History of Modern Photography (Modernism)

Looking back how photography use to be, its really amazing how it has evolved from simple pinhole camera to the most advanced digital cameras. Beginning with the pinhole camera, which was developed in 1600s and then in 1850 to successful digital age which is now. In earlier days, photographic equipment use to be very heavy. They had to carry these big giant lightings everywhere. Thus, the biggest limitation in earlier days was lightings. Until when the incandescent bulb was invented which was during 1880s, it made indoor photography more easy and quick. On the invention of flash effect (using powdered magnesium in a vacuum tube) serious portrait photography was possible. Similarly, it was again replaced by flexible films which enable to print hundred of photos. Robert Eastman, is the first creator and entrepreneur to develop and sell these new films cameras in mass scale.

Again, during 1930s the introduction of Kodachrome color processing was available to many. Through the 1940s and 1950s, most of photo processing use to take place only in labs which would take about four days. But later in the late 1940s, other invention was done by Edwin Land a Chemist. His extensive research resulted in the development of Polaroid Process. It was unsurprisingly a success. This made it possible to take picture anytime and anywhere. Later during mid 80s, Japanese company named Fuji made a huge success by inventing 'disposable' camera. It was very easy to use. All we have to do was bought a camera, loaded the film, taken photos, handed the film to studio and get our negatives and pictures back within 24 hours.

But the popularity of film camera was slowly going down in early 1988, when Fuji introduced the first digital camera. As we know, the difference between this camera and the traditional film camera was it can instantly display photos taken, which allow us to review or delete or print them at once. Since then we have introduced to many varities of digital cameras. So, the photography era have been generally replaced everytime.

References:-

http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/the-modern-movement-of-photography-1080642.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/214493.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography

Post-Modernism

I have never really understand what postmodernism is. But after my research, i think considering in the context of photography, a post-modern is somebody who:-

- who show or produce a lot of his pictures, sometimes with himself or herself dressed-up as somebody unglamorous.

- Prints his photo big, like paintings

- Produces photos that look a bit like Cindy Sherman or Eggleston, or other examples of post-moderns.

- Positions himself as a mainstream artist who just happens to be using photography as a medium (but he isn't a photographer) This gets the work into big-time New York galleries that are for real artists, not photographers, and he can make a lot more money.

That is how it seems to me right now. Sometimes I have the feeling that I can't see the next evolution because I am living in the middle of it, and the changes are so slow, they go unnoticed to me. In my view, Classic example of post-modernism art is the Empire State building.

References:-

http://www.concepttshirts.co.uk/articles/post-modernism.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/214493.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_modernism

Diana Camera

A Diana Camera, also known as a “toy camera,” is an inexpensive, base quality camera. It is put together in a plastic body, the traditional Diana camera was made in Hong Kong during the 1960s and 1970s. Soon after the Hong Kong model of the Diana camera was produced, many other companies came out with their own versions of this toy camera.While later variations of the Diana camera could take 6 cm x 6 cm pictures, the original models took up to sixteen pictures that are 4 cm x 4 cm. Consequently, these cameras tended to waste film. Because of the poor quality plastic used, light would often infiltrate the camera, damaging the film. Similarly, the lens of the Diana cameras were sub-par, producing fuzzy photos or pictures without much contrasts.Because these crude cameras were generally considered toys, they were generally given to children. In fact, most Diana cameras became prizes at fairs, amusement parks or parades. Yet, they were occasionally used by more adept photographers to produce various aesthetic effects.

For me diana camera is very beautiful. Beside the classic good looks, it makes ordinary images a lot dreamier with a soft focus look. I was totally blown away with the vignette and overall dreamy look. I also love the fact that we can choose to do multiple exposures, and as for the enhancements - panoramic shots and pinhole photography is also possible by twisting off the lens. Overall, diana is very fun to play around with and surprisingly takes very beautiful pictures.

References:-

http://microsites.lomography.com/diana/

http://www.lomography.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_camera

Jacques Henri Lartique (Biography)

Jacques Lartigue was born in 1894 in Courbevoie, just outside Paris. His family was wealthy and Jacques had a pampered childhood – easygoing tutors for his education, frequent trips to the sea or country for holidays, and endless games with his elder brother Maurice, nicknamed Zissou, and his many friends and relatives. Jacques recognised very early on how wonderful life in general, and his in particular, was, and seems to have set out to record all the most delightful parts of it as thoroughly as he possibly could. He did this through his written journals, his paintings and his photographs. Although Lartigue occasionally sold his pictures to the press and exhibited at the Galerie d’Orsay alongside Brassaï, Man Ray and Doisneau, his reputation as a photographer was not truly established until he was 69, with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the publication of a portfolio in Life. He now added his father’s first name to his own surname, becoming Jacques Henri Lartigue. Worldwide fame came three years later with his first book, The Family Album, followed in 1970, by Diary of a Century, conceived by Richard Avedon. In 1975 he had his first French retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. For the rest of his life, Lartigue was busy answering commissions from fashion and decoration magazines.

I am completely in love with his work especially the above picture. I love how the picture looks unrealistic yet so beautiful and unique. I love the framing and composition of the image as well. Overall, his work are really amazing.

References:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Henri_Lartigue

Semiotics

The shortest definition of semiotics is that it is the study of signs but most of the people will probably assume that semiotics is about 'visual signs'. It is a general theory of signs and symbols; esp., the analysis of the nature and relationships of signs in language, usually including three branches, syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.Today’s society relies on advertisement for consumer affairs. Magazines, a form of mass media is at the top of everyone’s list for finding the perfect household good. Ads are a major part of our everyday life. The most common signs are words in a language, but traffic signals, punctuation, and visual markers are also signs. At a broader level, clothing, gestures and even sentences and whole texts may be signs in a larger sign system. The study of signs is known as semiotics.

On a simple level, the picture it is easy to deduce two obvious things. Firstly, that the subject, (the image of the man) provides a youthful element of glamour, which serves both the product and the text in which it is being advertised, and secondly,that the image of the sand dune is a physical repeat of the product name.

References:-

http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/modern/THE-BASICS-OF-SOCIALIST-FEMINISM.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

Live Girls Unite

I have never been one to consider pornography as self-empowering, as I have normally viewed it as an act of women who were willing to humiliate themselves. In that case, i thought this was something that has not helped to boost the values of feminism at all. Yet, after watching this movie, I have no idea how I feel. I don't see how anyone could argue against women coming together , in an effort to fight for their rights in the workplace. Although I still feel that stripping is humiliaton toward women, the movie has further blurred the feminism issue of sex as work. From a political view, I think that these women should be able to join, and should be legalized because at the end of the day they are forced to do this for their survival. From a feminist's point of view, feminism would want to help give girls different options, but in the same note, feminists would probably also say it's important to make sure sex workers aren't exploited. Either way, it can't be denied that this is a feminist issue because those women are forced to do and women need support for their cause and at last women has be protected from being only seen as sex objects. Therefore, i think it is a very diffucult to answer this question, because you never want anyone's choice to judge and at the same time we don't want to help promoting sexual expliotation. Overall, the documentary was very knowledgeable.

References :-

http://crazymotion.net/live-nude-girls-unite-part-1-of-13/w1v4Y-xx4ghkjAy.html

http://www.livenudegirlsunite.com/index2.html

Feminism

Feminism can be defined as a movement for social, cultural, political and economic equality of men and women. It gives enough information to every single women so that she can make a voice to live a life which is not discriminatory and which works within the principal of social, cultural, political and economic equality and independence. The term ‘feminism’ has many different uses and its meanings are often contested. For example, some writers use the term ‘feminism’ to refer to a historically specific political movement in the US and Europe; other writers use it to refer to the belief that there are injustices against women, though there is no consensus on the exact list of these injustices.

There are different varieties of feminism which are :-

Lesbian Feminism

Socialist Feminism

Traditional Marxist Feminism

Radical Feminism

Eco Feminism

Psychonalytic Feminism

Feminism and developing World

References:-

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-topics/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism