This collage, was intended to display a little bit about me. I am studying geography and urban studies, subjects which easily lend themselves to commenting upon the world; my world. This photo is both an expression of creativity and an expression of my own feeling. I intend to portray the idea that much can be learned about the world from study, but religating learning to the isolation of books, computers, or other isolation inducing material possessions will ultimately lead you down of drain of misunderstanding. One must create the world they want to live in, and recognize their own world outside of the book or the computer screen. This will allow them to find who they are and where they want to go.  

While looking for a picture to spark some artistic creativity, a photograph of a girl walking in the rain and looking down really stood out to me. It was alluring and curious. You kind of wondered why she was looking down and the image of her walking in the rain with nothing else in the image created a very lonely feeling. On top of that, the black and white really added to the tone of the photograph. That's when I decided I wanted to add elements to try to explain why she was walking alone and looking so somber.

This was the original photograph. I used an image of a boat on a lake to blend onto the bottom to create a look of her sort of drowning in the sorrow of the rain.

I have never used flickr before, and to my surprise I found my self addicted to refreshing the pages and see new images come up time and time again. I eventually found six images I was drawn too for my gallery. I did not have a distinct theme, but rather chose ones that really spoke to me and stood out. 

I stumbled on this photograph near the beginning of my search and found none that compared to it. This detail in this image is exquisite. The first thing I think about when I look at it is where the man is looking. He looks worried about something and very contemplative. Because of the sharp focus, every line, wrinkle and hair are visible. Every time I look at the photograph my eye dances around because there is always something new to look at and examine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48838735@N04/galleries/72157623732018216/

Above is the link to my gallery of selected noir and industrial photos. In regards to considering them along the lines of amateur or professional effort, I am at a loss to decide what kind of person took them. I can only state that they have a definitive quality and personal appeal to me and possibly other people. This undermines any overarching attempt at assigning an objective measure of professionalism. I would think that on a good day and with the right luck, anyone can take a "professional" picture, and vice versa: a professional photographer that's on a streak of being in the wrong place at the wrong time that's still got to take photos to pay the bills will probably dish out something not so fantastic. Thus, visual artistry is as subjective as any other form of art unless it's commissioned for a specific purpose often dictated by other Media.

I definitely appreciate photography as an art, and although I do not go out of my way to look at gallery after gallery of photography, I was glad that this assignment was given to me. Personally, the most interesting aspect of photography is not necessarily the images themselves, but rather discovering what others view as worthy of artistic merit and comparing it to my own view.

As of this blog posting, I have five images selected in my gallery. After I had selected the five, I realized that I must be a sucker for images depicting architecture and urban landscapes. The above photograph, titled "And Then There Were Three," immediately blew me away. At first glance I thought that the three buildings that the image focuses on were very similar. Upon further inspection, though, I realized that this was a facade; although the buildings share similar qualities, they are each unique.

I chose this for its minimalism. My favorite photos remove the (complicated) human and work to discover simplicity. This photo embodies that idea. There are really only four elements that work in a subtle manner to create a calm, tranquility within the soul and body. Upon first look it immediately draws out a breath and creates a settling calmness in ones chest. The four elements which have been composed in this photograph are 1) the repetition (in a group of three) of the posts, 2) the comparable, blue-grayness of the sky and water, 3) the dark blue-grey horizontal line delineating the horizon and the intersection of the sky and water, and 4) The reflective quality of the water as manifested beneath the posts. These four features create an overwhelming calmness in a most minimalistic way, highlighting the power of perfected minimalist artistry. 

My complete Flickr gallery can be found here.

The most striking dimension of this photograph is the level of detail. The scale and focus put the man in your face, the message behind this photo is obviously tied on the human behind it. Every wrinkle and apparent "fault" is a testament to the wears of time... Despite the scars of age, the man's eyes are the only colored element. To me, it suggests that the man's spirit is as bright as in youth; he lives. I love the arrangement, with the face being the complete center of attention. The rest is out of focus and unimportant, because the face (and most importantly the eyes) reveal the man.

This assignment asks you to explore topics along two lines--1.) amateur production of art and 2.) defining visual artistry.

Here are the steps:

go to the flickr Web site. If you do not have a flickr account, create one.

Next, browse through flickr images with an eye toward exploring questions related to amateurs in photographic art and definitions of photographic artistry. Identify an image that sparks some insight in terms of the topic, and then select the Gallery icon above the image. (Note some images might not have this option.) First Create a New Gallery--a collection space related to your project--and then add the image to the gallery. Once you have added the image, you can work on a description of it in the gallery. Collect more images and describe them. Also use the Note function to "read" sections of the image and add annotations. Collect at least four images that speak to amateur artistry.