Realistic Pose

 Abstract Pose

The subject of my caretaker study is my mother. A redoubtable woman, strong and commanding yet graceful and vulnerable, my mother Valerie has a habit of engaging in conversations and ending up in the first pose I presented. I was impressed and elated with the accuracy of everyone’s hypotheses; she is indeed, when interacting with people and especially in intellectual conversations, very aware of how people see and think of her.She does try to project a certain image, albeit perhaps subconsciously, of a composed, slightly haughty, challenging, pointedly intelligent, sexually charged, and intriguing woman. Every element I wanted to bring to attention was noticed and pointed out except the raised eyebrow, but this was so subtle it blended into the facial expression, which was very accurately analyzed. The words used to describe my mystery character (elegant, confident, young–my mother is in her forties, not thirties, but is young for her age–sly smile, calculated, thinking about how she is looking at others and being looked at by others, intentionally projecting a certain image, smirking eyes) were exactly the ones I had in mind when creating the pose.

The abstract pose of my mother was styled to represent her power and strength, her composure, and her blatant and unafraid sense of self. My mother was orphaned before she turned twenty and had to be responsible for her much-older sisters, who had deep problems that, without parents, would undoubtedly have worsened. She was well equipped to deal with these difficulties, but the fact that she had to be strong enough to navigate three (sometimes four) lives to healthy places made her, as someone pointed out, almost goddess-like. I actually wished, as I was styling this pose, that I could somehow attach more arms to look exactly like the Goddess someone mentioned the pose reminded her of. But with only my two arms and legs, I chose to represent the strength and grounded nature (right side of my body) and protective yet elegant temperament (left side) of my mother. And because I feel that she balances the two well and with a calm assuredness, I portrayed her with a serene, almost blank expression.

Pina Bausch’s “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si…” is not post-modern dance, as the concept of the dance is opposing with the ideas in post-modern dances. “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si…” is about sexuality and the relationships between men and women. She portrays this concept through humor, but most see grains of truth within the segments of the show. For instance, when one of the men is sitting in a seat on the stage, flattering every woman who walks past him as if she is the only woman around, one after another. This is performed in a humorous manner, exaggerated and repetitive in the action, but the audience recognizes some honesty in the scene. The concept of the dance focused on the body ad sexuality as central parts of our world. In post-modern dance, the focus is on movement. It is about movement for movement’s sake, often times, while this is about the body that is moving. This is about the person who is moving.

Pina Bausch was known for asking the dancers questions about memories they have from there lives. They would use these memories to build scenes and dances which evoked the emotions of real life. This technique is all about bringing the world and emotion into dance by using real human emotions to create the dances. “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si…” most likely came from such techniques, as there are so many different legitimate emotions toward the topic of sexuality, love, and relationships.

In Pina Bausch’s dance had elements of post-modern dance, such as the moment when the girl in the loose white dress danced around in fluid, natural motions. Her segment was one of my favorites, and it has elements of post-modern dance, but the piece was theatrical rather than post-modern style. The girl was set on the stage in a similar position to a dog, but she reminded me of a horse. She posed quietly, peacefully in the corner, only to be approached by two men. When picked up, she screamed, and they were shocked and needed to set her down to calm her. They repeatedly made the mistake of picking up this girl, who I saw as a wild horse. Ultimately, the wild horse is trained so that she will trot in circles at a safe distance, separated from the men by a pole. When she is freed, she moves naturally and beautifully. This piece contains the simplicity in her motions of a post-modern dance performance, featuring minimal lighting changes and basic costumes. But she the dance is quite theatrical and poetic, which does not jive with the ideas of post-modern dance. As Pina Bausch said, she was “not interested in how people move but in what moves them.” This idea is prevalent throughout “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si…”

Meira

For my caretaker study, I chose to do my mom as my realistic pose. My mom is someone who I am entirely grateful for. She is someone who is caring and someone who is willing to do anything for her children. For the realistic pose, I chose a pose that my mom does every time she talks on the phone with her friends or relatives. Whether she’s sitting or standing, she would aways have an arm across her chest while talking into her cellphone. I found it amusing that most people said that the pose was for someone in their twenties because when you first look at it, it does seem like its for a younger person. My mom is someone who loves talking with others, although she does hide things when she talks which the arm across her chest can symbolize.

For my abstract pose, I decided to do one of my sixteen year old sister. My sister plays a big role in my life and she is someone who I can tell everything to. She is someone who tends hides who she truly is when she is with people she is just meeting. She can be shy, but once you get to know her, she can be very energetic and lively. As someone guessed, the front facing of the feet is her trying to get out of her shell, but cannot fully, as represented by the hiding behind the arms.

The person I chose for both poses was my step-mother.

The first pose was the concrete pose. Despite most people thought that it was a pose of  questioning another person, or perplexity in front of an art work, it was something that my mom always does when she forgets what she was about to do. It perhaps came out a little too dramatic/theatrical than I expected it to be, but it’s something that when I see it, I picture my mother right away. Because she’s an extremely busy woman, she’s always doing 15000 things at the same time, so it happens very often that she forgets what she was doing. With this pose I also wanted to incorporate her very youthful ego: she has a lot of energy and everyone always thinks she’s much younger than her actual age, and I think the pose I chose was not one of a 40-year-old woman, but rather a 30-year-old one.

The abstract pose I chose had very deep roots. My mother was the last of 7 children, 5 of which males. She had  never been supported by anyone in her family, even when she went to college (something that back then in Italy was reserved to an elite of people) and she was working full time so that she wouldn’t have to ask money to her parents, they told her she was crazy. Even being a 30-year-old responsible mother, she was still being checked on by her father, who would always come ask us where she was and why she wasn’t at home with us the whole time. Her male-dominated family never valued her opinion, and even her sister(who should have allied with her against the attacks of her brothers) always criticized her. Now that we moved here, my mother is finally free to be, or at least more free. Her family still tells her she’s crazy because she moved here. The arms spread out, as if opposing something represent her strength in always being able to push away that criticism and become the amazing woman she is. The head thrown back, looking up, is her wish, partly accomplished, of being free to do what she wants. The foot forward, finally, symbolizes that she always went forward no matter all the negative that surrounded her.

Sara Camnasio

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For my caretaker study, I chose my rhythmic gymnastics coach, Natasha, for both poses. I consider my coach one of my “caretaker’s” because there were times in my life where I did spend more time with her than with my own parents. In and out of the gym, Natash has done a lot to help me grow as an athlete and a person.

The realistic pose depicts how my coach would stand and watch me as I competed. I faced diagonally because she would always stand where I walked out, usually by the corner of the competition floor. Also, standing straight forward would make it harder to tell that I was watching something rather than just looking. I kept my face focused and my body poised, exactly as Natasha would. She would do this to convey her professionalism and control her nervousness, which was sometimes worse than mine! Classmates who guess that the pose was of someone critical and focused were correct. The class was pretty quick to guess that it was a pose of a woman, even mentioning maybe my gymnastics trainer as well.

My second abstract pose was supposed to portray the kindness my coach had. Since i was facing away from the audience with open arms and a “coming forward” stance, I meant to show that this side of my coach was almost hidden from most of the Rhythmic Gymnastics community. Although she always maintained her professionalism, and many would call Natasha “strict”, she would show how proud she was of me when the time was appropriate. She was very specific to whom she held her “open arms” towards, and it took a lot to gain her respect as a gymnast and person. Through years of hard work, I finally achieved what it took to work with Natasha full time as a high level gymnast by the age of 11. I recall it being Eloise and Alvin who guessed the second pose to be of my coach. I think it was easier to guess the identity behind my poses given my background.

I had never thought of myself as a photographer before. I still don’t. But after coming back to the Noguchi Museum in Queens, my mind insisted on focusing on great photographic opportunities. While at the museum, I imagined taking photos of the sculptures – and having photos taken of me looking at the works from wacky angles. Coming back, I saw a sand artist at Union Square, and I couldn’t help but think of the wonderful image the vibrant colors would create against a backdrop of gray-blue cement. I bumped into my photographer friend, and he convinced me to turn my ideas into my own pictures. We walked around, and I used his camera to create the images for the ideas that I had, instead of telling someone else to take them. These images were not spectacular occurrences, but everyday scenes. I knew I wanted to do something similar for Snapshot Day.

While I was riding the M15 bus to school in the morning, I knew this was my set. An excuse to take pictures of strangers, capturing the definition of the public transportation relationship? Perfect. Everything fell into place: I saw the bars of the bus and was inspired to take the photo in this spot. When I looked closer at the people, I felt even more compelled to take it, as the men had interesting facial features, such as the mustache on the man in the purple sweater. The purple sweater added a pang of bright color to the photo.

What I focused on in the frame was actually the woman looking over to see what street the bus was approaching, which is not in the frame. This reminded me of the photos we saw in class, which tried to bring the perspective out of the frame. To achieve this effect, I tried to used the Rule of Thirds, with the pole in front of the woman about a third into the picture and the man in purple’s face at the intersection of one vertical and one horizontal line. I also turned the camera so that the lens was guided toward the woman’s gaze. But while I find the gaze interesting, the lack of a visible gaze shows the disconnect between members of New York City — at least while riding the bus.

On October 11th, I almost forgot that it was snapshot day. I did not walk around that day looking for something to photograph. Rather, it was during my break form classes in school that I was compelled to take this photo and remembered what day it was.

Initially, I remembered sitting and thinking about what kind of photo I would try to capture a few days before Snapshot day. I wanted to incorporate New York City, and movement. The photo I ended up taking is almost opposite of what I “planned”. I am still very happy with my photo and think it captures a lot. From this I realized that good photography cannot always be planned. Sometimes, a subject will just hit the photographer, how the idea of this photo hit me.

My photograph ended up portraying the stillness of NYC. I took it on the 8th floor terrace at Hunter. I was sitting and experienced such a moment of peace looking out at the skyline. In NYC, everything is fast paced and I fall into the daily routine of brisk walking, waiting for the subway, doing schoolwork, and sleeping. It was nice to stop for a second and take a deep breath. This photo represents my moment of ease, where the sight and fresh air seemed to calm me in the middle of a stressful day.

Putting my feet into the picture portrays the human experience of the city, not just the coldness of tall stoic buildings. I incorporated myself in the picture to put more life into the image, and to have the viewer imagine themselves sitting and looking out. I think my feet change the perspective of the photo. The buildings are vertical lines, and the balcony bar is the main horizontal line. My legs and feet create lines that draw the viewer into the photo more. I tried to use the rule of thirds by making my feet not exactly in the center, my right foot being the vertical 1/3 line. The balcony bar is also not in the center of the photo, being the 1/3 horizontal line. I also love the contrast of the colors in this photo since October 11th was such a nice and clear skied day. Of course, as a lover of architecture, I believe I also captured the beauty of some of the skyscrapers in NYC – something every New Yorker needs to be reminded about once in a while.