Assignment5 first draft

Settings:

-MoMa.
-NYC Street: around MoMa, Houston St., and Jersey City.
-My House.

Characters:

-Myself




Time:

-Present
-All daylong

Logline:

I try to play a role as Woody Allen from the 70’s. I am sorry.

Plot:

Trying to do my assignment for my class of Media Design I start my day at MoMa, The class and the assignment aren’t easy for me. I need to find Zettl and Barthes’ principles of photography and setting in the photos I will look at.
To help myself in such a task I drink vodka with my breakfast. However, this doesn’t have any effect. I continue drinking along the day. I wander in the city, meet some friends and keep trying to write my essay.
At night I returned to my house. I am drunk; go out again and then I wake up the next morning with someone in my bed who is not Barthes or Zettl.


Scenes:

1) My house: I wake up and prepare myself for the day. I add vodka to my coffee and take some more with me.
2) MoMa outside: I buy more coffee and add the rest of my vodka. I need to relax and open my mind to new perceptions other than number and finance.
3) MoMa: I stat to feel the vodka. See the exhibition, but I am still not able to write the essay. I need to visit the sanitary installation. Before I leave the restroom I comb my hair.
4) Houston Street: It is about 4 pm and I wander around Soho, in the meanwhile, I keep drinking and talking to myself about why I can not see nothing.
5) Back Home: I sit down in front of my computer. My mind is blank. I need to go out for fresh air.
6) Next morning I wake up with someone I don’t know next to me. He is not Barthes or Zettl.

It is Thursday morning. I wake up early because I want to be at MoMa as soon as it is opened, so that I will avoid the crowd. But MoMa is not very crowdy on weekday, otherwise. I feel strange trying to study photos and understanding Barthes’ approach to photography. My rational-organized approach to everything deprives me from seeing anything that is not oblivious. Therefore, I think I need some help to put down my defenses and let myself observe photos from another perspective. Some vodka with my coffee will not hurt anyone. See the Russian, they have been around for hundreds of years and they don’t even drink it with coffee. Just a little bit. It tastes good.

I am at the MoMa on a beautiful day. I don’t see things different, blue is still blue. I may need some extra help. Fortunately, I brought the rest of the vodka, just in case. I have to buy more coffee.

Here I am in the Moma. I start to feel dizzy. I see the exhibition and cannot write a word about Barthes and Zettl. I check the restroom looking for them. Oh, I didn’t comb my hair.

I leave the MoMa. I walk around Soho and have a Martini, well two. I cannot find Barthes and Zettl, but everything seems funny to me. I am in a very good mood except for the shaky sidewalk.

A little bit later I am at home. I sit down in front of my computer. I have the title for the assignment, but nothing else. I should finish the bottle of vodka if not the alcohol will evaporate.
I definitely need some fresh air.

Next morning I wake up with someone next to me. I found something but not Barthes or Zettl.

Assignemnt4

I want to dedicate this first draft and approach to Photoshop to my dear computer, which was not helpful at all. After the class held on October 1st., I experienced so many problems with the computer (a brand famous for being so "friendly" with everybody except me) and the program. Many of the things, for not saying all, I did were absolutely by chance. I have the feeling that this is not the best I can do with the program so that I promise to post new and better-done photos.
That was not the end because I had new obstacles ahead. One of those was the format. I thought that changing the name of the file from psd to jpg would change the format, but not. Unfortunately it took me another week I could have spent using the photoshop to upload the pictures I had done. I know this is not the end. More obstacles are waiting for me.

Assignment 3

Assignment 3

A travel through the past.



That was my feeling while visiting the photography exhibit at The Edward Steicher Photography Galleries at MOMA. Immediately after entering the room, one gets transported into the past. The incessant desire of the man for registering history is present at the exhibition from the very beginning. It is true that Timothy O’Sullivan, Watkins, Rusell or Emerson could not play with light as well as others. Yet it is thank to these pioneers who adventured into the new technique that those who came after mastered the art.
This part of the exhibition with pictures taken before the twenty century is mostly landscapes. Therefore, the work is more representational/ naturalistic than abstract. There are a couple of pictures that will capture the attention of the visitors such as “Entrance to Black Canyon” (O’Sullivan) in which the photographer uses the environment and scale to establish the object size. The man in it is very small and is at the very bottom of the frame whereas the nature is infinite and covers the rest. One of the photos by Peter Emerson portrayed a worker cutting grass (here the man is the center of the picture), but what will capture the attention of the visitor is the size of his hand. It is a beautifully composed photo, yet the punctum here is his big and strong hands. The scale of the picture plays a fundamental role on “Arbutrus” (Watkins) because it emphasizes the size of the tree that fills the whole picture, the tree is the figure and the sky and land are the ground. What characterize this part of the exhibition, printed on silver print, is that the photographer photographed landscapes and workers in the countryside.
In the next section of the exhibit, this shifts from the landscape of the countryside to small towns in the countryside as well as changes century. One of the most interesting pictures is “Woman” (1836) by Walk Evans. It is a portray of a rural woman during the 30s. It is only her face with flat lighting, but Evans skillfully exposes her inner side, the side that can talk about the hardship she has been going through, the flat lighting eliminates everything from her faces except the absence of hope or happiness. He also captures the decadence of the plantation splendor with “Breakfast room at belle grove plantation” in which the setting of the light (tactile orientation) allows the viewer to see the erosion on the old elegant walls. Between these two photos, there is a powerful and eloquent picture “Sharecropper’s family” (1836). This photo shows the poverty of the rural America during the 30s along with the filthy life conditions. However, the puctum here is what it seems to be a brassiere hidden under the bed in the only room of the house. The family clearly set the room for the picture, but forgot the piece of female underwear. The present of some portrays of people on the subway affects the cohesion of this section. Conversely, it will perfectly link with the next part of the exhibit. The present of the subway pictures reminds me of some pictures that I myself took on the subway trying to capture the ubiquitous elements of the subway in New York City. The use of the light is different because my photos are of objects at certain distance. Compare to the rest of the exhibit, I don’t use black and white as in the photos displayed at MOMA.
At the end of the exhibit, the viewer will meet Diane Arbus’s work. A new shift takes place, this time, from small towns to urban people. One of here most astonishing photos in displayed at MOMA is “Girl sitting on her bed with shirt off” (1968). Then again, the studium of the photo will tell the viewer about style, physical appearance, though, her hair is going to capture the eyes’ visitor. It may not be intentional, but it will take your vision away from the rest of the photo.
The pictures are perfectly displayed in traditional sized manner and printed silver or gelatin. For the exhibition, black frame are used. Hence, the photos will draw the visitor’s eyes.
The exhibition is very cohesive within each section; they are part of certain theme, yet there are some pictures that don’t match with the rest of the section or the exhibition as a whole. That can be confusing.
It is really interesting witnessing how photography has changed throughout the years not only technically, but also thematically. Moreover, what is really fascinating is to be able to be transported to so many periods, and observe and question how, why, where or what.