This weeks class was more interesting than I originally thought it would be. We had a guest, Professor Beatrix Reinhardt, a world renowned photograph who discussed her duties as the curator for the art exhibit coming up next week, and some aspects of art. Her job is vital to the experience someone going to the exhibit will have. Prof. Reinhardt coordinates the exhibits, chooses the artwork that will be presented, and decides how to present the work. She showed us how changing something so subtle and seemingly miniscule, such as the border around the painting, can have a major impact on how we view the art and our impression of it. We also discussed how an artist can have one idea, but generate hundreds of pieces reflecting that one idea. Furthermore, I also learned that all of the prints in an edition look exactly the same and after the last print in that edition is sold, those prints will never be sold again. Lastly, we discussed her trip to India for the Kumbh Mela. We looked at pictures online of the event, and then the pictures she took, which looked like two completely different events, leaving us with two separate impressions of this occasion.
For the second part of the class, we looked at the pictures we took the previous week at the High Line. Each person’s picture portrayed a different part of the High Line, or showcased a special part of NYC. We all had something we found really interesting or symbolic to photograph from this experience and it was nice to hear everyone’s impressions of their trip and why they photographed what they did. Just a slight change in the angle or lighting made a BIG difference in everyones photos and made each one unique.