o In class discussion of Class Blog topic
o Work in progress critique: in class pin up of prints/projection of scans from Assignment #1
o Troubleshooting scanning
• Scanning on the Hassleblad Flextight scanner
o Bellows adjustments explained
o Close up shooting and depth-of-field, reciprocity failure, bellows extension
o Assignment #2 explained
For next week:
o SHOOT: Assignment #2- shooting in the studio/still life/interiors: theme - Domesticity
o DEVELOP: Shots from assignment #2
o READ/ANSWER Class Blog Topic #5
Some photographers to look at in therms of the genre of set up/still life photography:
Irving Penn
Adolphe Braun
Justine Reyes
Bernard Voita
Zeke Berman
Thomas Demand
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| 5 | DISCUSSION TOPIC |
- Read over this article about the photographer Laura Letinsky
- And take a look at some of her images here
Answer these questions:
1) What does Letinsky mean when she talks about "the photograph"?
2) What kind of color palette does she work with and why?
3) "She would probably remind me that the photograph is just the expression of a moment, not the moment itself" ....... explain what you think this quote means.
1) Laura Letinsky means that "the photograph" is actually an object, and should be thought of as "the physical expression of a moment in time." That precise moment, captured by the camera, cannot be recreated, even if that moment was staged. The photograph shows that moment, which otherwise could not be seen again.
ReplyDelete2) Letinsky works with a subdued, muted color palette, and this emphasizes the duality of the light and the colors of her subjects. When she started working with still-lifes, she started thinking about light in a different way, because of the lighting and colors she saw in religious painting and classical still-life. They have a cool light source and a warm light source, and together they create a golden glow, which Letinsky found interesting.
3) I think this quote means that the photograph doesn't necessarily portray a moment exactly as we see it through our eyes, but how it's seen through the camera lens, and how the photographer decides to compose the image and present it to the viewer.
1. "The photograph", as Letinsky sees it, is a physical representation of the moment; the result of not just a "taking" of a photograph but the creation of a photograph.
ReplyDelete2. Letinsky's palette is as she sees current society, of "posts" and thus uses the muted colors of dissipated golden light from the traditional religious paintings. However, true to the essence of the tradition, her muted tones exemplify the objects' duality of light--the warm and cool colors.
3. For Letinsky, the author's view that each photograph is emphasizing the beauty in A moment is not how she sees photographs. As a thinking photographer, she sees photography as symbolic of such moments--an archetype, even--rather than the single moment captured. It is the difference between "taking" a picture and "creating" a photograph.
1. When Letinsky talked about “the photograph,” I think she means the photograph as an object. The same way we would think about a painting or a sculpture. It’s a physical object, one that requires thought, time, and care put into its creation.
ReplyDelete2. Letinsky’s color palettes in her various still life series are minimal and subdued. The space she photographs is white, in varying shades as a result from the type of lighting she is using (warm and cool), and the whites act as negative space. The few objects such as fruit, candy, glasses, plates, etc. are usually what bring a pop of color. I think she works with this minimal color palette to strip away excess information, to concentrate on the space and objects as form, to make it more simple and focused.
3. “The photograph is just the expression of a moment, not the moment itself.” I think this means that a photograph is one very small slice of time, and while it may be representative of an event or moment at hand, it’s not the full story or experience. It makes me think about the different ways we see or experience something, even if with one or more people, and how singular/individual the way we perceive the same thing is. By that I mean the way we remember a moment is the same way we photograph something, each with a different memory of what happened or different perspective of what we saw.
1)
ReplyDeleteLetinsky approaches each photograph as its own physical entity; a manifestation of a unique and ephemeral moment in time never to be experienced again.
2)
Letinksy uses a cooler, more subdued color palette and achieves a washed out ascetic that I think is intentional. She speaks of modern culture and the need to identify with various "post" movements and these photographs seem to reflect this. The cooler palette seems functional in depicting the moments immediatlely following whatever climactic event has ocurred.
3)
I think this speaks to the compositional nature of each photograph. Letinsky recognizes that no matter the style of photography, each photograph is composed by the photographer as their own expression of the moment at hand.
1. She mentions that the photograph is an object and the physical expression of a moment in time. She continues to add, “the photograph shows something that can no long exist,” which I believe is capturing a specific moment in time
ReplyDelete2. Based on the article, the color palette she uses is a subdued, muted color palette that emphasized the duality of the light and the colors of her subjects. Her most significant palette is her use of whites. Her subjects are drowning in the negative space of her whites.
3. Letinsky is probably trying to say that instead of capturing a moment in time she’s trying to convey an emotion or feeling through her photography and how she views it through her lens.
1) When Letinsky talks about the photograph she considers it "a physical expression of a moment in time"
ReplyDelete2) Letinsky uses a "subdued, muted color palette that emphasized the duality of the light and the colors of her subjects".
3) "She would probably remind me that the photograph is just the expression of a moment, not the moment itself" What I think the writer is trying to say is that Letinsky would not want us to get caught up with the objects in the space and time that she captured but instead to FEEL what the objects in the space and time were expressing
1) According to the article, Letinsky views the photograph as an object - something that is an expression of a moment. It is a reminder and remainder of something that no longer exists and can't be recreated.
ReplyDelete2) She uses a muted and subdued color palette dominated by white. Inspired by religious paintings, which depicted two light sources, warm and cool, she wanted to emphasize the duality of light.
3) I think this is open to many interpretations- just like a photograph. Each person responds to different items in a photograph or any other artwork. The same way, a moment would be interpreted differently by different photographers, and no one way is more right than the other. Letinsky said, "I found myself wanting to empty the space out," and she started to push her subjects towards the edges. This does not mean that the subjects were not important or central. She simply found a unique way to portray them.