Alexander Laubscher | Photography 1 (ART-227)

  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...