Reading Response: Photography: John Ingledew
This reading focused on what it means to be a photographer. It got some ideas flowing for my project and made me think about photography as an art not just a form.
What's so great about photography?
This section spoke of how everyone can be a photographer. Images are powerful, due to being able to tell a story and provoke a response from the viewer of the image. This is, I suppose, what one would hope to do as a photographer. You want to be able to create emotion with your art form, to generate meaning from your work.
Photography is seen everywhere nowadays in "design, advertising, newspapers, magazines and the internet" which means we consume images all day, every day. It's the meaning behind the image, and the images which create this response that I think stick with you, and potentially matter more, even if just on a personal level to one viewer.
In this section there was a quote which really stood out to me which said. "The key to creating great pictures is not the equipment you use; it's about finding your own way of seeing things". I personally believe that this is what makes a photographer. Due to mobile phones, everyone is now able to take photos, but it's the background meaning, style and composition of a persons eye which moves them into that other level. You can produce an image, but it's important to make it a 'photograph'. I also feel that many people on photography courses, or who have an interest in being a photographer get too wound up in having the best cameras and equipment, and obviously this helps create that HD photograph, but without having a good eye for that particular project, your HD image won't be worth displaying.
"The fact that photographs can stop time by preserving moments that have now passed is itself extraordinary" - John Ingledew
"When you're a kid, you sit and stare for hours at a great record sleeve or a book full of pictures - you want to take photographs so that you can create things that somebody else will want to stare at for hours" - Kjell Ekhorn
Derek Dawson created 'A Life in Pictures' 1922 - 2001. These images recorded life, taken from birth to death. They are from the Dawson family albums. I feel like this project resonates with many of us, due to it being oddly personal. These aren't our family photographs, but we can all imagine the ones of us and our parents.
The Power of Photographs
"Photographs can melt taboos, sway public opinion and even impact explosively on governments to cause real change." I feel it's easy for us to become accustomed to seeing certain photographs in the media. But many images are circulated so much that they become just as powerful and moving as the cause in which it concerns. This quote made me think of the image below, which was circulated everywhere when the Syria crisis hit the news. It made people want to get involved as it struck the heart of the nation, and the problem at hand was finally seen for what is truly was.
"Photography has image impact - a single image can say things beyond words, carrying meaning and feeling" - Vincent Lee
Film and Digital Photography Basics
This artform works by harnessing a chemical reaction. Film and paper are coated with tiny bits of silver. When they are exposed to light, the silver darkens according to the amount of light that falls on it, creating the image.
Digital pictures are made up of millions of pixels which form a believable image when our eyes merge them into continuous tones. These pixels can be seen when the image is greatly enlarged.
After reading a little about film photography, I would like to look into this more.
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