Category Archives: Photography

History of Photography, Photography, Year Two

Robert Frank: In The American Grain

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In History of Photography, we covered American street photography and the work of Robert Frank.  I found his working method and dedication to photography inspiring for myself.  In my final essay, I covered my interest in serial photography and working on large projects.  The following reading response discusses my interests in a reading from Bystander: A History of Street Photography, Chapter 18 on Robert Frank.

 

1. Robert Frank expanded his narrative skills in Peru and paired these pictures in his book later in his career. In Peru, he began to see the world as elemental, photographing it in an instinctual way. He found his pictures “dumb” since he did not speak the language or understand the culture. However, Frank created interesting pictures lacking meaning but with a strong visual style. These Peru images seemed to be more symbolic, (by evoking death or sadness) and were used in a cinematic structure when when he paired them with New York pictures in “Black, White, and Things”.

2. The abstract expressionist artist’s work is inseparable from his biography. Frank was an outsider searching for a place and perspective on America . It is interesting how Frank used these awkward, outsider perspectives to look tirelessly for people or experiences. Being the “lone individual staring at the crowd” in American society, he searched for meaning in the country and the world. It is interesting to see how he found himself in the crowd as a child, watcher, or some sullen, depressed individual looking for something. Frank photographed many different scenes throughout America, finding himself in the moments and experiences along the way.

3. The Americans lacks conventional structure but suggests connections throughout the book between photographs. Frank’s 800 rolls of film allowed him to see similarities in (his/America’s) world, he was able to understand and control his subject matter to shape his artistic statement. By arranging these photographs into “symbol, cars, cities, people, signs, cemeteries and others” he laid out the photos in sections beginning with a flag. His book used the flag and gestural, photographic signals to create connections throughout the book.

 

Courses, Fall, Photography, Studio, Year One

Studio/Seminar Project: Shift As Urban Camouflage

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SoHo Editorial Page9

We shot a fashion editorial for my Integrative Studio class at Parsons. Our goal was to represent a New York neighborhood in a garment and then create a fashion editorial in that neighborhood. My group chose SoHo and researched the history, architecture, culture, and street style of the neighborhood for inspiration. We decided to represent the commercialism that has taken over SoHo, a neighborhood famous for its cast iron architecture and the artists who lived and worked there in the 1960s.

Fall, Photography, Time, Year One

Transitional Space: Single to Multiple Images

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Project Objective:

Visualize time and movement through a transitional space.  

transitional space: a space connecting two other spaces or places passed through  to get from one place to another

I began the transitional space project by searching for a space that showed as many transitions as possible.  The first space I considered was a busy subway station stairwell at a public park between Chinatown and SoHo.  My goal was to show the contrasts between culture and economic status between the two neighborhoods and the differences between the relaxed people in the park and the busy subway commuters.  After several attempts at photographing this location resulted in cluttered, busy pictures, I realized I was trying to include too much information in one photograph.  I reconsidered and tried to photograph the project at the Astor Place subway stairwell.  Its aesthetically pleasing awning and interesting surroundings attracted me.

Test pictures at Astor Place subway stairwell. I decided to change place to the Union Square SW stairwell to capture this project's image.
Test images

My goal here was to show the stairwell, the subway platform, and the ground level above.  I tried to capture my image three different times before deciding the area was too small and cramped to allow me the right point of view to capture the image.  Finally, I discovered that the Union Square SW Stairwell was the right mix of aesthetically pleasing and practical design that allowed me the right perspective for the project.  At the top of the stairwell, you can see the park above, the area below, and the stairs that connect the two spaces.  The gate around the stairwell neatly separated the above and below ground levels and there was a place for me to stand and capture my transitional space and the spaces between which it transitioned.  Overall, it was an easier place to clearly capture the objectives of the project.

Photographing the Union Square station stairwell was a prolonged process of trial and error.  I wanted my picture to capture the streams of people ascending and descending the stairs.  During my first two attempts, I stood on ground level and held my camera above my head.  This produced off-angle pictures that didn’t compliment the symmetrical structure of the stairwell.  On my third attempt, I decided on a shutter speed that showed enough movement of people without losing their form entirely.  I climbed on a chair, which a friendly Union Square chess player kindly lent me, to have a steady hand to capture from a higher perspective. What I learned was that my process takes time, experimentation, and thoughtful planning.  It takes me a long time to achieve the picture I want and I often become frustrated that I cannot get the picture I imagine.  I must clearly understand what I want in a photograph and make sure that I have all the elements required to convey my vision.

Multiple Images

Brian Arrows 2

The second part of our transitional space project involved conveying a sense of time and motion through the juxtaposition of multiple images taken at the same space.  This was another lengthy process with multiple revisions.   At first, I planned to make a comic book style picture series that showed the action of moving between the park and the subway turnstiles.  My first plan involved photographing two friends in a photojournalistic narrative style during rush hour.  Dealing with the large crowds while trying to capture my narrative was incredibly frustrating.  I tried again with another friend, this time trying to shoot for a graphic layout that showed my friend’s path up and down the stairs.  My friend’s progress would be portrayed along points of an arrow, with varying picture sizes forming the shape of the arrow.  I also tried to show the process of tuning out the outside world by donning headphones and sunglasses.  The resulting layout, despite its order and symmetry, was too cluttered and had too many objectives to clearly convey the main transition.  My final layout didn’t focus on a single person and showed people along their path down the stairs.  I wanted to simplify my design graphically while showing the sequence of passing through the transitional space to the subway turnstile.   The revision simplified my vision too much and lost the comic book feeling of stylized movement I desired.  I learned that I must prioritize my design choices and decide how to effectively achieve them to make my projects creatively stimulating for me.

Photography, Year One

Five Points

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Once the center of the Five Points slum, now a vibrant, thriving park with a mix of cultures from Chinatown, tourists, and neighboring residents.
Once the center of the Five Points slum, now a vibrant, thriving park with a mix of cultures from Chinatown, tourists, and neighboring residents.
Part of Manhattan's Civic Center, built in the 1930s
Part of Manhattan’s Civic Center, built in the 1930s
Former "Five Points" Intersection
Former “Five Points” Intersection

The old Five Points neighborhood in lower Manhattan was ranked among the worst slums in the world due to its population density, diseases, infant and child mortality, unemployment, and prostitution.  At the intersection of Worth and Baxter Streets was the “Five Points” neighborhood, named after the former intersection of Cross, Orange, and Anthony Streets.  At this intersection stood the Old Brewery tenement house (existing from 1837-1853), where its low rent attracted low income immigrant dwellers.  The Old Brewery quickly became an overcrowded, disease and crime ridden building in the Five Points slum.  The destitution at the Old Brewery pushed community leaders to take action on the squalor throughout the Five Points neighborhood. The tenement house was demolished in 1853, the remainder of the slum torn down in 1897 and turned into Mullberry Park in 1897 then renamed Columbus Park in 1911.  In the 1930’s, the Civic Center of Manhattan was developed in the area.  A few tenement buildings on the east side of Mulberry Street dating from 1800s are the only buildings still exist from the Five Points era, including 48-50 Mulberry Street (this building shown on the postcard made for this project)  Chinatown and Little Italy now surround Columbus Park, where the former slum once stood.

History of the Old Brewery

Coulthard’s Brewery (built in 1792) was converted into the Old Brewery tenement house during Panic of 1837, a major recession.  The Old Brewery’s low rent attracted low income immigrant tenants.  It quickly became an overcrowded, disease and crime ridden building in the Five Points slum.  Five Points’ was among one of the worst slums in the world due to the sheer population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, and prostitution.  It is alleged to have sustained the highest murder rate of any slum in the world.  The terrible conditions exhibited at the Old Brewery pushed community leaders to take action on the widespread destitution throughout the Five Points neighborhood.  The Old Brewery was purchased in 1852 by the Methodist Ladies of the Mission and was demolished in December 1853.  A new building called the New Mission House at the Five Points was erected.

 

 

Sketchbook

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Postcard