Artist Lecture : Michael Cardinali

I was excited to see that Michael Cardinali was going to have an artist lecture because I have him as a professor for the second time this year and I was interested to see what his work was really like. After already taken one of his classes, I knew that he had worked mostly in New York and a little bit in Boston after moving up this way to go to school at Mass Art. I wasn't quite sure, prior to the lecture, what he actually liked to photograph or what inspired him. I learned that he particularly enjoyed photographing things he saw on a pretty regular basis. He mentioned how many of scenes he has photographed in the past were from his running route or his route to work/school. I found it especially interested to learn that his process of choice (for most of his work) was a platinum palladium process. I knew that he enjoyed film photography more than digital photography, just from being in his classes, but it was very interesting to learn about how he went from shooting only in black and white, to expanding to color film and how it opened him up to a whole new world. I enjoyed how enthusiastic he was about how photography can sort of trick the viewer into thinking an image might be one thing, when it's actually another. He told a few childhood stories that explained his path into majoring into photography. I liked how with many images, he related back to some of his stories and his earlier images. Although, many of the photographs he chose to show during the presentation were landscape or nature photos, I think the ones he chose to show of the figure worked nicely. I like how the presentation showed his growth throughout college and I could definitely see changes and maturity as a photographer. Overall, I thought Cardinali's lecture was inspiring and definitely made me see my professor differently (and more positively) than I had prior to attending the lecture.

Criticizing Photographs: Chapter 8

In the final chapter of his book, Barrett finally talks about writing about photographs. He makes an important point: you need to be interested by a photograph in order to write about it. He suggests that while you're looking and studying a photograph, to write down some notes of things that come to mind when you first look at an image. This simple exercise will help to get your mind thinking artistically and help you remember what you originally thought of the image. He also mentions that it is important to try to look at the photograph from a point within the photograph. It's sort of like placing yourself inside the frame and looking at the scene in front of you, as if you were the photographer. I've never really done this exercise before, but I think it would be interesting to try it out. He also says how important it is to talk about photographs, like in the critique setting we have here in our photography department at UNH. I personally enjoy the critique setting we have here because it allows us to all build off one another, maybe seeing things we hadn't originally noticed. It also gives the artist a chance to listen to the other students' impressions of the work and maybe the viewers see things that the artist hadn't intended. This type of critique setting also helps for future projects, because as the viewers are discussing a particular work, it can trigger ideas in the artist's head about things to do differently next time, etc.

Criticizing Photographs: Chapter 7

This chapter is about theories and the importance of theories in photography. Barrett questions whether theories are necessary to photography. He points out that theories are made by all types of people associated with photography and art. When you look at a photograph, you begin to develop your own theory almost instantly. Barrett moves on to talk about the truth of photographs. Now personally, I would rather not alter my images via Photoshop or some other program. It seems like the point of photography, at least when it was first developed, is to record the truth of an event or scene. However, many war photographers would move things around in a scene to make it more interesting, therefore, altering an image in a way. Also, since the very beginning of photography as a medium, people have gone back and forth about whether it should be considered art. I think that all types of photography can be considered art, however, not all photographs show the truth. Photographs only show the viewer what the photographer wanted to show.

Barrett also goes on to talk about the morality of photographs. Is it moral to show someone dying of an incurable disease? Would anyone even want to look at that, let alone purchase it? He mentions a photojournalist, Rankin Waddell, who was just down the street from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and how Waddell decided not to photograph the destruction. Waddell said "I didn't want to mediate it in any way, to document it in any way, deal with it like that. I wanted to deal with it personally. I thought, 'My experience of this is not going to be through photography.'" (page 191) Other photographers might have jumped at the opportunity to photograph this event, but Waddell didn't.

It's important to remember that with all the new technology developing around us, things might not look as they seem. We are now taught to question whether a photograph has been manipulated or if it's a pure image. It's becoming more difficult to decipher what is true and what is false, however with all the new developments, the creative possibilities are endless.

Regarding the Pain of Others

Susan Sontag provokes us to think about what it's like to view violence and pain of all types through photographs. Do photographs about war, starving children, or dead bodies sensitize us to the violence going on around the world? Should we be changed by looking at such photographs? Sontag doesn't try to answer these questions, but instead aides us in creating our on conclusions. She gives a brief history of photo-journalism and war photography. She questions whether war photographs, those which depict gruesome scenes, are considered art. She considers the fact that some war photographers moved corpses to create a "better" photograph and whether these actions made the photos better or worse. Sontag explains that war photographs, no matter what type of experience you've had with war, are supposed to shock you. They're supposed to make you think about things outside your own life and your own hardships. Sontag points out that in every photograph that shows some form of pain, whether the photograph is of a wounded soldier or a starving child, that people were affect by the scene presented in that photograph. That wounded soldier had a family and that starving child had the potential for something greater than him or herself. However, some people might look at those types of photographs for hours, and still not understand the meaning behind them.

I've had numerous conversations in history classes about how desensitized the younger generations are becoming, simply because of everything on the television these days. Video games and movies are becoming increasingly violent, too many things on the news at night is negative and same goes for the newspapers. It's amazing how quickly the most violent or gruesome of photos race around the internet when they are first uploaded. It seems like people sometimes aren't as upset as they should be when certain subjects are photographed. This book made me think about how every person in the world is fighting their own battles. Some might not be a devastating as war or poverty, but everyone is united by the fact that we're all fighting a battle of some kind. As our next project is rapidly approaching, I'm still having some issues deciding what to focus on. I think it might be interesting to focus on something less gruesome than war or poverty, but rather something on a smaller and more individualized level. We shall see though.

Criticizing Photographs: Chapter 6

In this chapter, Terry Barrett discusses judging photographs, criticizing photographs and how interpretations can affect both of these actions. There are five types of judgements. Positive judgements are found frequently within the professional criticism world. Negative judgements which disapprove of the artwork, surprisingly, are not found as often as one might think. Implied judgments do not explicitly give positive or negative judgements. Typically, you can figure out what type of judgement the critic is trying to make by the context that the article is placed in and the general tone of article. Opposing judgements are when critics disagree with another critic's judgment on a particular piece of artwork. Also, they may have the same judgement but for different reasons. Comparative judgements are when a critic compares the work of one artist (or one particular piece of work) to that of another artist. Sometimes critics may feel that a particular artist or piece of work is not comparable to any other artist or  work.

In order for a judgement to be beneficial there has to be a reason for that judgement. The purpose of judgements is not to decide if a piece of artwork is right or wrong, but rather they try to persuade the reader to agree with the critics judgment. However, they are also supposed to allow the reader (or viewer) to come to their own conclusions and judgements on the artwork.

The theories of art, realism, expressionism, formalism, and instrumentalism, are all linked with the criteria in which we judge art. People have ideas in their heads about what art should be or what art is and this can often inhibit the judging process and have an affect on the reasons which back up the judgement made. Many times when critics are judging art, they are also theorizing about art.

I know that when I am at a museum or viewing a student's artwork, in the back of my mind, I'm trying to fit it into the categories of art that I already know about. This occurs usually without me even really concentrating on it. Sometimes the artwork might fit, other times it's off in it's own category.

Criticizing Photographs: Chapter 5

This chapter talks about how viewers use contextual information to as accurately as possible place a photograph into one of the six categories already discussed in chapter 4.  There are three types of contextual information. These types are internal, original or external.

Internal contextual information is what is obvious to the view. Examples are the subject of the photograph, the form, medium and any relationships between those three aspects of a photograph. Terry Barrett points out that some photographs are easier to understand than others because they are from a culture in which the view is familiar with or they are of a subject that the view is familiar. It's also easy to understand photographs that have an art quality in which viewers can relate to. However, understanding of photographs all depends on prior knowledge.

Original contextual information depends on knowledge of art and the art world. Barrett mentions that it can often be easier to understand a photograph if the viewer can put the photograph back into its "original context" that way the viewer can see how the photograph was made, what was or wasn't included in the frame and why the artist chose to include somethings and maybe not others. Barrett mentions also that having some knowledge of the photographer's background can help reveal who his or her influences were in producing their artwork.

External context is situation where the photograph is presented. As we've seen while critiquing our own photographs, the placement of the photographs can affect the overall reception of the work. By placing our work on the plain white wall in the critique room, we are putting our photos on display, maybe not in the exact way we would like to if we were exhibiting them in a museum, but for the purpose of our class critiques, the wall works just fine as there isn't anything cluttering around the works to distract our eyes from the artwork. Barrett also points out that photographs can have different meanings depending on the different contexts it is used in and if text is added in some fashion (ie: a photograph in a book).

This chapter mentions that the interpretation of a photograph is both a personal and a collective thing. Typically it starts off as a personal act, but as one speaks with other knowledgable people, it morphs into a group's assessment of a piece of artwork. I think that this is true in the sense that sometimes, I might not fully understand the technical skills it takes to create a piece of artwork, but with the guidance and knowledge of a professor or fellow classmate, I am able to better appreciate the piece after learning what it took to create it.

Persona- Contact Sheets

Persona- Final Images

There they are. I think I would've been more pleased with this project if I had more time to work with my camera once I had this idea. But, I'm pleased with the images I came up with for the amount of time I had.