Jeff Wall Comparisons

Jeff Wall's photograph of the grave is a very successful piece in that it is a group of separate photos working together seamlessly. What gives the photograph away is that the fresh grave has a little aquarium swimming in it. At first upon looking at it it is hard to see where one photo ends and one begins but if it is looked at closely enough, one can see how the photos were put together. Upon looking at "A Sudden Gust of Wind" closely, one can see that the wind was staged in that the direction of debris and paper is flowing in one direction. The lighting is similar to that if the watery grave. Both photographs posses even and bright light.

"Happiness 101" Art Director's take

I had the pleasure of working with my photgrapher Eric on the Happiness shoot. My experience working with Eric was more of a group effort rather than dictating, which is more effective that way. We were able to communicate with each other and work together and produce a variety of good shots. I enjoyed working with Eric - very productive experience.

"Happiness 101" photographer's take

Last week I had the pleasure of being Christine's photographer for "Happiness 101". The communication between myself and Christine was great. We worked together very well. I gave her a few suggestions with the shoot along with Prof. Michals and we came out with a few good takes. To me it was a team effort as opposed to being directed on what to do, which works best in most situations. In this setting, it was a very productive experience.

Technology Theme

I've been doing a lot of thinking on how I could convey the excitement and thrill of technology into a medium. The one thing that keeps coming to my mind is showing lights in motion. I'm thinking of something abstract, like super-fast so it's not identified as a particular object and it's open to interpretation.

"Happiness" Ideas

After reading the article on "Happiness 101" a few ideas came to mind on how I could relate the content in a photo: take a shot of friends genuinely having fun possibly in an outdoor scene, maybe in a park, just horseplaying with each other, truly enjoying each other's company. Another idea was to show two friends engaged in a phone conversation and having their facial/body expressions show that they're really enjoying their conversation - possibly a very intense conversation. One other idea that came to mind was to show donation of some sort- kind of like clothing donation or even showing one person giving clothing (like a warm folded sweater) to another that has better use for it. I just thought of another idea of planting flowers - not too certain of where I'd go with that idea but it has potential.

I chose this photo as the best one I took from last week's bunch because it shows action and expression. I caught Eric right where I broke him into smiling while trying to push a very heavy imaginary object.

This is a photo of Martha Graham, taken by photographer Yousef Karsh. This image captured my attention because of the strong gestures made by Ms. Graham. They create a strong sense of mood, life, beauty, romance and grace to the composition. Also, the dramatic lighting ties in the positive and negative spaces together.

Check out more works by Yousef Karsh:

http://www.eastman.org/ne/mismi3/karsh_sid00001.html