Principles of Design - Unity

Edits: -100 Highlights, +15 Shadows,

Unity is a feeling of completeness in a photo in that all aspects seem to work together. In my picture, I used pattern, repetition, balance, and proportion to create the sense of unity between all the bushes. You can also see pathways in the dirt between the bushes, which I think adds to the completeness of the photo because everything is connected.

Documenting the Blues in the Mississippi Delta photo

In the Lens blog post titled "Documenting the Blues in the Mississippi Delta," my group chose photo #6 as the one showing the most unity. There is a lot of pattern and repetition with the humongous pots as well as the trash in the background. Proportion is also used because although the pots are lined up together, they have a variety of sizes based generally on their proximity to the photography. The fire and the bubbles in the pots also add emphasis because after seeing it I was interested in what the man was barbecuing. Together, all these principles of design form unity throughout the picture; it feels very complete and satisfying how movement is utilized.

Principles of Design - Variety

Edits: +0.35 Exposure, -24 highlights, +13 shadows

Variety is how the photographer uses multiple principles of design to capture the viewer's attention and enhance movement of the photo. In this photo I showed balance with the symmetry of the wheels as well as pattern with the shape of the wheel and tire. The green circle with the arrow pointing left also adds emphasis. The movement in this photo is from the tires to the "Car West" sign to the bridge on the vehicle and then the smashed car inside.

Principles of Design - Rhythm

Edits: -0.25 Exposure, +25 Contrast

Rhythm is when the repetition of one or more principles of design to create a sense of movement in the picture. In my photo, you have the repetition of the rings of the table, and they extend outwards towards the sunlight until they blur together into lines.

Half Past Autumn-Gordon Parks Part 3 + Part 4

1. What is your definition of successful?
   My definition of success is being able to find compromise in your life and accepting your wins and losses.
2. What have you given up to become successful?
   I've given up hours of time practicing baseball and studying to make myself a better baseball player and a more accomplished student.
3. What did Parks give up to become successful?
   Parks gave up much of his personal time with his family in order to be successful. He was away from his family for long periods of time while he was on assignment.
4. Who was Genevieve Young's father?
   Her father was one of the founding members of the UN and VK Wellington Kok.
5. How much was Parks advanced to write his first book (and eventual best-selling autobiography)?
   He was advanced $10,000 for his first book.
6. How much money did Elijah Muhammad offer Parks to do a story on The Nation of Islam?
   Muhammad offered Parks $500,000 to do a story on the Nation of Islam.
7. Why did Parks refuse the money?
   He refused the money because he didn't like the Nation of Islam's tendency towards violent protests; he preferred to use his camera rather than a gun.
8. What was significant about the movie The Learning Tree?
   The Learning Tree was the first Hollywood feature film written and directed by an African American.
9. What was significant about the character Shaft?
   The character Shaft represented the spirit of the African Americans in the U.S. and inspired many African Americans to not be inhibited by racism.
10. What was Gordon Parks' choice of weapons?
    Gordon Parks' choice of weapons was the 35 mm camera and pen.
11. What reason did Genevieve Young give for the divorce?
    She said the marriage was like a washing machine, where she didn't know what would come up next. The turmoil in his life wore her out, and it set her own career back.
12. In 1984, Parks directed Solomon Northrup's Odyssey. What recent feature film told the same story?
    Solomon Northrup's Odyssey tells the same story as 12 Years a Slave, which was released in 2013.
13. Who was Gordon Parks, jr?
    Gordon Parks's eldest son was a screenwriter in Hollywood who wrote Super Fly, a successful blaxploitation film about drug dealers in Harlem. He died in a plane crash at the age of forty-four.
14. What is your favorite Gordon Parks photo?
    My favorite Parks photo is this one about segregation in the South.
15. What will you remember about Gordon Parks in ten years?
    In ten years, I will remember Gordon Parks as a pioneer in the photography field (the Jackie Robinson of photography) and for being a social activist who focused his lens on the racial discrimination in the U.S.

Principles of Design - Proportion

Edits: +20 Contrast, -15 Highlights

Proportion is how all the various parts of a photo relate to each other is size or amounts. In this photo the garbage container on the right side appears larger and closer than the container on the left because the container on the right is closer as well as angled towards me.

Principles of Design - Pattern and Repetition

Edits: Highlights +20

Pattern is the repeating of an object in a photo.
Repetition is similar to pattern, but in repetition you see the pattern over and over again. In this photo, all the bricks together form repetition, but the bricks with the metal engravings on them form a pattern.

+0.10 exposure

-100 Highlights

-15 Shadows

Principles of Design - Pattern

Edits: Made black and white

Pattern is the repetition of an object or symbol throughout a photo. I photographed a line/pile of rocks in the MSJ garden to show the repetition of the geometrically jagged rocks,

Principles of Design - Movement

No edits;

movement from the "MSJ Garden" poster to the pink flowers in front to the boarded up house in the back

Movement is not necessarily photographing a moving object; rather, it is how the viewer's eye moves from object to object in a photo. In my photo, the movement is from the foreground to the background, from the "MSJ Garden" sign  to the fence and pink flowers and then to the boarded up house.

Principles of Design - Emphasis

Edits: Cropped the bottom; increased contrast to +20 and highlights to +50

Structure: C Wing Cafeteria Wall

Emphasis: the red "No Smoking" sign

Emphasis is what catches the viewer's attention in a photo, based on a difference in color, shape, or size. In my photo, I used the downwards diagonal lines to draw emphasis to the red sign.. Nearly everything else in the photo is brown, yellow, or white, so the red stands out a lot. The sign is also a lot smaller than either of the paintings.

Principles of Design - Balance

Edits: decreased highlights to -20

Edits: Cropped the bottom and increased contrast to +25

Balance is the distribution of weight in a photo, including symmetry. I included symmetry in both of the photos, as the A Wing cafeteria is a symmetrical structure and the two doors next to each other also exhibits symmetry.

Elements of Art - Texture

Edits: Made black and white (vibrance+saturation both to -100) and increased contrast to +100

Edits: Decreased exposure to -0.25 and highlights to -100

Texture is the way a photo looks like and feels like, visually. For example, the tree trunk looks and feels rough because you can see its texture, and the pine cone looks and feels bumpy, with lots of protruding spikes as well as negative space. 

Elements of Art - Color

Red in bottom left corner

Edits: Increased contrast to +70, vibrance to +22, and saturation to +25

We had to include red in the bottom left corner because that's what the Twister wheel showed.

Elements of Art - Space

Edits: Made black and white (vibrance+saturation both to -100)

Edits: Cropped a little bit off the left and bottom sides.

Space is also called "negative space" and it has shape between and around objects. For example, in my photos the space in between the bare branches of the tree. The negative space has a shape and gives the photos a more geometric feel; in the second photo the spaces make the branches sort of look like a weirdly shaped and crooked hand.

Elements of Art - Form

Edits: Decreased exposure to -0.60, increased contrast to +20, and clarity to +20

Edits: Decreased exposure to -0.50, increased contrast to +25

Form is defined as a three dimensional shape (in terms of length, width, and depth), so in these photos I tried capturing the 3-D forms of the flowers.

Half Past Autumn - Gordon Parks Part 1 + Part 2

1. On the day Gordon Parks was born, how did the doctor save Gordon's life?
   The doctor put Gordon in a tub of ice water, and when Gordon rubbed against the ice he woke up and began hollering.
2. Where was Gordon born? (what state?)
   Fort Scott, Kansas
3. What did Gordon's college adviser, Ms. McClintock tell him about college?
   She told him to not waste his parents' money to go to college because he would just end up as poor as a maid.
4. How old was Gordon when his mother died?
   According to the film, Gordon's mother died when he was fifteen.
5. Where did Gordon move after his mother died?
   He moved to Minnesota to live with his sister.
6. Did Gordon graduate from college?
   No; he did not even finish high school.
7. How did Gordon begin his fashion photography career?
   He walked into a Frank Murphy store and asked Murphy if he could photograph fashion, and Murphy set him up with a fashion photoshoot with models and formal clothes the next evening.
8. What is a "double exposure?"
   Double exposure is a photographic technique that combines 2 separate images into the same image. It was originally a mistake by Gordon when he photographed the models for Murphy.
9. Who was boxer Joe Louis?
   Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. During his time as champion, he symbolized the American hero and American values of freedom.
10. What instrument did Gordon play?
    Piano
11. What was the purpose of the Farm Security Administration?
    The purpose of the FSA was to show to America the living conditions of poverty stricken Americans around the country.
12. When Roy Stryker hired Gordon for the FSA, what was Stryker's first assignment for Gordon in Washington, D.C.?
    Go to a department store to buy a top coat, then eat at the restaurant across the street, and then watch a movie at a nearby theater. Stryker gave Gordon this assignment knowing that it would be impossible for him to complete it due to segregation and racism.
13. Who was Ella Watson?
    Ella Watson was a lady who mopped the floor at the FSA building. Gordon took a photo of her holding a broom and a mop in front of an American flag to imitate Grant Wood's American Gothic.
14. What was the inspiration for Grant Wood's American Gothic?
    Gordon's inspiration was the widespread racism that he encountered wherever he went. Wood's inspiration was the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa and his perception of the type of people who he thought would live in that style of home.
15. What did Gordon learn from Stryker about photography?He learned to approach people and that the people he photographed were more important than himself. He also learned he could not photograph bigots and simply call them bigots. His photography had to paint a portrait to support his angle.
    
    
    Part 2
16. When did the FSA shut down?
    The FSA shut down in 1943.
17. After Gordon moved to New York, what magazine did he shoot for?
    When Gordon moved to New York, he shot for Vogue magazine.
18. Who was the picture editor of Life Magazine when Gordon walked into the Life Magazine office?
    Wilson Hicks was the picture editor who gave Gordon his first job at Life magazine.
19. What was the first major story Parks covered for Life Magazine?
    Gordon Parks' first major story for Life magazine was about crime in America. Specifically, he followed around a gang leader called Red Jackson.
20.  Who were some of the artists that Gordon Parks mentioned influenced his work after he moved to the Paris Life Magazine bureau?
    Some of Gordon Parks' influences were Bernard, Picasso, and Van Gogh.
21. How did Parks shoot fashion when he lived in France?
    He focused on the models' movements rather than shooting only stationery photos.
22. Where was Parks' concerto performed?
    Parks' concerto was first performed in Venice by a 102-piece symphony.
23. Who was Parks' second wife? (Who was her father? What did she do?)
    His second wife was Elizabeth Campbell, who was a model. Gordon Parks worked for her father.
24. How old was Flavio de Silva when Parks met him?
    Flavio was 12 when he and Parks first met.
25. When did Parks meet Flavio?
    Parks met Flavio in the early 1960s for a photo assignment on behalf of Life magazine.
26. Where did Flavio live when Parks first met Flavio and his family?
    Flavio lived in Catacumba, one of many favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro.
27. How is Gloria Vanderbilt? Who is her famous son? Who are her ancestors?
    Gloria Vanderbilt was an author and an artist. Anderson Cooper is her famous son. Her ancestors were extremely rich owners of a railroad company. .
28. How did Vanderbilt describe their relationship?
    She said that although they had a lot of respect and love towards each other, their relationship remained platonic.