Please comment on your favorite passage or a question about a challenging one from the story
11 thoughts on “Week 06- The Adventure of a Photographer”
A part from the reading that I liked was this: “The line between the reality that is photographed because it seems beautiful to us and the reality that seems beautiful because it has been photographed is very narrow.” This comment really made me think about why I choose to photograph things and the manner in which I take those photographs; I thought about the difference between taking a photograph to post on Instagram versus a photo to print. I almost start to think that maybe the line is not just narrow but maybe blurred.
I was particularly interested by how the text addresses the relationship between reality and photography. Indeed, most people wonder if photography provides the possibility to capture a moment of life. The author explains that every photo is a choice. However, this choice does not only concerns the picture but also the life of the photographer. Hence, the author underlines how photography is tied to and influences one?s life. He indeed argues ? your choice isn?t only photographic; it is a choice of life ?. Therefore, the artistic choices, such as the type of camera or the way his model pose reflect a part of the artist’s personality.
“…Tossing the ball back and forth, you are living in the present, but the moment the scansion of the frames is insinuated between your acts it is no longer the pleasure of the game that motivates you but, rather, that of seeing yourselves again in the future, of rediscovering yourselves in twenty years; time, on a piece of yellowed cardboard.” – p44
This passage points out a weird practice we see a lot around tourist. Some people would go to science world and ask their friends to take a photo of them while they are doing something with the toys. And if they dont like the photo. they will redo it over and over again. It is not the pleasure of the toys at science worlds making them want to play the toy, but the pleasure of seeing yourselves in the picture making them do their action.
The things that memory and art has in common is about “detail” and “preference”. But there are some tricky differences between human memory, mechanical image and reality. Memory is always filled with dislocation and fiction. After being formed and covered by time, it becomes soft, closed and symbolized. As for digital recording, on the one hand, it is objectively accurate that it is not depend on human operator. on the other hand, the position and angle of device is controlled by photographer and then there is the conversion of the raw recording into the visual image ultimately displayed (it is still following the human desire). Photograph can be made to present an image more “perfect” than the reality it records, but how to define “perfection”? Likewise, how to define “reality”?
Anyways, my concept of perfection is not necessarily focusing on technical precision, composition or any post processing filter (though they are important as well). It is more about the combination of “mind” and “visual”, internal and external memory. This reminds me of a current situation that taking photos become the most important mission while traveling. People start caring too much about if the photo looks beautiful or attractive enough instead of enjoying the journey ——Photography is just a way to record life and story, it should be a method but not the only result. (This might be an abuse of technological development that worth discussing.
I love the part “You must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life.” The reason I love this part is that I am this person. I love to take pictures, and I take pictures of things around me everyday. I think every photo represents a part of our memory and life.
I like how the article exemplifies how the concept of memory is self-constructed and the only thing that confirms its reality (the fact that some event actually happened) is an image, precisely a photograph in which the subject is intentionally chosen by the photographer. A photograph is captured evidence that an event actually existed. However, only a specific moment chosen by the photographer, subconscious or not, can live on. No matter how “clearly” someone remembers an event, it is never completely accurate. Antinino’s proposal of “snapping a picture a minute [in order to leave nothing out of their days]” is possible but described as ‘madness’, however it is a choice to be able to keep a visible record of his life. In photography, it’s about method over matter.
“The minute you start saying something, ‘Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!’ you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it had never existed and that therefore, in order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can…”.
We are living in a world where almost every moment of our lives must somehow be captured and documented and then later shared through social media. And with cameras attached to cellphones, everyone basically becomes a “photographer”. The beauty of life becomes obstructed through a lens and gets experienced as copy of reality more often than experiencing it firsthand.
“Now he was content. ‘This is where to start,’ he explained to the girls. ‘In the way our grandparents assumed a pose, in the convention tha decided how groups were to be arranged, there was a social meaning, a custom, a taste, a culture. An official photograph, or one of a marriage or a family or a school group, conveyed how serious and important each role or institution was, but also how far they were all false or forced, authoritarian, hierarchical.”
I particularly like this part because even now we are considered the first generation that are exposed to social media I still have some memories where photography was something really serious back then. Every poses and positions were kind of set for photographs in certain situations. People paid to go to studios and get their photos taken not just for formal usage like nowadays. It is definitely missing in today’s photography world. This drags me back to the discussion of the advancing of visual arts in class. I guess we could say that photography has evolved over the advancing of photography technologies. The world has enable us to take photos as freely as we want. The “seriousness” is obviously fading away with the overwhelming photo feeds online and sharing. However this also encourages artists to really work on their creativities to make their pictures stand out. People begin to realize to avoid cliche and the shots that everyone else is taking. Yet with the technology and memory one could still easily replicate what photography was like before.
It’s interesting how we choose to photograph certain moments rather than other moments. Photography is biased. We record the scene/ feelings we want to remember. As if they only exist when photographed. So it seems photography and memory are always connected. Photos and images can serve to reinforce our memories (especially the ones we want to always keep in mind). It also implies the idealism that something only exists when it’s in one’s mind and ideas. Photographs are the embodiments of this idealism as we choose what to exist and what to be discarded.
“In order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life.” How do people live in the most photographable way? If we live in this way, is it the reality? How do people differentiate reality and photographable way of living? Is it true that reality seems beautiful because what has been photographed is narrow? For me, photography can be a way of knowing. But most times we are controlled by visual effect – a beautiful or shocking image; whereas the reality may be quite the opposite. When people think an image either beautiful or awful, people’s prior living experience or emotion has already been involved. I don’t know how to define an image good or bad because it’s too subjective. However, I like an image that can take me as far as possible to think or rethink the world I live in.
In the adventure of photographer by Italo Calvino, idea of truth in photography is presented. He mentions that by talking photographs the goal is to produce an image of you ideal rather than documenting reality. His style of writing is interesting, twisted and deep. He falls in love and wants to photograph what he sees as truly her. He is not trying to take a picture of her, rather he is trying to make a visual account of his love.
A part from the reading that I liked was this: “The line between the reality that is photographed because it seems beautiful to us and the reality that seems beautiful because it has been photographed is very narrow.” This comment really made me think about why I choose to photograph things and the manner in which I take those photographs; I thought about the difference between taking a photograph to post on Instagram versus a photo to print. I almost start to think that maybe the line is not just narrow but maybe blurred.
I was particularly interested by how the text addresses the relationship between reality and photography. Indeed, most people wonder if photography provides the possibility to capture a moment of life. The author explains that every photo is a choice. However, this choice does not only concerns the picture but also the life of the photographer. Hence, the author underlines how photography is tied to and influences one?s life. He indeed argues ? your choice isn?t only photographic; it is a choice of life ?. Therefore, the artistic choices, such as the type of camera or the way his model pose reflect a part of the artist’s personality.
“…Tossing the ball back and forth, you are living in the present, but the moment the scansion of the frames is insinuated between your acts it is no longer the pleasure of the game that motivates you but, rather, that of seeing yourselves again in the future, of rediscovering yourselves in twenty years; time, on a piece of yellowed cardboard.” – p44
This passage points out a weird practice we see a lot around tourist. Some people would go to science world and ask their friends to take a photo of them while they are doing something with the toys. And if they dont like the photo. they will redo it over and over again. It is not the pleasure of the toys at science worlds making them want to play the toy, but the pleasure of seeing yourselves in the picture making them do their action.
The things that memory and art has in common is about “detail” and “preference”. But there are some tricky differences between human memory, mechanical image and reality. Memory is always filled with dislocation and fiction. After being formed and covered by time, it becomes soft, closed and symbolized. As for digital recording, on the one hand, it is objectively accurate that it is not depend on human operator. on the other hand, the position and angle of device is controlled by photographer and then there is the conversion of the raw recording into the visual image ultimately displayed (it is still following the human desire). Photograph can be made to present an image more “perfect” than the reality it records, but how to define “perfection”? Likewise, how to define “reality”?
Anyways, my concept of perfection is not necessarily focusing on technical precision, composition or any post processing filter (though they are important as well). It is more about the combination of “mind” and “visual”, internal and external memory. This reminds me of a current situation that taking photos become the most important mission while traveling. People start caring too much about if the photo looks beautiful or attractive enough instead of enjoying the journey ——Photography is just a way to record life and story, it should be a method but not the only result. (This might be an abuse of technological development that worth discussing.
I love the part “You must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life.” The reason I love this part is that I am this person. I love to take pictures, and I take pictures of things around me everyday. I think every photo represents a part of our memory and life.
I like how the article exemplifies how the concept of memory is self-constructed and the only thing that confirms its reality (the fact that some event actually happened) is an image, precisely a photograph in which the subject is intentionally chosen by the photographer. A photograph is captured evidence that an event actually existed. However, only a specific moment chosen by the photographer, subconscious or not, can live on. No matter how “clearly” someone remembers an event, it is never completely accurate. Antinino’s proposal of “snapping a picture a minute [in order to leave nothing out of their days]” is possible but described as ‘madness’, however it is a choice to be able to keep a visible record of his life. In photography, it’s about method over matter.
“The minute you start saying something, ‘Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!’ you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it had never existed and that therefore, in order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can…”.
We are living in a world where almost every moment of our lives must somehow be captured and documented and then later shared through social media. And with cameras attached to cellphones, everyone basically becomes a “photographer”. The beauty of life becomes obstructed through a lens and gets experienced as copy of reality more often than experiencing it firsthand.
“Now he was content. ‘This is where to start,’ he explained to the girls. ‘In the way our grandparents assumed a pose, in the convention tha decided how groups were to be arranged, there was a social meaning, a custom, a taste, a culture. An official photograph, or one of a marriage or a family or a school group, conveyed how serious and important each role or institution was, but also how far they were all false or forced, authoritarian, hierarchical.”
I particularly like this part because even now we are considered the first generation that are exposed to social media I still have some memories where photography was something really serious back then. Every poses and positions were kind of set for photographs in certain situations. People paid to go to studios and get their photos taken not just for formal usage like nowadays. It is definitely missing in today’s photography world. This drags me back to the discussion of the advancing of visual arts in class. I guess we could say that photography has evolved over the advancing of photography technologies. The world has enable us to take photos as freely as we want. The “seriousness” is obviously fading away with the overwhelming photo feeds online and sharing. However this also encourages artists to really work on their creativities to make their pictures stand out. People begin to realize to avoid cliche and the shots that everyone else is taking. Yet with the technology and memory one could still easily replicate what photography was like before.
It’s interesting how we choose to photograph certain moments rather than other moments. Photography is biased. We record the scene/ feelings we want to remember. As if they only exist when photographed. So it seems photography and memory are always connected. Photos and images can serve to reinforce our memories (especially the ones we want to always keep in mind). It also implies the idealism that something only exists when it’s in one’s mind and ideas. Photographs are the embodiments of this idealism as we choose what to exist and what to be discarded.
“In order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life.” How do people live in the most photographable way? If we live in this way, is it the reality? How do people differentiate reality and photographable way of living? Is it true that reality seems beautiful because what has been photographed is narrow? For me, photography can be a way of knowing. But most times we are controlled by visual effect – a beautiful or shocking image; whereas the reality may be quite the opposite. When people think an image either beautiful or awful, people’s prior living experience or emotion has already been involved. I don’t know how to define an image good or bad because it’s too subjective. However, I like an image that can take me as far as possible to think or rethink the world I live in.
In the adventure of photographer by Italo Calvino, idea of truth in photography is presented. He mentions that by talking photographs the goal is to produce an image of you ideal rather than documenting reality. His style of writing is interesting, twisted and deep. He falls in love and wants to photograph what he sees as truly her. He is not trying to take a picture of her, rather he is trying to make a visual account of his love.