Artist's Statement: Not in My Backyard

The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” It only takes a short walk to realize this has not been the case in South Apopka.

In this instance, a sign of environmental injustice is a disproportionately large number of hazardous, toxic, or polluting sites within a concentrated area in close proximity to neighborhoods of substandard housing. When I learned there was a medical waste incinerator right next to a playground in Apopka, I knew that something suspicious had happened. It was not until two years later after first learning of this space that I finally had the opportunity to investigate further.

The total area depicted in this series fits within a radius of a quarter mile. Eight of the fourteen images were taken from the playground itself, which Waste Management agreed to build as part of the deal to open a second landfill. It was often difficult to get a good view of the Stericycle medical waste incinerator and two landfills. Overgrown brush and a few thorny vines buffering the fences shield the back view of the facilities. A variety of no trespassing signs on the front make it clear that people are not welcome. Once, when I was taking photographs in front of Stericycle, a truck driver exiting the gate stepped out of his 18-weeler and said, “I see you’re taking pictures, what’s it for?” After I informed him of the academic nature of my project, he replied, “You know we don’t want that.” I waited for him to drive away and continued taking pictures while I myself was in view of the facility’s security cameras.

Whether I was under video surveillance, trekking through thorny brush, or peering through fences, the sense of unease permeated the site, which was made palpable by the sounds and smells suggested in the pictures, but visibly absent.  I could hear the hum of the incinerator as it was in operation, probably spewing out a variety of neurotoxins when I was next door in the playground. After a bit of rain, there’s a pungent smell of what I can only describe as barbequed garbage. Local residents have also raised complaints about the smell of methane that creeps into their houses in the morning, but Waste Management officials say the source of the odor is from a sewage treatment plant across the other side of the neighborhood. With so many sites spewing pollution, accountability is difficult to come by since everyone can point their fingers at everyone else. I felt simultaneously sneaky and unsettled while taking these photographs, a feeling which I intended to convey in this series. Although, when I was done, I could leave. Many people live around here, and this is only one place of thousands with a similar story. 

ART 300 Final Portfolio: Not in My Backyard

Senior Seminar poster

As you may already know, besides this photography project, South Apopka is also the topic of my senior seminar for my environmental studies major. The final body of work is an academic poster, a jpg version of which is below. I tried to make it both aesthetically artistic and academically informative, turning what could have been be a bland and boring representation of a semester's worth of work into a fusion of art and academia. The barbed wire is clearly visible across the title, and the fence is more visible on the printed version. With the background I was hoping to hit the emotional part of the brain before the viewer even started reading, and each picture contains a little paragraph that tells you a little bit of the story. The whole thing is brought together in the middle, where you can clearly see where each picture was taken. Some of the photos here I will be using in my final critique for Photo II, and others function more as visual documents, simply showing people what the place looks like.

Google Reader #13

http://flakphoto.com/photo/frances-f-denny-sisters-home-for-thanksgiving?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FlakPhoto+%28Flak+Photo%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:14:37:51Z

When I clicked on the link for this photograph, I expected to see a big family around a big table with a big thanksgiving dinner and turkey, everyone smiling and happy and feasting until their stomachs are stretched to maximum capacity. However, the reality is quite different. There are only two people, sisters sitting among a pale aqua color scheme. There's no food, no dining table, and no smiling faces. In fact, they don't look particularly happy to be home.

Real families are much more complicated than the stereotypical image of them, and holidays celebrations are not always as big a deal as they are made out to be. I vaguely remember hearing that depression rates rise during Christmas because of the discrepancy between how happy and joyous culture says we should be during the holidays and the cold hard reality of how people are really feeling.  Something similar is probably true for Thanksgiving, although perhaps not as intense. Throughout life many people accrue interpersonal baggage with family members, and the holidays can force them to get together. On the other hand, large family reunions can be a gathering of strangers that you also happen to be related to. Anyway, the holidays are not always pleasant.

Reading Response Ch 7

Despite the fact that photographs were always malleable in the darkroom, panic still ensued over the degradation of the real as digital photography developed. Perhaps any new technology goes through a period of distrust until people become used to it, and I think it is safe to say that today our grasp on reality has not been dramatically unhinged by digital technology, at least not yet. I was surprised to learn that the images of the SUV were computer-generated, but that does not mean that I'm plugged into the matrix. People can even immerse themselves in 3D CGI films and still emerge completely sane, or at least as sane as they were to begin with.

Throughout the evolution of the photograph, the mediums may have changed, but it still remains basically the same thing. We use memory cards instead of film, but they both carry the impressions made by light. We used to use shoe boxes, now we have digital files. There is a different feel to it. Shoe boxes and photo albums can be more intimate and precious, and even quaint today, but we are still within our abilities to print out are digital pictures and store them in a shoe box if we so desire.

The real clamor over the manipulation of photographs was not so much caused by the photographs, but more likely by a limited understanding of photography and the non-existant "normal" photograph. People thought that photography must be a certain way and only that one way, whereas in reality there is a whole spectrum of different photographies that do not fit the cultural preconceptions.

Google Reader #12

http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/04/sarah-stankey-one-for-birds.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lenscratch%2FZAbG+%28L++E++N++S++C++R++A++T++C++H%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

After working on my photography project, this series was sort of a sigh of relief. My favorite type of photographs usually capture the image of something nice or quant that I otherwise would not have seen.  Most of the pictures in this body of work are of nature or have animals in them. Animals can be particularly challenging to photograph, especially rabbits that instinctually run away from oncoming large animals such as photographers. They don't pose, their movements are unpredictable, they are difficult to find, and you can't just go back and take more pictures.

I've been working most of the semester on taking pictures of a place that is not exactly picturesque and is heavy with social and environmental issues. There's a time and place for multiple layers of meaning and context and analysis and connotation, but sometimes it's nice to just look at some pretty pictures.

Work in Progress #4

One thing that I tried to do this time was to get some new angles and views, especially with the radioactive yellow pony. When I first started taking pictures of this area, I was generally operating from my default documentary style, recording the place generally from eye-level so that people would get an idea of what it would look like if they just walked around. Now, I'm manipulating the perspective much more, practically lying on the ground, ducking under thorny vines, or holding the camera above my head to get the shot I want. 

I've also incorporated some text in this series. There are plenty of foreboding signs around, stating things like "no trespassing," "violators will be prosecuted," and "24-hour video surveillance," all of which should probably be rotated 180 degrees.  It's the different waste industries that have trespassed and violated the land and community, either covertly or with bribery.

Anyway, those signs I thought to be a bit too overt, as I could convey the same feeling much more symbolically with the barbed wire. However, I did want the name Stericycle in the work somehow so to keep it anchored to the place. The gas line sign is a nice little reminder of what lies hidden beneath the ground, plus the pole appears the same yellow as our pony friend. 

Google Reader #11

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/47099840771/richard-misrach

This body of work reminded me of my own project. In Louisiana there's a band of chemical facilities that first reached public attention as "Cancer Ally" I suspect that the environmental injustice story here is pretty similar to Keene Road in Apopka, where I have been taking most of my pictures.

The photos here appear off-putting. It is clear that something has gone wrong, with the unnaturally green goopy water, desolate landscapes, and odd industrial building. The grey-green color was most likely caused by a toxic soup of all the waste chemicals. In addition to causing cancer, the waste product has severely limited the diversity of flora and fauna that can survive in the ecosystem.

At this point, I can't look at these images without wondering about the demographic info of the area, local health issues, decreasing property values, zoning laws, environmental degradation, and what this place must smell like. Sites like these tend to be clumped together, out of site and mind of most people, but glaringly unjust to the people whose lives are personally affect every day.

Reading Response Ch 6

At this little liberal arts school, I've been able to take classes in a variety of fields, and I realized that in my humanities classes I often end up defending science and technology. Here I go again.

According to this chapter, art and technology were viewed as separate when photography was developed (a true enough statement of the cultural views of the time). However, people, especially large groups of people, often don't understand very much. Before talking about technology (and thus the scientific research that enables it), let's talk about tools. Tools are just simple external objects that extend our senses or our ability to do things, things like spears, pencils, and eyeglasses. People usually aren't afraid of these because they are relatively simple and operate in the same spacial and temporal references that we do. In the case of the artist, their tools may include a paint brush and canvas, and I think that we can agree that the tools of art are inseparable from its ability to be created.

Paint brushes are simple. Cameras are complicated, which is the only real difference between tools and technology. A good indication of technology is that no one person would be able to build it. Technology is often viewed as separate and something other beyond that of paintbrushes because people don't really know how they work.

Even though camera's are more mechanical, that does not invalidate its artistic possibilities. No one is arguing that making haiku is not a creative process because it follows a rigid formula. Photography may be more bound to reality than other types of art, but just like a haiku, it manages to be art within its boundaries. Not only that, but the boundaries and limitations may even make it more artistic, because it may take more creative energy to create art with a less-flexible medium.

Q: Is viewing a photograph purely a subjective experience, or are some photos objectively better than others?

Google Reader #10

http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/03/tom-wik.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lenscratch%2FZAbG+%28L++E++N++S++C++R++A++T++C++H%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

I've recently become interested in the subject of facades, both what they tell us and what they hide. I think that everyone has an image of themself that they choose to let the world see and then a more authentic self that takes time and effort and risk to get to know.

We can do something similar with our physical spaces. In my project with Apopka, the spaces I'm photographing generally have a defensive or secretive facade. A place like Baldwin Park appears sterilized and mass-produced.

The facade of the homes in this blog post are able to communicate that these are individual private residences. I do like the ones where the exterior of the house is shrouded in shrubbery; it makes the home feel more cozy. In the description, the artist says that such an image says, "Don't bother friending me," but I disagree, at least for the homes where the foliage appears natural or messy. From my perspective, those houses say, "If I let you in, then you're something special, and what happens here is not for the whole world to see."

Some of the other houses and their landscaping look too perfect and too fake. In this case, the facade says that image is more important than substance, and it works to hide what lies behind it.

Reading Response: Ch 5

This was my favorite chapter so far, and many interesting points were brought up. One that stood out to me was hegemony in the representation of photography. It takes resources to get your work visible in the main stream, so the images presented will be limited by the people who are able to get their work distributed in such a way and what their goals are. In our economic structure, as this chapter pointed out, that goal is often to sell something.

Advertising used to be the art of communicating why your product was better than all of its competitors. However, much more subversive methods are utilized today. A popular tactic is to make the viewer feel inadequate in some way usually about something highly personal, visceral, or culturally significant. Things like your sexual life, body-image, or mental happiness. Photographs are usually about more than just what is in the frame. There's the context in which it was taken and in which it is being read, the intentions of the photographer, and in this chapter particularly also the industry supporting it. In images taken, selected, and modified for advertisements, I think the intentions are selfish, context is vain, and industry is bloated. Photography itself is not to blame, as it is a medium of communication, and perhaps we just need better things to communicate and better communities to do it with. However, since the photo is an image, photography may be a particularly easy medium to use when someone only wants to show the surface, whether that objectifies women or conceals labor relations. The art of photography then, I think, is to sculpt that connotative image that lies beyond the borders of the picture into something worthwhile.

Q: Does viewing hyper-real glamourous images of people function to reduce our perspective of real people into just images of people?

Work in Progress #3

At the start of this project I wanted to focus on a medical waste incinerator in unincorporated Apopka, but the nearby landfills provided ample photographic opportunities. In essence this project is about what we abandon and the lengths we go to in order to keep it out of sight and out of mind.

The top image does the best job at conveying that idea. The first version is pretty similar to how it was taken originally. There's the barbed wire of course in the foreground, keeping everyone at a distance, and the addition of the green leaves help soften the image, just like people need to both protect themselves and present themselves as affable. The barbs are more threateningly symbolic than practical. If anyone really wanted to get in, they could. The background, relatively out of focus, appears to be an empty field, perhaps prompting the viewer to ask why exactly is this being protected by barbed wire. Underneath the mask, out of sight, lies all of our dirty little secrets. We don't want to deal with our waste, so we just cover it up and say "Do not enter, violators will be prosecuted."

In the second version, the leaves and ground were modified to appear more dead, illustrating what lies underneath. The real substance of the hill in the background is literally garbage, things that are as good as dead to us. So now, everything is dead -substance and facade.

Google Reader Response #9

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/46061591048/jim-naughten

Usually when doing these reflections, I try to find images that ignite something in me that I feel compelled to say, so this time I thought I'd use an image that is not particularly working for me and try to flesh it out.

There's a picture of a person of African descent. The ground desolate, the sky is clear, and the clothes are odd, not to mention that the person wearing them does not look comfortable. The top button of the shirt is fastened, which conveys either a sense of professionalism or uptightness. The red accessories I find to be weird, but then again fashion is not my thing. According to the description, German missionaries are responsible for bringing this style over starting in the 19th century.

I don't find this picture to speak well of German missionary clothing choices. Fashion and the subject's dejected facial expression aside, this is the desert, and button-down polo shirts and dress pants are not desert attire. Better clothing would cover almost the entire body to protect the skin from the sun and be light to allow heat and breeze to pass through. I'm presuming that the natives had perfectly good, well-adjusted clothes to begin with, and didn't need German missionaries messing everything up.

Google Reader Response #8

http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/03/the-2013-alexia-foundation-winners.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lenscratch%2FZAbG+%28L++E++N++S++C++R++A++T++C++H%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Once again pulling from Lenscratch. This body of work depicts fire rescues in slums or factories of Bangladesh. When I was first scrolling through them, I thought that they were all taken on the same day, but according to the descriptions, they were taken over the span of four years. That makes it even more upsetting for me because that makes fires like this a reoccurring theme rather than a freak accident that has been dealt with.

Modern building standards take fire exits into account, but crowded Bangladeshi textile factories don't. Too many people plus too few exits make fires even worse. The last picture shows some of the unidentified bodies, wrapped up and ready for burial. The DNA tests they receive post-mortem is, I'm guessing, the most modern investment they've been given. It's a shame that level of investment was not given when they were still alive working in the factory. The other pictures show fire fighters responding to the situation or fellow workers risking their own lives before the officials arrived. Even though poor conditions lead to these events too often, there's still a level of dignity among the workers and slum dwellers as they help each other through tragic times and look through the burnt remains.

Chapter 4 Reading Response

This chapter discusses photography less as an art form that artists do and more as a social tool integrated into the fabric of our lives. For example, it is difficult to do much of anything without an ID, and that requires a picture of yourself, so you must submit both your image and your information the archives to be able to navigate through various institutions. 

Photography of the body is inevitable tied to body politics. Since most industries were run by men, it is no surprise that pictures were largely created for a male audience. Also, the industry of photography existed and still exists in the economic system of capitalism, meaning that there is economic incentive to create pictures that will sell. Photography seemed particularly suited to objectify people, particularly women, because pictures only show the surface and turn the subject into an object to be looked at. Since pictures are social constructions, the dominant pictures in a given society are a reflection of the people in charge who have the resources to publish on a large scale. They also say something about the culture's values, as something in a picture must have been important enough to visually capture and distribute. 

Q: Do pictures sometimes seem more real than reality, and how does that affect our perception of reality? 

Google Reader Response #7

Photomation
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/02/review-gunter-karl-bose-photomaton-2013.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28ASX+%7C+AMERICAN+SUBURB+X+%7C+Photography+%26+Culture%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

I found this post intriguing because the pictures here were taken without a photographer. Between 1928 and 1945, machines were set up in public places in Germany that allowed people to take pictures of themselves anonymously, like modern-day photo-booths. In such a case, the intention lies solely with the person being photographed. They decided to get in and how to pose, and the machine took care of the shutter.

Without a human photographer, the person can probably be themselves more naturally, as long as they are comfortable in the photo-booth. The machine handles the mechanics of taking the picture, but the subject has complete control otherwise. They don't have to worry about looking silly in front of people or being judged by the photographer, because machines don't judge, they just take the picture. It could be thought that the participant is both the photographer and the subject, similar to a camera set to a timer and set on a tripod. The article states that this set up lends itself to a narcissistic appeal, which may be true, but I think that narcism has too negative of a connotation. Rather, I think this is more like a visual journal: a private expression of yourself that is for yourself, only in picture form. But be careful that your visual journal does not get posted on an internet blog in the next few decades. 

Google Reader Response #6

Beyond the Barrier
http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/02/beyond-barrier.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lenscratch%2FZAbG+%28L++E++N++S++C++R++A++T++C++H%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

I thought this would be a good post after our previous discussion, since these are not strictly "real" photographs, rather a blend of photography, drawing, and digital technology. I can't pin-point what anything is in these pictures, except for perhaps the ruins in the last two that still look like they came out of a movie set. However, the pictures do not look fake either.

The description states that the artists were inspired by science fiction, itself an interaction between the real and not-so-real. In science fiction, there must be enough science that the story is still believable to the degree intended. The imagination can then push the boundaries of reality, but must stay rooted in it, creating new worlds and possibilities that can appear very distant or just above the horizon.

The pictures here achieve much of the same. They balance both reality and mystery to the point where they appear both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It's an intriguing bit of photography that still has me asking, "What is that?" or wondering how it was created. This type of photography I think is most effective at communicating raw idea or concepts without too many words getting in the way.

Chapter 3 Reading Response

"Sweet it is to scan"

This Chapter started to move away from the discussion of photography as art that artists do and towards a democratic practice. As user-friendly cameras entered the mass market, it became easier for average people to take pictures of relatively average events. This process was pioneered by Kodak, which did the messy specialized business of developing photographs that everyday people took. It is even easier today with digital cameras when all you need is a computer to download your pictures. Many photos taken today and shared digitally are done so not so much because of their aesthetic appeal, but to hold memories. In this case, looking through your old photographs may be like looking through a journal. When we do something special, fun, or memorable, we want something to remember it by. Attractions such as theme parks and national parks even have special places with scenic views laid out specifically for people to pose for pictures. In this case, not only is the photograph a construction, but we're constructing the real world with photographs in mind.

Q: Does focusing on taking pictures of something diminish the experience as it is actually happening? Can we focus too much on recording our experiences rather than living them?

Google Readers Response #5

http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/02/vera-saltzman.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lenscratch%2FZAbG+%28L++E++N++S++C++R++A++T++C++H%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

This post from Lenscratch creates an interesting link between old age and youth. The pictures are of mature or elderly women holding a childhood doll of theirs. We associate dolls with childhood and innocence, and old age with experience. The fact that each lady still has their childhood doll adds a level of nostalgia to the pictures, and reminds us that these older women were also once young children.   In a way, they still are, as we don't become someone completely different as we mature. Rather, each version of ourselves is built on the experiences of our past. I noticed that there are no Barbies being held, so back a generation ago, the cult of thinness had not yet infiltrated the culture. What kind of dolls would the next generation be holding, and what would that say about our societies values?

Chapter 2 Reading Response

Part of this chapter gave me flashbacks to AP English back in high school. Photography is a form of communication, so it is not too surprising that in a photography, there are both denotative and connotative implications. In English, the words house, abode, and residence all have pretty much the same denotative meaning; they are all private living quarters. However, each word has a slightly different feel, and the context can change which word seems to be most appropriate. In photography, there is what's in front of the camera, but the choices the photographer makes gives the picture a certain feel. Just like written language cannot escape from subject meaning, neither can pictures. Some photographs may be more like prose -straight, documentary- and others may be more poetic -abstract- and communicate their message in a less straight forward manner.

The issue seems to be that people are expecting strict prose from photography when there is a full spectrum of literary styles to be explored. It may have been easier with a binary perspective, thinking that photographs should either be documentary or abstract, but just like all dichotomies, there can be so much grey area in between that people can't pinpoint where they are on the spectrum. Rather than fussing about whether a photograph is strictly "true,"a more interesting question could be "What is the photographer trying to say?"

Q: When does a photograph cross the line from trying to convey a more abstract connotative meaning to being deceptive?

Final Project, First Images

In this body of work, I would like to contrast the relatively uninvested innocence of childhood with the toxic sites that have been clumped around a small area. Everyone will be able to identify the playground, but the other pictures appear unfamiliar, ominous, or mysterious; illustrating the secretive deals that slipped two landfills and a medical waste incinerator right under the feet of a pre-established community. Originally I had hoped to capture this juncture in the same frame, but even though all of these pictures were taken within less than a five minute walk of each other, the layout has been too cleverly designed so that both the community and waste facilities are not visible at the same time. Thus, I’ll have to create the same effect in other ways. 

Google Reader Response #4

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/02/sophie-ristelhueber-facts-of-matter-2011.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28ASX+%7C+AMERICAN+SUBURB+X+%7C+Photography+%26+Culture%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

The pictures in this post were taken several months after the war in Kuwait. The land has been left scarred and bruised, as have several of the people photographed. Among other things, this body of work eliminates the false dichotomy between people and the environment they live in, because we find that where the land has been abused and damaged, the social landscape is often in turmoil. The pictures of scarred bodies of people were taken in a Paris hospital, but the fact that they are presented together creates the link between scars on land and scars on people.

The first picture shown is a close up of a large hole blown into a road, which is a basic level of infrastructure. Roads and other forms of transportation are like the circulatory system of the built environment, so the fact that this one has not been fixed for months shows that political and economic repair cells have not been mobilized to heal the body yet. Perhaps the country is still in turmoil, dealing with other more pressing matters, or still recovering from a traumatic experience. Just like when the human body is damaged, the quicker it's primary systems are in working condition again, the sooner it can get back on its feet.

Google Reader Response #3

http://flakphoto.com/photo/olivia-locher-how-to-draw-a-circle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FlakPhoto+%28Flak+Photo%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:15:00:28Z

This post on flakphoto is titled "How to draw a circle." As far as I know, it is practically impossible to draw a perfect circle without help, and it turns out that the person is using a compass to paint (not draw), a circle. She has probably practiced quite a bit, because there are circles painted on the walls and on the bed sheets, but what is most interesting is that the medium for the next painted circle is another girl's face.

The point of the compass that form the middle of the circle is being held on her noise, which could potentially hurt, but her face appears calm and serene. The painter appears focused yet gentle, like she is concentrating enough to do a good job, but is still playful given the oddness of holding a compass with a paintbrush on someone's nose.

All of the circles are a light blue, whereas the background is a cream color. It gives the picture a relaxed feel, plus since the two ladies are in intimate space on a bed in a small, low-ceiling room, the picture also feels cozy, isolated from the rest of the world.

Reading Response Ch 1

I'm no art major, but it seems to me that photography is the most technologically dependent of art forms. As the beginning of this chapter pointed out, when a new technology, such as cameras, emerges focus is usually given to its effects on society rather than the conditions and investments that led to it. Perhaps one reason is because it is easy to point to a tangible object. For instance, back in my major of environmental studies, it is easy to fall into blaming industrial-scale factory farming on tractors and pesticides rather than political decisions and economic conditions that resulted in the technological investments that made factory farming physically possible. Another reason may be that the previous social needs or conditions served by the new technology are not as dramatic in the construction of history than all the new possibilities that arise afterwards.

The discussion of whether photography is even an art or not appears similar to the difference of data and theory in the natural sciences. One one hand, pictures could be seen as just a carrier of 'facts' (pg 16), in which case photography would be a way of gathering and recording data. However, whether in science or simply while communicating, data or facts do not interpret themselves. Theory, however, can transform raw data into coherent understandings, and perhaps the pictures in photography into a coherent and distinct art form.

One more point I thought was interesting was the issue of photographs in museums. I would have thought that including photos in art museums would be a celebrated testament of photography as art, but instead, the book says that they are doomed to visual solitude. Perhaps one thing that makes photography unique then is that its natural home is not isolated in the museum as art for the sake of art, but out in the world, enriching magazines, empowering journal articles, and being liked on facebook.


Discussion points:

From an non-art major perspective: What is an art?

Google Reader Response #2

http://www.americansuburbx.com/series-2/c/civil-rights-mug-shots

Since we recently celebrated MLK's birthday, I thought I would write about these civil rights mug shots. Even though MLK is held up as the icon of the movement, scrolling down this blog you can start to get a sense of the number of people who participated. Following is its own undervalued form of leadership. Without the other people in these mug shots and many more, MLK would have been a crazy dreamer rather than a leader with a dream.

Over MLK's picture, it is written "DEAD 4-4-68," perhaps as a reminder of how dangerous it can be to be on the forefront, yet he knew the risks and continued on. The subjects of these photographs are photographs themselves, adding weight to how important this movement was if even the pictures are being photographed.

Google Reader Response #1

http://flakphoto.com/photo/john-mann-untitled-ocean?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FlakPhoto+%28Flak+Photo%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:14:06:45Z

This recent post on Flak Photo captured one of the top reasons that I enjoy photographs, in that they can allow your mind a glimpse of a different world even if you cannot travel there yourself. Photography is likely the best-suited art form to fulfill this goal, because unlike painting or drawing, the photographer has to travel to the location in order to get the picture.

The picture in the post I thought was an intriguing choice. It's a square cut out of part of an ocean on a map, with only the word "Ocean" visible. Which ocean it is has been cut out. At first I thought it was a romantic notion of over-sees travel. This bit of the map has been displace from the rest, so there is no knowing where exactly it is from. However, the longitude labels are visible on the bottom with the numbers decreasing to the right, meaning that this cut-out is from west of the Prime Meridian. Given a longitude of 57 degrees, it must be from the Atlantic Ocean. Also, since the longitude labels are visible at the bottom, I'm guessing that Antarctica was not fully represented, and the location in the cut-out is just north of the frozen continent.