Magnum Photo: Elliott Erwitt, USA. 1950. North Carolina. Segregated water fountains with black man drinking water

     I chose this photo because it deals with a subject that I have only heard about or seen sanitized versions of in the cinema.  It manages to showcase the stark contrast in the level of respect different portions of the population had to endure.  It also manages to put into focus the utter disdain that southern whites had for African-Americans during this time period.

     The photographer's vantage point appears to have been across what seems to be a hallway.  In endeavoring to capture this image as an aspect of history, he has also put his own personal "slant" on the photo by taking it slightly tilted to one side.  This tilt, even if unintended, has placed the word "Colored" lower than "White", which helps to epitomize the essence of this time period's treatment of African-Americans.  With the framing of the photo around only the water coolers and the one man in a nondescript hallway, the image becomes universal because it could have been taken anywhere in the majority of buildings in North Carolina during this time period.

     As I studied the picture, I began to notice an ever increasing number of details that showcased the disparity between how whites and African-Americans were treated.  The major one was the different styles of the water fountains.  For the whites, the water fountain is electronically cooled and filtered thereby making sure the water was always refreshing and clean to drink, while for the African-Americans, the water went straight to the water fountain without these amenities, which means the water was always at room temperature and possibly contained impurities.  I then noticed that the level of cleaning/maintenance was exceptionally different.  While the water fountain for the whites has a well maintained appearance, the one for the African-Americans appears to have seen only minimal attention.    Next I noticed how one could drink from these fountains.  The one for the whites is of the style where you can comfortably drink from the arched stream of water, while the one for the African-Americans appears to be the style where you have to stoop and drink out of a "bowl", which brought to mind the image of animals drinking out of a trough.  Finally, I noticed that the "Colored" water fountain was placed adjacent to an outcropping from the wall, which made it difficult and uncomfortable for African-Americans to get a drink as demonstrated by the figure in the photo, while the only thing barring whites from getting a drink would be their intolerance of African -Americans.

     It amazes me in how many subtle ways whites tried to make African-Americans feel unwanted and less than human.

Today marks a big anniversary

On this date in 1839, Talbot's paper "Some account of the art of photogenic drawing" is read to the Royal Society. It revealed a lot of of the details of the process. It was the first published details of the working of a photographic process.

Magnum Photo: Vel d'Hiver

Henri Cartier-Bresson "Vélodrome d'Hiver. Six-day races." 1957. Magnum Photos.

This photograph stood apart from the 75,550 other images for a variety of reasons. It's quirky. The French major in me would say that the lighting is reminiscent of French New Wave cinema. I love color photographs; black-and-white images are generally always a little too cool for me, too revelatory for my liking.

Quirkiness aside, the background imagery was vaguely familiar to me. Why is there a lone man reading a newspaper on a racetrack? I clicked on the image and there the title was -Vélodrome d'Hiver. The image suddenly left a bad taste in my mouth. Vel d'Hiver is rather infamous and when I had last seen images of it the stadium had been full of Parisian Jews, Roms, and other "undesirables". In July 1942, the Parisian civil government arrested nearly 15,000 men, women and children and housed them for several days in the stadium. Beneath the beautifully stained glass roof there were no bathrooms, no food, and only a single tap for water. Those that survived were almost exclusively deported to Auschwitz. Those images, limited though they are, are as despairing and chaotic as any could be.

This image was taken a decade later (the stadium burned down in 1959), and is one of the last images taken. After processing the context of the image, I think too revelatory is good. How frivolous the sporting event seems to be! The subject appears indolent, nonchalant about his endeavor. The room is empty, is it early or late or neither -does no one care? Despite the lack of color and Instagram filter, the emphasis is firmly on the lone racer, highlighting his solitude.

Reuter's Photographers' Blog

Photographers' Blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/tag/ukraine/

I've settled on this particular blog as I:

1. generally receive my news from a Reuters' feed
2. enjoy the grammatically correct use of the (') in an otherwise unremarkable title
3. appreciate the scope - photos captured cover a wide variety of topics and geographical regions

For the duration of this class, I'll probably focus upon events occurring in the Ukraine but for anyone interested in exploring the blog, you can edit the slug to whichever country/region you'd prefer (ie:  ttp://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/tag/india)

Portraits of Afghan Children in the Pakistan Slums

From "The Afghan child exiles" by dailymail.co.uk. Their eyes remind me of the Afghan Girl from the National Geographic cover in 1984. It was 30 years ago. You still see same the pictures today, different kids.

IPI Picture of the Week

The IPI is a great resource and their Picture of the Week is a great resource:

Picture of the Week

From the FB page

https://www.facebook.com/birth.of.photography/posts/595957227163590

Check it out!

Magnum image: Alex Webb, ECUADOR. 1999. Pampanal. Shrimp fishing from boat.

©Alex Webb / Magnum Photos

Alex Webb.

ECUADOR. 1999. Pampanal. Shrimp fishing from boat.

I like this image because it’s striking, deceptively simple, and because I think it has some mystery and universality to it. (I also kind of wanted to pick a color image.) There are almost no overt national markers in it. (Someone who knows a great deal about boats might be able to place it geographically based on boat construction, but otherwise, I don’t think there’s much to go on other than "a coastal setting in a currently warm place".) The title of the image gives a great deal of information that I don’t think a viewer would otherwise be able to deduce.

The torso and head of a sleeping child (I think a girl) is visible in the bow of the boat, her face and part of her body half-shrouded in shadow. She is the only person clearly visible in the image (there is a standing figure on the boat in the distance, but we can tell almost nothing else about them). So we the viewer can’t help wonder about her, and what she’s doing out there. Does she go out on the boat every day? Does she have a job on the boat, or does she only accompany her guardian? Does she go to school at all? Who else is on the boat? The boat itself is in somewhat rough shape. Structure, wear and tear, and repairs are all visible, along with rust spots, algae, and other discoloration. The cooler, too, seems to be in well-used condition. This seems to be a working boat, not a pleasure boat. The sun throws deep shadows in the boat - is it morning?

The viewer is drawn into this image almost as a participant, I think because of the proximity of the photographer to subject, and because the viewer is put into the image in almost the same position as we would expect the pilot of the boat to be. We see virtually the same view as the pilot might: a cooler (?) in front of us, the yellow bow containing the sleeping girl, another similar boat in the near distance off the left bow, and the distant horizon, dotted with what appear to be other boats. 

Tough Choice in Selecting Blog

     It was a tough choice to select just one blog to follow.  I narrowed it down to three which were National Archives (UK), NPR's Picture Show, and The Photo Argus.  I eliminated the National Archives (UK) because my interest was more from a genealogical interest.  The Photo Argus was a close second because one could choose a theme and focus on only the blog postings dealing with that theme.  I finally eliminated it because I could not determine the dates of the blog postings.
     I have decided to follow NPR's Picture Show (http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/) because the posts are dated and I know the quality of the work produced by NPR.

Fans in a Flashbulb - ICPNY's Blog

I'm going to follow Fans in a Flashbulb, which is the blog of the International Center of Photography in New York. They post images from their collection, usually with a generous amount of expository text, and appear to update fairly regularly.

Blog I follow --Shuko

I will follow "Portraits of Boston" (http://portraitsofboston.com/)

The blog I will follow is: "Portraits of Boston" (http://portraitsofboston.com/). The blogger takes pictures of people in Boston along with interviews. My favorite post starts from an interview excerpt like “I’m a mystic. I’ve been studying mysticism for 40 years.” What I like about this blog is the photographer tries to capture every segments of population you would see in Boston; Some are poor, some are rich. Some are young, some are old. Some are cheerful, some are, let's face it, gloomy. Some of the posts reminds me characters you would come across in George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" and Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor."

AP Severs Ties With Photographer Who Altered Work

I thought this was interesting and relevant to our in-class discussion about visual literacy, conflict photography, and the manipulation of images.

Blog I will be following

http://yourshotblog.nationalgeographic.com/

I will be following the National Geographic Your Shot Blog. I joined the National Geographic Your Shot Photo Community last September ; it's a place where you can share your original photos and comment on others.  I didn't even realize they had a blog until this class when I was looking around for something to follow!  I'm glad I found it.   In the blog they showcase an original photo with an accompanying interview by the photographer who took it.

Magnum photo I love

USA. New York City.

Erich Hartmann, 1948

I chose this picture for several reasons.  First, I love black and white photography.  I feel that black and white photos are more honest and raw; there are no colors to distract the eye from the true nature of the subject.  I also love the subtle tones that black and white images produce.  There are so many shades of grey which can make the picture have strong, stark contrasts or soft, subtle contrasts.  In this particular picture, I love the bright white of the stairs and posts against the darker shades of the building they are attached to.  I like how the picture is slightly off, it appears to tilt to the right a bit.  And lastly, I love how it captures the human subjects in the photo off-guard, the man fixing his hat and the woman stooped over at the top of the stairs.  It gives the picture the sense of truly capturing a moment in time.

Mystery of iconic 1908 Lincolnton child labor photo is solved | Local/State | NewsObserver.com

Mystery of iconic 1908 Lincolnton child labor photo is solved | Local/State | NewsObserver.com

Blog ideas to get you started

The idea of having you follow a blog during the semester is intended to give you an idea of how others write about photographs - a blog that just sticks up pictures without comment isn't quite what I have in mind. Here are some that I like to give you some places to start - you are welcome to follow one of these if it interests you.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, The Bigger Picture
http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/category/collections-focus

National Geographic Photo Archives
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/

Library of Congress Picture This
http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/

LENS, NYT
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com

NPR’s Picture Show
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/

Cultural Compass / Harry Ransom Center
http://blogs.utexas.edu/culturalcompass/

Endangered Archives blog
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/endangeredarchives/

Brooklyn Museum Archives
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/

National Archives (UK)
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

National Portrait Gallery (UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk/blog.php


Hope this gives you some more ideas too!

Welcome to 471 GSLIS West, Spring 2014

This is the place. We'll be using this blog throughout the semester - you'll be using it to post comments and answers to questions that come up in class as well as links to interesting sites and blog posts that you come across in your own work. The blog format allows us to use a slightly less formal writing style than a typical academic paper but still means that we have to use things like footnotes (properly formatted) and bibliographical citations when appropriate. Always include the source of photographs or links to your sources and captions whenever possible. You are encouraged to read and comment on each other's posts as well. This is all part of participation in the class and is considered in grading your overall performance for the course.

Stay tuned, it's going to be an interesting semester!