Something and Nothing

In Chapter 4 of The Photograph as Contemporary Art it talks about how some artists take pictures of just ordinary, non-human things and making them into extraordinary pieces of photography. In this chapter, it also points out that "there is no such thing as an unphotographed or unphotographable subject (Pg.115)." It is up to the photographer taking the picture to determine the significance of that piece, for they are the one taking the photo meaning obviously there has been some significance established there already. Which I think is very true. We touched a lot on this today in DTC 355 class, that pictures truly are worth a thousand words. But who's words? That is what is so extraordinary about real life photography that there is no one true story to tell on a single piece. The artist shooting the photo might have a different story on what's going on then the viewer looking over the photo the next day. These are most often based off our past experiences and these can be some of the most amazing stories to ever be told. That's why it's called Contemporary Art.

Deadpan Photography

When taking a picture, have you ever heard the phrase, "don't center your subject?" If this has been such an important rule we teach photographers from the very beginning, then why has there been such an increase in deadpan photographs in the past decade? It is because the deadpan aesthetic is a cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photograph that moves art outside the hyperbolic, sentimental and subjective, as the book describes in Chapter 3. Most commonly, the subject is the center of the photograph, there is not a whole lot going on in the photograph that will make you question what is going on, and lastly, it's not shot from a very obscure view, like a ladder, or top of a roof or something along those lines. It is just a photograph shot exactly how you would see it if you were to walk up to it in real life. It is Deadpan Photography.

Once Upon a Time

In Chapter two, it looks at contemporary art photography in the use of storytelling. Some examples of photographs it uses make obvious references to story tales, myths, and apocryphal events and other photographs offer a much more inclusive and open-ended description that we know is important from the picture the artist has painted in our heads. This specific art photography is normally describes as tableau or tableau-vivant photography, according to the book. One famous artist that the book takes examples from goes by the name of Jeff Wall. His photographs are very interesting to me, and one that really stood out is his work labeled, Insomnia. It was very interesting because obviously the basic definition of Insomnia is a sleep disorder that it is characterized by difficulty of falling or staying asleep. And in Wall's photograph there is a man laying down underneath a table with the chairs moved, cabinets opened, on the kitchen floor, and what interested me is that we don't know why he is laying there, or how he got there, or how long he has been down there, if it is a every night thing for him. All those questions went through my mind when I seen this photograph, and that's what is so awesome is that unpredictability this story tells, and how Wall leaves it up to the viewer to decide..

If This Is Art

In Chapter one of The Photograph as Contemporary Art, it shows lots of different photographs and points out that they all have one thing in common, that wherever they come from, either from strategy or orchestration by the photographers, they are all their for the sole purpose of creating an image. The one photo that really stuck out to me is the ‘Bread Man.’ It is a performance persona of the Japanese artist Tatsumi Orimoto, who wears a mass of bread on top of his head to cover his entire face and walks around town and performs daily activities. “His strange but non-threatening appearance is usually politely ignored by passers-by; occasionally it engenders amused curiosity (Pg.27).” I thought this was very unique and interested me, because who would have the creativity to come up with an idea like that. This would definitely be a disruption of every person’s daily routine to see something like that walking down the street. Depending on each individual perspective, in my personal opinion I think the photographs seen are great examples of contemporary art.  

Logos

What is a logo? A logo is a visual representation that appears on company signs, paper and advertisements that customers use to identify your company or whatever it is that you are working with. Logos are unique and you want to be creative but also careful when coming up with the different names, colors, typefaces, designs, etc. for your specific logo. After creating how it’s going to look, the next thing is protecting it from all others. That’s where copyright and trademark come in the picture. You want to make sure no one is going to steal your idea, because a company logo is a symbol of your company’s identity and generally gives off the very first impression. In class, in the beginning of this semester, we are creating different logos that we can come up with using Adobe Illustrator, which I am having a lot of fun designing and tossing ideas around on how I would create and come up with ten different logos for myself.


 

Helvetica

The movie Helvetica was one I have never heard of, but found great interest when watching it. It's a film that premiered in the South by Southwest film festival in 2007, which is a pretty big deal in itself. The film focuses on typography in general, but more solely on Helvetica. In this film, we see many typographers and computer graphic designers share their opinions not only on Helvetica, but on the evolving of fonts and how it has impacted the world we live in today. I never really paid so close attention to the different fonts companies and people used in everyday life, I guess I just figured Times New Roman was the most common until watching this film, and seeing around towns, logos, billboards and advertisements how many actually utilize Helvetica and why. It was a great short film.