Life is very complicated. In every person’s life, s/he has to juggle dozens of different things competing for attention. Although the lives of most people would make pretty boring movies, there certainly is drama. In fact, most good movies use situations like disasters and monsters to highlight the drama that regular people face every day. When I think of photography as an art form, I think of the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words.” A photograph, or a still, is an attempt to take a scene form real life, and capture it one, still image. For example, this picture of Santonio Holmes catching the game-winning catch of Super Bowl XLIII captures all the drama of the back and forth of a close Super Bowl fourth quarter, in a single frame.

Santonio Holmes game-winning catch http://www.pitt.edu/~tas143/catch.jpg

With this in mind, there were a few different collections in the International Center of Photography that were really tremendous. One was Gideon Mendel’s collection of pictures from a waterlogged village in India. Each of the images capture’s the struggle of the regular, ordinary people to keep going even though they live in several feet of water. Another was Sohei Nishino’s Jerusalem Panorama Map, which showed the wide spectrum of different people in one of the world’s most controversial cities. But by far the collection that showcased simple humanity more than any other were the Ponte City light boxes by Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse. These three light boxes show images from the fifty-four-story Ponte City building in Johannesburg. The images from show the TV sets, doors, and windows from each apartment. The picture were then organized by floor and apartment number into these three towering light boxes.

ponte city
Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse

As you look at each one, the tiny images that are on every set, the people standing in some of the doors, and the view from each window, who really start to wonder about all the lives going on in those rooms. What did each of these people think as they looked out of the window? Who was watching each of these shows? What did the residents think when a man knocked on their door asking to take pictures of their homes? These questions, and the faces and lives that flash across these panels are photography at its best.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to remind everybody that NYC is a very cool place and there is a lot that we need to learn about our city. Its time to explore with the help of Macaulay! Im just really excited because I finally figured out how to work this blog, and hopefully I’ll post something more informative next time. Thanks for reading my post.

While roaming around the International Center for Photography, you must have caught a glimpse of the Installation by Rabih Mroué. The first thing you will think of is that the room is dark. Indeed, it is quite dark! The room is only dimly lit by a video of Mroue speaking, projected onto the wall at the front. At first glance, you would think it was just like any other dark room in the museum. However, upon entering, you are greeted warmly with a pixelated photograph of a man… pointing a gun straight at you. As you look around, you will see similar pixelated photographs, some of men carrying guns and some of children. All of these photos are titled “Blow Up,” with a different number attached.

This was by far my scariest encounter with a two-dimensional gun. When I watch movies that involve gun violence, I always know that no one is actually shot, or if someone did, I do not have any knowledge about it. Despite the fact I am not a fan of violence, I am typically just entertained by the scenes, as the produces intended to do. In this room though, I know the guns aren’t just used as props. They are meant to cause harm. These photos were taken by Syrian activists during the country’s civil war. Many of them were taken by mobile phone cameras. They took these photos and shared them on the internet with social networking sites to show the world what the Syrian media can not. It is said that one of the men in the installation shot his photographer.

Mroué did an amazing job at bringing this installation to life. Every aspect made me think or feel some sort of emotion. First, the dark room made it eerie and mysterious. Then, the first photo I see upon entering is just a shock. How many times in your life do you see a photo of someone pointing a gun directly at you as the first thing you see when you enter a room? After I enter and look around, I see blurry pictures. They may be low quality, but the messages were clear. The children, the murderers, the soldiers; I could see the fear, anger, and envisioned the violence. I could see the chaos. I felt fear just looking at the guns surrounding me. If I feel this way by simply looking at photographs, I can not begin to even imagine the fear that the activists felt. They were there right in front of the gun barrel, about to be and many times shot. It really makes me wonder, what it is like to be in Syria right now in the midst of their civil war? What gives these photographers the courage to go into such dangerous territory to record and photograph the events?

These pixelated photos answers many questions about Syria but leaves so many more to be answered. How did you feel after you saw Mroue’s installation?

Photo taken from: http://www.artexchange.org.uk/exhibition/rabih-mroue-the-pixelated-revolution

What caught my attention the most was the section of different photographs that covered a whole wall, titled “Proof.” The pictures consisted of a mix of different types of photos such as Polaroids and inkjet prints. According to Jim Goldberg, it was his “attempt to assemble a ‘family album’; a catalogs raisonné of all my (Goldberg’s) photographic encounters during the past nine years…”
In almost all of the photos, Goldberg captures a different person’s face. Each of these people come from different places. I noticed that many people had quite sad or hopeless expressions. Some photos even had writing on them, which talked about the person’s life story. For example, one photo that struck out to me was a photo of a girl. On the photo was written her life story: she was beaten up and drugged at age 14 in Turkey and was later sold as a sex slave in Greece but she is currently free. This is only one story out of many others. When I see the expressions on these people’s faces, I can detect the pain and suffering many of them went through. Even though I may not know what exactly they have gone through, I think the saying is true; a picture is worth a thousand words. From each of these pictures, you can see that many of these people lived completely different lives from the lives we have here.
I think the point of this group of photos is to make us aware of what is happening around the world. I think Goldberg wants us to know that people like them exist, hence the title “Proof,” since these pictures are proof of these people’s existence. These photos made me aware of the different tragedies around the world, but also at the same time, the hope that this world has, such as the freedom the girl mentioned above obtained, “thanks to good people.” It made me feel very fortunate for the environment I live in today and the many opportunities I had.

Why do you think Goldberg named his piece “Proof” and how did these photos make you feel ?

I was shocked and amazed by this photo. This photo had the most impact on me. First of all, I never saw a photo so big before! The size surprised me at first since I never saw so many photos displayed in a massive rectangle. However, the frame was the thing that amazed me the most. It is a simple back frame but the color and the simplicity helped me understand the big picture of the photography. It helped me get the “click” in my head. Although people might not think that the frame has a big impact on the photo, ironically, it is very significant. It can influence someone’s interpretation differently like how it affected me.

The frame helps emphasize the mini of the many pictures as well. As I observed the photo from the bottom up, it shows the development of the city, which I see as Manhattan, from my perspective. It shows the process of the land developing into a city. The different windows show the different perspective and angles of different people from the same building. Not all windows show an image of the city though. There are closed curtains and people closing the curtains. I interpreted the curtains as people rejecting the city life or not wanting to see the development. The windows showing the city shows the beauty and the art of the city. Even some curtains show the city a little bit which shows how people can’t reject the beauty of the city. Like the professor said, it does look like a skyscraper which symbolizes manhattan. The way the pictures are put together creates a Manhattan image. The bottom part of the picture creates a Central Park image as well as showing the develop into the city. The water shows the water surrounding Manhattan as well. The pictures gives off the different perspectives of manhattan. I wonder what the photographer felt as he took the picture. Maybe it’s because I’m in New York, I see Manhattan.

What do the rest of you see?

“Untitled (Predator Drone)” by Trevor Paglen

Art/Exhibition Review

By: Stephen Ng

To be perfectly honest, if this photograph wasn’t in a museum setting, I would have simply disregarded it entirely. Unbeknownst to the common person, “Untitled (Predator Drone)”, by Trevor Paglen, costs anywhere from $10000 to $15000 [1]. This is an immense amount of money for something that just looks like a gradient of colors. From a very light brown transitioning to a very light blue, I assumed this to be a photograph of a sky. It’s quite hard to tell exactly what time of day this image captures; I’d guess it’d be sometime during the early hours. There is no sun present, just the endless sky and the seemingly endless ground below.

What this predator drone captures is actually quite astounding; it’s the actual embodiment of peace. There’s nothing happening in the picture: no wars, no conflicts, no life, nothing. It’s quite disheartening to think that only predator drones, or rather any unmanned vehicles, can see this scene. Humans must always place themselves in some kind of machinery or technology to get anywhere near this setting, let alone see it with the naked eye. Quite rarely do we ever think about what machines see or what they capture.

It’s quite an ethereal photograph, isn’t it? When I look at it, my mind just clears. The emptiness of the picture starts to fill my mind, to the point of making time slow down.

How about you?

[1] – http://artsy.net/artwork/trevor-paglen-untitled-predator-drone