this point, but this point really showed how out of the ordinary it really was. I personally had to reread this part a few times to really take in, that she only cried for two minutes and had the ability to grin at that given moment. 

[ahpunctumproject-blog]

“Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its inquisitive mood.” This picture was taken of me by my dear friend Jay Kshirsagar while we were backpacking through the Himalayas. This will forever stand as one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring moments of my life and I am fortunate enough to have the moment captured for eternity. In this photo, I think Sontag would be interested in my position compared to that of the river and the mountains in the background. The size of the mountains is impressive and can make a human feel very small. I find that Sontag’s quote fits well with my feelings towards this photo and it is one of a select few that I cherish dearly. To be honest, I have a slight aversion towards taking photos and I feel that the majority of the time, it takes away from that which is being experienced. It has always seemed logical in my mind that if an experience is note worthy enough to be photographed, then the effect of said experience should be discoverable in my being at any moment moving forward. However, I will admit that in a select few cases, I am very grateful to have photographs available.  

[priebemike-blog]

I could not agree with Andy more here with the points that he brought up. I am a big believer that always wanting to take photos really does take away from the full on experience. Yet, Andy brings up a very good point that he now has this beautiful moment captured forever. I think a camera can be a very negative tool if over used, but also a very essential tool if used in the rare moments that absolutely have to be captured. But I am curious as to where the borderline is...

[priebemike-blog]

I took this photo off of the University of St. Thomas new branding video that has recently been put on the St. Thomas website. I chose this photo, because this represents the image world that St. Thomas has created for me. What differentiates St. Thomas from other schools, in my opinion, is the personalization they do for you. They provide one on one assistance with anything you need help with. The student to faculty ratio is probably the biggest reason, why I came to St. Thomas. I had been looking at D1 universities, but St. Thomas sold me with the fact that professors actually know your names and will help you gain understanding of anything you desire to. Yeah, this photo may be staged, but you would be able to capture very similar images over 50 times in a day if you visited other St. Thomas classrooms. A similar photo would be very rare to capture at any D1 university. This is just one of the photos in the video, that were put in it with a lot of reasoning behind doing so. Susan Sontag states, “Photograph collections can be used to make a substitute world, keyed to exalting or consoling or tantalizing images.” All of these photos create a photo collection in the video that exalts the image of St. Thomas to current students, previous students, and most importantly prospective students. Would you want to go to a school that had photos on their website that were not appealing to you?

[punctumproject]

Punctum Prompt #2

In Sontag’s final chapter, she discusses the “image-world” of industrialized society and its effects on modern citizens. What is your image-world all about at St. Thomas? Does the university itself promote a certain image culture? What about the “image-world” of student life? Take a photo or grab a screenshot from a website that captures your own image-based culture, and write up a close-reading of it. For full credit, you must be highly specific in your close-reading: draw out details and patterns and help the reader understand their significance. Minimum: 200 words. Due by the start of class on Tuesday, February 16th.

[priebemike-blog]

This is a photo that I took when I was on the Boundary Waters this past summer. One quote from Susan Sontag’s reading that was on pages 172-173 states, “We have a modern notion of embellishment--beauty is not inherent in anything; it is to be found, by another way of seeing--as well as a wider notion of meaning, which photography’s many uses illustrate and powerfully reinforce.” I believe that this quote goes very well with this photo with the reason being that some may find this photo extremely beautiful and some may completely disagree. Looking at this photo without the story behind it, in my opinion, is still beautiful. But with the experience that I underwent on the Boundary Waters brings much more beauty to this photo than one may ever see who was there in that moment taking in all the nature around them. The peace and tranquility that I felt while capturing this moment, cannot be reproduced, but the what I saw can be which is present in this photo. This photo holds much more meaning to me than anybody else who would look at it. #punctumprompt1 #susansontag