Sixth Grade Workshop

Movie Project

American Propaganda Photography

The movie that we watched last week about the history of American Photography focused upon how photography has been used not only as an art form, but also, to serve practical purposes. The documentary discussed how photography and propaganda can be used to engender both support and disapproval of wars. Propaganda has been used during World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, to name a few. I found this part of the video most interesting and decided to focus upon the Vietnam War propaganda for this blog post. A majority of Americans did not support the Vietnam War and believed that we were fighting an unworthy cause. As a result, a lot of anti-war propaganda was produced. The example below is a photograph of an American soldier entering combat in Vietnam. The soldier appears to be a young, teenaged boy with a frightened expression on his face who appears to be uncertain as to why he is fighting. This photograph encapsulates the anti-war sentiment prevalent during this time and proves to be very powerful.

Portraits

Portrait Without a Person Project

Portrait Without a Person

For this project, I am planning to do a self portrait. I intend to use a dark color palette, including browns and blacks, and then incorporate a pop of pink. In addition, I want to add some shiny elements.

Character Portrait

Candid Photos

Self Portraits

Self Portrait #2

For my second self portrait, I plan to use this photograph by Leonard Bateman as inspiration. I love the natural setting and carefree, relaxed essence of the image. I plan to take this photograph in the Van Slate yard.

Self Portrait Photography

I would like to use this famous portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon as inspiration for my second self portrait. I like that the background is solid gray and that the person's face is the focus of the photograph.

Black and White Nature Photos

Early 20th Century Photographers

Lee Miller

Lee Miller, born in 1907 in Poughskeepie, New York, began her career as a model and later became a famous fashion photographer. Best known for her surrealist images, Miller served as a photo-journalist during the 1940’s to cover the war. After the war, Miller returned to her roots as a fashion photographer, working for Vogue for two years.

This photograph is a self-portrait of Lee Miller. It is characteristic of her fashion photography of women which has a solemn, stoic tone.







This next photograph was taken by Miller during her coverage of World War II as a photo-journalist. In Miller's time, it was quite bold for a female photographer to produce such a graphic, vivid image of a dead soldier. Although one photograph highlights her career as a fashion photographer and the other as a photo-journalist, both images maintain a serious tone characteristic of all of Miller's work.

Frank Sadorous

Frank Sadorous, born in 1880 in Illinois, was a farmer who lived in a rural town. He considered himself an artist, however, and studied photography during the off season. Sadorous used a camera with plate glass negatives and focused upon light and exposure in his photography. Several of his portraits illustrated chiaroscuro lighting, which picks up the subtler darker tones of shadow. He also experimented with double exposures and unique angles.

This portrait taken by Frank Sadorous highlights his fascination with light that is characteristic of all of his photography. His experimentation with exposure in this photograph produced a dark image that highlights the contours of the subject and produces contrast with the bright background.



Texture

Light Pictures

Assignment #1

Elements of Art
Line—http://www.shutterpoint.com/photos/J/633452-Railway-Line_view.jp
           This is a very straightforward example of a linear photograph where the railroad tracks represent the line.

Shape—http://www.hp.com/canada/portal/hho/digital_photography/take_better_photos/tips/images/odp_4_275.jpg  This organic shape emphasizes artistic element of shape.

Value— http://www.dimagemaker.net/ktml2/images/uploads/comp/1/guy-photography.jpg?0.3518002329781521
This photograph emphasizes the contrast between dark and light.

Color—http://michaelweinberg.com/michaelweinberg_photo/55hitparade_gumball_1.jpg
The bright assortment of colors really pop and emphasize the artistic element of color.

Space— http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/photography/great_depth_of_field_in_landscape_photo.jpg
This photograph emphasizes the depth of a field and illustrates the artistic element of space.

Texture— http://www.photographersdirect.com/news/200708.asp
This photograph emphasizes texture and creates a sense of dimension.

Principles of Design
Balance— http://laurabuck.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/balance.jpg
This photograph emphasizes the symmetrical balance of a house.

Unity— http://photo-lifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/flowers.jpg
This photograph accentuates the principle of design of unity because of the consistent repetition of the subject of flowers.

Variety— http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/BDX/BDX127/variety-donuts_~bxp28207.jpg
This photograph of donuts emphasizes variety through the various different types of donuts captured in the image.

Movement/ rhythm— http://digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/movement-1.jpg

Emphasis—http://www.nikicruz.com/media/catalog/nikicruz_photo/nikicruzphoto_image_%5B090122-26%5D.jpg
The contrast created by this photograph’s blurry background emphasizes the water droplets on a leaf.

Proportion— http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/48892/parthenon_75_te.jpg
This photograph highlights the principle of design of proportion. The tiny size of the people in the photograph in relation to the size of the Parthenon demonstrates its massive size.

Pattern—http://photos.travellerspoint.com/111413/rio_ipanema_pavement.jpg
This photograph of pavement is taken from an interesting angle and illustrates the principle of design of pattern.