Julia Margaret Cameron

Paul and Virginia

1864

Albumen Print

 

This photograph was taken by Julia Margaret Cameron in 1864. Cameron began her photographic career at the age of 48 when her daughter gave her a camera as a gift. She had no intention of taking studio like portraits or taking pictures of people she did not know well. She asked friends, slaves, and famous friends to stand in and pose for her pictures. What makes Cameron a unique photographer is the fact that her pictures are not just pictures of people. They are of people who are dressed up and posed to represent characters from famous literary works. This picture in particular represents the French Romantic novel Paul Et Virginie. This novel revolves around a shipwreck during which a heroine must shed her clothes to be rescued. She refuses and is therefore killed. Cameron did not attempt to represent an actual scene from the novel, but instead represent the surrounding environment in the story. Here Cameron shows the tropical setting with the bamboo-handled parsal, scattered greenery by the feet of the children, and the disheveled drapery of the children. Instead of depicting a narrative, Cameron depicts a universal underlying theme from the novel.

 

Unique is by far an understatement for the works of Cameron. Especially during her lifetime, these photgraphs were not taken seriously. Today however, photographs such as Paul and Virginia show a great amount of talent Cameron had for her time period. The mood of the photograph is somber as two young children seem to be alone in the world with an umbrella possibly on the side of the road. Neither of them look staged as their gazes seem lost and directed past the camera. Although I have not read the novel Cameron based this picture on, I would say that it captures a novel scene quite well. Cameron achieves this task by having her models and environment be as naturalistic as possible. The qualities these models have are fantastic. Both would have had to stand in for this shot for a long amount of time due to exposure time. Their expressions represent a lonesome and somber life, the same mood/tone most would assume after reading the small section of the novel. The lack of color, lack of happiness, and lack of a well defined environment truly captures the qualities of a novel and its characters because it allows viewers to make their own story, just like novels allow a reader to create their own characters and scene in their head. 

 

Gregory Crewdson

Boy With Hand In Drain

2001-02

Digital C-Print

 

This photograph was taken by Gregory Crewdson who is an American photographer who shoots unordinary photographs. His photographs are very cinematic in the fact that they look like movie shots as oppossed to regular everyday shots. Crewdson prefers to shoot in Massachusetts in areas represented as small towns in America, but he will also shoot on stages to build his own scene. He searches neighborhoods for the perfect shot and has such a good relationship with the mayor and fire department that if he asks to burn down a house or shut down an entire street for his shot, it is done. His photographs require an immense amount of people amongst his crew. When taking pictures, the atmosphere is like a movie set with cranes and big lights used. The camera remains perfectly still the entire shoot. 40-50 plates of negatives are taken of the same photograph, with small changes such as aperture and lighting slightly changing from frame to frame. Once the "hero" negative is chosen, Crewdson works off of it and adds certain aspects of other negatives to it to make it the best it can be. Through this long process, Crewdson is left with photographs that show an unexpected mystery in an ordinary setting.

 

Boy With Hand In Drain reveals a very unexpected mystert sense.  The scene is a familiar bathroom scene with a boy reaching down the shower drain. The bottom half of the picture shows what is past the drain that this boy is so nonchalantly sticking his hand down. It is a dark, spooky place underneath the bathroom/house that most people would not think about. When sticking your hand down a kitchen drain or a shower one to reach for something dropped, did you ever wonder what that area under the drain looked like? We may never know, but Crewdson gives us something to think about. One of Crewdson's goals in his photos is to reveal fears people have. This may very well be a fear of people. Movies have been known to suck children down a drain into the unknown. The color in this photograph captures my attention right away because it is very movie like. When watching behind the scene action of movies being made, color is very dull compared to what the final product looks like. This photograph looks like the final product of a movie. It is so surreal, yet so normal that it makes you question, what places are there in this world that I don't see everyday? 

 

 

Artist: Edward Burtynsky

Title: Shipbreaking #10

Date: 2000

 

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who travels the world in search of the perfect shot. This shot in particular was taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh in the year 2000 and was taken at a shipbreaking yard. It is from a larger series of many shipbreaking yards all labeled with a # next to them. Burtynsky searches for subjects with rich detail and scenes that depict a metaphor to the dilemma of modern existence. He is fascinated with the idea of how man has evolved, from stone to fire, and from oil to industries. This amazing evolution however has transformed nature into a man made thing. These images that Burtynsky has captured are meant to represent a reflection of our time.

 

This chromogenic color print is without a doubt rich not only in detail, but in color and composition as well. The main part of the broken down ship is almost perfectly centered so all attention is drawn to it. However, another part of a ship on the left is a dominating figure, as is the piece on the right. A point is almost drawn from right and left that meets in the middle so all detail in the photograph can be viewed easily. There is no doubt that this picture represents destruction. This shipbreaking yard is gloomy, broken down, and left to rust away. The ships are still very noticeable and easy to identify, but very sad to look at. It is unclear why or how this ship yard came to be, but it is obvious by just looking at it that nature has been manipulated by industry. These man made ships have polluted the world and left it looking as if the world is now in ruins. Many people do not see shipbreaking yards in their lifetime, so they proceed to reject the idea that they have anything to do with this destruction. People demand products that have to be shipped. Our navy must use water based transportation in order to defend our country. Just because we don't see or witness certain places does not mean we do not affect or partake in the outcome of them. Burtynsky does an amazing job of showing destruction by man. Although fascinated with man and industry, he believes the world suffers for our success and this idea is clearly shown in his photographs.  

 

Title: Cloudcatcher

Artist: Robert and Shana Parkeharrison

 

 

This photograph is from a larger exhibition with 42 total prints called "The Architect's Brother." Robert and Shana Parkeharrison have been known to manipulate photos so they seem surreal. Their purpose of these photographs are to reveal a story of loss, human struggle, and the destruction of technology to man. "The Architect's Brother" is a series of photographs of men who seem to be healing the world or finding the good in it once again after technology brought on by man has destroyed the past. This black and white series reveals a somber contrast with many grays and overcast skies, but the subjects in general reveals a sense of happiness. Such as the case of the Cloudcatcher, this man is sitting in the middle of a man-made hole on a piece of wood that stretches the diameter of the circle. There is no sense of a happy environment, but it seems that this man has found the pleasure of catching something we take for granted everyday.

 

This photograph is extremely successful in making an impact upon the viewer. The atmosphere seems dark, uncertain, and moving in a bad direction. Out of nowhere clouds appear in a place they usually are not, in the ground. Althouh unusual placement, these clouds stand as the hope of the past that this man is trying to catch. The landscape surrounding this man is flat, empty, and wide. This photo seems to reveal the story of an ongoing series of events that eventually took away all that was known to this man. Now, in order to heal or remember the past, he finds a phenomenon brought to him from an unknown source. Robert and Shana are very successful in manipulating photographs to reveal a surreal setting. Their use of black and white encourages the dark sad scene and dramatizes the story. This particular photograph is scary because of the fog and darkness that surrounds this man, but overall, it is uplifting and sends that message that fun and happiness can conquer all situations.