For the reading I chose the story of Larry Sultan.
What I really enjoyed about Mr. Sultan’s piece is that he talks about the difference between perception and description in photography. Perception is how things should be, while description is how things actually are. Larry Sultan gets into an argument with his dad over a picture of his mom. Larry took a picture of his mom holding a turkey on a silver platter (descriptive). Larry’s dad complained that his son was stereotyping on how people age. Larry then started to point out that all of the photos his dad took of him mom looked “like a model selling one thing or another” (prescriptive).
Then Larry looks at his father. He started taking pictures of his father’s reactions. He makes it clear that his father has been laid off and this causes his father great pain. Not only because of him losing his job, but also because of the social implications of the time. Larry makes clear these were the Reagan years and the main image of this time was “perfect family” also known as the prescription of the time. No one has a perfect family and Larry uses his own as an example to show “what happens when we are driven by images of success.”
It was a truly powerful piece and Mr. Sultan does a superb job showing the judgments photographers need to take before taking a picture: to photograph the representation or the thing itself?
UNDEREXPOSURE: Failure to expose correctly because not enough light has struck the film or sensor to faithfully render the color and brightness values.
UV FILTER: A clear, colorless filter that stops most ultraviolet rays from recording on film.
SATURATION: In color, a vividness, or intensity.
INCIDENT LIGHT: The light that falls on a subject, rather than that which is reflected off it.
HIGH CONTRAST: A scene where the range between the brightest and darkest areas is extreme
