Emily Cheng: Looking at Photographs by John Szarkowski

Photo: Wing Hei Emily Cheng, Copyright 2018
Photo: Wing Hei Emily Cheng, Copyright 2018

 

Photography and Text by Wing Hei Emily Cheng, Copyright 2018.

.

Book Review

.

Looking at Photographs by John Szarkowski

.

After reading John Szarkowski’s Looking at Photographs, I was struck by the obstacles that photographers faced in the pursuit of the perfect shot. As a lifelong digital photographer, it was inconceivable to me that one might need to set up a portable darkroom in the battleground, or carry a twelve-horse train’s worth of photography equipment into the field, just to get a single picture. With the technologies that we have now, I am able to capture multiple images with just one squeeze of the button, and make tiny micro-adjustments to my aperture, shutter speed and ISO until I get my ideal image. Knowing the intensive labor and precision necessary for historical photography has certainly deepened my appreciation for the masters of the craft.

Given the constraints that photographers faced historically, it is commendable how they have embraced and stretched the limitations of technology, in very divergent ways. As Szarkowski writes, “photography has not developed in a disciplined and linear manner, but has rather grown like an untended garden.” For example, while portraiture may have begun with the static and posed studio shots taken with the daguerreotype, such as William Shew’s image of the Mother and Daughter, it quickly evolved as constraints on the medium loosened. Just 40 years after Shew took his still portraits, Edward Muybridge was able to capture people in motion, frozen in each millisecond of action. But fast forward another 50 years and Irving Penn has returned to the studio, photographing subjects in a minimal style that evokes the nineteenth century portrait. Rather than progressing in a straightforward fashion, it seems that photography continues to reference the past as it evolves.

As a portrait photographer, I was inspired by the transformative nature of photography, how it can depict people in creative and heterogenous ways. Edward Weston’s Torso of Neil transformed his son into and abstract and organic sculpture. Brassai’s Dance Hall captured the seedy patrons of Parisian nightlife in their natural habitat. Meanwhile, Baron Adolphe de Meyer’s portrait of Helen Lee Worthing amped up the drama with luxurious artificial light. While I was reading this book, I was also fascinated by the way in which people could be evoked in images devoid of subjects, or those that heavily concealed them. Manuel Alvarez Bravo’s Woman Combing Her Hair, which casts the subject in heavy shadow save for her profile and a small portion of her dress, is an example of how portraiture can be poignant without even showing the subject’s face. George N. Barnard’s Scene of General McPherson’s Death manages to evoke the subject even without him being present, merely by showing the vestiges that he left behind on the landscape.

The images by Edward Weston and Manuel Alvarez Bravo have informed my work, Woman in Motion, which seeks to distill the essence of my subject in the picture without focusing on her face. I was inspired by Weston’s use of the human body to create intensely sensuous and sculptural forms. I was also inspired by Alvarez Bravo’s dramatic use of light to obscure parts of the subject.

“Photography has learned about its own nature not only from its great masters, but also from the simple and radical works of photographers of modest aspiration and small renown,” Szarkowski wrote in the introduction of his book. Ultimately, the innovative works in Looking at Photographs have reinvigorated me as a photographer and given me the diverse inspiration to to hone my craft.

.

About The Author: Wing Hei Emily Cheng is a Senior enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2018. To access additional articles by Ms. Cheng, click herehttps://tonywardstudio.com/blog/emily-cheng-masks-wear/

 

Eileen Ko: Beauty in the Ordinary

Tony_Ward_Studio_locust_walk_photography_Eileen_Ko
Photo: Eileen Ko

 

Photography and Text by Eileen Ko, Copyright 2018

.

Book Review

.

Looking at Photographs by John Szarkowski

.

Beauty in the Ordinary

.

John Szarkowski’s Looking at Photographs is a simple picture book. He selected pictures from the The Museum of Modern Art’s photography collection and wrote brief, eloquent essays about the history and background of each picture, adding to the richness of my appreciation of it. The book is a visually impressive album, a treasury of noteworthy photographs and a lively introduction to the aesthetics and historical development of photography. As I grew up, I perceived photography as a medium to document my environment and the world. However, Szarkowski defines photography as a form of expression “as potent and meaningful as any work of art” like drawings and paintings, for example. His definition inspired me to observe and notice more beauty and value in my surroundings, even in ones that seem mundane.

A photographer featured in the book named Arnold Genthe was a master of street photography. He took pictures of places whether they would be famous avenues, commonplace streets, etc. He worked secretly, without attracting the attention of his subjects and captured the fleeting intersection of time in Street of the Gamblers. This photograph encouraged me to do the same so I went out to probably the most famous path on Penn’s campus- Locust Walk. Locust Walk, in my definition, is the most mundane and ordinary location on campus because countless students walk through it every day without giving much thought about it. I, too, stride through Locust Walk multiple times a day but I never took the time to observe and admire its surroundings. When I finally took the time to relax and stroll through Locust Walk, I began to find myself admiring the familiar things I see every day. I found things that I would normally call mundane to be the most entertaining at that moment- people walking by expressing various emotions on their faces, students that come from diverse backgrounds, peculiar interactions that occur, animals that aimlessly wander about, Christmas lights that dimly illuminate the walk in the dark, and so on. I desired to search for and capture the beauty in the ordinary Locust Walk.

The development of photography over the years has affected our knowledge and opinions about the structure and meaning of visual experience. It is widely agreed that you need the best camera equipment and lengthy training to capture the most remarkable images. Although these factors are necessary to a degree, we sometimes forget how wondrous and intriguing our everyday life is. If we only change our perspective, we can find beauty and worth in the most seemingly mundane things and often create something splendid in places we never expected to.

.

About The Author: Eileen Ko is a Nursing student in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2019. To access additional articles by Eileen Ko, click herehttps://tonywardstudio.com/blog/eileen-ko-companions/

 

Anisha Arora: A Roller Coaster

Tony_Ward_Studio_Sequential_portrait_Anisha_Arora_roller_coaster
PhotoL Anisha Arora
 

 

Photography and Text by Anisha Arora, Copyright 2018

.

A ROLLER COASTER

.

Life is always such a roller coaster. You never know when that sharp turn takes you from a high in life to a low trough. It entirely depends on your attitude, whether you enjoy the ride or come out complaining.

The last few years have been a learning experience for me. There have been times when I have felt lonely, when I have cried myself to sleep, or watched a TV series for 6 hours because I was too afraid of facing the reality. In times like these, it felt like I would never feel any other emotion and would often victimize myself with questions like “Why did this happen to me?”. What I have learned is that I always have a choice- a choice to continue victimizing myself, or to accept what happened, develop a positive attitude, and keep an open mind to new experiences.

I decided to be grateful for what I have and started focusing on my relationships- the close friends and family who genuinely care for me and love me. Maintaining a positive outlook and believing that whatever happened, happened for a reason can often sound like rationalization, but it helps. And slowly, you can turn the despair to hope and hope to happiness.

Through this project, I have endeavored to show that transition from despair to happiness from left of the frame to the right. As you go towards right, the color transition signifies how happiness adds color to life. My hope is to show that each one of us has the strength within us to fight the despair and sadness, enjoy the ride and come out smiling at each turn of the roller coaster.

.

Tony_Ward_Studio_Graduate_Student_Anisha_Arora_Upenn
Portrait of Anisha Arora by Grant Wei, Copyright 2018

.

About The Author: Anisha Arora is enrolled in the Graduate program, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Rongrong Liu: Emotional Fluidity

Rongrong Liu_Sequential Portrait_Schema_Emotional Fluidity_Love_Despair_Rage_Long Expsure_Clone
Photo: Rongrong Liu
 

 

Photography and Text by Rongrong Liu, Copyright 2018

.

EMOTIONAL FLUIDITY

.

The first acquaintance with the word “schema” was in my psychology class. Referring to a pattern of thoughts that people use to categorize information, schema is like a tree. When thinking of emotion, our thoughts branch out to pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy. Then for joy it goes to love; for anger, it goes to rage; for sorrow, it goes to despair. All these pieces of emotions and expressions are collaged in this schema like puzzles.

Our mood is fluid. Happiness and melancholy present not in pure black and white, but they are constantly changing according to internal and external factors. Therefore, every one of these emotional puzzles are conjoined, from one stage to another. Several clones here are to make the clips sequential so that the 35 pieces of puzzles are not segmented. They together tell a story about a moody person. This is also the reason that I chose to use the long exposure technique here, just to intentionally blur out some of the facial expressions and create the “grey” emotional area. 

One interesting thing I notice about the human face is that eyes and mouth tells people’s feelings, however, eyes or mouth separately may express different emotions. One can be really happy and smiling, but his or her eyes don’t seem to be. What you see in one clip of the schema does not necessarily imply what you expect to see in the other clip. Same is our state of mind, and I guess that is the magic of schema.

.

Tony_Ward_Studio_Portrait_Rongrong_Liu
Portrait of Rongrong Liu by Lilibeth Montero

.

About The Author: Rongrong Liu is a Junior enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2019. To access additional articles by Rongrong Liu, click herehttps://tonywardstudio.com/blog/rongrong-liu-looking-sexiness/

 

Eileen Ko: Companions

Eileen_Ko_Sequential_Portraiture_Images_Emotions_Happiness_Sadness_Love_Despair_Companions
Photo: Eileen Ko

 

Photography and Text by Eileen Ko, Copyright 2018

.

COMPANIONS

.

Happiness, sadness, love, and despair. When I was first assigned with this project, my main concern was deciding who I should ask to express these four human emotions in a way that is natural and familiar to me. As I was wondering, a rather obvious thought popped up in my head: my close friends and significant other that have been with me throughout my college journey and know me best- my companions. Companions whom I experienced all four emotions with- happy moments, sad moments, loving moments, and desperate moments. In the process of trying to figure out how I should compose the photos and what I should have the subjects do in front of the camera, I came to the conclusion that my dorm room, specifically the living room, is where the most memorable and intimate memories are formed and shared. I had my models sit down and I would tell them what emotions and expressions I wanted from them. Overall, the most difficult aspect of the photoshoot was capturing the four real authentic emotions in the subjects. After I sat the subjects down, I told them what I was looking for. It was relatively easy to capture happiness and sadness. However, it was challenging to bring about and capture emotions of love and despair. After a while of test shots, I began to realize that emotions can also be expressed by other parts of the body, not just by the face. With this in mind, I decided to incorporate the use of hands to convey the emotions in a more expressive, familiar way.

.

Portrait of Eileen Ko by Wenjia Guo, Copyright 2018
Portrait of Eileen Ko by Wenjia Guo, Copyright 2018

.

About The Author: Eileen Ko is a Nursing student in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2019.