When reading the description of our second media page assignment, my first impulse was to focus on pornography because it is made primarily by amateurs (now at least) and isn't considered by most to be exemplary of high visual artistry. Flickr, however, is not a very good place to find porn, so I modified my focus a bit for this assignment. My concerns are still very similar, though. I am very fond of art that somehow juxtaposes high and low. Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" is the classic example. Crude content meets high stylistic form, and illuminates society in a way that prudish art simply couldn't.

This isn't to say that any of my photos are meant to be funny, as is the case with "The Miller's Tale." On the contrary, the photographs I chose are shocking and aren't always comfortable to look at. They are effective, however, because you can't simply look away either. I chose street-life as my theme because it gave me free reign over any and all photos dealing with "low" content such poverty, homelessness, prostitution, drug-use etc. My hope is that you too will see the artistic merit in this photos and not simply dismiss them as obscene.

enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43382853@N08/galleries/72157622570128288/

The most important aspect of art to me is its ability to evoke emotion in it's audience. There are more subtle ways of evoking joy in people, but I like images that not only create joy they are clearly capturing it as well. Who can't help but feel happy when looking at a photograph of someone laughing?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/astangle/galleries/72157622444600033/

This piece in the New York Times, Retouching Stirs a Backlash, discusses the phenomenon of using digital manipulation to retouch photographs.