Food for Thought

Vanishing Coast: A Photography Exhibition by Michael Barrientos

21 November – 2 December, 2009

Admission Free

Exhibition Hours: Daily: 9:00 – 12:00/14:00 – 17:00

Associação Moçambicano de Fotografia (AMF)
618 Avenida Julius Nyerere
(Across the Street from the Avenida Hotel)
Maputo, Mozambique

for more information see: vanishingcoast.info

Photo Essays & Picture Stories

We had our long-lost final class this week about picture stories and photo essays. A picture story is a group of photographs that has a beginning, middle, and end. A photo essay is a group of themed group of photographs that is stronger as a group that as individual pictures. We looked at several of my own projects including personal family examples: a picture story of my first child's birth, and a photo essay of portraits of my little boy at different places around the United States. In examples from my professional work, we looked at a picture story I did on homeless people in Florida who went from living on the street to getting their own home; we saw a photo essay of different Elvis impersonators.

For the quintessential photo essay, we examined several stories from photographer W. Eugene Smith who is the father of the genre. Some stories we looked at included: Spanish Village, Country Doctor, Nurse Midwife, Pittsburgh and MInamata. His work can be found at both the Magnum website and on Google who has a library of classic LIFE Magazine photographs online now. It's a wonderful place to spend time looking at great photography.

I recapped some of the things we talked about such as framing, layering, and light. But, most importantly, I spoke again about physically moving yourself. You can think of yourself as they predator and your subject as the prey and circle them or it, as the case may be. Stand up on a chair, get down low on the ground, try different perspectives: just move. You may find a great picture by simply moving or getting closer and paying attention.

Finally, I shared my project on the Maputo coastline with you. I will be exhibiting it at the Associação Moçambicana de Fotografia from November 21 – December 2. For details about the show, you can go to the website at: vanishingcoast.info.

Despite my assertion that W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh project has "never been published," it is more accurate to say that it was never published in its entirety as he envisioned it. Read about it here.

"The Pittsburgh story has never been published in any form approaching his book-length intentions. The most complete version, in his own layout, comprising 88 photographs covering 37 pages, was published in 1959 Photography Annual. Smith considered it a failure."

BBC has a wonderful documentary about Gene Smith's work in Wales on YouTube. See it here.

The Best Camera Is The One That's With You

Chase Jarvis, a guy who's a good enough photographer that Nikon asked him to advance test the Nikon D90, just put out a photo-book called "The Best Camera Is The One That's With You". He only used an iPhone.

"The Best Camera is the One That's WIth You."

click for book summary

Alfred Steiglitz: The Steerage

How to Hold a Camera

Pixels Schmixels

Photo by Michal DanielIn Your Face: Big Pix, Few Pixels

By Claire O'Neill

New iPhones have three. Most point-and-shoot digital cameras have about 10. The Canon 5D Mark II has a ridiculous 21.1. Megapixels, that is. So imagine what 0.3 megapixels look like. (Here's a hint: pretty terrible.) That's what inspired Michal Daniel to use a camera of that size. While everyone else was shopping around for the highest quality camera, he was hunting for the worst... continue here at NPR.

Spirit Photography: Digital Manipulation

Manipulation in photography is nothing new; Photoshop and digital photography just makes it much easier, faster and less detectable.

Awkward Family Photos: a Note on Portraits

Sorry to everybody that I've been out so long dealing with my health issues. Just to let everyone know that I'm thinking of you and still have our last meeting where we talked about portraits in mind, here's a website to take a look at mostly to get an idea of things to avoid in your approach to group shots or portraits you take unless, of course, it is your intention to make photos like this. The photography here is highly enjoyable but not in the same way that Sebastião Salgado's or Annie Leibowitz are: AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.

More About Light

History of Photography

Light! Week Four

This week we examined how light affects photography. We began by looking at painters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer and the way they used light for a number of effects: to give their work depth and dimension, to bring out color and texture, for accentuate drama, to indicate important subjects or aspects of paintings, and for simple aesthetic value. We looked at a number of photographers beginning with David Alan Harvey, Steve McCurry, W. Eugene Smith, and Alex Webb.

In our discussion of light we looked at the results of different types of daylight such as "golden time," the first two and last two ours of lighting when the sunlight is directional bringing out colors and textures of subjects which is an optimal time to photograph. We looked at the harsh effect of midday afternoon sun which can bring hard shadows. We also saw the soft diffused look of light on a cloudy or overcast days and how it can be used for a pleasing effect in portraiture.

Our focus was mainly on natural light, that is available light from the sun as opposed to unnatural indoor lights from lightbulbs which can give different effects such as cold green or blue tint for fluorescents or a warm golden color from tungsten.

We also talked about the use of flash and looked at a number of results of "direct flash" with examples of work from Weegee, Andy Warhol, and the familiar overpowering flash photography of the paparazzi. I also briefly ranted about my pet peeve at concerts when people use flash photography for an impossible photo only to get the well-lit backs of other audience members' heads.

Composition Resourses

Photo Composition

Uploaded by Jack-Jeffrey on WiZiQ Tutorials

Week Three: Composition

Photo by Tom Ang/via BBC

In our last meeting, we looked at basic photographic composition and discussed various fundamentals such as the rule of thirds, avoiding mergers, leading lines and framing.

Photographers we looked at were Susan Meiselas, David Alan Harvey, Alex Webb, and an extended examination of work from Henri Cartier-Bresson from where the term "decisive moment" was coined.

You are encouraged to click on this link to go back to one of my older posts on composition which includes extensive links and resources as does the sidebar menu.

Lenses: Wide Angle v. Telephoto