Face Your Pocket

Ritchin Chapter 7

I really enjoyed chapter seven of Ritchin’s After Photography. Photography has the power to bring social predicaments into view. Unlike writing, which only allows for situations to be described, photography shows people what is happening. With photography becoming so much more accessible, the documentation of social situations is becoming more prominent. Ritchin discusses the “Nuclear Nightmare” photographic essay by Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong, where they documented the physical and mental effects of humans as a result of a nuclear reaction. While yes the images achieved a large audience, are situations such as this honorable or exploitive? To me documentary and social photography always posts this question.

Chapter 6

In chapter 6 Ritchin discusses the development of an online interactive photo essay that addressed the conflicts between the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. Viewers were able to begin at a certain point within the essay and from there pave their own path depending on which link they selected. While this does create a new and interesting way of interacting with world news, I cannot help but think about the possible outcomes of navigating through a photo essay. Within the chapter Ritchin states; "Those in a conversation pick up on different ideas and follow them in whatever ways interest them and they feel are appropriate". After navigating through hundreds of photos and texts I would assume that the viewer would become confused with the point in which they started, and that the materials would start to blend into different stories. The intended script might get lost along the way confusing the viewer of the actual story.

Negative Scan

Fluid Scan

Chapter 4

While reading chapter four I became really frustrated with the proposal of having links that go off of a photograph. To me the experience should be between the viewer and the image, it should not go beyond that. The photographer constructs a final image and that is what matters. It shouldn’t matter what filter they used or how long the exposure was. What the relationship with the final is to me what matters the most. There should also be no icon in the corner of an image. I believe that it would be, at times, disastrous. Depending on the image it could really concern a viewer and cause them to question the entire image. If it is a photo of a war scene and it has that icon, it would most likely strike up controversy and concern questioning the truthfulness of the image. I honestly think it is horrible idea.

While reading these chapters I found myself to be very concentrated on his style of writing. I find it distracting and a little frustrating. He will be serious and focused and then he tries to make a joke in the middle and it throws me and then I get side tracked on how much I hate his writing.

Color Ring Around of a Color Ring Around

B&W Alterations

Chapter 3

While reading chapter three, I became engrossed in the idea of people only having to Photoshop themselves into an already photographed location and saying that they have visited that place. This is all so unreal. Will some people even travel anymore, or will they just Photoshop themselves standing in front of the Parthenon? So many places have been visited and photographed that anyone could do this. There will always be that wondrous feeling of standing in front of a historical building or landscape, but will people continue to seek that out?

Ritchin also discusses the proposal of a “not-a-lens” icon on manipulated images. I think that this could be either extremely beneficial or possibly hazardous. In fashion magazines and commercials it would be beneficial to recognize that the figure has been Photoshoped to be skinnier, or a product made more colorful. However what if you were to see that icon in the bottom corner of a picture in National Geographic or Newsweek. One might question what was manipulated in the photograph, or if it even is real. It would be alarming to see an image of war with that icon in the bottom, because what would be real and what would be fabricated?

Camera Calibration

B&W Conversion

ColorX3

Color Ring Around

B&W Conversion

Color X3

Color Ring Around

Ritchin: After Photography

After reading the first two chapters in Fred Ritchin’s After Photography I began to question the truthfulness in today’s photography. Images that we see in magazines and newspapers we assume to have actually happened at some point in the past. Whether they are a real place, person or object is now not as certain. How do we know that an image is not just a compliment of other images to create the perfect setting or person that they are unable to find in real life? Such as photographer Brian Walski who was fired from the Los Angeles Times after it was found that he combined multiple images of the war in Iraq to create what he believed a better depiction. There has even instances when companies will combine facial features of multiple women to create a virtual woman who they believe to be an image of ideal beauty. After reading Ritchin, I wonder how many of the images that I see on a daily basis in magazines and advertisements are real and how many are fabricated to deceive the viewer. Personally, I try to do as little retouch on my photographs as possible, because after a certain point I feel as though it is no longer a true representation of the original image but rather its digital counterpart.

Past Work and Inspiration

As a photographer I find that I am always being pulled into nature. I find it intriguing that something we encounter everyday can be so mysterious and at times unnerving. In past projects I have been drawn in close to examine the details that reside in leaves and trees to try and dismantle their intricate being. While this has been my primary method, during the course of this class I am going to try and take a step back to see nature in a much broader view. To see it in a larger scale as compared to diminutive. One such artist who has been a great source of inspiration is Robert Glenn Ketchum. As a conversationalist photographer he has had a large impact in the needs to preserve some of the worlds most beautiful scenery. Much of his work is large scale aerial images which helps to emphasize the vast beauty of the landscape.

http://www.robertglennketchum.com/#p=-1&a=-1&at=0