Creative Experiential Exercise

I chose to experience the process of taking photographs with film before the digital age. I did this by using a disposable camera. Here are my images:















My creative experience consisted of using a disposable film camera, taking shots on campus, and developing them. I wanted to compare that process to today’s fast iPhone photos. My results actually began with finding a disposable camera. Although a few stores did have them, they were so expensive! Then I had to call a few different stores to find out which ones still developed film. After three calls, I found one. I dropped them off but had to wait a couple hours to see how the photos developed. When I went back hours later to pick up the pictures, they were also expensive! I spent about $20 on this whole experience. I can only imagine how financially demanding it was back in the days of film. The process itself was challenging. Although it was easy to press the button and wind the other one, I couldn’t see what I was taking. I wanted to press a button and see what I just took but obviously I could not. As for the quality of the photos, they still came out pretty clear and even were able to capture the blurred-motion effect. However, the lighting was somewhat poor because I could not adjust the settings like I can on a digital camera.

I do not have a different idea of photojournalism. In my book introduction, I had defined the art pretty well and it still makes sense to me. I already knew the basics of photojournalism before taking this course. I do have new ideas of why photojournalism is important. For example, I learned through my photojournalist profile of Dorothea Lange, that photojournalism can change lives. Because Lange worked for the government, her photographs of struggling families eventually led to federally assisted programs that helped feed and house these families. I had one big ah-hah moment during the photojournalists’ motivation module. I realized that photojournalist do not just do what they do because they are good at taking pictures. Instead, they have some specific event that triggered their emotions and then they were able to express these emotions through self-made art: photojournalism. Relating back to Lange, photojournalism most definitely can change the world. In my book introduction I wrote about how people can learn about other cultures and people. However, now I can focus in on a specific change such as people donating to help victims of hurricane Katrina because they saw the horrific images. Or, there are animal rights activists because of the image Arnold got attention for. Even today, women are still not seen as completely equal. However, because of the picture of the woman fire fighter, there may be some progress made.

Overall, I have learned that motivation trumps time and money. Although I did not have much money, I was still determined to experience the process. Lange had many expenses along with time to travel to photograph all her subjects. But that did not hold her back because she wanted to explain the situation. Also, photographers face a different struggle than the subjects. For Lange, her struggles were first finding the subject and then relating to them. The subjects struggled for more immediate life necessities. In my experience, I struggled to work the camera and find good shots. The subjects did not face this struggle; they were just having fun posing. It was a long process for a photojournalist and me during this experience. The only difference for me is that it was hard to find the equipment from the old days but also to find photojournalistic subjects and images. For Lange, she was overwhelmed in subjects and already had the equipment.

I learned from Yezenia’s blog that Ron Haviv was very passionate about his career, he chose his career over having a family. I learned from Cole’s blog that there are niche areas of photography I did not know existed. For example, Corey Arnold photographs fisheries. I learned from Jenna’s blog that Robert Capa used a 50mm camera. I would like to know more about the difference between this one and the later developed 30mm camera.

Photo By: Corey Arnold
Image Source: http://www.coreyfishes.com/koken/albums/human-animals/

Photo By: Peter Blakeman
Image Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228132/Fire-fighting-fit-Woman-firefighter-33-crowned-world-s-toughest-triumphing-competition-5-000-hopefuls-globe.html

Photo By: the Associated Press
Image Source: http://www.komonews.com/news/national/101745523.html

Fishery photography learned from Cole








Photo By: Corey Arnold
Image Source: http://www.coreyfishes.com/koken/albums/human-animals/

Ron Haviv's passionate work learned from Yezenia






Photo By: Ron Haviv
Image Source: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jul/14/ron-haviv-best-shot

Image taken with a 50m camera learned from Jenna




Photo By: Robert Capa
Image Source: http://www.combatcamera.be/

Final Project

Hello everyone,

I chose to make a poster for my final project. I cut it in the shape of a camera and decorated it with information about Dorothea Lange. There are a ton of pictures to fully cover all my information. If you would like to see my poster in person, you can stop by Professor Nordell's office. Enjoy!

Photojournalists and Motivation

Here is a map of my motivations:

The first photojournalist I learned about was Felix Masi from Kenya. A lot of his motivations as a photojournalist stemmed directly from his background. In his interview, it was said that Masi lost his mom when he was 8 years old. Therefore, much of his young life was spent suffering. Masi was not originally a photojournalist but when he did become one he remembered seeing kids struggle and related it directly to himself. That sad little kid was him and now he has come so far to cope with his sadness. I thought it was interesting when Felix Masi said he “just wanted to look nice and survive – be able to buy food for myself.” He had always been lured into the field by the nice wardrobe and equipment. But when he found this as an opportunity to tell people’s stories about their suffering, he wanted photojournalism to be his career.

Image By: Key Digital Media

Image Source: http://www.keydigitalmedia.com/profile-felix-masi/

Image By: Feliz Masi

Image Source: https://felixmasi.wordpress.com/

Jay Maisel was originally a painter but then got into photojournalism in New York City. While studying at Yale, he was not a photography major so they would not let him in the darkroom. However, still curious, Maisel convinced a night worker to let him in and get some experience. This sense of determination is what drove Maisel for his many decades worth of photographic work. He also explained that photography must be done only after listening to the inner voice so that his bias does not turn out to be that of the subject photographed. Maisel wanted to be able to reveal himself to himself through his own work. Maisel, although sharing the same goal, did this differently than Lynn Johnson who tried to make herself as invisible as possible.

Image By: Jay Maisel

Image Source: http://studio.jaymaisel.com/collections/portfolio

Image By: Geoff Green

Image Source: http://bermangraphics.com/press/jaymaisel.htm

Similar to Maisel’s self-interest as motivation, Richard Avedon is another photojournalist that was inspired by photography to learn about life for himself. The main motivation behind Avedon was the ability to learn. “We need to learn and grow as human beings. The creative process helps us learn those lessons.” He also realized that interacting with others would help him learn these lessons. Photojournalism is creative, involves people, and gives the photographer learning experience. This field is everything Avedon desired in one career. As Ed Kashi explained, it was never too late to take on the photojournalism hat. He did not become involved until he was 50 years old. As Kashi wanted to learn about human beings as a whole, Avedon wanted to learn about himself as a specific human being.

Photo By: The Associated Press

Image Source: https://pleasurephotoroom.wordpress.com/category/richard-avedon/page/6/

Photo By: Richard Avedon

Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/56717276531200277/

After mapping out my own motivations, I discovered they are quite similar to those of the three photojournalists I mentioned. Just as Avedon wanted to learn, I want to learn about other cultures and the world. Maisel and I both share a sense of determination; if we want something bad enough we will find a way to get it. A similarity in relation to Masi, he just wanted to look successful and wear the nice clothes photographers did. I also care a lot about my reputation and want to be successful, in some sense, to prove others wrong. In the other sense, through my journey in life, I can learn about myself which it seems like Maisel and Avedon both stressed. However, there were a few differences between my motivations and those of the researched photojournalists. For example, I have not gone through traumatic suffering that has directly inspired me to be who I am like Masi did when he lost his mother. In contrast to Avedon, although I do want to learn about myself, I also want to discover other people and teach them. I have a similar goal to Xyza Cruz Bacani who said, “That's what I want my photography to do, to be able to help people.’” I do not want to intentionally use the people I meet just to reflect on my life. That happens naturally.