Coffee Shop

The top image was taken by me in a local coffee shop.  The image on the bottom was taken by Martin Parr of MagnumPhotos.com.  Both of the images are similar in that they both take place in a coffee shop.  In addition, the colors in the image are very vibrant, even though the second image which was taken in the early 1990s.  Both individuals are interacting with some form of information-disseminating device - the top being a cell phone, and the bottom being a newspaper. 

The pictures show some of the significant differences that have happened in coffee shops over the past 20 years.  In the past, people would sit in the coffee shop and read a book or read the newspaper.  However, when one now enters a coffee shop, many more people are on their phones or using a laptop, and fewer people are reading the newspaper or reading a book.  In addition, the disposable cup in the top image is in contrast to the reusable cup in the bottom image, which shows society's "rushed" culture where food and coffee must be available to-go to enable people to get back to work. 

Inspiring fear

In my last photography assignment, I was intending to take normal people and without using photoshop, make them look like dangerous, supernatural creatures.  The top photo is from  http://sajda-osaidism.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-scary-night.html. The bottom photo is from one of my photo shoots.

I realized before my photo shoots that photos of normal humans are made more scary by eerie lighting, and from nighttime shots.  Also, I noticed that one of the most frightening aspect of a photo is to mess with the person's eyes. I think that is because we usually look into each other's eyes to be able to communicate, and understand another person.  As soon as we can not connect to that person, they are reduced to being beast like.

In the top photo, it is also at night, and the girl's eyes definitely have an unnatural glow about them from the lighting of the photo.  In my photo, I had my friend wear bottle caps over top of his eyes. Both of them are also doing sort of discomforting things. In the top photo she is simply staring.  It looks as though she can see into your soul even though she is just a child.  In my photo, he looks like a non-thinking creature and seems hungry.

I took the picture on the left of a homeless man lighting a cigarette at Rittenhouse square, and wanted to find more pictures depicting the hardships of homeless life. I found the picture on the right (By Michael Nagle, TIME.com, 4/8/2011) that explores a similar narrative. What I think is most striking about Nagle's picture is the incorporation of a person's shadow, which I assumed coud be the person who is residing at this encampment. With this, a very human element is added to the homeless, an element that most of us are taught to ignore of the homeless at a very young age.

Clouds

The photo at the top was taken by me and the photo on the bottom was taken by  tanguera75 on flickr. I found the photograph on the bottom while browsing flickr and I really liked the depth of the sky that is countered by the presence of a man made sign. Inspired by this photo, I created the one at the top. It also involves the depth of the sky along with man made beams.

Off-Camera Focus

http://d2f29brjr0xbt3.cloudfront.net/160_eyecontact/indirect1.jpg

My Photograph

I have recently become interested in portrait photography. After doing some casual research about portraits, I found that many photographers suggested playing with eye contact that focuses outside of the frame. The photograph that I took of a baby that I babysit was in response to the black & white photo of the woman that I found. Being able to catch the moment of Tessa looking off-camera was hard - babies seem to be fascinated by cameras!

Red and Yellow

The photo on the left is one of my unused photos taken for the triptych project, whereas the photo on the right was taken by user zahniulli (and can be found at http://www.panoramio.com/photo/55842336.)

Both photos utilize a combination of black and white photography with color photography. My photo utilizes a camera feature to selectively make all but the selected color (with varying thresholds of permitting similar colors), whereas the second photo, based on the ability to pick up both the yellow and brown/black of the sunflower, likely utilizes Photoshop or a similar program.
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Both photos include multiple objects in color, rather than a single object. My photo includes the two fire alarms (and picks up a poster as well) and sort of pulls the viewer along from the first fire alarm in the foreground, to the next fire alarm in the background, to the poster to the left. Similarly, the sunflower photo catches one's eye with the immediate sunflower and one's eyes wander and notice the other patches of yellow to the left in the background; though we can't exactly tell much about the photos in the back, the color of the immediate sunflower connects to the ones in the back and we can therefore, by this link, assume the other flowers in the back are the same and look similar to this one. The sunflower photo, on a tangent, looks like a sort-of bizarre portrait, with the sunflower "staring" at the viewer and the remaining flowers in the background.

Silhouette

This photograph was made by Morgan Tepsic. I was immediately impressed with the clear silhouette of this image, and how stark the silhouette contrasted to the background. It really made me focus on the figure of the body.

I was inspired to try and create my own silhouette photograph. This window is the only natural light in the room, and my friend was sitting there just looking out onto the street around noon, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity. It didn't turn out exactly as I'd expected -- you can see some hint of his shirt's color still, instead of it being completely blacked out.

Boxing

I took the photograph on the left when we visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It was my first time there so I had to go see the Rocky statue.  It was a great experience to see the exhibitions, the Rocky steps, and his statue.  I found the photo on the right from http://www.success.com/articles/618-from-the-archives-muhammad-ali.  It's also a boxing picture of the famous Muhammad Ali.  The athletes in both of these photos are striking an almost identical victorious pose.  The lighting in both of these photos is also striking because of the way the light bounces off the statue, and Muhammad Ali.    

Sunrise, sunset!

The top photo was found on www.digital-photography-school.com.  I took the bottom photo in Holland.

I think that both pictures are very calming to look at.  Both of them are sunsets, and have elements that catch the eye to draw you in to the photography.  The top one you focus on the shape of the boat sail and the clouds, and on the bottom one, you focus on the windmills and the way the clouds are formed.

Rocky

The bottom picture is a picture by Zoe Strauss, i found it on her flickr page.  I took the top photo while outside of the PMA on our trip there.  The bottom picture reminded me of the top one because both the people in the picture are flexing.  The angles are different, the top is similar to many of Zoe's photos, but this one is straight on. 

Rocky Steps

The top image was taken by tripadvisor.com user JL51.  Prior to going on the trip to the Philly Art Museum for the Zoe Strauss exhibit, I looked at photos from around the museum that I would be able to attempt to emulate.  One of the photos that I found was the top photo. 
During the trip I was able to take the bottom picture.  Both of the images are similar in composition and taken from the same vantage point.  However, my image makes better use of the rule of thirds, with the flags isolating the middle "box." 
It is obvious that these pictures were taken at two separate times as the top image was taken in the spring/summer, whereas my image was taken in the winter.  Apart from the trees and water, the images are similar in color as there is an overcast/cloudy sky in both of the pictures. 

Music in the Soul

This is a photograph made by Roy DeCarava, found in The Sweet Flypaper of Life. It's a photobook about black life during the Harlem Renaissance. This photograph focuses on the positive aspects of life. It shows this woman's absolute involvement with the music, her passion for it.

When I made this, I immediately was reminded of DeCarava's images that are so full of love and joy and passion. Ben is an actor and Alison is a singer and I feel like I captured them, truly, in their essence. When they feel this way, their troubles are minimized. Only the music matters.

Just being us

Recently, I've been inspired to photograph people just doing what they do naturally.  The top photo was found on Tumblr.com, and the bottom photo is mine. I liked the top one because even though they know that the camera is there, I love how they are interacting with each other, instead of just being posed and smiling.  I like this type of photography, because it really shows how the people in the photo relate to one another. 

In my photo, they were doing that completely on their own, and I think its completely crazy, and that's why I love the photo, because it describes who they are.

The photograph on the top was taken by me. It was a part of the Berman response series. I used food coloring to create this effect. The photograph on the bottom is by Xavier some last name that isn't listed. The photograph that I took reminded me of a jellyfish after looking at it for a while. I looked for a photo that I thought would compliment it well and this one immediately stood out. Besides being similar in color, the depth, range of color tones, and the movement are part of what makes these photos similar.

After first taking the picture on the left, I wanted to explore the concept of people smoking. Given the fact that innumerable data exist telling us that smoking is directly linked to higher incidence of cancer and other diseases, people still make the decision to do it. However, I was not trying to capture recklessness by smoking a single cigarette. Rather, I was trying to explore a person's capacity to rationally make decisions, not matter how seemingly irrational (to some) the decision may be. The picture on the right is by Joseph Szabo entitled Priscilla, found on life.com and taken in 1969. Given how young the girl smoking is, perhaps she doesn't have the same capacity in decision making, but I believe there is a very similar underlying concept.

I made this photograph on February 22, 2012 in the kitchen of Hillel. Despite the bright colors, it has a bit of a creepy feeling to it. The photo is void of people but there is evidence of human life. The perspective is a bit odd too, like you're standing in one spot looking through another space and beyond into the further area. It gives the impression of spying.
















This photo was made by Christopher Anderson, found on the website www.magnumphotos.com. I find it similar to mine because of the 3 stages of perspective, in which the audience is asked to look from an area through a very specific space to something beyond.