Critiquing Photography

Hover for info. Click to enlarge. See blog post here.

Descriptive: This photograph I took at Tastea is descriptive because it shows what their takoyaki is supposed to look like fresh after being ordered.

Explanatory: Rob McConnaughy's photograph is explanatory because it shows that Tony Hawk was able to successfully perform two and a half revolutions to complete the first 900 in skating history.

Interpretive: This photograph I took at what used to be Walgreens is interpretive as the hollowed out space brings into question the history of the location or what's to come in its future.

Aesthetically Evaluative: This photograph I took is aesthetically evaluative because it shows how smiskis, despite being monochromatic, can create an interesting scene with their different poses.

Ethically Evaluative: Win McNamee's photograph is ethically evaluative because it shows a brown pelican struggling under the weight of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, drawing awareness to the environmental effects that the disaster had on local wildlife.

Theoretical: Philippe Halsman's photograph of Salvador Dalí is theoretical because the surrealism of the photograph mirrors Dalí's surrealist art style.

Multimodal Presentation

Synopsis

This video serves as a short overview of Garry Winogrand's career, technique, and a few of his works. He is known for being a legendary street photographer who excelled in taking candid photographs of people living their lives as they normally would, with no setup or studio needed. His approach to photography allows him to capture the social aspects, attitudes, and anxieties of his time in a realistic manner. The images I review in this video all come from different locations and collections of his work, but showcase the rawness of life that Winogrand strove to portray through his photographs.

My New Perception of Photography

Garry Winogrand's work has taught me that it's sometimes okay to not focus on the fundamentals and instead strive to capture life as it is. Many times, when I'm attempting to take photographs of something or someone I find interesting, I find that I would take a while attempting to set up the right shot to get something I'm okay with. Winogrand's technique of taking multiple quick photos and going back to review them later is something I will attempt to do more for candid images, to capture events as they happen instead of taking too long and having friends notice I have my camera pointed at them.