Analysis of:
American Legion Convention-Dallas: Street photography by Garry Winogrand
Skip, Philadelphia: A photograph by George Krause
Art is such an eternal concept and part of our lives. It lives on through generations, transcending many periods, and can speak through many mediums. Art is a way of expression, when nothing else can capture, but is something that can be interpreted in many ways. I chose photography—that which best portrays mankind, in that it hides nothing and only shows what is there to begin with. “It is the language most readily understandable to all and our most important form of communication among nations and cultures.”(Schuneman; Koner 59-60) Two excellent representations of this is a street photographic piece by Garry Winogrand called American Legion Convention- Dallas, Texas 1964 and a piece by George Krause called Skip, Philadelphia 1962.
Innate Reactions: What Would You Really Do?
Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) was best noted for his street photography and portrayal of early 1960 America. “Winogrand was never looking for a ‘pretty shot’”, he was more interested in unveiling the social issues of society and “the role of media in shaping attitudes.”(wikipedia.org) “In many ways these works are social satires of American life.”(artmag.com) This interest is apparent in his piece called American Legion Convention of which I experienced in person at the Lowe Art Museum. The photo is a black and white, with the clear focus on an older white male in the center. He is without legs, and is sitting on a busy sidewalk, with an almost invisible barrier surrounding him from everyone else. I sense a very discernable attitude of “I’m just going about my business.” This particular photogr...
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...d something new.”(Schuneman; Koner p. 59) When totaling all of these factors, yes, photography is art. This is what is so impressive about the concept of art—two totally different mediums such as an oil painting and a black and white photograph can both hold the same aesthetic value.
Works Cited
Schuneman, R. Smith and Hicks, Wilson Photographic Communication: Principles, Problems and
Challenges of Photojournalism. New York: Hastings House, 1972
Power, Mark “Introduction by Mark Power”
Karczmar, Natan and Garidis, Anguéliki “Garry Winogrand
The Man in the Crowd: The Uneasy Streets of Garry Winogrand”
Gladwell, Malcolm Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York and Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 2005
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.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Having such an image before our eyes, often we fail to recognize the message it is trying to display from a certain point of view. Through Clark’s statement, it is evident that a photograph holds a graphic message, which mirrors the representation of our way of thinking with the world sights, which therefore engages other
Susan Sontag once wrote, “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” In her article entitled “On Photography,” she overviews the nature of photography and its relation to people using it. Sontag discusses photography’s ability to realistically capture the past rather than an interpretation of it, acting as mementos that become immortal. Continuing on to argue the authenticity of photography and how its view points have shifted from art into a social rite.With the use of rhetorical devices, Sontag scrutinizes the characteristics of photography and its effects on surrounding affairs; throughout this article Sontag reiterates the social rites, immortality and authenticity of photographs, and the act of photography becoming voyeuristic. With the use of the rhetorical devices pathos, appeal of emotion, ethos, appeal to ethics and credibility, and logos, appeal to logic, Sontag successfully persuades the audience to connect and agree with her views.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Garry Winogrand was born on January 14, 1928 in the Bronx in New York City. His parents were Abraham and Bertha, a leatherworker and seamstress. Winogrand was brought up in a predominately Jewish working class area of New York. At a young age, Winogrand began practicing what would be his legacy. Late at night, he would walk the streets of New York; it was here that he found privacy and solitude. After high school, Winogrand was enlisted in the United States Air Force, after which he used his GI Bill to return to school. He studied painting at City College of New York, after which he studied painting and photography at Columbia University until 1948 (Evans). In 1951, Winogrand’s passion for photography really took flight while at Columbia, he met classmate George Zimbel and together they started the ‘Midnight to Dawn Club’; photographing by day and developing all through the night. He enrolled in a photojournalism class taught by Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research. Brodovitch rose to fame in...
John Mahtesian's photography offers a visual poetry of the human condition. It is a direct expression of his warmth, depth of spirit, and humanity. A true gentleman, extremely humble and unfailingly polite, he achieves an invisibility that is the success of his art. His patience and commitment to his vision allow him to capture moments others could not. If his subjects are aware of his presence, his gentle nature so enchants them that they are unguarded and their essence is revealed. So compelling are his images that we are truly convinced his insights are our own. They make us rejoice in the world around us, and in the nature of human existence.
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As seen in paintings of battle scenes and portraits of wealthy Renaissance aristocracy, people have always strived to preserve and document their existence. The creation of photography was merely the logical continuum of human nature’s innate desire to preserve the past, as well as a necessary reaction to a world in a stage of dramatic and irreversible change. It is not a coincidence that photography arose in major industrial cities towards the end of the nineteenth century.
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