Artist Statement - Self Portrait

I picked three picture that contain my figure. Two of them were my reflections from mirrors shoot by myself. Another one was shoot by someone else, who received my request. I think self-portrait is a very interesting topic. We rarely see ourself (appearance/movement) because most times we were watching others. We learned from others behaviors/ judges and shaped to please them. In the end, we forgot who we really are. Self-portraits force one to study one's own personas both physically and emotionally. It is an exploration to see behind the mirror and try to search into the soul.

History of Photography Project - Part 5

Dorothea Lange

Lange's 1936, Migrant Mother, Florence Owens Thompson

Dorothea born as second generation of German immigrants on May 26, 1895, in Hoboken, New Jersey. She was educated in photography in New York. With the onset of the Great Depression, Lange turned her camera lens from the studio to the street. Her studies of unemployed and homeless people captured the attention of local photographers and led to her employmentwith the federal Resettlement Administration (RA), later called the Farm Security Administration (FSA).From 1935 to 1939, Dorothea Lange's work for the RA and FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten — particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families, and migrant workers — to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, her poignant images became icons of the era.

Margaret Bourke White

An iconic photograph Margaret Bourke-White took of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1946

White was an American photographer and documentary photographer.She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of SovietIndustry, the first female war correspondent and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her photograph appeared on the first cover. She died of Parkinson's disease about eighteen years after she developed her first symptoms. Her photographs are in the Brooklyn Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Henri Cartier Bresson

GREECE. Cyclades. Island of Siphnos. 1961.

He was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" or "real life reportage" style that has influenced generations of photographers who followed. Cartier-Bresson achieved international recognition for his coverage of Gandhi's funeral in India in 1948 and the last stage of the Chinese Civil War. He covered the last six months of the Kuomintang administration and the first six months of the Maoist People's Republic. He also photographed the last surviving Imperial eunuchs in Beijing, as the city was falling to the communists. From China, he went on to Dutch East Indies, where he documented the gaining of independence from the Dutch.

Robert Capa

WWII

Robert was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, the Battle of Normandy on Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris. His action photographs, such as those taken during the 1944 Normandy invasion, portray the violence of war with unique impact. In 1947, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos with, among others, the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers.

history of Photography Project - Part 4

Felix Nadar

Nadar was a French writer, caricaturist, and photographer who is remembered primarily for his photographic portraits, which are considered to be among the best done in the 19th century. he sold caricatures to humor magazines, then opened a photographic portrait studio. His portraits were a hit, and he began to innovate, building a giant hot air balloon to take the world's first aerial photograph. He also shot the Paris sewer system under electric light, and experimented with serial photography.


Alexander Gardner

Gardner was a photographer of the American Civil War and of the American West during the latter part of the 19th century.Gardner probably moved to the United States in 1856. When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Gardner assisted Brady in his effort to make a complete photographic record of the conflict. His photographs President Lincoln on the Battlefield of Antietam (1862) and Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg(1863) and his portraits of Abraham Lincoln are among the best-known photographs of the war period. Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, a two-volume collection of 100 original prints, was published in 1866.


Timothy O'sullivan

O'Sullivan came to landscape photography after four years of experience photographing behind the lines and on the battlefields of the Civil War. A former assistant in Mathew Brady's New York studio, in 1861 he had joined the group known as "Brady's Photographic Corps," working with Alexander Gardner. Because Brady refused to credit the work of individual photographers, Gardner, taking O'Sullivan along, established his own Washington firm to publish war views. War images taken by O'Sullivan are wide-ranging in subject and direct in their message, including among them the weariness of 'inaction and continual waiting, and the horror of fields of the dead.


Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1870. After years of extreme poverty and hardship he finally found employment as a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877. In the 1880s his work gravitated towards reform and he worked with other New York reformers then crusading for better living conditions for the thousands of immigrants flocking to New York in search of new opportunities. His most popular work, How The Other Half Lives, became a pivotal work that precipitated much needed reforms and made him famous.Jacob Riis's photography, taken up to help him document the plight of the poor, made him an important figure in the history of documentary photography.

Artist Statement: Time

What is time? Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects. The objects of my films have different durations. The mountains were formed millions years ago and its changes are invisible in hundreds years. The trees germinated a few decades ago and they grow in hundreds years if environment is stable. The human beings rarely live longer than a hundred years and they are changing significantly each year. However, human's memory could last generations by generations in different forms, such as an oil portrait, a diary, or a photograph. If we take a look of our films after ten years, the mountains and trees will probably still stand in the same places with similar shapes. But ten years  will give a great influence on every people we shot, they might be married or divorced, successful or desperate, rich or poor, alive or dead.... time will tell....

History of Photography Project - Part 3

Lewis Hine

"Ivey Mill. Little one, 3 years old, who visits and plays in the mill. Daughter of the overseer. Hickory, N.C." 

Hine was born in Wisconsin and, after a series of jobs following high school and some training in art, he enrolled briefly at the University of Chicago. He took his students out into the country to photograph nature, but he also led them all around New York, photographing the economic life of the city and its inhabitants. One of Hine's strongest interests was the immigrants who were coming through Ellis Island in such great numbers, arriving from Russia, Ireland, Italy, and other lands, and settling in New York at that time. Hine was working within a tradition of documentarypPhotography that had been established in the late 1880s by Jacob Riss, who also focused on social conditions on Mantattan's Lower East Side, where many immigrants settled. Beyond his Ellis island and Lower East Side work, Hine was interested in furthering social reform and in changing the ways in which Americans viewed the working class. 

Richard Leach Maddox (Gelatin Dry Plate Process)

Dr. Richard Maddox, an English physician, worked on photo-micrography and wrote on various photographic topics, but it was not until 1871 that his greatest contribution to the science of photography was made. Up to his time, wet collodion plates were being used. These required that coating, exposure and development be done whilst the solution was still wet, and soon the need for pre-prepared plates became evident.In an article in the British Journal of Photography for 8 September 1871 he suggested a process whereby the sensitising chemicals could be coated on a glass plate in a Gelatinemulsion, instead of wet collodion.In 1901 Maddox received the Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal for inventions that led to the foundation of the dry plate and film industry. 

George Eastman - (Rolled Photographic Film)

George Eastman invented a dry-plate photographic system, and later the system of film on rolls of gelatin-coated paper, which effectively superceded the previous system of chemicals, glass tanks, and heavy plate holders that kept photography out of the reach of all but professionals and the most dedicated hobbyists. "What we were doing", he later said, "was not merely making dry plates, but [making] photography an everyday affair."

In 1888 he invented the "snapshot" camera, under the name Kodak. One of the first brand names invented from nonsense syllables, Eastman said he called it Kodak because he was fond of the sound of the letter K. As his Kodak cameras and film rolls (manufactured for use in either his own or competitors' cameras) became more and more popular and profitable, Eastman pioneered an employee dividend system that made his workers part-owners of the firm, and he gave millions of dollars to the Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and smaller but still generous sums to the Tuskegee Institute.

Alfred Stieglitz 

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1864, and schooled as an engineer in Germany, Alfred Stieglitz returned to New York in 1890 determined to prove that photography was a medium as capable of artistic expression as painting or sculpture. As the editor of Camera Notes, the journal of the Camera Club of New York—an association of amateur photography enthusiasts—Stieglitz espoused his belief in the aesthetic potential of the medium and published work by photographers who shared his conviction. When the rank-and-file membership of the Camera Club began to agitate against his restrictive editorial policies, Stieglitz and several like-minded photographers broke away from the group in 1902 to form the Photo-Secession, which advocated an emphasis on the craftsmanship involved in photography. Most members of the group made extensive use of elaborate, labor-intensive techniques that underscored the role of the photographer's hand in making photographic prints, but Stieglitz favored a slightly different approach in his own work. 

Three Movie reviews

First Review

The documentary film Life Through A Len not only tell us the personal growth of Annie Leibovitz, but also show us the development of commercial photography in U.S. in the past four decade. I think it is a great film for anyone who is interested in photography or American pop culture.

Annie is a independent professional woman who represents all key elements of American spirits. Her life is a a story of faith, Effort,expectation, and desire,and something evermore about to be. As a modern woman I learned a lot from her. No matter what she has been through, Annie never give up with her love of photography.

What I found quite interesting is Annie's approach of taking celebrity portrait, particularly during the rolling stone period. She had very sharp eyes on uncovering one's personalities. However, I feel that her approach has been changed in the recent years. 

Her pictures for fashion magazine didn't speak out celebrities real personalities behind the scene. Compare to her recent pictures shoot in U.K. with a lots of decorative sets and post-productions, her pictures of rolling stone tour seems more appealing to me. I think that was Annie's golden time as a portraitist.




Second Review

Sally Mann is considered to be the Francis Ford Coppola of photography. Mann came into the public eye in 1992 with her book entitled "Immediate Family." Her beautiful portraits of her three children in different scenes of nature gained rave reviews.

After that Mann became a target of conservatives people and the Christian Right group. They accused her for publishing child pornography. I think it's true that many of the films feature her children posing nude, however, they are not in a exploitative way.

After ten year after documenting the controversy on Mann's work, Steven Cantor decided follow up with Mann in her latest series concerning on death and decomposition. The first half of the film described Mann's life from her childhood to her marriage.

The second half of the documentary start with Mann's inspiration of her last project: a death incident of an escaped prisoner killed by police on her farm. After she observed the area of the incident, she got the inspiration to exam what happens to our remained bodies.

I think Mann's pictures really speak for themselves. It is so tragic to see these rotting corpse. Her pictures are surreal and illuminating at same time. Like her photography, Mann herself are open to communicate. She is very proud of her Pictures, and knows her reason to shot and select pictures.




Third Review
This documentary on Keith Carter took audiences to look through his career, techniques, and philosophy. His enigmatic, eye-catching photos had broadly exhibited in the world and he received a lots of academic awards. The film featured with some guest interviews, such as Anne Wilkes Tucker, and Horton Foote. 

In addition, Carter discussed about the stories behind his favorite photographs. Finally, he demonstrated a step-by-step darkroom session on toning. When he worked in the darkroom I can feel the atmosphere he has created to be concentrated on photography. He also gave some personal tips to photographic lovers.

Mr. Carter has a very sufficient method to explain his views.He ventures out into the world, truly communicates with others. I think the best word to describe Carter's photography is humanity, sometimes it is revealing, oftentimes it is mysterious, but it is always informed by the human experiences. 

It gave me inspiration of my photography assignments. He captures everyday elements of life, “reminding you of things you’ve deep down always known but somehow forgotten, because life has a nasty habit of simply becoming too daily, too dependent on thought at the expense of feel,” says an essay by Bill Wittliff. As I gaze these images, they just sing to me with a feeling of surrealism and contemplation.

 

History of Photography Project - Part 2

Frederick Scott Archer (wet plate collodion process)
In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer introduced a wet plate process, sometimes referred to as the collodion process after the carrier material used. The process is simple: a bromide, iodide, or chloride is dissolved in collodion. This mixture is poured on a cleaned glass plate, which is allowed to sit until the coating gels but is still moist. The plate is then placed in a silver nitrate solution, which converts the iodide, bromide, or chloride to silver iodide, bromide or chloride. Once the reaction is complete, the plate is removed from the silver nitrate solution and exposed in a camera while still wet. The plate loses sensitivity as it dries, requiring it to be coated and sensitized immediately before use. It must also be developed while still moist, using a solution of iron sulfate, acetic acid and alcohol in water. By the end of 1850s it had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype.
 
A portable photography studio in 19th century Ireland. The wet collodion process sometimes gave rise to portable darkrooms, as photographic images needed to be developed while the plate was still wet.


Roger Fenton
After studying law in London, Roger Fenton trained as a painter in London and Paris. He exhibited his paintings and helped found a drawing school that gave evening instruction to working men in London. Active in the arts, Fenton corresponded with French photographers Gustave Le Gray and Henri Le Secq, which may have led him to pursue photography. Fenton's photographic career was brilliant yet brief. Although his subject matter covered a broad range, he was a photographer for just twelve years. He became one of the founders of the Photographic Society in London and photographed the British royal family. In 1852 he made what are believed to be the first photographs of Russia and the Kremlin. In 1853 the British Museum invited him to document some of their collections. His photographs of the Crimea in 1855 were the first large-scale photographic documentation of war. In addition, Fenton made landscapes, architectural studies of historical landmarks, Orientalist genre studies, and still lifes. Although Fenton exhibited and sold his own photographs, he apparently grew disdainful of the increasing commercialization of photography. In October 1862 he suddenly gave it up, selling off his negatives and equipment and returning to the practice of law. 

View from Ivans Tower, Kremlin

Francis Frith

Francis Frith was born at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England in 1822 to a Quaker family. A successful grocer, and later, printer, Frith fostered an interest in photography, becoming a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Frith sold his companies in 1855 in order to dedicate himself entirely to photography.

From 1856 to 1860 Frith made three photographic expeditions to Egypt and Palestine. His work appeared in books published by the London firms of James S. Virtue and William Mackenzie between 1858 and 1865, and as stereographs published by Negretti and Zambra in 1862.

In 1859, Frith established F. Frith and Company at Reigate in Surrey, which produced and distributed photographs and stereographs for albums and book illustrations. The company also made international travel views from Italy, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Japan, China, and India, as well as an extensive body of work in Great Britain in the late nineteenth-century. One of the first mass-producers of photographs in England, F. Frith and Co. closed in 1960.

Frith died in Cannes, France in 1898.

 

Francis Frith 

Julia Margaret Cameron

After receiving a camera as a gift, Julia Margaret Cameron began her career in photography at the age of forty-eight. She produced the majority of her work from her home at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. By the coercive force of her eccentric personality, she enlisted everyone around her as models, from family members to domestic servants and local residents. The wife of a retired jurist, Cameron moved in the highest circles of society in Victorian England. She photographed the intellectuals and leaders within her circle of family and friends, among them the portrait painter George Frederick Watts, the astronomer Sir John Herschel, and the Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson. She derived much of her subject inspiration from literature, and her work in turn influenced writers. In addition to literature, she drew her subject matter from the paintings of Raphael, Giotto, and Michelangelo, whose works she knew through prints that circulated widely in late nineteenth-century England. Summing up her influences, Cameron stated her photographic mission thus: "My aspirations are to ennoble Photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art by combining the real and Ideal and sacrificing nothing of the Truth by all possible devotion to Poetry and beauty." 

An 1864 photo by Julia Margaret Cameron of her husband, Charles Hay Cameron (1795-1881).

The Juxtaposition of Masculine and Feminine

I have choose three pictures to present my first project. I really enjoyed the process of taking photos, developing films, and printing them. I believe every individual is a complex of masculinity and femininity. I choses two women's images because both subjects are beautiful and strong inside. The Chinese girl is my college friend, who was spoiled by her parents but became independent through her last three-year study aboard experience. Another women was a striper I met on the street. She was very nice that allow me to take pictures of her. She told me her company's policy require her take off her coat before picture was taken. I have no idea what she has been through but under the sunshine she just looks beautiful and friendly. The third picture was taken at the entrance of a magical store. He is a model of magician who supposes to be powerful and scary. However, I think he was less strong/masculine than the previous two women. He was just a man made model that could easily be broken. My final thought is we should not judge people based on their appearances. A person with most feminine appearance may also has a masculine mind.