Thursday, March 20, 2008

Assessment of assignment 1


Assessment of assignment 1
Nancy O’Reilly
3Me with the guys

I feel my photo shoot of the Unofficial Veterans Meeting held at the local vacuum cleaner repair shop went well. The men were all very gracious in allowing me to photograph them at their meeting, which is really more of a weekly social event. There were several constraints which I was confronted with during the photo shoot. In a room that was approximately 25 x 20 feet there were about 40 or more people, the repair shop equipment, a large desk and cash register; not to mention the low ceilings and fluorescent lighting. Unfortunately, I had to shoot in auto mode, there was no place for a tripod and I needed the camera flash. I had never done anything like this before; going to a meeting in photographing a group of people is normally outside of my comfort zone. The experience of it all was very worth while and I have learned a lot about photographing in tight areas and trying to get people at ease with the camera and pretend I am not there. Trying to tell a story in only three pictures was also much more challenging than I anticipated. A lot of thought and time needs to go in to the selection process.

As far as the critique, I'm not sure how that went; it seemed to be 50-50 with two comments made one positive and one negative. I do agree it would have been more successful if I had printed in a much larger matte format. I do feel the three photographs I selected, when looked at closely; do give a sense of what was going on and who was there. Overall I feel my presentation was successful. –NJO--

Place Top 8


I tried to add more pictures in order and they do not come out in order.


I have lived in NJ all of my life. When people ask me where I am from and I reply "NJ" I can not count how many times through the years I have heard: "Oh yea...what exit?" Even comedians use it as the brunt of their jokes. Everyone lives off an exit somewhere. NJ is far from perfect but it is not all smoke stacks and asphalt either. This is my NJ.





Monday, March 17, 2008

Formal Analysis of Project 1

When looking back on project one, I feel like I have only scraped the surface of my topic. I shot at two locations, but only connected with one of them. Thus, I feel like I could definitely expand upon the scope/subject matter of my series.
The exposure of the photographs was originally a bit light, especially the posters. This was probably due to the the overhead fluorescent lighting. So, I increased the contrast slightly on all of the photographs and played with levels in order to fix the intensity of the poster/picture of the woman.
The composition of the photos is based in the idea of giving the viewer a glimpse into the overall mood of the shop, as well as the people who inhabit it. I liked that I was able to capture small details....snow globes, shampoo bottles, decorations on shelves. Such little extras lent to the character and appeal of the shop itself.
Ultimately, my project morphed into an exploration of beauty - beauty within the eyes of society and beauty within the eyes of individuals, specifically women. I didn't initially enter the salon with the intention of focusing on beauty. The subject revealed itself to me through the exploration of space.

In, Around, and Afterthoughts

Rosier's assertions concerning the legitimacy and purity of documentary photography are somewhat disconcerting. Her thoughts on modern photography seem to contradict the entire practice of documentary, claiming that images are now being utilized moreso to please the photographer, rather than identify cause for social change. It can be said that both agendas still fall into the category of documentary; where documentarians of old sought reform, we presently seek to merely identify.
Throughout the entirety of the article, Rosier struggles to find the definitive characteristics of a documentary photograph. She cites a variety of ambiguous instances in the history of photography in which the viewing population has had difficulty determining the overall purpose of the photographer, from staged images to photographs with no "polemic apparent". Of course, it can be argued that these are indeed documents, but she also argues, knowingly or not, that any still image can be identified as a document. In addressing this, she also addresses the main struggle of the contemporary documentarian.

Response to Rosler

In, around, and afterthoughts (on documentary photography) by Martha Rosler

Martha Rosler’s piece on documentary photography was very critical of the documentarian albeit accepting of the inevitability of documentarians photographing everything in sight. Overall, I enjoyed the text, but I thought she was a little bit too critical on the practice.

One of Rosler’s contentions is that documentary photography is to some degree unnecessary or wrong; she states, speaking of the New York Times story featuring documentary-style images from Walker Evans, that the reader learns that “the poor are ashamed of having been exposed as poor, that the photos have been the source of festering shame. That the poor remain poorer than we are, for although they see their own rise in fortunes, their escape from desperate poverty, we Times readers understand that our relative distance has not been abridged; we are still doing much better than they.” (page 4)

However, Rosler includes the other side of this argument, which is Szarkowski’s quote that the documentary photographer’s “aim has not been to reform life, but to know it.” (page 5) Rosler comes back again criticizing Szarkowski’s allowance of moral separation from the subject (namely in the case of Vietnam War photographers)

Rosler’s other thought is that “[t]he credibility of the image as the explicit trace of the comprehensible in the living world has been whittled away,” as exemplified by the story of the staged picture by Erwitt. (page 4) Though she compliments his apparently evident photographic ability, she jabs at the fact that "[t]he man pedaled back and forth nearly 30 times till Erwitt achieved the ideal composition.

mikey smith

In, Around, and Afterthoughts

Martha Rosler focuses on the legitimacy of present day documentary photography. She compares contemporary photographs (that which are posed, manipulated or "camouflaged") to past photographs solely used for "artless" documentation. Rosler believes that photographs now are infected with the agenda of the photographer and are put to use by swaying the populations' beliefs towards the beliefs of the elite. "A new generation of photographers has directed the documentary approach toward more personal ends."
Rosler uses the example of "drunks" to expose the contemporary images are influencing the public in the "wrong" way. These images (according to her) put the blame on the subject (the "drunks") in order to keep the unemployment rate, as well as many other socio-political/economical standards, in check. These photographs make an example of the poor and unfortunate, and subtly pose a warning to the public. For these reasons documentary photography is not "real" and still has a long way to go before it can "cure" social injustices.