Landscape Photography

Artist and landscape images I like:

Michael Kenna

Mark Schneider Design

Edward Weston

Definition of natural beauty: Unrefined uncontrolled raw moments of inhuman creations nature presents.

EG:

Ansel Adams

My experience: I was backpacking with a friend in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. We went on a 15 mile day hike the second day up to the top of Old Snowy, a mountain. After reaching half way my mother got tired and decided to go back but my friend and I decided to make it to the top. We finally reached the base area of the mountain and looked up. The mountain was huge, looming over us. I could make out two small specks of hikers making their way down the steep slope. An hour later we made it to the half summit after an exhausting struggle up the trail. The last half mile we climbed on out hands and knees up a wall of loos rocks along the final ridge. Finally we made it to the top. Standing on the tip of the mountain I could see the entire world. Green forest rolled over hills like a carpet. Snow coated the tips of tall mountains. Below us Goat Lake was an opaque turquoise gem, shimmering in the sunlight. My breath was taken away. No human could ever create something quite so beautiful. This artwork could only be made by thousands of years of changing nature, perfect and uncontrolled. 

Visual Metaphors

Andy Warhol

A) I am Andy Warhol. I was getting ready this morning, pulling on my pants, when my underwear caught on the door knob of the bathroom and ripped. I was so mad that I just stormed out of the bathroom without pulling up my pants. Why even bother, they'd probably rip too. I looked in my bag for a new pair of underwear and found my favorite record sticking out so I grabbed it to play while I finished getting dressed. That was when my roommate laughed and said "hey", looking at me with my pants down, "that would make a good photo". So I set up my camera and took the photo. I am still annoyed and my face shows it. I made Mike stand in the background of the mirror because it was his idea to take the photo.

B) I am Andy Warhol's underwear. I was minding my own business while he was getting dressed, being good, awaiting the comforting caress of my friend Corduroy Pants. That caress never came. The door knob had it out for me from the start. I know it. It came at me with vigor, striking hard, grabbing me and ripping. The pain was excruciating. My only job was to cover Andy's butt and I failed. His crack gaped and I knew I was done for. He would throw me out, never to wear me again; I would eternally live on, useless. When he walked out of the bathroom I thought Andy would take me off and let me rest, but no, my humiliation was not over. Mike, of course, had to have the brilliant idea of taking a picture for all the world to see what a horrible pair of underwear I am. I guess it's what I deserve.

C) I am Sydney Denham. I immediately connected to this photo. Andy Warhol's exposed rear end brought me back to a fond memory of mine similar to what I perceive happened in this image. I was at my friends house and bent over to grab my backpack when my pants ripped down the seam, revealing a good twelve inches of polkadot underwear. I had to run around the house covering my hinny to escape the cameras and laughing faces of my friends. Andy and I have a lot in common, although my underwear was not ripped. I can also relate to the annoyance that Andy obviously felt in this situation.

Henri Cartier Bresson-The Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier Bresson was born in 1908 in Chanteloup, France. He traveled around the world photographing culture and war. He was a major artist of the twentieth century. He went to school in Paris and Cambridge University to study the arts. He photographed in Africa and loved to photograph with a naturalist style- no artificial lights or props. In the 1930 he had work in Mexico, New York and Madrid galleries. 

Alfred Stieglitz-Photography as Art

http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/stieglitz-bio.htm

Alfred Stieglitz was born in 1864 and died in 1946. He influenced modern art in early twentieth century America. He was born in New Jersey but moved to Manhattan and Germany during his life. He learned about photography by taking a photochemistry class and began his interest in photography. He managed and edited Camera Notes in New York and was apart of the Camera Club. He founded three New York galleries where he exhibited the work of other artists. He did a series of cloud photographs. He married Georgia O'Keeffe. During the thirties he slowed and stopped photographing to die.

W Eugene Smith

Steelworker, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1955 by W. Eugene Smith. [1280x926]

• introduced to photography by his mother and after his father committed suicide he became obsessed 
• at a young age a local newspaper hired him
• wanted pictures to show the terrible aspects of war
• photo jounalist 
• he had strict ethical values he would not break
• photographed images of suffering 
• He photographed 26 carrier combat missions and 13 invasions 
• he immersed himself in his subjects (unlike most other photojournalists)
• he resigned from Life magazine because he wanted more rights over his images
• he did photo essays (one was over 11,000 photos of Pittsburgh

Can a single photograph affect the world for change?

I think that one photograph can be extremely impactful and make people think or change their ways. Say for instance a graphic image of a war is released to the public. People would start protesting the war and possibly make a change to stop the war. I do think there is a limit to how much an image can change the world because not everyone will see that image or care or decide to make a change because of the seeing that image. Large problems cannot be solved with one picture but they can be improved and work it toward a solution.

Project 5: Light Shadow and Reflections

Silhouette: Pinterest

Brassaï

Backlit: Pinterest

Johan van der Keuken

If this image was taken with the metering on the darker areas such as the back of the person or wall then the light would be blown out. The detail in the curtain would become white and detail would be seen more in the darker areas such as the wall and the back of the person. The balance of the picture would be lost and would become less interesting if the artist chose to take the image this way. 

Reflections: Pinterest

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Shadow: Pinterest

Matteo Angelotti

André Kertész