Top Eight - Place

I grew up in the city but I currently call New Jersey my home. I have never felt more of a connection with two completely different places. I am attempting to explore the mirror differences of my two homes, and ultimately find a place where I can find my roots as an individual. These images are of both New York City and New Jersey, four of each.

Top 4 Place

These photos are from a hike at Ramapo Reservation near my town in North Jersey, where I've lived my whole life.

Project 1 Assessment

Project 1 was a great experience for me. My images were meant to be my social commentary on a specific issue that is very near to me, but the fact that I involved my own children in it made it even more fulfilling.
I learned a lot about my camera, composition and lighting in the first weeks of shooting, but I think there's a lot more to learn. If I could go back and redo this series, I would know to pay more attention to the way that I hold the camera.(Landscape/Portrait).
This project helped to prepare me for the upcoming projects by teaching me little things to keep in mind while shooting. Primarily, I have to ALWAYS check my camera settings!! I lost a lot of great photos because I didn't check the shutter settings. A whole day of shooting resulted in slightly blurred images.
I think I was able to convey a certain message, but I know that I can do it better given more time.

Response to: In, Around, and Afterthoughts-Martha Rosler

If you ask me, I think that Rosler’s article is written much like a documentary photographer would shoot a subject. In an article like this, the words are carefully chosen to frame it a certain way, thus encouraging the readers to be swayed into believing certain things. She sheds light on her perception of the manipulation of the photographer in early documentary photography while manipulating the reader in much the same way. She states that, “Any response to an image is inevitably rooted in social knowledge,” when referring to Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother. I disagree with her comment that “responses may be generated from not having any prior knowledge of certain social issues.” We have to assume that our audience that is viewing our images are well-educated, but Rosler is implying that we are dealing with an audience that has no choice but to believe everything that they see without any consideration to the construction of images.
Images that are constructed by the photographer usually serve to represent some bigger social issue than the singularity of one image. They are meant to raise awareness of certain social aspects that may be otherwise overlooked.
Rosler then goes on to comment on more modern documentary photography stating that Szarkowski makes a poor argument for the value of disengagement from a “social cause” and in favor of a connoisseurship of the tawdry (Rosler, p. 5). The viewer is not expected to define the photographer’s boundaries. They are privileged to witness their experiences and appreciate them for what the photographer appreciates.

It seems to me that the Bowery images serve to represent a changing environment. If it’s change was never documented, then how would future generations get any sense of what came before the present?

Project 1 Analysis

I think that Project 1 for me was challenging but went pretty well. Not having taken many photography classes, I struggled a bit on my shots. I think that I got a good 3 pictures, but with more time they may have been able to turn out better. I think the composition and concept of all three pictures were strong but, the lighting could have been worked on more. Overall, I was pretty happy with my shots and am exciting to shoot for the next two projects. As a class, I think everyone did a great job for the first project.

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.