It makes me think about an independent life emerging out of a womb. (Just being honest!) Man, it is sort of crazy how a tiny human can just come into existence like that. I wonder why we are so grossed out by birth? I know. I know. It is all yuck in some ways but think about it-- there is a human being right there in that photo taking his first breath in the world that we have been living in for years. Think about the potential in that one little body. It is sort of beautiful to me.

I love this photo by Ansel Adams. I don't know why it is so aesthetically appealing to me. I think it is because the highways kind of look like spaghetti noodles. I really love the perspective on this photo, too.

Basically, what is captured by the camera through the reflection is what we have to view. Therefore, we are literally seeing the world through media.

This is from a hurricane Katrina Headline. Although it is a news report, the aesthetic quality is there as well.

Helen Levitt

This photo definitely nabs time. It captures a moment between two children that could never be recreated in the same light. This picture conveys happiness, freedom, etc. just by showing two children playing together. The children have been captured in a moment in which they are themselves and the photo speaks multitudes just by capturing that one moment.

Jacob A. Riis

I like the way Riis takes on the other half of reality that is rarely portrayed socially. This photo captures the innocent children homeless without any means for food or shelter. Children always touch a nerve for me so I really was drawn to the sadness I felt when viewing this photo.

I like this photo because it guides the viewer through the alleyway with the help of the buildings. The depth that the picture has is incredible!

"Cliche Verre is a method of etching on a ground-coated transparent material, or painting and drawing on a transparent surface, such as glass or film and printing the resulting image on a light sensitive paper. It is a process first practiced by a number of French painters during the early part of the 19th century. Camille Corot was the best known of these. Some contemporary artists have developed techniques for achieving a variety of line, tone, texture and color by experimenting with film, frosted mylar, paint and inks and a wide assortment of tools for painting, etching, scratching, rubbing and daubing."

I like the idea of using hands and fingers for my cyanotype project because Mr. Coleman connected it to my thesis on Adam Smith. I think that I will place my hands on the cyanotype and not have an invisible hand.

I like this still image because it basically shows what we do when we watch a film; we watch reality through a lens. The eye sees what the lens takes in and I find that very interesting for film as a whole.

I like this still image because it captures a humorous account of the moon. And, it is not scientific at all. I want to keep on pushing this notion of humor transcending time because I think it is interesting how culture can change but some things still remain humorous.

LUMIERE Babies Quarrel (1896)

I like this short film because I love babies and children and I also think it is interesting how even during that time people could capture humorous things on film. Moreover, I think it is interesting how humor could transcend time. I still laugh out loud when I watch this video and so I wonder if they touched on something that will always be humorous through time.

This shift to cubism was very important because it gave one a medium in which to present a non-objective representation with cubic forms. It gave a freedom to render reality in a way that fit each individual person. It also represented the notion that reality was not a fixed thing to be rendered, like naturalism thought, but rather reality is how we perceive it. If we render reality a certain way then that is how we perceive and interpret reality. Cubism gave one the freedom to portray reality as they have interpreted it which is fundamental to artistic freedom.

Alice Boughton

I chose this image because I like the liberation it portrays. I also am drawn in by the shapes within the photo. I like how she utilized roundness both in terms of the shape of the woman and the round ball that she is holding. Everything is very circular in the photo and I think that draws the observer in immediately. I also like the softness of the photo; it is not sharp and as defined as others which adds to this notion of women being soft (not in a bad way) and kind. The softness seems to be playing on the maternal aspect of a woman.

Peter Henry Emerson 1886

Naturalism, in the ontological sense, basically asserts nature is all we have therefore we should savor and relish in it. Peter Henry Emerson's photos seem to line up with this notion of perceiving the world. He seems to see nature and completely absorb it through the camera. I actually wanted to put up more than one photo of his because I really like them. I like the idea of capturing nature and the timing that is involved in a process like that. It seems like one has to key in on the finest detail in order to fully capture nature. I wonder if you can ever fully capture anything with a camera? Aesthetically, I don't think so, especially in terms of nature.

Edward Muybridge

Autochrome

"The process used a screen of tiny potato starch grains dyed orange-red, green and violet. Dusted onto a glass plate, the dyed grains were covered with a layer of sensitive panchromatic silver bromide emulsion. As light entered the camera, it was filtered by the dyed grains before it reached the emulsion. While the exposure time was very long, the plate could be processed easily by a photographer familiar with standard darkroom procedures. The result was a unique, realistic, positive color image on glass that required no further printing."

Auguste and Louis Lumière, who also invented the motion picture, announced the invention of the autochrome process, which was the first color photograph. This is of great significance because photographers were only able to replicate the world in black and white and color gave them more of correct representation of reality. Color therefore gave one the freedom to accurately represent reality.

Also, the Lumiere brothers invented the motion picture. The first photo is Muybridge's and appears to be the precursor of the motion picture that the Lumiere brothers invented. Initially, I had no idea how these two photos would relate to each other but it seems cool that Muybridge's relates to the Lumiere brothers in such a profound way.

"Eadweard Muybridge, a San Francisco photographer. Muybridge was hired by California governor Leland Stanford in 1877 to settle a bet. Stanford had bet that there is a moment when a horse, at a full gallop, completely leaves the ground. Muybridge set up an experiment involving a series of cameras with shutters hooked to trip wires, and helped the governor win the bet."

This set of images is fantastic because it was at the forefront of cinema. This is an attempt to document the movement of a horse in increments, which appears to be what film attempted to do early on in it's development. We actually viewed this image in class and I thought it was interesting how the horse with his movement would let off a shutter in the camera every time he would cross a certain point. This appears to be the first time photography has attempt to document movement which appears to be the foundation of film as we know it today.

Charles Baudelaire would approve of this image because it documents history in the industrial revolution. Or atleast I think he would. . . ? It seems like he doesn't want photography to be art but rather be a product of industry in which one can document scientific advances, historical advances, etc. Because this picture seems to have no artistic value except for documenting historical advances, I feel like Baudelaire would like this photo.

I could not upload the photo I chose from Mercer's campus because my camera is not uploading properly. Despite this minor technological problem, I chose the picture in the Co-op of the mean with their hats on but everyone is turned around so you can't see their faces. I found this one especially interesting and mysterious for many reasons. First, you can't see their faces. Usually faces are always photographed in images. I wonder what they were trying to achieve by hiding their faces. Was it just for humor or was a commentary on something else? Like a picture not really capturing who one really is? I think it was a commentary on photography; that an image cannot reveal who someone is but rather is just a superficial representation of a human being. This image was mysterious and intriguing.

c 1860

I chose this photo because I like natural photography. I actually lived in Oregon for a summer and loved going to the Oregon coast to see the sealions and so this image of the Oregon coast touched a nerve with me. I think the world is the canvas and paint that we have to work with in natural photography which is altogether interesting. One is in a sense letting go of control because one cannot completely control the environment one is photographing. One in a sense has to wait for the right moment to snap the shot in natural photography while still having the patience coupled with a keen eye. I think the lack of control within natural photography is most appealing to me, though.

Beato

Fenton

These images differ drastically from the images portrayed in today's news when covering wars. These seem to not reveal as much as today's news reveals. It almost seems to glorify war. Plus, they seem to give the sense that war is about killing (looking at the guns). I rarely see guns in today's documenting of war. It seems like in these photos they are saying war is noble and killing is noble which seems to be in stark contrast to today's notion of war.

This photos of snowflakes seem to be a commentary on how we should observe every particular in science before we come up with a whole. By ignoring the particulars of a thing, we are in a sense refusing scientific inquiry into fully understanding something. And, we can only have full scientific knowledge if we strive towards understanding something fully. Even if understanding fully is not obtained, it still needs to be the goal of science. He seems to be presenting a scientific method: understand the particulars to fully understand the whole (a sort of Baconian approach).

Charles Street Mall, Boston Common, 1843

"The principal advantages of side-by-side viewers is that there is no diminution of brightness so images may be presented at very high resolution and in full spectrum color. The ghosting associated with polarized projection or when color filtering is used is totally eliminated. The images are discretely presented to the eyes and visual center of the brain, with no co-mingling of the views."

The images are significant because this was the first attempt at creating a 3D image by understanding the brain processes and how the images enter in the brain simutaneously. I guess this paralleled advances in understanding the eyes perception of something. This is interesting because this gives photographic freedom to manipulate an image with a knowledge of perception. Therefore instead of photos being true to reality they can be a manipulation of that reality through perception.

(Mary Georgiana Caroline, Lady Filmer (English, 1838–1903) Untitled loose page from the Filmer Album, mid-1860s, Collage of watercolor and albumen silver prints; 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (22.2 x 28.6 cm), Collection Paul F. Walter.)

"Needless to say, the photocollage approach brought a new specificity and bite to the homemade album format, creating richly freighted social and personal artifacts. Women could celebrate their children, illustrate family trees, demonstrate social connections, flirt with gentlemen other than their husbands and also show flashes of wit and mischievousness that didn’t always have other outlets. Real people enter the picture and are, literally and figuratively, moved about rather like pawns on a chessboard. Stylistically too."

The collage gives almost complete artistic freedom. One basically creates a scenario with collage where the images are just pieces to the puzzle one wants to create. I think this creative freedom is the most interesting part of collage making. I think we inherently desire to create and control our own environment and this artistic medium gives us the freedom to do that. Historically, it also gave women to order their picture in a way that they could not do in reality which is especially important because the collage literally give a woman something that she could not have prior. I think the creative freedom to manipulate a work in the way one wants to express it is fundamental to art and carried out through this medium.

Broughty Ferry, to the north of Dundee, Angus, Scotland (1880) Carte de Visite

Paris France, 1865 Ambrotype

Both these images seem very similar actually. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I wasn't aware that these images are from different photography practices. The Ambrotype seems to be a lot clearer than the Carte de Visite. The Carte de Visite seems to be more grainy and yellowish. The Ambrotype also seems to possess more depth than the Carte de Visite. Overall, I think the Ambrotype is a better photograph just because it possesses more definition and depth but I guess it is just up to the observer.

With a large format camera, the lens plane allows for manipulation of focus. I chose this image because I like meddling with the focus of a photo in order to bring to light something that would normally go unseen. It seems like some parts are softer than other parts which is interesting. I also think the use of angles in this photo frames the photo in a way that other shapes would not. The depth of the photo also brings to light the frames of angles in the photo. All in all, I like this photo because of the definition of some parts and the softness of others.

These two images are from the Romantic Era. These may not seem to have to anything in common but I see some similarities as I view each one. I chose these because they both seem to be concerned with the human condition. By taking a photograph of the pyramids in Egypt, one is investigating the human condition of the past and moreover the way in which the afterlife was viewed. In the same light, William Blake's painting appears to be an investigation of the human condition as it relates to death. Death and as a result life seems to be the framework for both these works. Both these works are different views of life in the framework of death but they seem to both be pointing towards life as being finite and investigating that reality either by speculating on religion or by studying the religious practices of history.

An early calotype of Brighton's Royal Pavilion, probably taken by William Henry Fox Talbot (1846).

I chose this image because I enjoy looking at old photographs of significant sites. I like the symmetry in this photo also. The shapes add texture to the photo. Calotypes are interesting because they possess a certain amount of texture that other mediums of photography don't possess. The grainy texture adds to the quality of this photo. Alongside the grainy texture, the lack of focus in this photo is also very interesting. Like with pinhole cameras, there seems to be nothing that is completely in focus but rather everything in the photo is in focus. I like that this photo does not choose one thing to focus on over another but rather absorbs the whole landscape and being one image.

Boulevard du Temple, Paris - Daguerreotype taken by Louis Daguerre

Daguerreotypes are interesting to me because they resemble a sort of raw sketch of the world. It seems like they come from a draw when in fact they are an actual photo. There is a rawness about them that is not present in today's photography except through digital imaging processes. The contrast between light and dark in this photo is obvious which makes the shapes of the city jump out. It is just interesting because of the rawness it possesses without being a sketch.

I couldn't find the largest pinhole photograph but I did find the largest pinhole camera. It is described: "A huge piece of muslin cloth was made light sensitive by coating it with 80 litres of gelatin silver halide. It was hung from the ceiling at a distance of about 80 feet (24 m) from a pinhole, just under ¼ inch in diameter, situated 15 feet above ground level in the wall. The distance between the pinhole and the cloth was determined to be 80 feet for best coverage, and the exposure time was calculated at 35 minutes. The opaque negative image print was developed in an Olympic-swimming-pool-size tray with 600 gallons of traditional developer and 1200 gallons of fixer, and was washed using fire hoses attached to two fire hydrants. The resulting finished print was nearly 108 ft wide and 85 ft high and was exhibited for the first time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, on September 6, 2007."

This is interesting because pinholes don't really have a center of focus; they sort of absorb the world in which is presented to them. This is why I like pinhole photography so much because it just absorbs independent of the photographers intentions. One can place the camera in a certain direction but one is not completely certain of what will and won't be absorbed. That is the sheer magic of pinhole photography; it absorbes independent of anything else.

Photogram

This photogram is interesting because it utilizes the forms of the hand as the foreground for the rest of the objects. A photogram is defined as a process, "The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey". In other words, objects that are transparent appear grey while object that aren't appear white. In this photo in particular I like the contrast of the non-transparent hand to the transparent images that are gray in the background. One is first drawn towards the hands as a sort of framework for the photo in which the grey images are enveloped. One is then guided through a sort of tunnel made by the hands into the realization of the more transparent images. This process is a very interesting way in which one can view the world.