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What makes a Photograph Iconic?

The word iconic is used to describe something that is original, unique, or a work of art. Many famous photographs are described as iconic; however, some people may see it as iconic, and others could see it as an ordinary photograph that doesn't have a meaning. For a photograph to be iconic, it can differentiate from a photographer to another. Every photographer has their own understanding of an iconic photograph. In my opinion, for a photo to be iconic, it has to have meaning around it; it has to express the emotion of the person in the photograph so the people can feel attached to the photo. Also, an iconic photograph has to include a unique moment in history that no one could capture. For example, Gregory Crewdson's photographs have a sense of being cinematic or dramatic. He doesn't like to hold a camera but sets the scene as if you are in a movie. His focus is on the image itself and creating a world that feels subjective and recognizable. Another example, Andreas Gursky used digital technology to refine and manipulate the image to produce the ideal final photograph in his photographs. He took landscape photographs, but for him, it wasn't only a landscape. It was a kind of globalized and mixed-use landscape. Also, it has many different types of layers that conform to certain traditions of pictorial composition. Finally, the iconic photo for Seydou Keita is that he knew how to find the correct position, and he was capable of making someone look good.

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Assignment 4

The photograph above was taken by a photographer called Seydou Keita. Seydou Keita was born in Bamako, Mali. He was a self-taught photographer and carpenter who specialized in portrait photography. Keita's black and white portrait photography includes either individuals or families’ portraits. He opened his studio in 1948. Keita portrait photography gained an excellent reputation throughout West Africa. He serves elite and middle-class patrons; usually, his images highlight the idealized socio-economic status of the people in the picture through the included props. The quality of his photos has a great sense of aesthetics and power. The props that he used in the studio were clothing and accessories, radios, telephones, bicycles, and sometimes his own car. Also, he took many of his portraits using natural light and a one-shot technique, and he had no painted decorations. He would use simple curtains or fabrics that he bought, or the clients could use their own background. The patterns of the dresses and the backgrounds create graphic compositions. Keïta made most of the portraits using a view camera in the 13x18 format. To emphasize the people's confident facial expressions and comfortable stances, he used a low vantage point and an edgy style. Also, the people in the photographs get to choose their own poses. The picture above is called Women on Motorcycle, and it was taken in Kieta courtyard at Bamako in 1952-1955. This picture is from a collection called The Jean Pigozzi Collection. In the photo, the motorcycle, Vespa, is a symbol of modernity and affluence. Also, Because the banco wall is a typical mud-brick used in Mali, Keita loved its natural aspect, and the absence of a structured background emphasized the photo's modernity. To conclude, Seydou Keita's images were intended to emphasize the beauty of each of his subjects. Seydou Keita is widely regarded as the father of twentieth-century African photography. He was one of the first African photographers to have his work acknowledged on a global scale.

Sources:

https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/125/seydou-keita

https://ocula.com/artists/seydou-keita/

https://www.artland.com/artists/seydou-keita

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/seydou-keïta-portraits-of-bamako/IwJSIkSd5bxDIA

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/apr/11/mali-seydou-keita-bamako-portraits-1950s-photography#img-1

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Those are architectural and landscape shots that I loved and took during my visit to Turkey.

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Class Activity #2 Photographic History

1- If everyone is a photographer (as said in the documentary), what does it mean to be a photographer today? After watching the documentary how would you define it? Give examples from the documentary program.

Throughout the years, photography developed from being just a box that takes photos to high-tech devices like smartphones or cameras that take detailed photographs. Photography proved to us that it is an important part of our daily lives by bringing a sharp perspective and a strong appreciative insight to the subject. Moreover, a photograph can have a lot of different meanings, it can present many different meanings. It helps people express what they feel without saying it out loud. In the early years, Jacques-Henri Lartigue was one of the great photographers at that time. When he took his first camera at the age of eight, he started to take pictures of his childhood world, growing up he started to take interest in the sports world. After that, he took an interest also in painting. He was recognized as one of the founders of modern photography, but in reality, he was only an ultimate armature who created a portrait of France in a spectacular series of family albums. He understands how to capture the spirit of that moment and how to take it at a certain movement.

Another example of a modern photographer which is Gregory Crewdson. He is an American photographer. He is well known for the photographs that he takes at night time in neighborhoods and homes. His shots have a sense of cinematic, dramatic, anxiety, mystery, and foreboding. In the example shown below, the picture feels like it is a part of a movie where you are waiting to see what will happen in this scene. He also uses creative light and color techniques that give us this dramatic and cinematic effect. In my opinion, Crewdson’s photographs are so detailed and creative it made me want to see more from his work and to explore more about his way of creating these photographs.

Sources:

https://www.lartigue.org/en/jacques-henri-lartigue/biography/

http://www.artnet.com/artists/jacques-henri-lartigue/3

https://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/crewdson.shtml

http://www.artnet.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/2

https://theamericanreader.com/interview-with-photographer-gregory-crewdson/

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Assignment 3

          The photograph above is taken by Heba Khamis. She is a 33 years old Egyptian visual storyteller and photographer. She shifted her career from a painter to a photojournalist. Her work was more of a documentary style, but now she is more focused on social and humanitarian issues. Khamis is known for her strong photographic ways that focus on social issues in many different countries. The photograph above is from a collection called Banned Beauty. Khamis started this collection on the 7th of November 2016, and the photo above was taken on the 12th of November. The collection of photographs is located in Cameroon. The collection is about the mothers in Cameroon ironing their daughter’s breasts to flatten them as a traditional process to delay their maturity or to make it invisible to avoid rapping, early marriage, or early pregnancy. They start the process of breast ironing when the girl is at age seven or ten in order to suppress breast development. Breast ironing differs from one village to another in which each village has different tools or ways to do it. For example, they start by massaging girls’ breasts using hard or heated objects like leaves, bananas, shells, grinding stones, ladles, and spatulas and hammers heated over coals. Even some villages used magic to do the process. First, when Khamis arrived to Cameroon, she started by taking portraits of the mothers and daughters together. Then, she started taking pictures of the tool they used to do the breast ironing. Finally, she took photographs of the girls that could not explain how they felt when they went through the breast ironing process.

          Moreover, in the picture above is a girl named Suzanne, 11 years old, that experienced the breast ironing process before the image was taken until her breast was totally gone. In this picture, Khamis purposely took most of her shots out of focus, especially this one. Her goal was to show the anxiety and the suffering of the girl with an emotionless face and capitulating body. This photo got awarded first place in the World Press Photo 2018 photo contest’s and some of the reviews on the picture were positive and some were negative. On Twitter, some of the reviewers stated that the girl looked scared from the camera, and they did not like the photo. Others said that it does not deserve to be in the first place because the photo is out of focus and the eyes of the girl have to be sharp to convey the emotion. Two well-known news websites, Egyptian Independent and Daily news Egypt explained how proud they are of Heba Khamis’s work and how her content is good. In my opinion, if I would relate the picture to one of the myths, we took in class it would be “photos have hidden meanings”. Because when I saw the photograph, I just saw an out-of-focus photo of a girl standing doing nothing, but when I researched more about the photograph, I found out that it has a much deeper meaning to it.  

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Photo 9: Personal Vision

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Photo 8: Point of view

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Photo 7: Light Direction

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Photo 6: Frame in frame

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Photo 5: Color 

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Photo 4: Texture 

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Photo 3: Shape

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Photo 2: Negative Space

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Assignment 2

Photo 1 : Rule of Third

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Khalik Allah is an American filmmaker and photographer. Allah type of photography that he focuses on is portrait photography. His inspiration in photography is not for love for imagery but to use a kind of gutter or visceral to show a particular emotion in the person.

When Khalik said, “Purpose in life is to extend the light into peoples’ lives,” which means that he wanted to show people, who society gave up on, are that their lives are valuable and meaningful by adding light to their lives. In my opinion, the photographer's role is not just to take good photos; it is about showing the audience another side of a story that they can’t see.

Additionally, when Khalik said, “To make knowledge born,” I think his work added knowledge in people’s lives by showing a sense of awareness and correcting the misconception towards the people related to criminal justice. For example, in “Field Niggas” the movie Khalik focuses on anti-racism and shows that places from his street corner in Harlem are not dangerous.

I think the role of photography from his perspective is to shine the light in the dark spaces and to show that there is nothing to fear about. Also, he sees that when he puts the lens on something it is like he is only describing this object or person. I believe that Khalik type of photography brings out understanding because it expresses people's real emotions and has a meaningful story behind it. To conclude, Khalik Allah's point of view on photography made me understand that it is not only about taking a good picture; it is about knowing your real inspiration in photography.

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Photo 7:

A) 18mm

Aperture: F 8

Shutter Speed: 1/250

B) 35mm

Aperture: F 8

Shutter Speed: 1/250

C) 55mm

Aperture: F 8

Shutter Speed: 1/250

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Photo 6:

A) Sunlight:

Aperture: F 11

Shutter Speed: 1/500

B) Shade:

Aperture: F 11

Shutter Speed: 1/250