Composition and Light

Shallow Depth of Field

Pattern

Lines

Fluorescent Light

Natural Light

Tungsten Light

Fixing the Shadows

André Kertész

Sarah Bernhardt,1860 - Nadar

           One of the most intriguing points of photography is how much an image can say. While looking at this picture above I wonder who these people are, which stories they have to tell and what they were doing. Photos have an uncountable amount of details that describe and say so much about what is portrait, however, at the same time, these details don’t give us any certainty if what actually we consider right is the truth. It leads to a several numbers of interpretations.  Letting the door open to our imagination to decide what is real or not. That’s why photography is so unique. Photography will always transform the subject that is being depicted on the image.  That’s all what the art of photography is about: to control these transformations. Photography has the power to make a random point of view becomes special. When you put something within a frame you are narrowing down someone’s view. You are transferring your perspective on a subject to a second person.

James Nachtwey - War Photographer documentary

“I have been a witness and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.”

James Nachtwey

1. What kind of personality a photojournalist should have?

I believe a photojournalist is someone who can put his job above his own fears and even life. It’s not being careless towards their own lives, but being passionate or having some kind of connection with what they are doing. It needs determination and courage. It’s not that someone wont fear the situation, it is actually about knowing how to control your own emotions and fears.

2. What do you think of his approach in photographing people?

I really like his way in approaching people. He’s a really big and tall guy who manages to become invisible before his subjects eyes while photographing.  He shows to have a lot of respect towards the people he is photographing and their situation. James says that he tries not to move too fast, speak too loudly and that he wants to be very open in his approach. I believe it has worked quite well. It seems that he has compassion for this people and that he cares about them and somehow James wants to be able to work through his photographies as a voice to these people.

3. What kind of subject does stern magazine cover?

Stern is a weekly magazine founded in 1948 in Germany by Henri Nannen. Stern is the German word for star. This magazine covers different kinds of subjects. It is very diverse. However, on the documentary it shows that primarily Stern covers many international conflicts and wars.

4. What conflicts did he cover in the film?

Kosovo war

Luanda

Indonesia 

South Africa

Palestine

5. What pictures ended up being used?

James picked pictures from different conflicts on his exhibition. I think he chose the pictures that could transmit his feelings and thoughts about the people, who were on the picture, the most. 

6. Why did he become a war photographer?

Since the beginning James Nachtwey wanted to become a photographer to be a war photographer. He made this decision on the early 70s during the Vietnam War. James got quite shocked and affected by the pictures that were sent from the Vietnam War because they showed some reality that contradicted what the political leaders were saying – they showed what was really going on. Nachtwey felt by becoming a war photographer he was witnessing history – not from an academic view but what happens to ordinary people. He could feel people’s authentic emotions. These experiences made the job of war photographer become really exciting and worthwhile to James. However, it took him a while to process this idea of becoming a war journalist – before trying to convince other people that he was able to do this job, he had to convince himself.

We are family - Genius of Photography

Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park,
New York City (1962)

1. What kind of photography did Diane Arbus do?

Diane Arbus had a unique taste. Her photographies are about the marginal characters of society, peculiar people, the “freaks”.  She had the courage to follow what was interesting for herself and not primarily what was culturally acceptable. Diane Arbus’ work was pretty much about her; a reflection of herself. She photographed those on whom she recognized her owns excitements and vulnerabilities.

“I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.” (Diane Arbus)








2. Do you think that photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?

I think this is a quite controversial topic and that can’t be generalized. In my opinion there are journalists who tend to prey on vulnerable people because it is an easy shot both in terms of market consumption (dramatic and sensationalistic pictures sell more) as well as in terms that these people are really easy to access. However, I also think that there are photographers that target in some marginalized subjects because somehow they are interested in and connected to it, they feel compassion.

3. What is Larry Clark’s Tulsa Project about?

The project Tulsa is about Larry Clark’s life in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There are pictures of him hanging out with friends, shooting drugs, guns and getting laid. A quite authentic book with a shocking and “impolite” genre that portraits a nasty part of America which many didn’t want to see. What is most unique of this project is that Larry Clark was an insider. Usually journalists are outsiders. They come spend some time with a community to get some knowledge of their subject and then go away again, but Larry not, he was part of it. He was one of them. Thus, making the book become much more like a diary - a personal confession.

4. What is the title of Nan Goldin most known work?

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is the most known work of Nan Goldin. It is composed by 40 pieces of music and 900 slides with images of friends and autobiographical moments.  These photographies portrait the difficulties men and women have to maintain relationships, misunderstandings, drug use, male violence and roles women are given. Nan Goldin thinks photography is her way to communicate, seduce people, to be fully present in the moment and to be able to hold onto this moment at the same time.

5. What is Araki’s work now? And what is his philosophy about?

Araki’s work took the principle of diary photography to a new level of intimacy. He is a promiscuous photographer taking shots of everything around him. Araki photographs his daily life publishing a book every month. There is nothing he wouldn’t photograph – even his most intimates moments are exposed. Araki thinks that photos can help him to remember things. Reaching a point that he doesn’t shoot what he doesn’t want to remember.
Araki believes that it is hard to say whether you can reveal what a person is like through photography but you should think that’s actually what you’re going to do and take it as your goal.  Looking at his black and white pictures he feels he can get the past, present and the future of those people only in one shot.

6. What is Richard Billingham’s work about?

Richard Billingham’s work is about his family and its situation at the heart of working class life in Britain. He, especially, depicts the daily life of his father who was an alcoholic. At first, when Richard started taking pictures, he wasn’t concerned about photography. He wanted to be a painter, but he couldn’t get his father to be still for more than 20 minutes. So he had the idea to first photograph those moments and from those pictures he could later make detailed paintings. However later on those pictures became the photobook called Ray's A Laugh.

Airbrushing and Slimming

Before

After

Before

After

Elements of Composition

Color

Pattern

Perspective

Space

Symmetry

Exposure = Aperture and Shutter Speed

Shallow Depth of Field

Great Depth of Field

Slow Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Panning