Alexander Laubscher | Photography 1 (ART-227)

            Arnold Newman, Alfred Krupp, 1963     Arnold Newman is known for his environmental portraits that capture people in their environments. In class we were show an image of Alfred Krupp, an arms dealer that is known for arming the Nazis in World War 2. Since first seeing this photo in class, it has stuck with me. The way Newman captures the pure evil of Krupp is eye catching. Without even knowing the context behind this piece, we can tell there is something off about the subject being photographed. The way Alfred has the light positioned makes Krupp appear like a Bond movie villain. After learning the context behind the subject, Krupp, being an industrialist, is seen pictured inside of a machinery warehouse.     The way he has Krupp position his hands, makes Krupp appear villain like, as if he has a diabolical plan up his sleeve. In reality, he helped a force that was diabolical and caused terror and ruined the lives of mil...

  Ralph Gibson Ralph Gibson, Infanta(1961-2005), 1972 Ralph Gibson is a recognized photographer known for capturing suggestive imagery within his photographs and his use of shadows (artsy.com) In his piece Infanta  Gibson photographs a woman in the shadows, with the light glaring upon her face. If the viewer steps back, and focuses more on the shadow, we can see a second face on the subject's face, in a portrait like pose. Gibson's use of shadow to use the subject's shadow to produce a second face is incredible. Our main focal point is instantly drawn to the eye where we then look to the left to see what she is seeing, but then after looking at her a second time, the shadow face appears.  I find this piece to be very illusionistic because he is managing to only use the subject to produce the second phase and not another person standing off to the side in a portrait pose. If we look closer into the shadow we can see her other eye, thus indicating the way he has her head po...

      Michael Kenna Michael Kenna, Eleven Hours, Eastlands, New Zealand , 2014         Kenna has a unique way of turning ordinary life into something spectacular. Through his black and white landscapes, Kenna shows the viewer just how amazing the world truly is. In Eleven Hours , Kenna is doing a time-lapse at night to show a beautiful spiral of stars in the night sky. Like most of his black and white landscapes, there is a feeling of tranquility and peace that radiates from the photos. Instead of showing the world in full color, Kenna appears to want to transform the world beyond what the ordinary eye sees. At first glance, one may wonder if this photo was even taken on Earth.       Unlike other photographers we've seen in class, Kenna's goal is to bring an array of emotions to the viewer, rather than sending a particular message. The photographs transport the viewer to this black and white landscape where time has no boundari...

  Man Ray, Rayograph (The Kiss) , 1922     Man Ray was a man known for many things, but one that tops them all is his work done with the photograms, what he called rayographs. The Kiss was one of Ray's earliest photograms. It shows two figures grabbing each other's faces and passionately kissing one another. He did this by placing his and his lover's hand on photosensitive paper and shining a lot upon it repeatedly. They then did the same thing, but with their heads, thus making the figures in the photogram look as if two lovers are embracing each other with a kiss (wikiart.org)       What I find fascinating about The Kiss is that you can see Ray's thought process when visually putting together the photogram and just how raw the process is. The heads were given less light than the hands due to their visual transparency, but the hand on the right was not given enough light to create a white silhouette. Then to balance out the white hand, he purposely ma...

Lee Friedlander LEE FRIEDLANDER, Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota, 1969 The beauty of Friedlander's photographs comes from his ability to show everyday life as a piece of art. Friedlander has said, "You don't have to go out looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out and the pictures are staring at you" (artnet.com).  In Mt. Rushmore, Friedlander is capturing a couple gazing at Mount Rushmore. He allows the viewer to become a part of the picture using the glass behind the tourist to create another perspective, again using the ambiguous technique he is known for. By doing so, he is allowing the viewer to join the couple viewing the amazing feat of humanity. Not only does Friedlander capture a moment in time of what society was like in the late 1960s, but he adds another layer, by allowing the viewer to transport themselves back in time to witness the same experience as the couple admiring the monument.  I find this photograph fascinating to look at given its a...

    When talking about photography, it is not unusual to hear the expression, a picture is worth a thousand words . Heiferman says "To see and experience the world, we don't only look at images; we take them, and often." Photography is not just about taking a picture, but about capturing a moment in time. A moment in time that can make us feel a vast array of emotions, can teach us, can move us towards changing the world, all without saying a single word.      As a corporate communication major, I see photography as a boundless form of communication from the past to the present. Whether an artist is using photographs as a form of self-expression or a realtor is using photographs to sell a house. As Heiferman explains, photography has been used across all occupations, whether it be a museum curator, a geographer, or even a CIA agent. Each occupation has different uses for photography. A museum curator could see photography as a tool for art and to capture histori...