Warning!
The following photographs show extreme firearms. Nothing is loaded, but Everything was handled with extreme care, and in the supervision of an adult. Theses photographs are to be seen as artistic expression, and nothing else. With that in mind, please enjoy.
The following photographs show extreme firearms. Nothing is loaded, but Everything was handled with extreme care, and in the supervision of an adult. Theses photographs are to be seen as artistic expression, and nothing else. With that in mind, please enjoy.
Title: America
Exhibition Text
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This picture is an artistic expression on a political statement. America has so many bad things that we need to make better. There are so many hurtful stereotypes, social standards, and miss guided ideas people see as more important. In this project, I wanted to show what I think of when I think of the worst parts of America, right next to what I think of when I think of the best parts. The bad part of America was inspired by Migrant Mother photographed by Dorothea Lange, and Gerda Taro. |
Inspiration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I took inspiration from Dorothea Lange, and Gerda Taro. The biggest thing I took from the images was the idea of these images, and the light and tone editing. There is an idea of violence and fear within each picture. There are people in need of help in both of Dorothea's and Gerda's photos. And in my image, there are also two scared looking girls. My photograph is all about the worst parts of America, and in these two images by Dorothea Lange and Gerda Taro, all I see is bad, and saddens. When I was first looking for inspiration and saw migrant mother by Dorothea Lange, it reminded me of some of the bad things people see. Then I saw the images by Greda Taro, and it made me think about how America likes guns way too much. Then came the idea of taking a photograph with almost every bad thing I can think of about America. The way Gerda Taro’s photos had the light beige hue was an inspiration to how I wanted to edit my photo. I thought it gave it an old look, and set a tone for the image. This is because the beige hue gives the images kind of an ominous feeling. If I were to edit the main image the way I edited the side photograph, it wouldn't give the same feeling. An image with the saturation high, and highlights really shining threw, makes an image feel whimsical, and “cutsie,” which definitely is not the tone I want to set for my main image. Something different I noticed about my photograph, and the two I took inspiration from was probably the process. I had to take so many pictures until I was able to find which one was my favorite. I moved the props and girls around, did it in a couple of different spots, and used so many different angles. I don’t think that Gerda Taro would have asked people to do different poses while taking pictures during the civil war. Or that Dorothea Lange would have used props or moved people around to different locations when taking pictures to document the depression. |
Planning
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My plan was to make this photo kind of chaotic, just like America. Like stated before, I wanted to make a photo showing the worst of America. I wanted to show weapons, because there are a lot of people in this world who feel like the 2nd Amendment is the most important thing in the world, and damn the feelings and safety of others. I specifically had a authentic wooden baton, used by someone in my family. it was hand crafted by a friend of that family member, and was used in the University of Texas shooting on August 1st, 1966. I also wanted a bunch of trash and shipping boxes in the photo, because the amount of useless garbage we get rid of is horrendous. I was also planing on having pieces of paper with slanderous words on them on the wall behind the girls to show all the words I have personalty heard people stay to women, but I backed out of that because I felt that it would be too much going on in one photo. I originally wanted to have 3 different girls in the photo, one girl to show how people treat women who has a pant size higher than 3, a girl to show how people treat women who they think of as just an object, and a women to show how wrong a stereotype can be. However, the second girl could not show, so I just had the other 2 girls. once I found out what type of girls I wanted in the shoot, I came up the outfits. |
My plan was to just show the bad parts of America, but after talking to one of the girls, she asked if we could do a small shoot just for us where we can have a happy side. I of course said yes because she is my friend, and she was helping me, so I wanted her to leave my place happy. But after I thought for a bit, I realized I could do that as part of my project. 1 photo to show the bad, and 1 photo to show the good, the the bad is the main part of the project. When I realized that that is what I wanted to do, I asked the girls to wear outfits they really like, and to bring something they love doing.
When that was all figured out, we set a time to meet at my house, and I got everything ready. I picked where I wanted to take the photos at my place, I chose the basement. I chose to shoot the picture in my basement, because it gave off the vibe I wanted, spooky and ominous. I had 2 spots in my basement in mind, so when the girls got to my place, we just played around with positions of props, and how the girls were sitting. how we set up the photo shoot in one spot, we did it in the other, that way, if I didn't like the look of the background in one picture, hopefully I would like it with a different picture. After I took the picture, I picked my favorite, I then took it to an editing app. At first I wanted to have the final photo have some color, so it doesn't seem so dull, but after i edited the photo to either look a little more like Gerda Taro's or Dorotheras Lange's pictures, I realized I liked the image that looked like Taro's photo the most out of all 3 edits.
When that was all figured out, we set a time to meet at my house, and I got everything ready. I picked where I wanted to take the photos at my place, I chose the basement. I chose to shoot the picture in my basement, because it gave off the vibe I wanted, spooky and ominous. I had 2 spots in my basement in mind, so when the girls got to my place, we just played around with positions of props, and how the girls were sitting. how we set up the photo shoot in one spot, we did it in the other, that way, if I didn't like the look of the background in one picture, hopefully I would like it with a different picture. After I took the picture, I picked my favorite, I then took it to an editing app. At first I wanted to have the final photo have some color, so it doesn't seem so dull, but after i edited the photo to either look a little more like Gerda Taro's or Dorotheras Lange's pictures, I realized I liked the image that looked like Taro's photo the most out of all 3 edits.
Experimentation
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Because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, there wasn't really a lot of experimentation I needed to do. The only experimentation I really did, was changing between locations and the positions the girls were in. In the photos above, there are some photos
Reflection
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This may be my favorite set of pictures I have ever taken. honestly, I feel like the only thing that went wrong was that 1 girl couldn't go the the photo shoot. Though, I did find it quite difficult to ask my friends to be in the picture to play as specific roles. Especially the girl I asked to be the one showing how America makes people with a pant size higher than 3. It was very difficult to ask with out sounding like a bad person, or making it seem like I was attacking her. But after I reassured her that what I was asking her to do was out of nothing but love, it was easier to talk about the photo shoot. The only thing I might want to improve on is my social skills, because then maybe I could have asked a little better.
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This may be my favorite set of pictures I have ever taken. honestly, I feel like the only thing that went wrong was that 1 girl couldn't go the the photo shoot. Though, I did find it quite difficult to ask my friends to be in the picture to play as specific roles. Especially the girl I asked to be the one showing how America makes people with a pant size higher than 3. It was very difficult to ask with out sounding like a bad person, or making it seem like I was attacking her. But after I reassured her that what I was asking her to do was out of nothing but love, it was easier to talk about the photo shoot. The only thing I might want to improve on is my social skills, because then maybe I could have asked a little better.
Compare and Contrast
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Similarities and Differences
Similarities-
- muted of color. - monotone. - theme of war, and fear. - background with dark and light tones. - fear could be seen as a theme for each piece. - weapons are shown. Differences- - the inspiration piece is in the middle of an actual war, while my photo is about an unspoken war between the people of america. - outside versus inside. - Taro's photo have no females shown. - I didn't have a professional camera to take my picture. - Taro's piece has the people shown as the subjects of the photo, however in mine, the people aren't the only focus of the photo, everything in that photo was intentionally placed for their own reasons, and the objects are just as important to the photo as the people are. |
Similarities and Differences
Similarities-
- muted of color. - monotone. - children are shown in each photo. - at least one female in each photo. - fear could be seen as a theme. - sadness could also be sen as a theme. Differences- - Lange's photo is all black and white, mine has a very dull orange tone to it. - three people versus two. - Lange's piece was to spread awareness about the great depression, while mine is to spread awareness about some bad things I see about America. - Lange's photograph also has people as the subjects of the photo, while mine has both the people and the objects as the focus. |
ACT Questions
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Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause and effect relationship between your inspiration and it's effect on your artwork.
The distressed feeling of Taro's photo, and sadness i saw in Lange's photo inspired me to make a dull toned political photograph of my own.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Taro, who I took most of my inspiration from, had a goal of photographing the stresses of war, so she set out to do just that, to be a photojournalist of the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, she ended up becoming the first women photojournalist to have died while covering the front line of the war.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Researching Taro's photograph from the war, I read that a man named Robert Capa had gotten more attention than Gerda Taro's photos. This somewhat upset me, because they both died as a photojournalist in a war, while on an assignment, and were both really good at their job. This may just be a bias because i am also a female, but I think that her photos are better, and I think he only had gotten more recognition for his work at the time because he is a man, and at that time, sexism was a huge problem. People may have expected her to die in a such a dangerous setting, and not him.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
War, fear, and distress were the themes of my photograph, and is what I took inspiration from. Taro's image was about an actual war, but mine is about a war withing society in America. Lange's photo showed the fear and sadness in ones eye during the Great Depression, while mine shows the emotions of two different people who in America.
What inferences did you make while reading your research?
i can infer that photographers like Gerda Taro and Dorothea Lange are really important for the world. To know of not one, but two really good female photographers who took such pride in what they did, and went against the norm, and made sure they spread awareness about what was going on in the world at that time, is very inspiring. And I' m sure it was inspiring to other females of their time as well.
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Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause and effect relationship between your inspiration and it's effect on your artwork.
The distressed feeling of Taro's photo, and sadness i saw in Lange's photo inspired me to make a dull toned political photograph of my own.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Taro, who I took most of my inspiration from, had a goal of photographing the stresses of war, so she set out to do just that, to be a photojournalist of the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, she ended up becoming the first women photojournalist to have died while covering the front line of the war.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Researching Taro's photograph from the war, I read that a man named Robert Capa had gotten more attention than Gerda Taro's photos. This somewhat upset me, because they both died as a photojournalist in a war, while on an assignment, and were both really good at their job. This may just be a bias because i am also a female, but I think that her photos are better, and I think he only had gotten more recognition for his work at the time because he is a man, and at that time, sexism was a huge problem. People may have expected her to die in a such a dangerous setting, and not him.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
War, fear, and distress were the themes of my photograph, and is what I took inspiration from. Taro's image was about an actual war, but mine is about a war withing society in America. Lange's photo showed the fear and sadness in ones eye during the Great Depression, while mine shows the emotions of two different people who in America.
What inferences did you make while reading your research?
i can infer that photographers like Gerda Taro and Dorothea Lange are really important for the world. To know of not one, but two really good female photographers who took such pride in what they did, and went against the norm, and made sure they spread awareness about what was going on in the world at that time, is very inspiring. And I' m sure it was inspiring to other females of their time as well.
Bibliography
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“Gerda Taro.” International Center of Photography, 27 Feb. 2020, www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all%2Fall%2Fall%2Fall%2F0.
“MoMA Learning.” MoMA, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother-nipomo-california-1936/.
“Gerda Taro.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Taro.
“Robert Capa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 May 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Capa.
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“Gerda Taro.” International Center of Photography, 27 Feb. 2020, www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all%2Fall%2Fall%2Fall%2F0.
“MoMA Learning.” MoMA, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother-nipomo-california-1936/.
“Gerda Taro.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Taro.
“Robert Capa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 May 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Capa.