When the financial crisis of 2009 was at its peak, Reinier Gerritsen photographed people in the subway between Wall Street and Grand Central Station, New York. We see masses of introvert subway travellers in unposed group portraits. They reflect the collective feelings of a world in shock, not understanding that things have reached the stage where the global financial system has collapsed.
Gerritsen assembles his photos from a number of shots that he takes within a few seconds. He is able to realize pictures of a striking clarity and strength. He expressly presents his documentary series as a construction, and thereby places his work in the centre of the discussion on the importance of the documentary anno 2010. In his subject choice he consciously places himself within the tradition of documentary photography by retracing the footsteps of Bruce Davidson (1980’s) and Walker Evans ( 1930’s) and their fascination of everyday life in the big city.
Listen carefully to her, she talks in a monotonous voice at some high speed especially for non native listeners nevertheless it’s very interesting. The essence of her talk already becomes clear in the beginning when a Disney Park didn’t want to let her work inside the Disney Park
Photography threatens fantasy. It confronts constructed realities, myths and believes and provides as it appears to be evidence of a treath, but there are multiple truths attached to every image depending on the creators intention, the viewer and the context in which it is presented
Instead of looking outside to threaths, wapons of mass destruction, this photographer choose to look inside. An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar. Examples are photos before a hymen plasty, a jury simulation deliberation room.
Taryn Simon exhibits her startling take on photography — to reveal worlds and people we would never see otherwise. She shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.
A big city usually is not a quiet empty place to enjoy nature. They can be overcrowded, busy, smelling places with people rushing from one spot to another. Nevertheless cities can have a soul. Rotterdam, the city I live in is one of the largest harbors of the world, it’s always busy, recreating itself. Following the German air raids of May 1940, the city was completely rebuilt in a daring and innovative new style. The skyline of Rotterdam with the Erasmus Bridge is justifiably world famous. But it doesn’t stop there, it’s still going on.
Why does this make Rotterdam a photogenic city? Found the answer on this webpage: Techniques of Vincent Klijn
Summary of photogenic qualities
clear and simple in lines and shape,
clear separation in color and construction,
bold, sharp, important form,
powerful, unusual silhouette,
powerful and clear separation of light and shadow,
obvious depth due to separating lines, objects or other perspective shaping,
surface structure,
meaningful details,
patterns or other forms of repetition,
spontaneity and action.
But don’t take my word for it, have a look at these excellent pictures on flickr. Those above were made by Else Kramer, a photographer I’ve been following on twitter. She is a a free-lance photographer. Her work with clients is on the right spot between personal and professional. You can read on how she works on her new website in Dutch: Else Kramer.
2008 has been an eventful year to say the least – it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I’ve done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It’s not the story of 2008, it’s certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days.
Stunning images of the brain. Online neuroscience photography gallery from an exhibition going on tour in 2009, Enception.org. From Mind Hacks The Fire Within, thanks
Psychiatrists are not the only one posting photographs. Photo posting has also become one of the most apparent components of identity performance on profiles of social network sites.
Why do individuals post and comment on photos on the Internet? It can be done to enhance interaction and relationship formation. But what kind of individual factors make someone put photos online and use them for online communication?
Recently a study was published about patterns of online photo use and how they vary by the individual difference characteristic of self-consciousness. This was done with 231 students from one university
in South Korea, who owned and maintained Cyworld profiles (called “mini-homepages”).
The researchers looked at private self consciousness and public self consciousness
Self-consciousness (SC) refers to the disposition to direct one’s attention to self-related aspects either inward on the covert aspects of self relevant to inner thoughts and feelings (private SC) or outward on the overt aspects of self on public display (public SC).
Results
Photo use on social networks by Korean students was huge. Mostly photos containing oneself and/or significant others as well as photos capturing life experiences were posted frequently.
Students high on public SC are more concerned about the self as a social object and are better capable of predicting their impression on others. These were also the students with the highest posting frequency of photos containing oneself and/or significant others as well as photos capturing life experiences. Private self consciousness had no relationship to photo posting. Gender and age did not influence the outcomes of both forms of self consciousness and photo posting frequency.
What does this add to our knowledge of computer mediated communication?
Photo use is not mainly a situational factor or a channel characteristic that affects the development of social interaction and relationship formation, it is also a matter of individual choice. Since individual public self consciousness influences the frequency of photo posting this study emphasizes the role of
individual difference characteristics in computer mediated communication.
Possible explanation of the relationship between high public self consiousness and frequent photo postings
Computers allows online users to spend unlimited time constructing and refining
photos before posting them, to edit photos to maximize their gratified needs, and to control the information disclosed through photos by masking involuntary cues. Editing photos is comparable to
editing texts on the Internet such that the photo editing tools provided by Cyworld or other social network sites are likely to enhance users’ impression management.
Well Dr Shock is probably also high on public self consciousness since he is meticulous in choosing his photo’s for his Flickr account
Minsun Shim, Min Ju Lee, Sang Hee Park (2008). Photograph Use on Social Network Sites among South Korean College Students: The Role of Public and Private Self-Consciousness CyberPsychology & Behavior, 0 (0), 2147483647-5 DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2007.0104