I have chosen to do my report on a series of photographs called “The Ghetto Tarot” that was photographed by an artist group named Atis Rezistans. The group Atis Rezistans is a Hatian group of artist who have reinvented the classic tarot deck by using their native location Haiti and its long-time citizens as the source for their project. The artists do an incredibly well job in paying homage to the classic artwork of tarot cards and bringing it through life through the power of photography. Through precise composition, various backgrounds, and complimenting colors, they were able to create a series of completely unique and beautiful artistic photographs. Atis Rezistans is collective of highly skilled artists that were all born and raised in Haiti. These group of artists grew up in poor neighborhoods, unpleasant living conditions, and overall a very rough, junkyard-like environment. Some would call their environment the epitome of ghetto. The word “ghetto” that is in the title of this photo series plays a key descriptive word that the artists specifically chose. Although it is often used as a derogatory word with negative connotation, to these artists the word ghetto means …show more content…
Not only do these photographs excel in technicality but they also excel in emotional appeal. Looking through these photographs opens my eyes and gives me a taste of what Haitian culture is like. Even when their location is considered a filthy ghetto junkyard to some, they still managed to make the background work to their advantage and create beautiful photographs. I love how honest these photographs are and the fact that they don’t use any fancy backdrops or superficial models to create art is what also pleases me the most. Instead they use what they have and create pure and honest portraits that still seem have a glimmer of artistic values that magically makes it all come
For my museum selection I decided to attend Texas State University’s Wittliff Collection. When I arrived, there was no one else there besides me and the librarian. To be honest, I probably would have never gone to an art museum if my teacher didn’t require me to. This was my first time attending the Wittliff Collection, thus I asked the librarian, “Is there any other artwork besides Southwestern and Mexican photography?” She answered, “No, the Wittliff is known only for Southwestern and Mexican photography.” I smiled with a sense of embarrassment and continued to view the different photos. As I walked through Wittliff, I became overwhelmed with all of the different types of photography. There were so many amazing pieces that it became difficult to select which one to write about. However, I finally managed to choose three unique photography pieces by Alinka Echeverria, Geoff Winningham, and Keith Carter.
A Ghetto is a section of a city were members of a racial group are
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” (Albert Einstein). “Flavio’s Home,” written by Gordon Parks, can be considered one of Parks’ most memorable photography works. Parks’, enduring much hardship of his own as a teenager, turned his struggles around and used it as inspiration for others. His article tells of a twelve-year old boy and his family, stricken by poverty. Through an acutely informative and subtly persuasive article, Parks adequately uses pathos, diction, syntax, and imagery to tell his readers about why and how poverty “is the most savage of all human afflictions.” Speaking to his Life Magazine readers, Parks’ purpose for writing this article is to first
Richards focus is that of the ignored; a people that otherwise have been forgotten. It’s his compassion to his subjects and his commitment to them that surpasses the act of making a pretty picture. Spending days with his subjects in the slums of Harlem or the hardly developed mountains of West Virginia he immerses himself into the frequently bitter life of his next award-winning photo. Often including word for word text of testimonials recorded by junkies and destitute farmers, Richards is able to provide an unbiased portrayal. All he has done is to select and make us look at the faces of the ignored, opinions and reactions are left to be made by the viewer.
The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping.
In order to add something to their lives, [black families] decorated their tenements and their homes in all of these colors. I've been asked, is anyone in my family artistically inclined? I've always felt ashamed of my response and I always said no, not realizing that my artistic sensibility came from this ambiance.... It's only in retrospect that I realized I was surrounded by art. You'd walk Seventh Avenue and took in the windows and you'd see all these colors in the depths of the depression. All these colors.
Jacob Riis utilized photography to capture the filthy conditions of New York City’s tenements and shocked...
The book begins by tracing the construction of the black ghetto throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This proves that segregation has not always been common within American cities, but rather emerged at a certain point in time. These communities were formed in opposition to the desires of the blacks, through the beliefs, opinions, and practices of the whites. Their initial purpose was to contain the e...
A picture is more than just a piece of time captured within a light-sensitive emulsion, it is an experience one has whose story is told through an enchanting image. I photograph the world in the ways I see it. Every curious angle, vibrant color, and abnormal subject makes me think, and want to spark someone else’s thought process. The photographs in this work were not chosen by me, but by the reactions each image received when looked at. If a photo was merely glanced at or given a casual compliment, then I didn’t feel it was strong enough a work, but if one was to stop somebody, and be studied in curiosity, or question, then the picture was right to be chosen.
It goes without saying that hip-hop has changed. It began as a social practice of African-centered liberation to transform the black community or bring the youth together in unity, but towards the 90’s and onto the hip-hop scene in todays day and age, it is anything but that. The youth of today will know Tupac Shakur and beautify or streamline his self-destructive “thug life” but remain in the dark of figures like Mutulu and Afeni Shakur. Although this is a sad reality to live in, it is not hip-hops responsibility to change this. It is the responsibility of artists alike representing an oppressed populace to speak meaningfully in their art, in someway or another, for the liberation of their people.
The ghetto’s deplorable living conditions were a harrowing sight. I first noticed how isolated the ghetto was from the rest of the world. High, hermetic walls did not allow a millimeter of open space. German soldiers stood watch at nearly every point, accompanied by their ferocious watchdogs. The Nazis had placed a curfew on the ghetto; anyone seen outside after dark would be severely punished, if not killed on sight. Multiple families were cramped into small, dilapidated buildings. During an interview with a Jewish man named Shepsel Milgrom, he proclaimed, “We’re living in a closet.” However, many individuals were without shelter entirely and slept on the streets.
The development of the ghetto has been going on for centuries. In “De-spatialization and Dilution of the Ghetto: Current Trends in the United States,” author Peter Marcuse describe ghetto as a process that has been shifting and changing in the United States. He asserts that “the term ghetto can be used in many different ways, and no one of them is correct” (Marcuse 39). Marcuse addresses the three kinds of ghettos in the United States. First is the hard ghetto, which is the original “hood” where most. First is hard ghetto, which becomes the African-American neighborhood. It is described as chaotic, stigmatized, and dangerous. Second is the gentrifying diluted ghetto, which racially concerned ghetto, containing mostly middle class and diverse.
In their eyes, even though clearly victims, exist strengths and hopes for the future. The photos indicated that they could and did create their own culture, both in the past and present. From the same photos plus the texts, it could be gathered that they have done things to improve their lives, despite the many odds against them. The photographs showed their lives, their suffering, and their journey for better lives, their happy moments, and the places that were of importance to them. Despite the importance of the photographs, they were not as effective as the text in showing the African-American lives and how the things happening in them had affected them, more specifically their complex feelings.
The community of choice for this particular photo essay is the community of Hillbrow. Hillbrow best represents the idea of a 21st Century urban community firstly because geographically, it exists in the urban metropolitan area of Johannesburg. According to Reid, 2008) urban communities are characterised by a heterogeneous dense population, economic opportunities and active politics. Hillbrow is a community which is typically (especially in media forums) characterised by dilapidated buildings, excessive violence, homelessness, poverty, prostitution and a high prevalence of drugs (Onaele, 2014; Pooe, 2016). All these descriptions show that the community can be understood and analysed in both the relational and geographical sense. Geographically,