Oscar: Color of Shadow

Night Falls

2008-06-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

Theme I

2008-06-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

Class Portraits I

2008-06-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Aperture Foundation: Architecture of Authority

2008-06-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

On Architecture of Authority

Architecture of Authority was a collection of photographs by Richard Ross. The places in the photos are where some form of authority is being enforced and “conversation may be transformed into interview, interrogation, and torture.” The artist’s skeptical perspective on authority is made clear in the title of the exhibition, in the subjects ranging from a confession room to a lethal injection room, and above all, through impactful methods: juxtaposing images that are not immediately related and creating irony through intentionally using peaceful and symmetric compositions with vivid colors to portray something that is formidable, asymmetric, and hierarchic.

The first technique with which Richard Ross illustrates his opinion is the juxtaposition of irrelevant or even contrasting places. Since the places seem to have nothing common at the first glance, it is more powerful and telling when we realize the existence of overriding authoritative totalitarianism in both. One example is the photos of UN and the Iraqi National Assembly put together. To most people, UN and Iraq are the antitheses. However, just like the beautifully photographed UN Security Council Chamber, Iraqi National Assembly in Baghdad is equally elegant in its architecture and in the way it is photographed. The artist reveals the overpowering authority being enforced in both places, which shows people what they do not immediately see. Also, next to the Iraqi National Assembly is the New York Times meeting room in New York, the symbol of the free mass media. Here, Richard Ross again associates places people do not usually in order to reveal the totalitarian authority in all the places. He also places the photo of a dormitory at a mental institution next to that of a Marine recruit depot. In the recruit depot, even the boots under the beds are arranged identically, and the bags are hung on the beds uniformly. Similarly, in the mental hospital, the beds are made so perfectly that there is no space for individuality. Again, by graphically revealing similarities between two apparently different places, the artist shows what people do not readily realize, the architecture of authority, and criticizes how authority demands uniformity and conformity. The most striking juxtaposition to me is what is at the very front of the exhibition, the photo of the Montessori toddler classroom and that of the communal room in the California state prison. The photo of the toddler classroom at first glance is so conventional and peaceful that it looks like it can be on the brochure of the Montessori School. However, juxtaposing it with the prison and putting both works under the collection titled Architecture of Authority gives a entirely different meaning to it. No one immediately thinks of empowering authority when they see a picture of a kindergarten. Nonetheless, the white circle in the middle on the floor in the classroom now symbolizes conformity commanded by authority just like the octagonal tables in the communal room in the jail.

Booking Bench, Los Angeles Police Department,

Fifth and Wall Street Station

The other interesting and effective technique the artist uses is the irony created by aesthetic portrayal of ugly or formidable places where authority takes over beauty of individuality. All the photos have serene elegance and architectural beauty. They look as if they could be on architecture magazines or even advertisements. The composition uses extreme symmetries and vivid colors. There are several examples that portray the beauty in the photos that immediately causes discrepancy with the ugliness of authoritarianism. Palacio de Lecumberri (former prison) in Mexico City has a radiant red tower in the center and a gate also in red opening from each side towards the tower. The photo is symmetric, colorful, and pretty, like a castle on a post card. Then we see the placard that tells us that this beautiful place is in fact a jail. In the photo of a main jail control viewing area, there is a manned desk equipped with a computer and cameras in the center of the photo. A man is sitting there, looking over all the prisoners whose glimpses are shown through the windows that beautifully surround the desk. The photo is symmetric and elegant, but it is about total centralization. Other very repelling places with appealing images are the booking bench in the police department and the lethal injection room. In both photos, everything is featured beautifully with such vivid colors and with such perfect tranquility and symmetry that it is shocking and repelling that these beautiful images are images of confinement and death, where authority is absolute and even fatal.

The first thing I learned from the exhibition was how an artist’s intention creates an entirely different way for the audience to understand the photographs. I want to project my own perspective into my work as I work on the final project, my portrait of New York City. Everyone sees the dazzling diversity in New York. The melting pot! The big apple! I too was overwhelmed by people pouring out of the subway stations, jogging, running, walking, calling, eating, singing, dancing, kissing, laughing, frowning, yelling, chatting, doing everything one can possibly do on the streets. Everyone was so drastically different from one another, in their clothes, attitudes, ways they walk, languages, hairs, faces, and etc. Nevertheless, it is such splendid individuality in New York that made it more fascinating for me to find what is beyond the overwhelming individuality, things that are not instantly available to skimming eyes: things like similarities, languidness behind such fanatic flux of movements, cycles, repetitions, emptiness, and lack of communications, which I am trying to illustrate in my photos. Also, I was deeply impressed by the techniques he used to effectively convey his opinions, juxtaposing images and creating irony. Thus, since then, I have been trying new things. One of them is to make a composition as compact and dense as possible, putting so many things in the frame that none of them stands out nor makes sense—individuality drowned in the sea of it. I also have been many photos at night when the boundaries get fuzzy, two different things merge into one, and people become pensive.

I wish I were one of them

2008-06-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how energetic kids are. We went to the Meat Packing District this day. I don't have any characteristic photo of the district, because my mind was so occupied with the new idea that came up to me back then, taking pictures of people's feet. On my way back to the dorm, I saw kids playing around a water fountain, yelling, running, and laughing.

If a small detail of life can make you happy, something so insignificant that no one else but you can notice it......

Uncovered

2008-06-03T15:03:00.001-07:00

Seen and Unseen

My bed in Loeb Residence Hall is right next to this huge window. My first night at New York was a little uneasy; I kept being startled whenever I turned to this side and saw this hole on my wall as if it would engulf me. I thought my bed was slanted to that side, trying to throw me out of the window. Yes, it was unsettling, so it was amazing when I opened my eyes. Instead of my blanket, I was wearing sunlight.

Now I am used to both sensations, that of looking out a huge window at night and that of sun waking me up, but I still remember the first day.

What holds the shatter

Individuality

Beyond

This is just a photo of a place going under a renovation, but the shadow and the light together makes me wonder what is beyond the door.

Laundry

I was very lucky in my freshman year, because I lived in Whitman, the newest residential college at Princeton, and my room was right next to a water fountain, a laundry room, a bathroom, and an elevator. And here, not only do I need to go down to the basement to do laundry, I also have to pay for it--which I heard is normal in NY. Argh.

Living in NYC

2008-06-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Relationship

A thing about new york is the diversity. I was overwhelmed by people pouring out of the subway stations, jogging, running, walking, calling, eating, singing, dancing, kissing, laughing, frowning, yelling, chatting, doing everything one can possibly do on the street. And everyone is so drastically different from one another, in their clothings, attitudes, ways they walk, languages, hairs, faces. It is such splendid individuality in new york which makes it more fascinating to find what is beyond the overwhelming individuality. Things like similarities, languidness behind such fanatic flux of movements, cycles, repetitions, emptiness, and lack of communications.

A Night Falls on the Union Square

Racing

I took the following two shots on the second floor of the Wholefoods. Night is the time when the boundaries between things get fuzzy, two different things merge into one, things are shed different light.

The Sun Never Sets on the Empire

Merging

Architecture of Waiting

I would like to discuss further about the Architecture of Authority, the exhibition at Chelsea we went today, later in a separate posting, so I will simply say here that when I look back the pictures I took only a few days ago, I feel something completely different. There are many times in our lives when we simply have to wait. When we arrive early for a date, we have to wait. We wait in supermarket lines, boarding lines, movie theater lines, and so on. We wait for package deliveries. We wait for people, things, results, awards, money, love, etc etc. Sometimes, we can do something to make things come faster. We pay for next-day-guaranteed mail deliveries. We can call someone to come faster (though this may not change the consequence anyway). But there are times that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Waiting in a supermarket line is one of them. You wait until a machine voice assigns you a number. People wait because they know they have to wait. I don't like those moments when I have to wait without having anything I can do in the meantime--when I didn't bring my cellphone, when I am alone, when I don't have a book to read, etc. I hate it even more when I do have things to do while I wait, but realize that that doesn't make much of a difference.

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Chrysler Tower

I did not modified any of the photos here on Photoshop even though since I did not take it raw, and I used the standard picture mode in my camera, it is already modified in some sense. I believe that I can certainly make the images better by editing, but I wanted to write about them first before I forget what I was thinking.

2008 Whitney Biennial: The Casting

2008-06-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Omer Fast, Production Still from The Casting, 2007.

On The Casting, 2007

Omer Fast b.1972

The Casting was installed in a dark room, completely enclosed by walls except the entrance. The first thing that caught my eyes was the arrangement. The four screens are paired in two, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room, back to back so that two screens are facing the opposite sides of the room. Moreover, each screen was a different channel, so I spent more than thirty minutes watching the fourteen-minute work, each time on the opposite side. The video starts with the story of someone who is asked to improvise a story. In the story, he is a US army sergeant, and he recounts two different incidents: his German girl friend who hurts herself, and his accidental shooting of an Iraqi. At the end, he comes back to being an actor/scriptwriter selling his stories to producers. This composition, story inside of a story, first shows that the recollection may be real or not, and that when memories are recollected, they are apt to be altered and remade.

In addition to the frame-inside-another-frame format, the artist uses many other techniques to reveal various aspects of memory, the impact of it on a person, and the meaning of the act of telling one’s memory. The first one is the ambiguity of the narrator. He seems to be a sergeant who is talking to a psychotherapist about his traumatic experience at one time, and at another, he is an actor improvising. Moreover, the artist intentionally made the borderline between the stories of a German girlfriend and shooing an Iraqi so ambiguous and intertwined that it almost sounds like a single awkward and distorted memory.

What makes the work extremely interesting is the use of the four different channels of visions while there is only one continuous flow of sound. On one side, there are two screens, one of a protagonist telling the entire story, and the other of a listener whose identity is rather ambiguous. On the other side, there are two screens that feature the story of the protagonist. Moreover, these two video are still: the artist videotaped people who are frozen at each moment. He also shot the same scene at a different angle or focus. At first, the movie is overwhelming because there are so many things going on, but soon we realize that this is much closer to our experience, and our memory of it. The stillness of each scene is more effective than just a still photography because we can see the small movements that the actors cannot control, and I believe, that the artist left to be seen. On these screens, each scene changes ridiculously fast, in stark contrast to what is shown on the other side, simply a video of two guys telling and listening to a story. These features all together show that our memory of experience is the theatrical, often traumatic, and ambiguous collection of bits and pieces, and telling it puts us on the stage, giving us catharsis and relief.

2008 Whitney Biennial: Sears Class Portraist

2008-06-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Michael Smith, A Nite with Mike, 1998.

Sears Class Portraits, 1997-
Michael Smith 1951

On The first thing you see is about Sears Class Portraits is that it is a series of 14 photos, framed and attached on the walls, arranged in two rows, seven in each line. The second thing is the overriding similarities of all the photos: all of them are the portraits with almost identical composition and color tones, implying that the photos were taken under similar conditions. Thus, even though each photo portrays a different group of people, the photos look eerily repetitive and similar to one another. Moreover, the subjects are young people, which almost immediately reminded me of a scene in Dead Poets Society, where the English professor John Keating shows the students the old class portraits of the school, portraits of people who once were young students themselves yet died old, preaching the famous Carpe Diem, whose theme powerfully resonates in the quoted poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick: “And this same flower that smiles to-day/ To-morrow will be dying.”

However, the author not only touches on the ephemerality of youth, but goes further and makes the work more interesting by casting himself as an actor who performs in his own work. The photos are the portraits of the classes the artist taught, and that at the end of every semester, he had taken them to take a photo which not only means that the artist is in each photo but also means that whom we see on those 14 photos is actually a man over seven years, which adds the eeriness.

The photo revealed more and more as I tried to read the photo. Everyone in the portraits is smiling or at least trying to look good, as we all do when we take portraits: we look nicer and happier than we actually are. In contrast, artist is wearing a mysterious sneer on his face, which is more awkward and out-of-place than mean or cold. He is almost a ghostly figure, bearing a secret, knowing truth that others in the photos don’t.

Another important thing made me not only look at the photos, but actively read, and reread them. At first, the artist alone stands out so much from each photo that everyone else seems to blur into a background. The eerie, self-conscious repetition of the artist was such a strong composition in each photo that my eyes just sought after him. However, then I began to take an opposite approach, and tried to eliminate him from each photo in order to see how much sense and coherence it makes. Through these techniques, the artist wants us to see the awkwardness and ghostliness of self-consciousness as well as the transience of youth.

Photos from the first week

2008-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Things got really mixed up in my head, and I can't clearly remember when we went to China Town, but most of the photos below are taken at China Town and in Little Italy. I guess it was the second day of shoot-out.

When the Sun is High

It was a little after noon when I took this, and the sun was at its highest. The funny thing about the light is the more the brighter and the stronger the light, the darker and the more outstanding the shadow.

The Importance of Ordering

When You Meet Their Eyes

When You Meet Their Eyes II

When You Meet Their Eyes III

Orange

2nd Presentation

2008-06-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

On Friday, we went to Harlem.

Irony

I modified the color tone so that all the colors, yellow in the letters, green in the hoodie, red on the wall, purple in the bike, washed-out bluegreen, and etc all stand out, yet all combined and overriden by a common theme.

Forms and Colors

The first thing I noticed were the states of houses. A lot of them looked abandoned. The paints were peeling off and pipes were rusty. I tried to reduce things into forms and colors in this photo, reducing the house from the wholeness of home into metals and woods and paints.

Generosity

Smoke-beard

Shape
　
　

Blocks

　

Going Nowhere

This photo may be the most purposeful and intentional among all the others, because I not only waited the moment the shoes that were gently swaying and spinning pointed in the opposite directions, but also framed things so that every side of the photo is enclosed by buildings. I intentionally made it underexposed so that the buildings go almost completely black, simply like frames. I tried to express the lockout situation where there is no way to get out.

Following

This is another consciously framed photo that has the opposite purpose to the previous.

　

Textures

I was intrigued by the effects of direct, strong sunlight, but mostly by the stark contrast in the textures.

　

Disturbance

Audience

Directions

1st Presentation

2008-05-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Union Square in the Morning

Union Square at Night

I took the first one on one of the first few days at NY, on the 2nd floor of the Wholefoods. I took the second one a couple of days later, because I wanted to shoot the same thing under a different condition. I am always interested in how things look so much different under different light, and day and night are one of the stark contrasts. When I see them, I feel like there is more story to the Union Square at Night.

Colors

Victory

I was experimenting with auto-bracketing, and this one is intentionally underexposed. I took several photos of the same statue at different angles, and this is the one I like the best because it looks animated.

Spiral

Pairs

I took most of the photos here on the second day of class, the first shoot-out at the Union Square because we spent the first day buying supplies. And when I first saw these ceramics salt-and-pepper cases, neither did I know what they were nor I stopped to take photos. I kept on walking, a little afraid to stop because I wasn't sure if the guy who was selling it would allow me to take photos. I walked forward, but my face was turning back because I was looking at them, and then my eyes met the guy's. He let me take photos, and I took almost a dozen photos with different compositions.

Different Lightings

Even though the color looks a little bit washed away--I don't understand how that happened, because when I was editing it at first, it was much more orangy except under the white light in the middle--I wanted to show how different lightings can affect how things are seen. BTW, I got my first kebab in NY here, not on the same night, but on the first night I came to NY, before I went to watch Iron Man.

Gaze

I was sitting on the bar at Union Square, and this guy with a sketchbook and a pencil came and sat next to me. He had his head in his hands for sometime, and then started talking to himself. He sang and laughed at the end. I was a little worried if he would get mad if I take the photo, so I sneaked to take it, but then he started laughing, probably because he noticed what I was doing and thought it was funny.

After the first presentation we did in class, and through out the classes including going the Whitney Biennial, I have learned various ways to see or read photographs. And the first thing I learned was composition, what was behind what I believed as an instinct. I did not realize that I was actively thinking when I take photos, because I simply looked through the view finder, moved around, exclude or include things, then pressed the button. Of course, there are a lot of ways to make a good composition, but several things I have noticed so far are the usage of lines to create a frame or a space. In this case, I used the two white lines on the ground and the bar on the left to create a triangular frame whose tip points to the direction of his gaze. I feel like this photo is almost geometrical since there are many lines and triangles.

Gaze II

I took this photo at China Town. I noticed him almost immediately as I walked passed by, because he had puppy eyes. I tried to open up the space in the direction of his gaze.

Escape

I can't explain, but this reminds me of I, Robot.

Estranged

Even though it is hard to see his eyes from this small photo--click if you want to view it larger--he was looking out the window in such a way that made me feel like I was looking at myself, and all the other people when they are almost unconscious, thinking but not thinking, alien to everyone else and also to themselves.

Reflection

Similarities

I took it at the China Town. I don't remember the name of the restaurant exactly, but it was Joe's something. It had many newspaper articles on the crab/pork meat dumpling on the window. According to the Zagat, that place is "excellent" and other articles were similarly praising this dumpling, recounting a proper way to eat a hot dumpling without burning one's tongue. It turned out to be almost bad to my taste. But I took many photos inside, while people were staring at this weird girl who came alone, taking photos of random things with a huge camera.

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Brain Talk