Picture Story blog comment

I really enjoyed Madeline's Honey Pie post and Ellen's One in Eight Million. They are both beautiful in very different ways. Honey Pie, as Madeline said, is kind of creepy. It made me uncomfortable. It showed and taught me something that I had never seen or heard of. That video dragged me out of my comfort zone. The way it was made was also interesting to see. I really enjoyed the introduction of the subject through detail shots. It slowly built the mood by showing little chunks of images instead of showing the whole thing up front. Great way of telling a visual story. Basically they built up such a curiosity in me that I couldn't help but keep watching it. At the end, I already learned some about the subject but I wanted to know, which is a great thing experience.

And when I first watched Ellen's piece, all I could say was "what the f*!". Another well done visual piece but also great example of the kind of journalism, where one would find tiny bit awesome stories in their backyard.

They both taught me something new about our world. They both made me feel something for the subjects. Thank you for sharing these!

Picture Story-1st Reflection

Lamott feels like she is speaking for me. She is speaking of all my personal experiences as a photographer. It is relieving to read somebody else talking about exact same experiences that I go through almost very day of my life. There are a lot of things that struck me in the first several chapters but the most compelling one for me is the one on perfectionism.

I have always take in as a good quality until this year. This year- I think as I am growing older towards the 30s-I started to realize how much it was hurting me as a photographer and an individual in general. As Lamott puts it, perfectionism is the biggest "obstacle" that one can put in front of herlelf/himself. It has created such a huge fear of failing in me that I have actually started either constantly failing or not trying at all, which is the worse than failing all the time. Perfectionism can be such an evil thing that paralyzes a person to the extent where she/he can't produce at all.

Also her idea of short assignments are greatly applicable to our field. Reading her lines actually encouraged me to assign myself two little assignments for this weekend. First one will be on our kitchen chairs. We have four old chairs at home around our awesome kitchen table. But almost every one of them are falling apart in the middle which causes a lot of back pain after sitting on them for extended hours during long sessions like now. So this weekend I would like to take a portrait photo of each one of these chairs at the same location and combine them in one frame and blog about it.

My second self assignment will be on the monster truck event this Saturday if I can fit it in my work schedule. I want to do a one day portrait project on the attendees of the event.

Tao of Photography was again a bit confusing for me. But there was one quote that I had to copy for myself:

“Don’t try to subdue a subject to your way of thinking- you can’t push a piano through a porthole. Go with the flow. Be flexible. Adapt. The scene will not adopt to you, as you will discover when viewing your pictures…. Don’t let your expectations project mirages that leave you thirsting. Release expectations. Defy assumptions. Unite with the scene to see not what you want to see, but what’s there. Then strengthen the strong points to build the photograph you want. Sometimes a situation will prove to be unphotogenic. Recognize when that happens and be on your merry way looking for something else.”

Derek Doeffinger - The Art of Seeing

I find this reminder quote so useful for starting photographers like us. I think, in the past, I had fallen into mistake of assumptions or projecting my ideas onto the subjects that I was photographing. I even used it a guideline that I created for Boone Life.

Picture Story-1st Assignment

I find two Eugene Richards projects very inspiring, War Is Personal and Dorchester Days. In the latter one, he directed the lens into the backyard of his neighborhood.It is personal, yet has a bigger voice. And in the first one, the way he handled the topic of war was just... I don't even know how to explain how that project made me feel. It was definitely an intimate way of looking at war. In general, I really appreciate the intimacy and honesty of his work. Also, the fact that his stories are all shot domestically, basically in our backyards, and yet speak to a greater audience is amazing.

On the other hand, I came across Jacob Aue Sobol's, of Magnum Photos, project Sabine a few years ago. On Magnum's site, the project is described as; "in 1999 Jacob Aue Sobol's went to live in the settlement of Tiniteqilaaq, Greenland, where he lived the life of a fisherman and hunter with his Greenlandic girlfriend Sabine and her family. Taken over three years the book records, in photographs and narratives, his encounter with Sabine and life on the east coast of Greenland."

I really like the fact that the photographer directed the camera to his own life and tried to tell a story in this small Greenland town.I think the idea of using black and white in telling this story was also appropriate. The population of this town he lived for over three years is less than 150. And it is located in the most populous municipality of the country. These are just two very basic but interesting facts. I understand he is not necessarily focusing on the town itself, but there is still a claim of him living the life of a fisherman and the hunter and him telling the story of life in this small east coast town. When I look at the photos, I get very little sense of the life. It is mostly directed on the girlfriend. I understand that this is a very personal and intimate way of telling a story and he has a very distinct more subjective style in doing so. I just think that this could be executed in such a way that it could tell more about the life in this little cold town but still keep a significant focus on the girlfriend and the personal life within his own style.

I think my point is i feel like the photographer is missing the whole idea of why should the audience care about what he photograph. How should I related to these pictures you are showing me? What does it tell me about my own experience? Does it make me realize something new about life and myself? I don't get much of this stuff when I look at this project. Here is the link to the project: http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&ALID=29YL530H4IMA&IT=ThumbImage01_VForm&CT=Album

Here is another project by another Magnum photographer, Larry Towell, who also directed the camera to his personal life, and the world beyond it. I feel Towell's work is much more easier to relate to. http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/frontporch