Kiwi Sun Photography: Blog

Arroz con Pollo: Weekly Ethnic Dinner

2008-04-27T10:25:00.001-04:00

Arroz con Pollo
Recipe: Alex Garcia

1 (3 pound) chicken cut into 8 pieces, skin removed
Salt and pepper
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup pure Spanish olive oil
1 onion, small dice
1 green pepper, small dice
1 roasted red pepper, small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup prepared tomato sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine
12 ounces beer
1/2 cup sherry
3 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups Valencia rice, soaked in cold water for 1 hour
5 saffron threads
1 cup frozen sweet peas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and lime juice. In a large casserole or dutch oven, heat the olive oil. Brown the chicken, remove the chicken from the pan, and set aside.
Add the onions, peppers, and garlic to the casserole. Cook until translucent. Add the tomato sauce, cumin, and bay leaf; cook for another 5 minutes. Add the chicken, wine, beer, and sherry, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Add the stock, bring to a boil, and adjust the seasoning. Add the drained rice and the saffron.
Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
Remove the rice from the oven and add the peas, fluffing the rice and mixing in the peas at the same time. Serve hot.

Calvin and Luther on Huckabee

2008-04-26T11:51:00.002-04:00

I would like to argue that Luther and Calvin would react differently to a recent statement made by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, in which he stated he believes it’s a lot easier and better to change the constitution to fit the word of “the living God” than to change God’s word to fit the Constitution. Luther would reject the ideas of Democracy since he wrote that kings should have rule and written rule goes under reason. Calvin, on the other hand, would appreciate what democracy stands for and would agree that some things would need to be changed.

It is evident that times have changed since Luther and Calvin graced this floating rock that we call Earth. Over this timeframe new people, technologies, governments, nations, reason, and philosophies have evolved. In America we are not a mass of servants who bow to an earthly king, rather we are a society of independent individuals who all have our own skills, thoughts and voices. With lessons learned from history, we as a society have come to realize that giving power to one person leads to utter chaos. To prevent chaos we have adopted a form of government in which we the people choose representatives who make our laws, judge us, and keep us safe from harm. A definitive system of checks and balances exists in our constitution. These checks and balances protect us from our government by limiting power.

According to Luther two kingdoms exist; “the first belong to the kingdom of God, the second belong to the Kingdom of the world” (Luther 8). In society today, we have many diverse religions as well as people who choose not to be religious, which is a right guaranteed by our constitution. As a whole, we have grown a tolerance for all the diverse religions co-existing in our country somewhat harmoniously, so much so that by today’s standards, we don’t just have two kingdoms; we have many. The freedom that makes this possible is granted through our constitution. Luther is a passionate Christian who would reject any individual who worships another God and place them in a category known as the wicked. If Luther lived today he would not accept our religious diversity.

Luther writes that the two forms of government must be distinct. “No one can be made just in the sight of God by the secular government” (Luther 12). He also explains that “Christ’s spiritual government does not extend to everyone” (Luther 12). According to Luther both of these must coexist, the secular being for the unjust since the word of the Lord has no bearing on them. The secular also protects and provides stability for the just. He gave a parable where ruling by the “gospel is like herding together wolves, lions, eagles and sheep in the same pen” (Luther 11) and telling them to be peaceful. He came to the assumption that the “sheep would keep the peace” (Luther 11) but they would not survive very long. To elaborate, the sheep would live like Christians in peace and harmony but the other savage wild beasts that represent the wicked would tear the sheep apart. When Luther stated “how he believes is a matter for each individual’s conscience and this does not diminish secular governments” (Luther 25) he affirms that men cannot be told to believe in something by the force of secular government.

When Luther says “setting a limit to power: it is not to have mastery over faith and God’s Word, but over evil doing” (Luther 28), it separates the two. How this separates the two relates to how our government separates the two. Churches are not allowed to set up laws and punish people; rather they deal with peoples’ souls. Likewise, our government does not tell us what to believe; it does however protect us if people attempt to harm us in the name of religion. An example of this would be terrorism by radical Islamic groups.

The only limitation to listening to secular government is that “we must obey God rather than men” (Luther 29). By this, if an individual is being forced by secular government to do something against God’s law it is null and void. Luther however writes that people should just do nothing to aid them. He goes as far as to say that we should be proud to be blessed if somebody ransacks your home while you stand for what you believe in. This would not hold true today because the 4th Amendment of the constitution protects us from unlawful search and seizure. As a society we have set up this system of checks and balance so that government does not have too much power. According to Luther if an injustice is brought upon by anybody including a ruler they should just take it and “keep to the gospel and suffer injustice as a true Christian” (Luther 15). Luther’s dynamic is that the king of a land is supreme but God trumps everybody including the king. In Luther’s eyes we should all lead lives that are subject to the will of the rulers without any question unless they command us to do something against God’s law.

It is evident that Luther would not agree with our constitution. While some of his theories do relate he feels that the power has been entrusted to maintain these rulers by divine right. With regard to written law at the end of Luther’s writing he goes on to say “written law is to be held in lower regard than reason, for reason is the source of all laws… and reason is not to be held captive be letters” (Luther 43). By this Luther feels that things should be handled by reason on a case by case basis, which goes against the Constitution, which stands for equal rights for all.

Although Calvin moves to the notion of having magistrates who are ordained by God acting on peoples behalf, he does also say that “there can be no doubt that he is recommending every kind of just government” (Calvin sec. 4). This is also affirmed when Calvin cited the bible: “there is no power but of God: the powers that are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1). This would justify a government like democracy under the eyes of God. Since in democracy the rule is spread out because “several bear rule” (Calvin sec. 8), Calvin would also agree that the system of checks and balances in our government works well because “should any one be disposed to go too far, the others are censors and masters to curb his excess” (Calvin sec. 8). It also could not be stated more bluntly that different forms of government work since Calvin wrote “different countries should be governed by different forms of polity” (Calvin sec. 8) and that “in different regions a similar inequality in the form of government is best” (Calvin sec. 8).

Calvin does however contradict himself with his history of friction with heretics. This friction was so intense at one point that it resulted in the execution of Michael Servetus. Servetus had escaped from imprisonment in Vienna, Italy and could not go to France because he was afraid he would be recaptured. On Sunday attending church was a mandate in Geneva and Servetus was discovered before the sermon began. Calvin did not want to spend time in jail as an accuser so he got his secretary to do it for him. Later charges were set and a trial began, and eventually he was burned at the stake along with his books. Eventually this led to bitterness and some attacks against Calvin. (Michael Servetus: Execution of Servetus at Geneva)
In the Grand Rapids city limits you can drive down the road and see several different churches. Calvin would be unable to accept a government or society with as much religious freedom guaranteed by the first amendment of our constitution. While Calvin might be at odds with the freedom of religion, he would agree with everything else our constitution stands for. Calvin would also see that the United States is a large and diverse nation that needs a special form of government with a constitution.

Calvin would undoubtedly agree that the constitution should be changed to coincide with the Laws of God. “If the state is in a trouble condition, those things from which disturbances arise must be corrected by new edicts” (Calvin sec. 16). He would agree that our nation has changed since the constitution was written. Calvin would also despise the fact that Christians have to cater to non-Christians by keeping prayer out of schools. Therefore I felt Calvin would alter the entire first amendment to be more in line with God’s word.

Today things are much different than they were centuries ago. Society and population have grown as well as our thirst for freedom. The founders of America rejected the notion of having one ruler. They also wanted us to enjoy the freedoms listed in the constitution with a limited government. It is evident that Martin Luther would reject democracy because of these freedoms and order the power to be taken away from one ruler. If Luther were asked if the constitution should be changed he would likely tear it to shreds. On the other hand Calvin would agree with democracy for a nation as large as we are. He would also agree that things such as the freedom of religion need to be changed to coincide with God’s law rather than some contemporary view.

References:

Harro Höpfl, editor, Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge, 1991)

Beveridge, Henry. "Chapter 20. Of civil government." Internet Christian Library. 12 Feb 2008 .

"Michael Servetus: Execution of Servetus at Geneva." Michael Servetus - SIS. Servetus International Society. 12 Feb 2008 .

Rousseau and Locke on Pateman

2008-04-26T11:34:00.006-04:00

I would like to argue that both Rousseau and Locke would justify and agree with Pateman’s argument with regard to the fact that their social contracts are fraternal social contracts. Moreover, I will also argue that Locke, with reason, would eventually agree that times have changed. Then I will argue that Rousseau would clash with the notions of feminism that exist today.

We should first begin with the definition of fraternal. Pateman states that the “contract is made by brothers, or a fraternity” (Pateman, 40). According to Pateman all the early writers on Social Contract theory were men. A few of these men include; Luther, Calvin, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Pateman then goes on to write that “it is no accident that fraternity appears historically hand in hand with liberty and equality, nor that it means exactly what it says: brotherhood” (Pateman, 40). It is evident that Pateman feels that this “brotherhood” is ingrained in everything to do with writings on liberty and equality. In her writing she states that Rousseau and Freud feel the “female body, subject to uncontrollable natural processes and passions deprives women of the reason and moral character which can be educated for civil society” (qtd. in Pateman, 44). That goes against the feminist mindset that “women possess the capacities we possess and can do what men can do” (Pateman, 44). According to Pateman, Locke defends the fraternal order when he “tells us that the strength and ability of the man (husband) is the natural basis of the wife’s subordination” (Pateman, 44). She goes on to explain that this subordination lead to the division into the 2 separate spheres. It was because of the 2 separate spheres that the education that women received could not be equal to men.

With regard to educating women by today’s standards Rousseau takes a bolder approach when he writes the following in Emile which is intended by the author to be a guide on how to educate children:

…Thus all the education of women must be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them, to make oneself loved and honored by them, to raise them when they are young, to care for them when they are grown, to advise them, console them, make their life pleasant and sweet -- these are the duties of women at all times and what one ought to teach them from their childhood…
(Rousseau, “Emile” sec. 1279)

According to Rousseau it is the woman’s task in life to be submissive to men and do everything to make life bliss by being useful to them and to bring them honor. Moreover, the fact that he stated this implies it is how he believed we should raise our children. According to Pateman, Rousseau feels that the “sexes must be segregated to the greatest possible extent even in domestic life” (qtd. in Pateman, 45). She also points to Emile when she writes about how when Emile returned from learning about “politics and citizenship” (qtd. in Pateman, 45) he could “claim her body as a husband” (qtd. in Pateman, 45), in reference to Sophie who would be his new wife. That solidifies the fact that Rousseau felt men should dominate women.

When both Rousseau and Locke roamed the earth in an endless quest for knowledge, the philosophies of sexism and feminism were non-existent. Back then things were run and owned by men. While Locke does cite that God’s law states “children, Honour thy father and thy mother” (Locke, “Second Treatise” 30), in his writings it seems to go without saying that the mother’s authority only extends to the children when raising them. It is not clearly written that this is Locke’s opinion, however what is concisely laid out in his works is that authority concerning anything else belongs to the males.

Long ago, land was owned by men and only property owners could vote. While some states such as Wyoming had the right to vote as early as 1890, it was not until 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed that all women of age could vote in elections in the United States. It was not until 1928 in Britian that women were granted the right to vote on the same terms as men. In the United States we have not had a female president. While many other instances of oppression can be noted in our fraternal society, it is clear that the rights of women have blossomed and that women are viewed differently since the days of Locke and Rousseau.

If Locke were alive today he would see through reason that women can in fact be educated. Within a matter of time he would see women not only as professors but also women running cities such as Atlanta, as governors like in Michigan, and in the House and Senate. If Locke were to turn on the television today he would see Hilary Clinton running for President. On Google he would see that in Germany the female head of state is Chancellor Angela Merkel who was elected in 2005. While female heads of state are few and far between, they do exist. With regard to strength I am sure if he were to watch the Olympics or visit a prison and see a female guard he wouldn’t doubt that women have the ability to be strong. According to Locke “Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything” (Locke, “Essay” 14). Locke subscribed to theories through reason and by today’s standards, he would see also through reason that women can lead and are equals.

Judging by Rousseau’s writings one could figure out that he has a domineering complex over women that he would be reluctant to give up. In Emile Rousseau’s true colors on the male chauvinist belief shine in the following:

Once this principle is established it follows that woman is specially made to please man. If man ought to please her in turn, the necessity is less urgent. His merit is in his power; he pleases because he is strong. This is not the law of love, I admit, but it is the law of nature, which is older than love itself.
(Rousseau, “Emile” sec. 1255)

This again solidifies the fact that Rousseau believes that women are made to make men happy and a man does not have to do the same for a woman in return. He is justified in doing this because he is dominant.

Rousseau’s life was a disconnected one with regard to love and his children. Accounts say that he had 5 children with his mistress Thérèse Lavasseur and gave them to an institution. It is also noted that this was used against him by Voltaire. When Rousseau wrote about children Voltaire argued that Rousseau just deserted his own children at an orphanage. Rousseau countered by saying that they would have gotten a better upbringing than what he could provide and that by giving them away they would not have to deal with high society. His love life with his mistress also seemed more like a convenience to himself than anything else. It was apparent that Rousseau did not think much of women and if one with a feminist viewpoint approached him if he were alive today, he would likely discredit her for being a woman, causing a clash between their two opposite perspectives. In my eyes the clash would be much like the popular movie character Borat walking into a feminist meeting.

Times have changed since Locke and Rousseau. Society has grown to accept and thrive with women in avenues of authority. In conclusion, if John Locke were still alive today, he would subscribe to reason when making decisions about the roles women should play in society. He would see what women have done for society and would likely sway to agree with feminist arguments. Rousseau on the other hand would discredit a feminist simply because she is a woman, and in his eyes, women are subservient to men.

Bibliography

Locke, John, Second Treatise of Government, C.B. Macpherson, editor (Hackett, 1980) ISBN 0915144867.

Locke, John. "John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." Enlightenment: Objectivist Scholarship. 10 Apr 2008 .

Pateman, Carole, "The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism and Political Theory" Chapter 2, pp 33-57, (c) 1989 Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Book V." Contents for Rousseau's Emile. Institute for Learning Technologies. 10 Apr 2008 .

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Donald Cress, trans. (Hackett, 1992) ISBN 0872201503.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, On the Social Contract, Donald Cress, trans. (Hackett, 1987) ISBN 087220068X.

Senior Thesis Idea

2008-04-26T11:29:00.001-04:00

In today’s society everybody hustles to the next stage in life. There is no doubt that modern marvels make things in life easier. Among so many things our automobiles are faster to get to work and we do not have to kill our food for dinner. Since the spout of industrialism our world has separated itself from so many things in so many ways.

In the good old days one could turn ice cream all day for a treat for a family to enjoy. Then in the 1960s you could go to the local soda jerk and watch them make your soda or sundae. Today you just ask and they bring one out to you. Most of our generation doesn’t even know what a soda is or why they all them sundaes.
These days to get furniture a person just drives to Art Van. The consumer has no knowledge of who build the work or where it even came from. While this is easy for the consumer and costs less, what happened to the person that poured pride into making a cabinet for somebody? Now, this is mostly done in a factory and since the work is produced in so many stages few even get to see the end product. Karl Marx dubbed this “the alienation of labor”. What is also interesting is how the factory that creates it not only pays workers low wages but is in a constant state of trying to manufacture it cheaper.

In photography, photographers use to have to buy paper, sensitize it and do everything mainly from scratch. They took pride in what they did and not everybody could do it. Over time photography has become easier for people to work with and more alien to the photographer. Even Albumen paper was produced in large factories so that people could sensitize it. Then cames the silver gelatin papers which made it so people did not have to sensitize paper. The darkroom was replaced by people sending in negatives made by the Brownies. In color photography the die transfer process was wiped out by PhotoShop and replaced with ink spitters that we call printers. Now some Kmart stores are abandoning photo processing because they can not profit with large internet digital photo producers. How alien is that? You do not even see who produces your photographs!

What happened to the candy store, cabinet makers, and soda jerks of yesterday? Have the modern day bourgeoisie sucked them all into the proletariat positions of factories. It seems unsettling that the small businesses that produce and see the work from beginning to end are fading while factories grow. I hope that photography never falls completely into the industrial complex. For my thesis I want to defend the small businesses that are on the brink of extinction and becoming archaic with a beautiful process that is now considered extinct and archaic.

Working with Albumen (Introduction)

2008-02-20T12:10:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I finally got around to ordering products to start working with Albumen. I've been really excited about this project. I got my ingredients from the Photographers Formulary Inc. which is based in Montana, USA. The woman on the phone was extremely helpful she even gave me information for finding the clear film to Print the negatives on.

To create the negatives I'll be working with my Epson 2200 and Pictorico OHP Transparency Film. Pictorico use to be owned by Olympus, but it seems that you have to order it from Mitshubishi Imaging. It is hard to imagine that I'll be cracking eggs just like they did more then 150 years ago when the process was a standard in the industry.

The ingredients and measurement supplies are in the mail, while I'm waiting I'll be prepping the files from both my archive and some files from historic albumen images that I can download from the Library of Congress Website. I plan to use images from Roger Fenton.

I would like to thank my friends at the Australian Photographic Society, Royal Photographic Society, and Grand Valley State University for all the help and information they have shared with me thus far. I would also like to thank my friend in Plymouth, MI who kindly donated his UV exposure unit to me. If anybody would like to make any comments or suggestions by all means do so. I'll be posting more as progress develops.

School Shootings & Photojournalism

2008-02-15T11:27:00.003-05:00

It was 10 years ago that I joined the ranks ok the American Red Cross. Being young and just out of high school it really opened my eyes to the world around me. I not only learned how to save lives but also learned how to teach others how to save lives. Through that education I have taught CPR 3 times, helped at several accidents, and taught countless students how to do the same. Before joining the Red Cross I had no idea just how much disasters affected people.

Today as a photographer I can’t help but take in the world around me. At weddings I get to be a part of the most important day of somebody’s life, through my craft I get to etch it on paper to preserve memories for generations. Conversely when something sad or moving happens I feel it is our duty to share what has happened with the rest of the world.

Although I have never photographed the aftermath of a school shooting and hope I never have to. I can look through the photographer’s eyes through the images he or she creates. I have photographed standing behind a police barricade and became aware of how the press is treated. I’ve also photographed a presidential funeral and know how important it is to share what I see with the rest of the world.

What I have done however seems insignificant compared to the photographs I have seen from Columbine, Virginia Tech, or the recent school shooting in Illinois. When I attend college I feel safe and can not imagine what it would be like if a man or woman pulled out a gun in one of my classes. I can’t fathom watching my friends and professors being a target. It is so chilling to know that this has and does happen to students. The expressions on people’s faces in the photographs attempt to show us the utter terror it causes.

Our right to photograph is secured through the constitution under the guise of the freedom of the press. That freedom is important because it acts as a system of check and balances. When bad things happen they need to be exposed and fixed. Bad things are happening, my fellow photographers, students, professors, friends, and readers. If you sense that somebody may do something like this talk with people and attempt to get the person help. These things are real and a little compassion may curve the violence that plagues our schools. I am glad photographers and the press has opened my eyes to what is going on. The press does hard work that is not easy during grim times like this.

I would encourage anybody to join:

American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org)
Canadian Red Cross (http://www.redcross.ca)
Rachels Challenge (http://www.rachelschallenge.com/)

Review of Behind the Masks Portraits

2008-02-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

The photographs discussed in Behind the Masks Portraits of Southern Gothic are interpretive. If the photographer didn’t engage his twist on the portraits when he included things such as the strange masks, broken windows, decayed houses, or the American flags coupled with not photographing them with blank stares or yawns they may be considered descriptive. Rather it is obvious that the photographer had intended for his viewers to interpret his work they gazed upon it. In a secondary sense the photographs could have also been considered slightly ethically evaluative since they went against the grain of the common portrait style that could be considered a notion it is a very strong one.

The paper also notes some of Meatyards landscapes and portraits of which no information is discussed. Later in life Meatyard studied with Aaron Siskind and Minor White. After they taught him the “finer points of black and white” he gained the influence of Zen in his photography. When I think of Zen I gravitate to empty thinking and meditative photography. This type of photography in my eyes is aesthetically evaluative since it’s about art and making things look good without any social issues. While these photographs do not relate to the title of the work Behind the Masks, Portraits of Southern Gothic they are about the photographer and hold descriptive importance to help the reader understand the photographer.

I sense that Grace Glueck reviewed Meatyard’s work with an open mind entered it with an expressionist mindset. While she did interpret his work you could tell she was less into it then when she described things such as the “finer points of black and white” and “he was intrigued enough by the photographic process to start a serious study in 1954 which post dates the photos talked about earlier. She also leashed out things with a negative connotation when describing his work with masks which included; most oddball, creepy, and grotesque. Although she had an open mind she likely had a preference for more of the realist and formalist images judging by what was noted above.

Grace’s criteria must have been more implicit since she did not come out and say it directly. While she did note explicit things such as “finer points of black and white” they didn’t lend themselves in favor of the images. Perhaps the antonyms of her evaluations would imply what she has embedded in her criteria. She did however use the word memorable when evaluating something but she did not attach it to a good memory or bad one which again lead to the implicit criteria.

Again Grace did not emphasize any theory in her writing. What I implied from the work itself was that it functioned as art that and the disguises added a sense of mystery to the images. What struck me was the thought that the masked may have implied death in death masks or a type of veil. While veils are also used in happy things such as weddings the undertone that Grace described led me to think one of the things it was about was death. People were also photographed around houses with broken windows which gravitate to decay as another subject matter. With regard to modernity the images are set up and heavily posed. By the writing it sounded like Meatyard took his time when executing the images he thought of.

Death and Decay is not the easiest subject to photograph mainly because of the taboo our society has placed on it. Seeing a photograph of a dead body is the easiest way the depict it but photographing the dead under forms of decay shifts to a little too morbid. A decaying dead body in a gallery would have more shock value then meaning. At the year of his death Meatyard photographed himself as old with “unkempt hair” on a umkempt grass hill. He is depicted through the last two images as getting up and leaving which lets us know that he has told his story.

The Late

2008-02-09T21:44:00.001-05:00

Few people stop to put surrealistic concepts or ideas that exist in the mind onto a medium for others to see. The rationale behind this is because it’s generally more difficult to create something from bits and pieces then to just walk up, compose the image and click the shutter. The creative Maggie Taylor decided to do things the hard way and let her imagination run wild. Her work usually is composed of individuals acting out situations or posing in human form. Some of the forms have bird or mammal elements such as heads. What Maggie creates is usually from a vantage point looking dead on, and rarely has any dynamic angles that pop out or draw attention. Taylor’s creation titled the Late is read from right to left and hosts a childlike figure with a bird’s head traversing the mystic blue skied night on a bicycle with a light shining onward attached to the handlebars. The bird child has wings that look as if they were crafted with bright blue butterfly wings. While the ground is green the horizon fades away into a mountainous background. The green area in the foreground is sprawling with small lavender flowers. In the composition the creature has a hurried expression. This coupled with the night solidifies the title of the image which was created in 2000 with an ink jet printer.

New York #56

2008-02-09T21:38:00.000-05:00

In our semiotic world littered with advertisements in every avenue of our life, few people actually stop to look notably at the aesthetics and compositional elements. Over time, most advertisements are left neglected and decompose which is considered to be an eye sore by most people’s standards. While in New York Aaron Siskind went against this grain and stopped to notice the decay of forms in the city. He then went on to make compositions in New York. A brilliant work of his named New York #56 hosts a sign that without a close look would be next to unidentifiable. He chose to compose this image in an abstract way; while it is balanced it creates tension because you cannot read what the sign says. Beyond the decay with time you can distinguish an element that says “AREA”; directly above it you notice bits and pieces of a word but it is undistinguishable. Above that word a line exists then another word in a lighter shade ending with the letter “R”. The decay in the photograph is composed of organic shapes and under the decay the sign is composed in organic lines and letters. This silver gelatin print was created in 1951 with a series of many other abstract images that focus on elements and decay.

Daphne and Apollo

2008-02-07T13:35:00.001-05:00

There is no doubt that Joel Peter-Witkin has had a share of life altering experiences from witnessing the decapitation of a child after an accident when he was a child, to photographing the Vietnam War. Most of the work that Peter-Witkin does is considered grotesque and morbid mainly because of his ideas, and even more with his use of human body parts and corpses. The silver print by Joel Peter-Witkin, Daphne and Apollo, c.1985 interprets a myth in which the nymph Daphne never wanted to be married but Apollo loved her and desired to have her. Later in the chase the nymph turned into a tree and while Apollo could not have her he could have the tree. The image depicts this is happening in a wooded area in front of a dark rock like figure. To the distant left atop a hill is a domelike building. The artist’s interpretation of the nymph is a nude dwarf with a tortured expression on her face and Apollo is depicted as a goat-like creature with wings. The photograph has a great deal of contrast which aids to the nightmarish feel. This is an interpretive photograph because the photographer portrays the myth of Daphne and Apollo through his imagination and etches it photographically onto something that we can all see.

Excusado

2008-02-07T13:31:00.000-05:00

Most of the fountains that surround us are in place to add a sense of elegance to a setting. While toilets are seen and used on a daily basis by most of us, very few people stop to notice its aesthetic qualities. This is because most people think of toilets as dirty and smelly. It also has to deal with the excrement process, so it’s typically taboo for discussion and most would consider preposterous for art. This is why you never hear anybody say “that is one beautiful toilet.” Edward Weston however went against the grain and photographed a toilet against a tile wall and floor from the perspective of a bug on the floor. Although his photograph was by no means normal, he was not the first; in 1917 Marcel Decamp featured a urinal in a gallery which was photographed by Alfred Stieglitz and various other photographers. While it is easy to say that the silver print Edward Weston, Excusado, 1925 was created for aesthetically evaluative purposes, one could also argue that that it is ethically evaluative since it leaves people questioning what is defined as art.

Democratic Changes in Photography

2008-01-30T07:45:00.000-05:00

Democratic - 3 : relating to, appealing to, or available to the broad masses of the people ~Websters Dictionary

After the first image was fixed over 150 years ago, photography took its leap into reality. Scientists and artists had the ideas to photograph for a long time, but keeping the image there or fixing it proved to be difficult. As years progressed studios opened, and with it daguerreotypes became a common name. These images were small, fragile, toxic to make, and hard to view at times. Surprisingly these images were extremely detailed; one could even say they rival what we create today.

One thing about changes in photography is simple. Technology does not exactly improve the image all the time, it does however make easier to create and cheaper. The daguerreotype required great care; it was created on a sheet of copper with a thin coat of silver. The plate was polished like a mirror. Then the plate was sensitized, and put inside the camera. After the plate was exposed for several minutes, it was fogged with hot mercury. The image was then fixed with sodium thiosulfate or salt and toned with gold chloride. Most of this process also has to be done in complete darkness.

Some of the ingredients for the daguerreotype were pretty expensive, if they were not expensive they were horrible to make or extremely toxic. Think this was crazy, and you must think nobody does this today. Wrong, there is actually a society of people who still makes these. They use today’s safety devises and precautions when making daguerreotypes but the process is still pretty much the same.

Later new innovations such as the heliotype, calotype, glass plates, film negative, and film positive, and now digital. Some glass plates were huge! Guess what some people today still use them and still even use large format negatives they also create awesome images. But again it requires time, knowledge, skill, education, and practice to use them.

Now digital cameras are here, does this mean film is lost? Not really, it just means yet again photography is more democratic. More people can use these digital cameras. The advertisement of Professional Quality however on some of these in stores is wrong. A Hassleblad H2D-39 professional camera can shoot 39 Mega Pixel. Also a lot of the cheaper consumer cameras say they shoot high resolution but they truly interpolate. At 100% you should be able to count hairs and see detail not have haze or blur if focused properly. Digital professional cameras also use the same technology as film; the only difference is the file is readily available. Metering, reciprocity, lighting characteristics are all still the same, if not more complex.

Photographic Changes Over Time

2008-01-29T21:57:00.000-05:00

It has become quite evident that cameras are getting smaller, faster, and easier to operate. Over one hundred fifty years ago cameras were bulky, heavy, and they took a substantial amount of intelligence and practice to operate. The idea to open photography up to everybody began when the Brownie was introduced by Kodak in the early 1900s. Today in our digital world all a person has to do is flip open a cell phone to capture a photograph. With all this technology that has been under development for over a century and a half has the quality been diminishing at the cost of convenience?

After the first image was fixed over 150 years ago, photography took its first big leap into reality. Scientists and artists had the ideas to photograph for a long time, but keeping the image there, or fixing it, proved to be difficult. The first photograph by Joseph Niecephore Niepce titled View from His Window at LeGras on Bitumen on Pewter created in 1827 was remarkable. Being the first of its kind, however, the detail in the image overall was something that needed to be worked on. Later photographers like John Plumbe, George Barnard, Alexander Gardner, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Antoine Francois Claudet and many others researched different ideas and photographed the world around them, improving the quality of images.

At that time photographers had to discover what processes worked best for them. Early photographers all put a great deal of time into composing and adjusting cameras for the images. I took around 15 minutes for daguerreotypes and dry plate negatives to expose an image, so one could imagine that the time people had to sit still was also lengthy. While 15 minutes seems like a long time, some exposures were even longer. Getting people to sit still was a chore in itself which required photographers to get creative. Long ago photographers had special chairs with clamps for people’s necks so they could sit up straight without movement. While people complained that the chair was a form of torture and put them in agony, some sitters had to endure harsh light which would make their eyes tear up. While they were most likely difficult to produce, most of the photographs created were extremely detailed. Since the daguerreotype had no grain an electron microscope with a magnification of a millionth of an inch is required to view what made up the image.

While the images had tremendous detail the public desired a quicker systematic approach. Kodak fulfilled the demand with the Brownie. The Brownies were small boxes with film that people could load from rollers. Children were encouraged to use Brownies and to join camera clubs to win prizes. While the camera only cost a dollar it was also proclaimed to be very easy to use. It was apparently so easy that Kodak used the slogan “Just push the button and we’ll do the rest.” The camera was so popular that 150,000 were shipped the first year. The invention of the point and shoot camera opened the doors to people who just wanted a photo on the fly which led to the birth of the snapshot. After the film was exposed it was sent off for development.

While Brownies used what we consider medium format film, by today’s standards the lenses were cheaply made which required contact prints to be made. Over time came improvement in the film & camera technologies which made it so images could be enlarged rather then contact printed. Photographers like Ansel Adams put forth a great deal of research coupled with trial and error to understand what potential film harnessed to create the best photographs.
Today society has been bombarded with digital cameras. To the general public the biggest advancement is that you can print your images on a personal computer at home and also view them right away on the back of the camera to make sure they turned out. It’s common to measure a digital camera’s quality by the mega pixels that it can hold. When the first cameras came out I remember seeing a camera that could harness 1 mega pixel and thought it was a big deal. Over time it steadily grew; now you can get a point and shoot camera that can harness more than 8 mega pixels.These days’ cameras are used by all sorts of people around the world. People no longer have to sit for 15 minute-long exposures and people creating the photographs hardly take the time and effort to compose an image, since if they do not like it they can just delete it. Today people do not have to send images to a lab; rather they just send them through a computer or through the printer directly at home.

As it seems to always do, history has repeated itself. The technological format that we use today, known as digital, started off with a little detail packed into large clunky cameras. Smart people in labs that make a lot of money have shrunk the cameras and managed to pack a lot more detail into them, making them more technologically advanced than ever. Over the course of time in photography, people have seemed to like things to be easier and have consistent results that they can produce themselves. While cell phones create images that people are able to print on an ink jet, these images do not have the detail that can be seen through an electron microscope (much less a magnifying glass) but they are fairly simple and readily available so people frequently use them.

References:

Carter, R.L.. "1906-1920." digicamhistory.com. 28 Nov 2007 http://www.digicamhistory.com/1906_1920.html.

The Brownie Camera @ 100: A Celebration. Kodak. 28 Nov 2007 http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/brownieCam/.

About daguerreotypes. 28 Nov 2007 http://www.newdags.com/about.html.

"PART 6 : 'Dry Plate' Photography." History of Photography in Brighton. 28 Nov 2007 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/DSphotodry5E6.htm.

"Kodak: You press the button." History of the Button. August 10th, 2006. 28 Nov 2007 http://www.historyofthebutton.com/2006/08/10/kodak-you-press-the-button/.

Film use in Documentaries

2008-01-26T14:38:00.000-05:00

The Royal Photographic Society was founded in the early days of photography in 1852. Today the society remains an organization with its place etched in history around the world. A man named David Land wrote an article about Nick Danziger titled Blair at War in the Royal Photographic Society Journal.

Nick Danziger began his career as a painter and on the side from publishing to documentary filmmaking. His books and films always had included his photographic work. What sparked Danziger’s interest was “looking at aspects of the world we rarely have access to see.” While photographing political figures he noted that at times it’s easier and some times it’s difficult. It’s easier when you have security clearance and behind the scenes access. Then it is difficult when your subjects are afraid that a simple image can destroy there reputation. He goes on to explain as you develop a report with your subjects and they start to trust you as time progresses.
The Times commissioned Blair at War as a project to write about the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. At that time Danziger was asked if he was available to photograph two or three days a week over a months time. Later the photographer learned that he would be photographing Tony Blair. The photographer actually worked on the project for 30 full days including the weekends.
Unlike most documentary photographers Danziger prefers to use 35mm black and white film over digital. He goes on to explain that with his raw and immediate work he likes to use Kodak Tri-X film. The photographer believes that to document he must be able to blend into his surroundings and desired to be as “invisible or transparent as possible.” His style coupled with not using a flash when doing his documentary made it so some of the political figures forgot he was around from time to time.

Danziger knows that the general public wants color but uses black and white because it helps people understand what is going on in an image without the distraction of color. He also goes on to explain the immediacy of digital and that how he would rather take a great picture of a moment rather then “several frames per minute like a video.”

Through forums, experience and education as photographers we all learn the theories of black and white photography and the theories of color photography. We also learn the nuances of cameras and what has been the general rule throughout history. A black and white medium tends to always let people look at an image holistically and view the situation simultaneously. Color photography on the other hand is more realistic because of the simple fact that people can view the color as if they were actually there. Although color tends to be more realistic the subject of the photograph can suddenly become the colors in the photograph which can be slightly distracting.

Different camera formats are used for different things. Since medium and large format cameras are large, clunky, and take time to focus and compose an image most people prefer the speed and choice of lenses with a SLR camera for documentation and photo-journalism. Most people prefer digital SLR cameras because they are quick and you can capture several images per second if need be to stumble upon that perfect shot when you edit your images. While this works most of the time photographers generally spend less time composing an image. A photographer using film on the other hand can only expose 32 frames before he or she has to reload the camera. This tends to make a photographer more conscientious of capturing a great photograph. With film photographers take a little more time to compose the image and wait for the perfect moment to finally capture the image. This theory however is not etched in stone, some photographers do take the time to compose an image in digital and others take random snapshots with film.

People who photograph documentaries as a rule try there best not to affect what is going on. You would rarely see photographers with cameras photographed in a documentary. Rather you attempt to photograph things as they are without having people pose for situations. As a general rule people know when a camera is around and act differently because they know that it’s an indexical. Photography harnesses the power to communicate to the masses. They know that if they are scratching themselves or something the whole world might see it. Since this is true you either have to sneak photographs without people knowing you are there or by developing a trust with your subjects. This trust and develop by experience in that you have not released images that destroy people carriers and is heightened when people know that your carrier could be destroyed if you produce that type of images. It’s likely that a member of the paparazzi from the tabloids would do not have access and must hide out because political figures are afraid that a wrong angle or something they do in the fraction of a second will be plastered all over magazines and newspapers for the world to see.

Reference:
David Land. (2007). Blair at War. The Royal Photographic Society Journal. 147 (2), 54-59.