Documentation

Daguerreotype of the Moon
by John William Draper in 1845

You thought it may be difficult to define landscape? But is it harder to define documentary photography? I have been thinking about it all afternoon. What is the earliest documentary photograph? Wouldn't it be the first photograph? Possibly Niepce's "View from His Window at Le Gras?" or may be Daguerre's "Boulevard du Temple?" Not sure.

The simplest meaning  "to document" is evidence, proof, or to record. Isn't any photograph this? And if any photographic image is documentary by its very nature why do we need a special class at COC to learn Documentary and Landscape? I am still not sure.

When I think about documentary photography I spilt it into two groups. The straight and the manipulative. Straight...portrait, natural wonders, motion studies, cities being built, etc. But after the Social Reform movement of the early 20th century, a new form of documentary was born... Social Documentary. As Beaumont Newhall (George Eastman's Curator of Kodak) described Social Documentary as "fact imbued with feeling." Photographers with a dedication to social change.

EJ Bellocq -- A man, as small as a child, with little photographic skills who took a personal interest in documenting prostitutes in New Orleans and when he died his brother (who happened to be a Catholic priest) scratched out the subjects faces to protect the women's identity and hid the negatives in his attic. Eventually the images were saved from certain destruction and oblivion by 1960's Social Landscape photographer Lee Friedlander. Each subject poses aware of the camera, proud, humble, and confident. The relationship between the subject and the photographer familiar, comfortable, friendly, but not sexual.

Gordon Parks -- born with a natural talent for composition and photography with little to no education turned his lens to expose inequality in FDR's own Farm Security Administration - an agency created with tax payers' dollars to combat the Great Depression. Before the New Deal American's didn't pay personal income tax. Park's documented the struggle of a young black mother working for the American government on the cusp of the civil rights movement. Parks poses his subject, Ella Watson, holding a mop and broom, standing stoically in front of the American flag. The pose as well as the title of the image playing directly off of Grant Wood's masterpiece of farmer and wife "American Gothic."

Dorothea Lange - a portrait artist, a woman, a "cripple". Hired to document migrant farm workers lost and wandering west to stay alive in the greatest nation on earth. Lange documented a mother with three small children living on the side of the road with no amenities - no food, no water, or no shelter. Lange created several images of the children playing around camp that afternoon, but it is the shot of the youngest child at her mother's breast and two older children hiding their faces in shame on her shoulders that became the iconic image symbolizing the Great Depression.

The OTHER both in subject and photographer... that is what draws me to the movement of Social Documentary photography. The outsider...for the first time in photographic history it was not merely the privileged photographer making important images. Women and minorities' photographic work dominated the early Social Documentary movement highlighting what people couldn't see without their help... those that needed help.

s00

I feel like landscape to me is a general idea or a wide range you can work with. Something that gives the reader a lot to look at. Landscape could be a photograph of the curves and detail in the creases of a persons skin. Making something in perspective larger.

Big Cypress Swamp

Will's Landscapes

I like took the stop sign photo in LA on Hope St. I liked how the sun is showing through in the middle and how it didn't get over exposed.
The water fountain was taken at The Grove, they have a water show every night. Again I like the lights and how you can still see the people in the back. You're able to read the words on the bridge.

Blue Water

This photo was taken at the falls in Zion on a field studies class this past year. I love the blue of the water. I had to get into the water to take this image. As Clyde Butcher would say "if you're worried about your equipment, you shouldn't be a photographer." I didn't change the photo from its original colors because I find nature does a better job than I can. I love landscape, natural or urban. I'm looking forward to expanding my ideas of what landscape is, and I know this class will do it for me.

Skid Row

I selected these photos of homeless people in Skid Row. Skid Row has the largest concentration of homeless people in the United States. Over 75, 000 homeless people live in Los Angeles County. I felt the need to share this issue with my classmates because as photographers, we can make a difference in people’s lives with the images we take.

A Different View

I've always loved nature. It is what ultimately got me into photography. I started to draw what I saw, but I didn't always have enough time. Therefore I started bringing a camera around with me so I could share the sights I believed to be incredible with people who didn't take the time to stop and smell the roses. I guess that is why I generally used to consider landscape photography to be of the natural world. However, I now consider that to be a sub-category of the overall sense of the word. I believe landscape photography to be any photo taken to show an environment. Though I may not be drawn to urban landscape photographs quite as much as I am to natural landscape photographs, I have respect for them, the people who capture them, and their place in our world. Some are really quite beautiful.


The top image was taken on Carpentaria State Beach. I love to play with backlighting, and I'm sure you will see that in later posts. The second image was taken from the shore of the South Fork of the American River. I apologize if the quality isn't very good. I had trouble scanning it. It was taken on a disposable (probably water proof) camera so I only have the one print. I wish I could say that I had total control over the shot and planned it perfectly, but hey, some of the greatest inventions were accidents! This shot was actually taken for a completely different reason (of which I will not share because it kills the magic) and I didn't realize what I had shot until I got the prints back.

All in the timing

Waiting on the wind to blow the flag just enough be illuminated by the setting sun. Shot with the 5d at a f5.6 was a spur of the moment shot wasn't planning on shooting but couldn't pass it up

Sally Mann, Teachers and My Bohemian Life

These last two pictures were taken by me last summer while in Paris, my home away from home where I live my bohemian life.

As an added bonus, these two photographs are of teachers. The one on the right is Mr. Born, my very first photo teacher in 1972, and the one on the left I am including my high school photography teachers' picture, Mr. Born (from 1972). The picture on the left is COC's very own, Dr. Robert (Bob) Tolar, math professor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSWFdcmzTDM

I get very emotional when I look at these incredible images by Sally Mann, my all time favorite contemporary photographer. My first COC photography teacher, showed my 160 class a collection of Sally Mann's pictures and I have ever since been inspired and captivated by her work. Her subjects used to be her children, which back in the day, created an enormous amount of controversy. Critics considered her work as teetering child pornography, while others knew her work as genius photography.

Mann's uncanny style of combining portraiture, documentary and landscape photography allows us, the viewers, to participate as voyeurs without feeling sick or dirty about ourselves, only comfortable in enjoying her art, her family and her home life.

This photo is literally one of the first photos I've ever taken with my new found knowledge of photography from Photo 160, and unfortunately its the only one I've taken that resembles landscape. I'm excited to play with what defines landscape and push it to its absolute limit.
-tavia

Old LA Zoo

These 2 photos were taken at the Old LA Zoo. This zoo was created in 1912 with only 15 animals. They closed it 1966 when the new zoo was built to accommodate more animals. I was shooting there for a class project. I began shooting through the eyes of the animals that once lived there. The top photo I shot from inside the cage. This is a view that the animal would have seen looking out. The bottom photo is a picture of the entire cage. I like the way it is surrounded by the landscape.

Natural Landscape

I have always thought of landscape as exactly what it says...the scape or beauty of the land. And to me the natural environment is beautiful. The first 3 photos are traditional landscape photos.

I did not alter the color in the 4th photo. This is what came out of my camera the night I was shooting the sky.

I included the 5th photo because it incorporates a human element...something I never considered as part of a landscape...until now.

Any feedback is appreciated. I am looking for ways to improve.

SURREAL LANDSCAPE

I really like Surreal Landscape Photography . I think this allows us as artistic individuals to be extreme creators. You know ,during the Gothic period of time in our world, and for a long while after that, people were not allowed to be creative. You were expected to do as you were told by the Hierarchy and the patron that gave you, your chance to paint or sculpt for them. There were NO individuals just people! Because of Individuals like ,Michaelangelo , Raphael, and Leonardo who began to take chances with their Art During the Renaissance,we can today, make a choice with our own intellectual Artistic side and express how we feel through Art. Photography helped to bring this about as well, with the creation of the Helotype, By Niepce 1827 ? , That was destroyed accidentally, and then a Deguerrotype later on. Hopefully this is right , other wise Wendy will kill me..... The point is ,isn't it awesome to be so fortunate during this time period? We should embrace it and go wild. So here is my contribution to going wild. It's as if someone out there is watching us ..........

Ariel Landscape

I enjoy photographing from unusual perspectives the more difficult the angel of view the better in my opinion. On this particular occasion , the gentlemen in the photo has a knack for throwing his body into the air , the higher the better. Consequently i guess you could say as photographer and sports enthusiasts we are a good match. This photo shoot was a 4 hour period of time when he, (Corbin) spent very little of his time standing still. To me this is a great view of our beautiful sky, we don't often get to enjoy such blues in our sky in the Los Angeles Area . So I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

This is part of a run I used to go on almost every evening for almost a year before I moved. The picture reminds me of the entire run because the entire scenery of my path looked exactly like this. As a photograph, my favorite aspect is the path curving through the bottom of the photograph, leading you to the background. I wish I would've aimed the camera slightly lower to focus less on the sky.

Land/Beauty Scape

A landscape shot taken in Big Sur, CA in the summer of 2010. For the landscape aspect I believe it is literally that, landscape. A photograph that shows some aspect of the land, it can be a completely organic or natural landscape, or a completely man made setting or a combination of both.

Pink winter morning

Before getting into photography more seriously, I always thougt landscape meant scenes from nature - and only nature - but as we know, it can mean a number of things. This one was shot a few weeks ago, when visiting friends & family in my hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, and obviously contains man made structures as well as infrastructure. To me it's important to capture feeling in a landscape photo, since I want to convey my own emotions about the place when shooting an image. I don't know if that's the case, but certainly hope to give the viewer some sort of feeling when looking at the image.

Yosemite - Three Perspectives

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! These three images are of Yosemite during the same trip. I wanted to capture different moods and lighting. It is amazing how the light varied in such a short period of time! I love it when there are clouds in the sky...it makes the image so much more interesting! What do you think?

I am one of those photographers who most of the time, over think my shooting process. Sometimes it works and other times it just fails. Then there times when I walk out of a restaurant and I see the the beautiful landscape we have here and do what I know best, taking a photo. Taking a picture for me is more then just clicking a button and seeing the result on the back of the camera. Taking a picture is about capturing a moment in time and knowing you have the picture. If you breakdown photography it basically means drawing with light, to me this photo shows that. The way the sky was painted with many different colors, the way there is just enough light to make out the foreground. Is this the best landscape no, to me it is actually a boring landscape of suburbia America, what makes this photo interesting is the way the light is interacting with rest of the subject.

More Perspective

The only regret I have is that the foreground foliage isn't more interesting - maybe some colorful flowers? As you may have realized, one of the techniques I enjoy is shallow depth of field. It's not useful in all situations. But I like getting in close and using larger apertures. If you haven't seen it before, check-out some "bokeh" images on Google. This is a Japanese word for controlled blur or the aesthetic quality of blur or out-of-focus. This is can be accomplished quite well using a 50mm 1.4 lens with a large aperture setting with the camera close to the focus point. Here's one example (click on image for a better look):

Reflection

This was taken in Mammoth, CA. My family and I used to take trips to Mammoth every year, and just spend time relaxing. This was taken from our most recent trip. I love the reflection in the water.

Big Cypress Swamp

What's in a Lansdscape ?

I am usually a portraits and Black and white kind of guy, but when I decided to try out some color film and shot this photo I fell in love with it. The owner of Bottle Village in Simi valley had in her madness set up this beautiful scenery that passers by had neglected to see. As much as I personally like this shot I couldn't decide weather or not it could be considered a Landscape. After asking around I got mixed responses, some claimed it was a portrait of the figurine and some thought it was a landscape. So my question to you now is this; whats your opinion? Is this a landscape or a portrait and why?

Composition

In my opinion landscape and documentation are up to the photographer. For most people when they think of landscape pictures they think of Ansel Adams, but for others they may see it differently. I don't have a very specific definition of landscape. I enjoy urban landscapes most though.