Luka's Arts In NYC

The way that the photography exhibit changed our perception of art is that it showed it as a process that is lengthy. It isn’t a process that can be necessarily finished in the matter of seconds or days or hours, which is interesting because photography to people who are not very familiar with the subject make it seem like it takes a second. You take a picture and then you’re done. But the pieces in the photography exhibit changed this perception for me. For example, the piece that was in the back section of the exhibit where it was a

This was the first image in the Photography piece

portrait of a woman as she grows up. It gives the viewer this sense of insight into a person’s life in a way that you can almost experience how she grows up in the matter of seconds. The set up is also very interesting, at least for me, because it was set up from left to right in chronological order, but when you walk towards it from where we entered we see the steps backwards so its almost we see the end result first. It gave me this sense that art is not chronological and that although you might know the end result there is so much more that goes into it.

The way it changed my perception of New York is that it gave me this sense of continuity within the city. Like the picture book laid out that was just two strips of a city block stretching out for easily 30 pages of cardboard. When I looked at that piece I thought it showed how truly connected the city is. If you’re from the city you don’t say I’m from the city. You say you’re from a specific neighborhood. The city doesn’t seem cohesive but more staggered and separated, but what I think the photographer was trying to help us see is that we all are connected. We are part of this city and therefore all connected in that way. Although there may be separate boroughs and neighborhoods they are all part of the same city.

The way that this photography changed my perspective of the museum is that I think it added a relevance to the city for me. When I looked through the other exhibits I didn’t really see anything that focused on New York. It wasn’t until I saw a few of the photography pieces that I truly saw that this place fits in New York.  For example, I remember walking through the halls and seeing all these ancient roman statues and these French Broseries. Then we went and saw Bambu, which didn’t seem to me that the subject matter was the city. But then we went to this exhibit and I saw the city block book and I remember seeing a picture of underneath the outside subway stations in Brooklyn and feeling that I could actually connect with this piece. I could say wow I know where this is, or this place looks familiar. Until then it didn’t seem to me that this museum really had a deep interest in the city that it was built in.