Alfred Steiglitz: The Steerage

As discussed, here are details about Alfred Steiglitz's photograph The Steerage, which was a turning point in modern photography. It helped photography come into its own and break away from the pictorial movement. It shows the obvious class struggle and divisions but also, there are great details in the shapes and lines in the composition.

http://www.artsmia.org/get-the-picture/stieglitz/frame08.html

Sam Abell: Cowboys, Composition and Layering

Here, as promised, is Sam Abell talking about his famous "Cowboy Photo." It is one of my favorites and a great example of layering in composition.

Week Three: Composition

In today's class we talked about composition which is the elements that make up our pictures. We looked at a number of examples of some of the basic rules of composition such as mergers, the rule of thirds, leading lines, simplicity, balance and framing. We also spent time looking at a number of photographs about "layering," particularly Sam Abell's photograph of a round-up of cattle.



A good simple reference for composition is this site by Kodak. The photos are dated, but it's a very simple slideshow that you can scroll through while looking at examples. Take a look: Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition

We looked at work from a number of photographers such as Susan Meiselas and her Carnival Strippers project, Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey but concentrated mostly on Henri Cartier-Bresson. He's my photography idol just like he is for thousands of other photographers. If you're interested in him at all, here is a great documentary made before his death.



Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

F-stop, shutter speed, depth of field, and lenses redux

This is yet another YouTube photography video. It is a 30-minute photography class discussion on much of what we talked about last class. There were a lot of blank stares which left me a bit worried. I put a variety of different instructional videos and websites because sometimes having another person explain something might help make things clearer.

In the video above, it can be a bit dry and there are a couple of student rants, but the instructor lays out the basics somewhat clearly.

Week Two: Fstops, Shutter Speeds, Lenses

Following up from last week, we again looked at f-stops (or apertures), shutter speeds, and depth of field. In making an exposure or taking a photograph, the elements that come into play are the amount of light let in through the f-stop, which is the size of the opening in the lense, the shutter speed, which is the amount of time the shutter is open, and the speed of iso/asa chosen (for example 100, 200, 400, etc.). We looked at examples of overexposed and underexposed pictures, examples of motion blur– a very common mistake–and purposeful blur in pictures using techniques such as panning.

Another item mentioned was light meters. We looked at examples of light meters and talked about the light meters that are in most cameras. A light meter measures the amount of light in a scene and will let us know how to set our camera appropriately so we can get the proper exposure in our pictures.



Next, we discussed lenses including wide-angles (8 mm or fisheyes-28 mm)-to normal (35mm–50mm)-to telephotos and also macro and micro lenses. Also mentioned were zoom lenses, which is a number of lenses all in one where you can zoom from wide-angle to telephoto. The type of lens along with your f-stop affect your depth of field or amount in focus.



Photographers we looked at this week were Mary Ellen Mark, Eugene Smith, Dorthea Lange, Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl, and we looked at a number of photographs from Eugene Richards who uses wide angle lenses very effectively to get close to people.

Chuck Close Interview on Charlie Rose (1 Hour)

Photographer Chuck Close is interviewed by Charlie Rose.

Photo Opening Reception at Associação Moçambicana de Fotografia.

Class One: Photo History and Intro to Exposure

In our first meeting we jumped into the history of photography starting off with KoKo the National Geographic cover gorilla and Nonja the orangutan in the Vienna Zoo at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, and established that the mechanics of photography is simple enough that an ape can do it with modern cameras.

It is not the camera who takes the picture, it is the photographer.

The evolution and development of cameras and photographic processes were looked at starting with the camera obscura, to the view camera, to the Kodak and Brownie consumer camera, to the large and medium formats like the Speed Graphic used by Weegee, to the Leica used by Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, to the modern day 35 mm Single Lens Reflex, and digital cameras.

We looked briefly at work from Ansel Adams including his Manzanar Project, and the work of Matthew Brady who was the first war photographer.

Finally we ended by starting on exposure looking at f-stops (also called apertures) and shutter speeds and looked at examples of overexposed (those with too much light) and underexposed (dark photos that did not get enough light exposure). F-stops as we discussed are the openings in the lens which let in a determined amount of light, while shutter speed is the time the shutter is open letting in light making an exposure.

Links:

Article: Daguerrotypes by Photographer Chuck Close
Camera Obscura
History of Photography Timeline.

Camera Obscura

Margaret Bourke-White

Joel Meyerowitz (Interview: 30 minutes)

Street Photographer Joei Meyerowitz, Visions and Images Series, Duke University Library Collection