Ways of Seeing Reflection

            I found this video extremely hard to follow, primarily because it is so old and also because it was British.  Although I found this video very dated, it was very interesting to understand the mindset and perspective of some forty years ago.  In some ways the concepts about technology, cameras, and art seemed very similar to those today, and in other ways it seemed pretty foreign because of the age gap.  I find it interesting to think that there used to be only one place at a time where you could see the Mona Lisa or any other piece of art, but now I could look it up on my computer or buy a print or postcard easily.  The camera and photographs are so integrated in everyday life it is hard to imagine life without them.

Masters of Illusion

I thought the Masters of Illusion video was very interesting.  I love art history so all of the references and anecdotes about famous artists from the past were very entertaining to me.  The part about linear perspective and how it was developed and discovered was very thought provoking.  I had never thought of perspective as something that had to be discovered, I had always just taken this knowledge for granted.  I also never really thought about artists as being sort of mathematicians and scientists like they are portrayed in this video.  Some of them, such as Uccello, seem so dedicated to their craft its obsessive.

Errol Morris on Photography

            This photographer seemed very insightful and had a lot of great assertions about photography.  I would definitely agree that most people, myself included, tend to forget that photos are connected to the physical world and exist outside of that one small frame.  I definitely agree with the statement that all photos are in a way posed because they always leave something out.  You cannot notice what is not there, but sometimes that might tell more than what is actually included in the photograph.  I also agree with Morris’s assertion that further investigation is needed to really understand photographs because they are so decontextualized

On Photography

            This article by Susan Sontag describes photography in many different ways.  I thought when she described photos as and experience that has been captured made a lot of sense.  When I’m on vacation I take hundreds of photos because I try to record or capture all of the events that take place.  She also described photography as a means of basically collecting the world.  You can collect the knowledge from the photos and literally hold hundreds of photos in your hands at one time.  Another point that resonated with me was that photos seem to be irrefutable evidence.  Many times photos or videos are what catches fugitives so this statement makes a lot of sense.  Although photos seem to portray evidence and fact, like Sontag says, it seems that photos interpret the reality like paintings do because nothing that is just one image can accurately portray reality.

The Photographers Eye

            I found this passage to be very interesting.  I am not really into photography so I have never researched or learned very much about its history or thought much about its intricacies in general.  I liked the part where the author compared and contrasted painting and photography.  Being a painter myself I found the differences stated by the author to be very revealing about the essence of both photography and painting or other kinds of art.  I also liked the part where the author states that photos are more like symbols of reality not stories or explanations.  This statement seems to embody the reality that photos are just one single frame and that is all the information you can gain from them.

Camera Lucida

           I found this essay kind of hard to follow but the points that stuck out were very powerful.  The author talked about how a photograph attests that something has existed, although with Photoshop and other programs now you cant be 100% sure what you see is reality.  One quality about photos that really connects with me that this author talked about is how the photo makes you think and wonder about all the circumstances, not just the one frame of reality that is visible.  Especially old photographs make me wonder who the people are, what they are doing, and what is their story.  Photographs only give you enough taste to spark your curiosity.  The most powerful part of this essay in my opinion was at the end when the author states that photos are violent because they force you to see and accept their reality, there can be no other interpretation than the one that is visible to you.

Definition of Obtain

obtain: to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort