Today we continued with our meeting discussion from 3-12-16 and the notion of the "body politic"...not the political aspects...but rather the visual aspects of how the photographic images of politicians help us form opinions about those we vote for. Many brought their special politician image and discussed some of the things we need to consider as we gaze on these images. Jim pointed out that "distortion" of images are designed to convey something bad about that person; Scott pointed out how a "single picture" can convey the good and the bad of a candidate...depending on your personal political view; Charles noted that any image can be "picked" from the thousands taken of the candidate; other comments..."it depends on the bias of the publication publishing the picture"..."the importance of a captions"..."body language is critical"..."candidate in wrong place"..."video conveys other types of information"...."bias of publications influence visuals"..."visual depends on country"...."a particular posture defines a politician" Below are some of pictures that were brought to the meeting... Lots more discussion on the role of imaging in the political process...thanks to all that participated From there we drifted into a discussion of one of our most iconic photographers Walker Evans. The question posed was ..."why do we view him as a great photographer?"...why is he so famous?" Jim reviewed his history as a photographer... Part of FSA photographers Taught at Yale Was a photo-editor of magazines Had lot of art connections in NYC Used view camera His photography showed things in reality ..."as is" Color was "vulgar" Interested inimaging...not production First exhibit of photography at MOMA Published famous book... Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a book with text by American writer James Agee and photographs by American photographer Walker Evans, first published in 1941 in the United States. The work documents the lives of impoverished sharecroppers during the great depression. Although it is in keeping with Evans' work with the Farm Security Administration, the project was initiated not by the FSA, but by Fortune Magazine. The title is from a passage in the Wisdom of Sirach (44:1) that begins, "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us". Clearly, Evans contributed a significant body of work and was a trail blazer in the world of photography exhibitions and photography books.
Lastly, Bill showed some recent art images from his friend, Jim Radke, in Springfield MO. Jim is mostly shooting with his iPhone and adding his recent drawings on Coffee Filters to the images. Creative and artistic. Jim shoots and posts something on his blog everyday. Below is the link to his website and some examples of his "coffee filter art" https://jamesradke.wordpress.com
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“If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.” – Jay Maisel Today we met at the Walt Girdner Gallery here in Pasadena gratefully arranged by Minh Thai, the gallery director. The gallery currently has an exhibit by our guest Jamie Eisman...on display until April 2nd. Jamie started as a painter but quickly realized that photography was his life's calling. His career has lead him to fashion, medical, photojournalism and lastly to abstract street and architectural photography. For complete biography check out his website. A major portion of his career has been with NGOs in Africa and Central America. With his varied career, he has always kept his visual eye looking for the artistic shots. Jamie showed pictures drawn from the diversity of his photographic career. Below are just a few. The more recent extension of his career is into the landscape aesthetic...see below Check out Jamie's website...
http://www.je2associates.com Other photography of note... "Phantom Ball: 23 Years of Side Street Projects" / at Union Gallery-Curatorial Assistance Includes pictures from John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, James Welling and others No pictures today...just great discussion starting with our current political reality show now being played out by the GOP. After we dissected the candidates, their views and their interactions, we discussed the implications for all of us as citizens and voters in the upcoming presidential election. Lots of scary stuff. We then made an intellectual shift to how visual images help shape our attitudes towards the candidates. The still images in print media, the images on live TV, the role of social media in imaging and finally how captions of images influence our understanding and interpretation of the candidates. We discussed the role of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram influencing the narrative of the political races. We agreed, an interesting exercise would be for each of us to bring in a picture of any candidate to the meeting on March 19th...from any medium...print, TV, social media or internet. We will collectively look and interpret the image.
Howard and Kevin discussed the current Catherine Opie exhibit at the Hammer one of three Opie exhibits in LA...Hammer, LACMA and MOCA. |
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