Portrait Photography

Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus is known for her portraits of people who live on the fringes of society, as wll as her ability to take capture ordinary people in extraordinary poses and settings. She is notorious for pushing the boundaries of "tasteful" portrait photography. She took the majority of her pictures in black and white. In 1946, with her husband, she opened a commercial photography business called Diane & Allan Arbus. Her husband was the photographer, while she was the art director. She quit the commercial photography business in 1955 and began to take pictures for magazines such as Esquire and The Sunday Times Magazine. In 1963 Diane was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for a project on "American rites, manners and customs."
An archive of her photographs can be found here

Notes on Photojournalism

Photojournalism:
Qualities one needs for this Career:

• A desire to be “out in the world” (Travelling, etc)
• Technical proficiency (Must be able to handle technology and know what you are doing)
• Understanding of and a commitment to ethical standards (Don’t manipulate or lie in a photo)
• Persistence ( a drive to get the story)

Formal Education?

• “The debate about whether or not a photographer needs a formal education goes back as far as the invention of photography. The best suggestion is for students to look at all the options and then choose the path that works for them.” (From Article)
• Ways to Go:
• Self-Taught
• A major in Photography
• A college Education

Are you taking only photos?

• The answer is NO! One must be able to take video and other multimedia mediums.

How important are Business Skills?

• Pretty Important, you have to be able to sell yourself and your product to the market.

Covering War:

• War is very expensive, but can be fruitful for a photographer’s career.
• Mind you, it is very hard to get into warring countries, though, and often you must have a major organization backing you and your trip.

Can you pay the bills with this Career?

• The answer is…most likely not.
• People go into photography  because they love it, not to make money
• The real compensation is your work, and the experiences you gain (Cheesy, right?)

Overall:

• Seek to have the widest possible skill set. (This includes work with a still camera, computer, audio and video tools. Be as complete a storyteller as possible with the range of tools available. )
• Special enhancements are equally valuable
•  Learn to write stories and proposals; learn one or more foreign languages; learn to compose music, an especially valuable skill as one moves into the multimedia and video world.
• Storytellers should keep in mind they will be studying at least three topics as long as they pursue this career:
• New technological developments
• The process of telling a story that communicates clearly
• The copyright law. These are subjects that become the ordinary, on-going “homework” of the working professional.
• Most likely creative people will have several if not many jobs over the course of their career.

Mercy Week

5 Photojournalism Pictures



Photo by: Franco Pagetti
This photo depicts a young man who was a former child soldier for the RUF. He is emotionally, and as is shown in the picture, physically scared. The punishment for trying to abandon your troop was being branded. The framing of this picture makes the viewers main focus the person depicted as well as the wounds that he has incurred. The photo evokes emotions like sympathy and horror from the viewer. It is never easy to see a human being treated like an animal, by being branded.



Photo by: Jan Grarup
This photo shows young boys being trained to be soldiers. They have be handed weapons, at an extremely young age and have had their lives mapped out for them. The photographer framed the picture so that the viewer is able to see the boys marching, but also a rock wall with a gun poised on top. It foreshadows what these children will grow to do. The picture sets a very foreboding  mood and a scene of desolation, in light of the lives these boys will lead. It is shocking a shocking picture to encounter.
Photos above from here. 

Photo by: Stephen Wright
This photo is of a homeless woman playing a whistle type instrument and her dog. The framing shows you the conditions which the women lives in. The photo emphasizes teh woman by placing her in the third quadrant of the frame. Her dog almost blends into the blanket, but it adds to the whole effect of the photo. The image evokes sympathy for those less fortunate than oursleves and it carries sad undertones for the conditions people are forced to live under.
Photo above from here.

Photo by: Philip Jones Griffiths
This photo shows a woman lying dead, while a soldier crouches over her and two people walk by like there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. It emphazises the violence these people live with and how they expect it in their everyday lives. The framing gives space to each of the different people who make up a different component of the picture. The dead woman, the soldier who could have possibly killed her, and the two passerbys who go on indifferently. The mood is depressing;  seeing the horrors people come to think of as normal is astounding.
Photo above from here.

Photo by: Don McCullen
This photo portrays children who are starved and because of their lack of food have basically become skin and bones. The child in the back has had so little to eat that his stomach muscles have undergone atrophy and his stomach has become distended. The picture is famed so that the viewer can see multiple children in the photo who are suffering from malnutriotion. It emphasizes the harrowing scenarios people live with. There is a very depressing mood set; seeing children with so little to eat, when you see people stuff themselves with food on a daily basis.
Photo above from here.



Group Photography

I liked the dull red and brown colors of the leaves and loved the way the ends of the leaves were changing colors.

Elements Principle

Radial Balance

Proportion

Value

Movement

Variety

Notes p. 60-65

Photo taken from: here
These photos show what the difference of f-stops can create on a photo, by letting in more, or less light.

This photo was taken with a slower shutter speed causing the water to become more blurred and look more like a whole, not seperate

This picture was taken with a faster shutter speed capturing each individual water droplet.

 Both photos taken from: here

Notes p. 36-48

Photo by: Ken Maher
By having the background blurred, the emphasis is placed on the two herons and their nest.

Photo taken from: here
This picture shows proportion by taking the picture from far away it gives the appearance of the horses and people being smaller than the whole from which the photo was taken.

Photo taken from: here
The line of the picket fence shows rhythm and moves the viewers eye from the front to the back.

Photo taken from: here
Having all of the same time of flowers as well as having them be the same color shows unity in the picture.

Photo by: Daniel Hurts
With the use of different types of pumpkins and the diffrerent colors the picture is an example of variety.

Photo by: Ward Smith
In our reading we learned about radial balance. This is where objects radiate from a central point in an image. We can see this in this picture where the petals of the flower are radiating from the bud.

Sun Print Before & After

After

Before

Notes p. 27-35

Photo by: Saumil Shah
With the use of the leaves the photographer creates a pattern.

Photo by: Paul Scharff
This photo shows texture by the use of the bark on the tree.

Photo by: David Schalliol
The picture show cases the bottowm of the slide and the debree on the floor as positive space and uses the city background as negative space.

Photo by: Kevin Hunter
This picture illustrates value, by having a dark room and light filtering in through the door to illuminate the bride.

Photo by: Elizabeth Jones
This photo uses the lines that make up the crosswalk to lead the viewers eye.

From: here
This picuture shows form with the use of three-dimensional depth.

Photo by: Leslie Hancock
Color contrast  in a picture is created by having different colors from opposite sides of the color wheel in an image.
By using color contrast, one can create feelings of energy and excitement. 

Line/Shape/Form