Edward Colver, Dead Kennedys

This was a picture taken by Edward Colver on July 4, 1982 at a Dead Kennedys show at the Wiskey in Los Angeles, California. The Dead Kennedys are a punk rock band from San Francisco, they formed in 1978 and where pioneers of  punk during the 1980s. There songs mixed deliberately extreme lyrics with satire, sarcasm, and irony of social and political issues of the 1980s. 
    
This picture shows the Dead Kennedys performing on stage, with lead singer Jello Biafra shirtless in the middle. Fans are running onto the stage from the right side while the guitarist and bassists are playing, looking strangely relaxed. The pieces of paper on the stage are Xeroxed cockroaches thrown out from the band before. 
    
This photo and many others taken by Colver documented the rise and the movement of the punk rock music scene in the late 1970s early 1980s. He also took pictures of acts such as Black flag, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Lydia Lunch, Minutemen, and Minor Threat. 
   
 I love this picture because it shows a lot of great movement, the contrast is nice too. But I mostly just like this photo for the meaning and the time era it was taken. The moments Colver captured on film live on as icons not only because of the vision of the photos themselves, but because they eloquently document the birth of punk music, fashion, art and lifestyle during a renaissance of talent and rebellion that will never occur again.

1861 Confederate Greys, Mathew Brady

1861 Confederate Greys, Mathew Brady, 1861, photograph

This is a photo credited to Mathew Brady, although as you mentioned in class, it could very easily have been taken by one of his assistants.  It took me a while to find this picture, but I chose it because it is North Carolina Confederate soldiers leaving off to battle.  Mathew Brady was a very controversial photographer, as are many, but he was so because he would rearrange dead bodies, coming into battlefields days after the action had ended and moved on.  While he also did many scenes of battlefields, he also was noted for his portraits. However, that wasn't always the case.  In the first major battle of the Civil War, Manassas, where I must add that the Confederacy slaughtered the over confident Union, but I digress.  In this battle, which took place in Virginia, outside of Manassas (which I also must add is a very beautiful setting, irony abounds!) Mathew Brady almost got captured by Confederate forces.  Throughout the entire Civil War Brady took over 10,000 plates, almost certain the U.S. government would buy them from him at the end of the war, and yet they did not, leaving him a financial wreck, only to die 30 years later, still penniless.  Brady tested photographic ethics, and helped shape what they are today.

What stands out to me about this picture, is the solemn facial expressions.  They were very serious and were very much aware of what they were doing by joining the cause.  The blurriness surrounding the central focus of the soldiers gives the photo a sense of confusion and franticness (word?).  The mix then of the calmness in their faces with the feeling of confusion gives the photo a surreal aura.  There's this confusion and disorganization in  that a country was formed so quickly and they are going to war immediately after declaring secession and independence, yet when you break it down and analyze each person individually, there's the sense that each one of them is individually calm and collected, certain that they want to follow through with what they are doing.  It was for these soldiers that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are called the Tar Heels, because the North Carolina Confederate soldiers would never back down and would stand their ground until they could fight no more, so determined to win that it was as if their feet were grounded in tar.

Joel Peter Witkin, Myself as Dead Clown

Joel Peter Witkin, Myself as Dead Clown

I chose this picture because I am a fan of Joel Peter Wilkin, and because of the composition and subject matter of this picture. The over exaggerated smile on the corpse and the head dress are both good effects and would even lead the viewer to question whether this was a live person.  Until you see the protruding ribcage and the rest of the emaciated body.  The treatment on the negative, which Joel is known for, was also very good.  The way the negative was treated so that the sheet and the head dress were similar provided good uniformity in the composition.  The treatment to the upper right corner of the negative appears on the print as a light source, another great effect that plays well with the actual overhead lighting.  The only part of the composition that I don’t understand is the way the picture was cropped.  It is not uniform with the top two corners being rounded and the bottom left corner being strait.          

Pole Vaulter, Thomas Eakins

Title: Pole Vaulter

Artist: Thomas Eakins

Date: 1884-1885

This photo has lots of movement, it is shown through a multiple exposure, the different stages a pole vaulter goes through during their event. This photographer Thomas Eakins was seen as an innovator of motion photography, but received little recognition during his life. After Eakins death he has been celebrated by art historians and the strongest most profound realist in 19th and early 20th century American art. Before Eakins was a photographer though, he was a realist painter. He chose people who were from his hometown in Philadelphia. Painted hundreds of portraits of his family, friends, and prominent people in the arts, sciences, medicine and clergy. Though Eakins wasn’t a widely known artist during his lifetime, his photos and paintings have created a big impact on the world of art history now.

This photos movement was what stood out to me the most. It being a multiple exposure was what brought my attention to it while browsing through photos. Also the fact it is a sports photo played another big role in my selection. Back in high school I loved taking pictures of sports, pole vaulting being on of my favorites. The only difference between what I was use to shooting and seeing what Eakins shot was that the pole vaulter never actually goes, from what I can see, high enough to go over the bar. Instead it is a picture of what seems to be the athlete practicing his steps and technique. Seeing that difference was very interesting to me, along with the multiple exposure, and how many he was able to capture in this photograph.

Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey. Author: Robert Frank. Year: 1955. Medium: Gelatin Silver Print

This is a picture taken by Robert Frank in 1955 at a parade in Hoboken, New Jersey. Instead of taking pictures of the parade, Frank decided to take a picture of an American flag blowing in the wind with two Hoboken citizens behind it watching the parade out of windows. This picture became very significant to photography history because it was first published in a book written by Frank called “the Americans” and it was denied public publish rights in the USA. So to get his book published he decided to take it across the seas and get it published to make money. While the book became a hit the American publisher gave in and published it in the US.

Personally, I really like this photograph. It has a great contrast and also elements of opposites. I like that the brickwork and how it is dirty and gritty compared to the shades that hide the windows and the cleanliness of the American flag. The contrast in the flag is great; even though it is in motion you can still see the stars and stripes both evenly and clearly. The woman on the left of the picture had a facial expression of emotion and sadness so it makes the viewer curious to see what is actually going on behind the photographer. I also find it interesting that the person standing in the right window has been covered by the fla

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, Diane Arbus, gelatin silver print, 1966.

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, Diane Arbus, gelatin silver print, 1966.

Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971), an American Photographer, was best known for her square black-and-white photographs of “deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.”  She began her career as a fashion photographer for her father in New York.  After WWII she and her husband began a commercial photography studio.  She quit the commercial photography business to begin doing some magazine assignment work; this gave her an opportunity to tour the country.  She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1963 for a project on “American rites, manners, and customs”; in 1966 the Fellowship was renewed.  She committed suicide in 1971.  Arbus’s work has been considered controversial and her estate has been criticized for denying permission for exhibition or reproduction of her photographs.

I found the work of Diane Arbus to be quite intriguing.  Most of her photos were of circus performers (freaks), nudists, and transvestites; far more risqué than the seemingly tame nature of Identical Twins, Roselle NJ.  But, when you consider that the ghostly twins from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shinning are in an identical pose you can see how powerful the image is.  I especially appreciate how Arbus is credited with taking the time to get to know everyone she photographed and to get their permission to take the shot.  Even going so far as tracking down, catching up with, and re-shooting subjects years later.  Two quotes I found to be amusing were: “We thought it was the worst likeness of the twins we'd ever seen.”  Bob Wade (father of the twins), and “Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.” Norman Mailer.

Margaret Bourke-White, Flood Victims, 1936

Margaret Bourke-White, Flood Victims, 1936

Even at first sight of this photograph a feeling of unease overcame me.  Not because of some cunning way in which the photographer staged her photo, but of the raw message which it throws out at the viewer.  The harsh reality that is captured to dispel any idealist thoughts that people may have of this era was photographed beautifully.  The stereotypical white American family on their way to some cozy and remote lake side cabin to enjoy the fresh air and get away from the bustle of everyday life.  While black American flood victims stand in line for hours to receive fresh water, a loaf of stale bread, and some dry clothes.  “There’s no way like the American way” really does say it all.