Documenting War

When comparing these two bodies of work one aspect that makes them stand out to me is the fact that Berman’s images seem like they are purely journalistic. The class was encouraged to think about the role of documentary photographer in times of war. We were also asked to reflect a bit on the difference in style, color, composition, etc. Taro’s photographs are in the action. She is out on the front line with the soldiers and basically redefining the term “action shot.” Berman, more recently, has created a photographic essay, which is titled “Purple Hearts,” and is a collection of portraits of those injured in battle. Not to add to the criticism on color, but I feel that that along with the staging and composition makes the images feel journalistic. I am actually pretty sure that I saw the image of the soldier and his bride in “World Press Photo” and in a magazine or two. So, I am probably not the best judge. Anyway, the series tells a successful and true story, but seem like the kind of images that should be accompanied by text explaining how terrible war is.

Farm: November

Mason's

Weekly Post XIII

More Fisheye

Cassoni Response

I have felt a bit confused about this project throughout the two and half weeks that we had to work on it. Missing the class when we initially went over the assignment and even had a presentation on this style impacted my understanding of the expectations surrounding the final product. I enjoyed learning the photomerge process on Photoshop and was amused by the imperfections, which sometimes played an important role in restricting my group’s project. We made a big mistake upfront and that was trying to get in all of our shooting during the sketch phase. This mistake caused additional restrictions when it came to actors. The young girl in the red dress, arguably the most aesthetically element in our images, was unable to come back for the reshooting process. Time constraints again played a role, but we could have planned our shooting sessions more wisely. These are only a few of the valuable lessons I have learned from this assignment.

When it comes to technical execution we had plenty of time to ensure that the print quality was fairly flawless even though printing was not cheap nor were we totally in control. I enjoyed the freedom we had with our interpretation, but like I said in the beginning, I felt that missing the initial explanation was a bit of a hindrance.

Cassoni

Weekly Post XII

Thanksgiving

Artichokes

Documents