Group Photo Project

Group projects can often be terrifying. Not that the work is any harder, but there is often (almost always) a person who doesn’t pull their weight. Thankfully, this experience was nothing like that. We all seemed to get on very well, cooperated fully, and respected deadlines. We set up a Facebook group and posted all of our work there. This was extremely helpful as none of our schedules allowed us to work together. After posting our photos to the group, we democratically chose the ones to be used in the presentation. No one seemed to feel that their favorites were left out. The experience was so positive, that I find it hard to think of what did not work. If anything, it might have helped if we could have taken shots together. We could have even set up our shots with the other members portraying “indifference.”

It was pleasing to find that themes came up within our shots, even if we had to shoot individually. Almost everyone came up with a shot of litter. It seemed to be a great marker of indifference and wasn’t hard for any of us to find. This gave our overall presentation a sense of continuity that can be hard to find in some groups.

The only thing I would change would be to get a better camera. I fully understand that great pictures can be taken with terrible equipment. However, it is incredibly difficult to compose a shot with no viewfinder and a two inch screen in daylight. Also, there are no controls over focus, zoom, or anything really on the library cameras. I took several shots that I thought would be my best only to find that they were out of focus, blurry, or otherwise skewed when I looked at them on my computer. Some compositional elements could have been taken care of in Photoshop (or GIMP in my case), but I’m still trying to focus on learning to take good photographs first.

This assignment has shown the importance of having just the right light, especially with limited equipment. A single passing cloud can turn a beautiful shot into noisy garbage. Also, communication was a key to the success of the project. Questions were asked and answered promptly and saved what could have been a mess considering our conflicting schedules. The schedule issue also taught a valuable lesson in time management. By setting group deadlines and giving flexibility within those limits, we managed to put together a project with little procrastination or stress.

This is the photo that I had the highest hopes for, but ended up being most disappointed in. The effect was supposed to be a shallow depth of field with a sharply focused tissue and blurred background. The camera was changed from distance to macro (its only configurable setting) and placed on the ground close to the subject. The subject was placed in the lower right third of the frame, leaving the textured grain of the granite to fill the remainder. Unfortunately, what looked great on the camera’s tiny screen did not pan out at full size. Also, tissues with brown stuff still on them are not the most attractive subject. I couldn’t see that on the screen either.

This shot is far more effective at conveying indifference, but is compositionally lacking. It was a cold winter day and everything was dead outside. As soon as we walked into the National Gallery of Art, it was filled with light and the colors of the flowers surrounding the fountain. I couldn’t believe this person was just standing there and texting apparently oblivious to the scene. I ended up pleased with the position of the man in the far left corner. Following the rule of thirds opened up the picture to what the person was ignoring. The flowers appear extra vibrant as well. They seem to have “Technicolor” look to them. This was not the result of any manipulation, but the happy accident of poor camera and mixed lighting.

The picture did not turn out nearly as well as I’d hoped. The top of the fountain is cut off, the “horizon” where the floor meets the wall is directly in the center, the tree is leaning at an odd angle, the far right column has a bad tangent with the edge of the frame, and the flowers turned out blurry.

This is a photo of a disabled homeless man panhandling at the corner of 31^st and M streets in Georgetown. This photo works compositionally with the street sloping down to the left and toward the back of the frame. The geometric lines of the crosswalk draw the eye directly to the subject. The distance from the subject suggests a loneliness and isolation reinforced by the fact that not a single person is paying any attention to the man. His position directly against the wall of a liquor store not only shows his difficulty in avoiding the cold wind, but comments on one of the most prevalent problems affecting many homeless: drug and alcohol abuse. The brightly lit stores across the street suggest a world of rampant consumerism just around the corner, yet far removed, from a man begging for change.

This was the most difficult shot to take due to the numerous cars, pedestrians, and rapidly changing light. As such, it required the most preparation, but returned the best photo in the end. It was not used in the group presentation.

Benetton and the Art of Persuasion

Beginning in 1989, retail outlet Benetton began using what may best be called activist advertising. While the images seem to have little to do with clothing, they follow the familiar path of promoting a company’s values rather than their product. By using images that seem to say: “this is what we stand for,” Benetton hopes to bring attention to issues they feel are important and sell clothes to those who agree. Is this unethical? Is it even uncommon?

In the middle of the Tyson’s Corner mall, there is an information booth about a rural Virginia military school. Signs are dominated by image, not text. What is shown are photos of uniformed boys, crosses, and the words “Christian values.” Like the Benetton ad, the images tell you little of what you are buying, but they show you the values that your purchase will support. Appealing to a specific set of values can be a highly effective tool of persuasion.

Benetton made the bold decision to come down firmly on the side of progressive values and social justice. The original ads were a simply call to racial harmony. Multiethnic subjects were photographed in friendly and intimate situations. While a photo of a white man kissing a black woman may not seem all that strange, it was still considered mildly subversive two decades ago. The images seem to suggest a company trying to say: “we are for everybody.”

Do the advertisements count as propaganda? The answer to that question often depends on how one feels about the message. I think a picture of a priest kissing a nun is a brilliant satirical commentary on the manner in which fundamentalist sexual control endangers the world, represses women, and speeds the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. A devout Catholic would probably find the depiction demeaning or offensive. I’ve known Catholics that would have had no problem labeling this “liberal propaganda.”

Persuasion is the fundamental goal of all advertising. Advertisers may choose any number of methods to persuade us to shop at their store or use their service. If a company chooses a manner that highlights serious issues instead of the latest fad, so be it. Advertising of this nature may end up being the type that is remembered longest; after all, we are still talking about the campaign twenty years later.   

Walter Iooss at the Newseum

Walter Ioos's “Stickball Players in Havana Cuba” is an excellent example of photography's ability to freeze a moment in time. The wide-angle black and white shot has an asymmetric group of subjects placed in a symmetrical background. The viewer is placed eye-level with the stickball players and is given the sense they are in the scene, possibly the pitcher. The photographer's position in the intersection not only provides a visually interesting, first-person, perspective, but gives the street corner the feel of a stage. The fast shutter speed freezes the motion of the ball as well as the swinging of the batter. All eyes are trained on the ball as it approaches the hitter. The subjects' gaze bring an intense sense of determination and focus to the picture. The deep depth of field allows every face and the entire background to remain in focus. The emphasis is clearly on the ball and the concentration of the player's faces on it. The perspective of the walls coming together at the corner in the center of the photograph draws the viewer's gaze to the center. The fixed stares of the players all drawing to the center lead the eye to the small ball suspended, motionless, in mid air.

This photo is incredibly successful in capturing the moment and excitement of young children playing stickball. This is one of the reasons I was drawn to the photo. I'm not a sports fan and have very little time for them anyway. However, when I saw this photo, I was instantly reminded of the pure simple joy of wadding up a ball of tape and hitting it with a stick. By focusing entirely on a street corner filled with kids a split-second before a swing, the photographer manages to capture something universal. It doesn't matter what the politics or economics of the country are. At that moment, in those kids' lives, nothing is more important than the game being played.

  

Experiments with GIMP!

I shot three self portraits over the last two weeks. All photos were processed using the free and open source GIMP program. All of the capabilities of Photoshop are included in GIMP. As I had never used either program outside of class, I didn't find the learning curve too difficult.

This first photo is a portrait of my son and me. It was taken using a Motorola mobile phone camera and the old “outstretched arm” technique. Using the GIMP color menu, I decreased the hue by 10 points and the lightness by 12 points. Under the same menu, I increased the color saturation by 20 points. I then applied the “sharpen” filter and increased the effect by 50 points.

This photo was taken in a bathroom with the same mobile phone camera. My face was nearly touching the mirror and my arm was held out to take the photo. I increased the brightness by 10 points and the contrast by 15 points. The “cubism” filter was applied with a tile size of 6.3 and a tile saturation of 2.1.

I took this photo in the same bathroom with the same camera. My face was further from the mirror and the camera was held closer to my face. I first adjusted the levels as shown in the class demonstration. I then increased the brightness by 15 points and the contrast by 9 points. Finally the “predator” filter was applied with default values.