DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
Isaak Solberg
Reading Response #1
This week we delved into the Work of photographer and street artist JR and his Global Art Projects, specifically his Inside Out Project which aims to bring light to minority individuals and groups via photography that is printed out in a blown-up format that allows the individual or group to port it where others will see and bring attention to their personal issue or make it known their feelings. This style of work stemmed from his early 28mm projects which saw JR using a 28mm lens to force him to get close to his subjects and gain their trust and learn their story in the process and much like his later Inside out Project, he would print post these photos on a large scale to bring attention to the people's stories. JR stresses the importance for people to occupy their spaces with their stories that show who they are at how they feel about the issues around them. Additionally, along a similar line, he stipulates that the specific environment that the art is being displayed in has just as much importance in the context and meaning of the art that the actual photography or subject does as it adds almost all of the context and additional history to the movement that the specific photo can not. For my photos in response to the Inside Out Project and the other works by JR from the readings is the street art culture of portrait painting and photography painting of famous social icons created posthumously by supporters of their's to express their sadness and or bring attention to their untimely death or cause.
Reading Response #2
This week's reading response focuses on the work of two modern-day photographers, Bryan Schutmaat and Robert Adams who both use an older style of physical film photography to capture the unique landscapes of the American West and its rich history and cultures. Bryan Schutmaat’s interview focus on his specific series Grays The Mountain Sends which follows Schutmaat and his cameras as they travel across the 21st century Mid/Western United States and through Portraits and Landscape shots reflects on the death of the ‘American Dream’ the impact of mining and oil practices on communities and the land and the relationship between people and the land. He attempts to demonstrate the West’s cultural identity and how it has been shaped by proximity to wilderness. The essay dissects the Work of Robert Adam from the 1960s, with a focus on the landscape and portraits from the American west high plateau region of Colorado. While it is far more in-depth and analytical his work discusses “discourse originated in the metropolises’ disurbanization following the cold war and the nuclear menace” Which in his work is shown via the impact the nuclear plants in Colorado producing plutonium for the arms race had on the people and communities. In the end, though much like the work of Schutmaat, Robert Adam is reflecting ‘without irony, the transformation of that landscape by human activity in much the same way just a few decades earlier. Continuing back in time, the five photos I chose in response to this week's reading are along much the same lines of showing the relationship between the people and the land and the history left behind but I decided to go all the way back to when it began and have chosen photos from the westward expansion and the mining boom of the American West. It gives a unique counter perspective of Adam and Schutmaat who show the impact of what this all started.
Reading Response #3
This week's reading response focuses on the work of Lauren Greenfield, an American artist, documentary photographer, and filmmaker, and The Fisherwoman, a short piece by Toni Morrison who was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. In the reading and interview with Lauren Greenfield, we are introduced to her work photographing teens in Los Angeles in the 1990s with a focus on how they “seem to grow up quickly under the influence of Hollywood, and how they are affected by the culture of materialism and the cult of image” which would eventually lead the photo that would change her carrier, a photo of a couple of groups of teens driving by the beach in this photo we see a young girl who to the viewer is a plethora of different things based on their unique background but in the end, she is simply perceived as a young girl rich like her friends. In reality, she is not nearly as affluent as her friends but from the image alone this is not what we see as important there is a projected facade. Similarly, in The Fisherwoman we witness the character creates a certain image of the woman based on what he saw which affects how he feels about the woman, “An image can determine not only what we know and feel, but also what we believe is worth knowing about what we feel”. I think that the point of these readings was to show how images can affect how we perceive certain situations and we are constantly projecting our own persona onto others and having others do the same. As such, the photos I have chosen in response are from Photographer Bill Owens and his series titled Suburbia where he photographed people in a northern California suburbia in the late 60s. These images do an excellent job of showing how purple projects who they want to be through images as well as how the subjects are changed based on the experience of the viewer.
Reading Response #4
This week's reading response was not for a reading but rather a mixed media web experience that is “Part book, part film, part family photo album” called Welcome to Pine Point. This interactive documentary features a lot of historical photos and videos showcasing the people that used to live in Pine Point and the lives that they lived there. The main goal of this project is to show “what happens when you lose your job, when everyone you know loses their job, when your entire town is out of work, is shut down and dismantled, and completely disappears”. The heavy use of portrait photography both candid and posed allows the audience to get a very personal look at these people. The piece I have chosen in response to this project is also a mixed media interactive documentary of sorts. With more of a focus on creating an immersive virtual reality world that incorporates still photography to tell the story. The Project titled Roxham follows photographer Michel Huneault as he documents asylum seekers attempting to cross the US-Canada border at a small road called Roxham rd. Since the project is a virtual web experience I had to screenshot ceratin aspects but I found it to be similar enough to be a reflection on Pine Point but still unique enough to add a new perspective and style to documenting portraits nad the lives of people.
