RINKO KAWAUCHI
"Illuminance" (2011)
This picture is by Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi and it's called Illuminance. Kawauchi is known for doing art exhibitions (solo and group) around the world, as well as publications, all of which won her several awards and prizes over the years. Illuminance shows a lighted up rose in the center at night. The rose that's lighted up stands out more compared to everything else in the background. It also has certain light and dark areas that make the image look stronger. It even contains traces of pink and green to make the illusion that it looks white when it's actually more colors.
"America by Car: Nebraska" (1999)
This picture is by American photographer Lee Friedlander from his America by Car series, this one is called Nebraska. Friedlander is known throughout the 1960s and 1970s for imitating visual landscape of urban "social landscape," taking numerous photographs of store-front reflections, posters, and structures framed by fences, to name a few. This particular image was from his series of photos called America by Car and I thought the Nebraska one was interesting because it combines bland and interest together to show that even the most boring areas can have a little interest within them.
GUEORGUI PINKHASSOV
"Market. Tashkent, Uzbekistan" (1992)
This picture is by French/Russian photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov and it's called Market. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Pinkhassov is known for his richly-colored images and his global documentary work of iconic events such as the backstage of Paris Fashion Week. He has been working with Magnum Photos (which is where this picture came from) since 1988. I thought this picture in particular had a strong mixture of both color and shadow with the colored rooster head in the center standing out in front of a bunch of silhouetted people in the background. The silhouetted people in the back are shadowed.
ALEX WEBB
"Bathing. Alto Paraguay, Paraguay" (1990)
The Suffering of Light is a comprehensive monograph explaining the career of American photographer Alex Webb. Webb has been recognized as a pioneer of American color photography since the 1970's since he often made photographs characterized by intense light and color. This particular photo called Bathing. Alto Paraguay, Paraguay, is from one of his pictures within The Suffering of Light. I find it interesting because it shows even when a picture looks dark, there's still some light within in like in the night sky across a black and blue area. The people bathing in the ocean are kind of blurred out to make the effect that there are shadows around those two people. And in the back distance, there is an island that is silhouetted because it's in the background while the two people are in the foreground.
JR
"The Wrinkles of the City" (Berlin & Istanbul, 2013-2015)
JR (Jean-Rene) is a French photographer and street artist. He is well known for his large-scale public installations, as well as initiating “The Wrinkles of the City” project. The aim of the project was to highlight stories and experiences of old-aged individuals. The photographer has mainly focused on capturing the wrinkles because they relate to the city’s history. His focus was to photograph the experiences that the old-aged individuals had to experience and the significant changes that they had experienced over the years.
The Wrinkles of the City project in Istanbul, Turkey was done throughout the month of May in 2015. One of the images has the background organized with houses in order and nice roads and everything looking very neat and clean. It gives the impression that the government really cares about cleanliness and they take measures for the quality of air and it seems like everyone is very mindful about where they dump the trash. However, in the foreground, one of JR’s photos shows an old man painted on the front of an old house. The person seems to have a roof over his head, but then a girl is seen looking out the window of the house which might represent the less fortunate ones, because it seems like she’s looking for more in general. She is also seen not wearing nice clothes. Other than that, a stray cat is seen on the side of the building heading towards the man’s painting. This might represent that times are changing because people are becoming homeless. This might also mean that since people are becoming homeless, they won’t have enough for their own survival, therefore they don’t have enough to feed the animals, because there is no way to fill other’s cups when they can not fill their own first. It must be why no one takes the animals in, because they don’t have enough. The whole scenario seems to stress out the man in the painting which might represent the stress that comes along with it. After all, stress can make people age faster. The roof over the head of the man in the painting might represent that the person has enough to have the roof over his head but he is concerned that it might not be enough.
His Wrinkles of the City project in Berlin, Germany took place during April 2013. One of the images that stood out to me was the one with an eye on the Gustav meyer allee clock, and that made it look like the famous Big Ben in London. One of the differences between Big Ben and this image that stood out to me was how the image has a picture of an eye on it with a clock ticking. This is interesting because the clock is usually circular in shape and the photographer has used a human eye’s pupil to represent the circular shape of the clock. This also represents the time passing by, which is worrisome to the older citizens because the time that they are living won’t last very long. This might be because they see that the younger generations are not as mindful to protect the environment. The person’s eye is seen viewing the changes in Berlin and there’s nothing that the person can do about it.
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