Bristol Photography: July 2021

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Cartier-Bresson Image Critique

The Language of Dance, 1954

I am a huge fan of dancing. I love the movement and vivacity in this photo. These two people are enjoying dancing, and enjoying each other immensely. It is obvious that this photo is taken at a time where Lenin is in power. His reign was an extremely stressful time, but the slogan in the front of the photograph translates to 'We are the future of the party, however, the future belongs to the young'. I think this is very symbolic, since even during a hard time these young people are looking to the future and enjoying life and dancing.

The composition of this photograph is also very interesting. In the front of the photo, taking up the majority of the right side, is Lenin's face and his quote about the future. The open doors to the left side may symbolize a door to the future, and the perspective into the ballroom also gives depth in the photo, as well as the changing floor patterns giving texture. There is a light in the picture, coming from inside the ballroom, draws your eye from the dark wall on the right to the light coming from the door on the left. The people dancing, slightly blurry indicating a lowered shutter speed on the camera, create a sense of movement in the otherwise static photo.

Srinagar, Kashmir, 1948

Project 6: First Progress Review

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Project 6 Proposal

Final Project Proposal:

For this project, I would like to capture the minutiae of rock climbing in a bouldering gym. Everyone knows what climbing looks like from a wide angle- people scaling either great cliff faces or complex problems made of colored holds in a gym. For this project, I want to photograph the trivial details of climbing. The wear on the climbing shoes, the chalk on the hands, the grit on the holds. To show everyday people what avid climbers come to notice as mundane, even though those things can also be beautiful.

Shot list:

Climbing shoes

Chalk bag

Climbing holds

Hands with chalk

Hands on holds

Feet on holds

Chalk prints

Backup Project Proposal:

For my second proposal, I would photograph the process of cutting the extreme weeds in my backyard. The weeds reach waist high, and the tools to be used are crude at best, nothing battery or engine powered. This process could be seen as old-fashioned, menial, and boring, but to the trained eye there is beauty in the existence, the cutting, and the lack of something once you know what once stood in its place.

Shot list:

Weeds from different angles

Scythe used to cut weeds

Clippers used to cut weeds

Tools cutting weeds

Weeds after being cut down