Presentation on Vernacular Photography and reading on Hall
Vernacular photography is the creation of photographs, usually by amateur or unknown photographers both professional and amateur, who take everyday life and common things as subjects.
This presentation gave me information about something I had never heard of before. Also one of my fellow students has decided to work upon her photographic essay by using the theme of found photography and she showed us images of old photos she had found in some store.
Closely related to vernacular photography is "found photography," which in one sense refers to the recovery of a "lost," unclaimed, or discarded vernacular photograph or snapshot. Found photos can be found at flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, in dumpsters and trash cans, between the pages of books, or on sidewalks.
I loved the works of August Sanders. Firstly because they were Black and White mostly and also because of the way he portrayed his subjects in a serene and solitary manner. They are portrait photos yet they mean a lot as the Observer have noted-
From a review in The Observer: ‘He experienced working difficulties in the thirties when the politics of nationality took over and he found himself on the wrong side of the fence with a considerable proportion of his sitters declared Untermenschen. But he perservered on the quiet, rounding out his dossier with schoolboy soldiers and an exquisitely groomed member of the Fuhrer’s SS Guard.’ He created a ‘whole national portrait gallery of urchins, eccentrics, cheats, peace-lovers, Bismarckian businessment, typists, celebrities, Professor Paul Hindemith, and ex-wife of Max Ernst....’ ‘The photographer keeps his distance, seems dispassionate, but you don’t have to be much of a Sherlock Holmes to read character and motive in the ways people presented themselves for his inspection.’
The last 4 lines sum it up.
This is one of Hitler's bodyguards in the image. He doesn't look too happy. rather I see a sense of obedience in his face. He has no emotions to the fact that he is being photographed. The obedience was a characteristic of a nazi soldier during the regime of Hitler.
I definitely dont think I will focus on any individual in my photographic essay so not much I can be inspired from his work.
Stuart Hall- The Spectacle of the Other
Heroes or villains?
Here hall talks about the 100m Final in the 1988 Olympics.
The cover photo of the magazine is what he talks about. 5 black men who are the fastest in business competing each other. Ben Johnson wins but its found out that he had taken drugs and the Gold medal was subsequently awarded to the guy who came 2nd i.e another black guy.
This is exactly what i am trying to do. Not by being racist or anything but I can compare the sprinters with superheroes. Johnson was seen as a villain and Lewis as a hero. Likewise many people would see a batman as a hero but in my photographic essay I want to tell the aspects of a superhero which are bad and can harm mankind as we know it.
Superheroes destroy lots of property and lives unknowingly during their fights. Albeit in comics and films and I will assume that they would do the same if they existed in our world.
Vernacular photography is the creation of photographs, usually by amateur or unknown photographers both professional and amateur, who take everyday life and common things as subjects.
This presentation gave me information about something I had never heard of before. Also one of my fellow students has decided to work upon her photographic essay by using the theme of found photography and she showed us images of old photos she had found in some store.
Closely related to vernacular photography is "found photography," which in one sense refers to the recovery of a "lost," unclaimed, or discarded vernacular photograph or snapshot. Found photos can be found at flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, in dumpsters and trash cans, between the pages of books, or on sidewalks.
I loved the works of August Sanders. Firstly because they were Black and White mostly and also because of the way he portrayed his subjects in a serene and solitary manner. They are portrait photos yet they mean a lot as the Observer have noted-
From a review in The Observer: ‘He experienced working difficulties in the thirties when the politics of nationality took over and he found himself on the wrong side of the fence with a considerable proportion of his sitters declared Untermenschen. But he perservered on the quiet, rounding out his dossier with schoolboy soldiers and an exquisitely groomed member of the Fuhrer’s SS Guard.’ He created a ‘whole national portrait gallery of urchins, eccentrics, cheats, peace-lovers, Bismarckian businessment, typists, celebrities, Professor Paul Hindemith, and ex-wife of Max Ernst....’ ‘The photographer keeps his distance, seems dispassionate, but you don’t have to be much of a Sherlock Holmes to read character and motive in the ways people presented themselves for his inspection.’
The last 4 lines sum it up.
This is one of Hitler's bodyguards in the image. He doesn't look too happy. rather I see a sense of obedience in his face. He has no emotions to the fact that he is being photographed. The obedience was a characteristic of a nazi soldier during the regime of Hitler.
I definitely dont think I will focus on any individual in my photographic essay so not much I can be inspired from his work.
Stuart Hall- The Spectacle of the Other
Heroes or villains?
Here hall talks about the 100m Final in the 1988 Olympics.
The cover photo of the magazine is what he talks about. 5 black men who are the fastest in business competing each other. Ben Johnson wins but its found out that he had taken drugs and the Gold medal was subsequently awarded to the guy who came 2nd i.e another black guy.
This is exactly what i am trying to do. Not by being racist or anything but I can compare the sprinters with superheroes. Johnson was seen as a villain and Lewis as a hero. Likewise many people would see a batman as a hero but in my photographic essay I want to tell the aspects of a superhero which are bad and can harm mankind as we know it.
Superheroes destroy lots of property and lives unknowingly during their fights. Albeit in comics and films and I will assume that they would do the same if they existed in our world.
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