Cultural Activity 3

     The last cultural activity I went to was the showing of Andy Warhol on campus.  There were a few images I enjoyed more than others, but I really did enjoy the majority of them. They were unique and colorful, which can be quite refreshing when all the photos I have taken have been black and white.  The “Electric Chair” was acid yellow and done on a silk screen.  It was very grainy and almost painful to look at, which is what I think Warhol was trying to do.  The electric chair is a brutal, inhumane, and painful object, much as was the coloring and texture of the picture.  He also did a ton of prints of people, especially their faces.  He did ones of them with lots of colors and ones of them that were very pale and straightforward.  Every picture provoked a different reaction.  All of his pictures, however, were very good at capturing the eyes of the model, they were all so expressive of the model’s character.  I found it comical how his subjects ranged, many of them being ordinary people or things: Barbie dolls, turtles, faces.   Each had an explosive color o texture added to it like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  The prints “Mao 1-10” were really fun to look at.  He took a photo of this extremely powerful Chinese communistic leader and made him very silly and almost ordinary. Warhol manipulated his face by use of color and texture so the audience didn’t see him as the important, intimidating figure he was, but more of just another one of Warhol’s models.  Finally, the “Mick Jagger” screen prints were also quite amusing.  Warhol also played with these pictures, making them confusing, chaotic, and almost druggy prints.  They perfectly captured the essence of subject.  Overall, I really enjoyed these photos; Warhol continues to add a new level of visual pleasure to art. 

Assignment 5

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is one of the most well known and highly paid photographers ever known.  It is incredible what high demand she is still in.  Her photography career began with classes in college.  Though she came into school as a painting major, she took one class in photography and it just “clicked” with her.  She started really working when she got a job at the Rolling Stone magazine.  Though morality was her goal at this job, it was the time of experimentation, and experimentation was exactly what she did.  She explained how people spoke to her, making it easy for her to capture amazing shots of them.  She was also a keen observer and this helped her to see what others might have missed when shooting photos.  After gaining much recognition, Leibovitz moved to New York with the magazine and was in the center of the world when it came to art and creativity.  She learned a lot from working there, especially when she left Rolling Stone and began doing more mainstream, glamorous photos.  To this day she still can incorporate something about the person she is taking a photograph of into her photos, all the while provoking them.  I loved seeing the beautiful pictures she has taken, from ordinary people to movie stars. 

Cultural Activity 2

Over the weekend I watched the movie “Biutiful” starring Javier Bordem, playing the character Uxbal.  The movie was surprisingly depressing, and at times very difficult to watch.  It took place in the slums of Barcelona, Spain.  The plot revolved around Uxbal trying to help out everyone in his life.  It is evident that Uxbal’s under an immense amount of stress having tried to care for everyone he knows; everything that happens in Uxbal’s life is a struggle.  He has to take care of his manic-depressant wife, the houseless, jobless immigrants from china and Africa, and his two children. The money he makes by helping the immigrants find jobs, he saves to keep for his children.  The entire movie is centered around the relationship he has with his two children. It was a very painful film to watch because my heart really went out to the characters in the movie as well as their living conditions.  Throughout the movie I couldn’t help but think of all of the people who actually do live in these confitions.  Ultimately, Uxbal could not escape his destiny and he died due to cancer.  His children were left with a friend, since the wife was unable to care for herself, let alone her two kids.  Bordem portrayed the depth of the film very well and because of that I found the movie to be a success.  I probably would not see this film again but I’m glad I saw it.    

Cultural Activity 1

One of the culture activities I went on was the class trip to the library.  Overall I really enjoyed the trip because though there was only one floor, there was a huge range of different pictures, colors, and ideas mounted on the walls. 

The first series I saw when I entered the 5^th floor was that by Raven James.  He took pictures of American landscape with hints of dreamlike imagery.  All of the photos were in black and white and though each was different, when they were all shown together, they really highlighted one another.  I enjoyed the picture “Lacuna” very much.  It was a photo taken from the back of someone’s head with sweat beads flying in the air.  It was a very clear and visually pleasing photo.  I also liked “Sunrise” because it was a very peaceful picture of the sun shining through the trees.  The light wasn’t too intense, but rather calming.  The final work of his that I enjoyed was “Profile.”  There was a deer head thrown into the air with a wide landscape background.  I thought it was sort of a disturbing picture but it definitely got a reaction out of me.  I’m not sure I really understood the picture but I liked how bizarre it was.

The second artist I really enjoyed was Robert Welsh.  He had two pictures of ordinary households up.  I’m not sure whether they were staged or whether they were actual houses but it was a very old, semi-retro feel.  It felt like my grandparents house, which is why I think I liked it.

Katy levy was the third artist I was drawn to.   I adored the picture “Johnny Rays Fridge.”  It was a refrigerator with many personal pictures taped up on it.  It had family pictures and individual ones, both new and old.  I could see the old tape marks and could tell this was actually someone’s old fridge.  This was exactly what the fridge in my house looked like when I was growing up.  This picture really allows all the viewers into “Johnny Ray’s” life.  It is more of a picture, this is someone’s life.  The exhibit provoked some unique reactions, as well as showed many very interesting pictures; I ended up really enjoying this fieldtrip. 

Sally Mann

Sally Mann has been a both an extremely gifted yet controversial photographer since her beginning.  The film we watched progressively went through her most recent exhibits as well as the motivation behind these exhibits and photographs.  Sally Mann may be most well known for the photos she took of her three children.  Many of the pictures were nude, from when the children were very young to about the age of pre-teen.  Her children inspired her and were always willing to model. Though she became famous, she was accused of taking child pornography and had a very difficult time handling these accusations. 

Mann explained how she saw beauty in everything, making it easy for her to take pictures.  After a while she decided to switch her artistic focus from pictures of her children to pictures of landscape.  People were excited and surprised she could take such beautiful landscape photographs.  She explained in the movie that she also loves when something goes wrong while either taking or developing a picture.  She loves when dust is blown and hits her negative, or exhaust smoke comes out in her prints, which seems a bit counter-intuitive.  When these unexpected things would happen, she thought it gave her photos a more organic feel.

Her last three sets of work explained in the film were a series of her married life, a series revolving around death, and a series of self photographs.  The series of her married life stared her husband and daily marriage activities.  The series of death was very dark and it was the result of her fascination with death.  She wanted people to fully embrace life and to love the people you have while they’re still here.  The final scenes were of her taking self photographs.  The series was not finished but it looked promising.  I really enjoyed learning about Sally Mann, especially since I had admired pictures of hers previously, without knowing they belonged to her.  My favorite of her series are the pictures she took of her children, I thought they were remarkable.