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| Converse Stomp- 2012 |
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| Global Matrimony- Rome- 2012 |
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| Pause-Netherlands 1934 |
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| Pose-Amsterdam 2012 |
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| Angle-Alhambra Granada 2012 |
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| Plaza de Toros de Sevilla 2012 |
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| God Speed-London 2006 |
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| Krakow Poland 2007 |
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| Guiding- England 2011 |
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| [ˈkrakuf] Poland 2007 |
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| Other World-Sydeny 1910 |
2
These photographs play with intentionality and who provides meaning
to a photo. Working with Berger and Mohr concepts, these photos have been
manipulated by the photographer, but the viewer ultimately gives this
collection meaning (showing the natural ambiguity of the photographic image). There
is no one right answer.
I
chose to write simple commentaries, depriving the viewer of a long quotation.
The influence of the
photographer and writer is shown in the tenth photo “[ˈkrakuf]”. There is a tension between what is
presented as reality and actually is occurring. Many commentaries suggested drug
references or death. It is actually my brother in a horrible Polish hostel,
pretending to die or overdose in a dark hallway. He and his friend captured
this moment for comical purposes because it was truly an awful experience. One
could argue this photo captures his internal projection of the place, serving
as his own wound and the punctum for us viewers to see. A long quotation takes
away from this photo but enhances the wedding coliseum photo. I was able to
capture this fleeting moment where an Asian couple, standing in front of the
Roman Coliseum, is receiving compliments from an Italian lady passing along
with English tourists.
Susan Sontag writes that photography allows “people to take
possession of space in which they are insecure” (9). I studied abroad last
semester and it provoked me to stop my quest to constantly capture my world
with photos. I spent most of my sightseeing, deflecting or refusing the camera
flash, determining myself to “stay in the present,” I did not want to feel
obligated to succumb to the tourist’s to-do list. Five of these photos are ones
I managed to catch in between a massive amount of American group shots. I
started with the photo of American’s Converse shoe on the streets of Rome and
wanted to create a walk through Europe, contrasting the traditional backdrop
with the modern tourist. Traveling is a beautiful opportunity and the five
photos from my trips captured the positivity of exploration: the wondrous
sites, diversified people, and seeking new understanding.
However, I felt the photos painted a portrait too pretty for tourism
and could raise different issues in relation to the “other”, expansion and
invasion. In a way, I found my camera as an invasion. I was the foreigner, who
did not have any claim to the roads under me and I was snatching away at
another culture. I was just like the foreign married couple outside the Roman Coliseum,
the Converse shoe, the American boy in Amsterdam, and the shadow of tourists in
the Alhambra. Perhaps, this synecdoche serves as the punctum for me. I felt
uneasy as the “other” and it made me feel disconnected with my home across the
sea. These photos make me recall the feeling of being like an expatriate in a
Hemingway novel; emptiness depicted in the desolate bullfighting arena.
Adding to the existing tone, I chose
pictures from previous traveling experiences, my brother’s trip to Poland and two
existing photos (1934 Netherlands) and Sydney 1910). This added a whole new
dimension to the existing work, contrasting old and modern and expanding the
focus from Europe to global. What was happening then is still happening today
or has slightly adapted. The backdrop is the same but the characters have
changed. Also, there is an undertone of globalization, especially with the
final (European dress in Sydney). It starts with a lot of promise and slowly
sinks into the deathly-tired tourist.
Through a tourist's eyes- This compilation leads me to believe they were all taken by someone who had never traveled to this location before. For example, when I'm traveling to a new place I take pictures of random things like the cool lamps or the different sneakers. It makes me wonder where this is, who the person behind the camera is, and why they were at this location.
ReplyDeleteTreason as a Tourist - The reason I suggested this title is because it seems that there is something out of place in every image - as if the tourist is going against the flow of his/her setting. For examples, the sneakers seem out of place in the first image and based on their race, the married couple looks atypical in their scene too. The images really make you focus on studium as a basis for understanding each situation.
ReplyDeleteKelsey's essay challenges the viewer to choose between two unique roles. As I proceed through this train of photos, I am unsure whether I am playing the tourist or the intruder. It is all a question of distance or discomfort. In the world of this essay, am I merely a distant passerby (as in the case of the wedding photo) or am I more intimately...or awkardly...invested in these travels (look at the 10th photo)? In some instances, such as in the world of the final photo, I may approach these figures, or I may not...the choice is all my own.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs have a tourist quality and thus represent not only the history behind the placed visited, but also the experiences/memories of the photographer. The brick/stone is ubiquitous, and it invokes the intangible feeling of being someplace new when no longer there. It is as if brick and stone are symbolic of the photographer's trip, and to reflect on them at a later time is a reminder of where they were.
ReplyDeleteWhat's Mine Is Mine. Kelsey's essay boldly takes moments of her exploration and discards the rest, leaving the viewer a several persuasive ideas. One is that the world exists and is represented by the selections made in the instant of one trigger. Second, that perhaps there is "no other world" after all. Perhaps we are more similar than what we can imagine. We have weddings, and drink too much, and have dusty cob-webs, and stadiums, and customary entertainment. Perhaps we travel around the world seeking to find "otherness" and simply find ourselves in every place we look? Kelsey took the parts she valued, but then again, maybe they were hers all along...
ReplyDeletePerspective:
ReplyDeleteOne thing that struck me about this essay was the perspective of the camera. It starts low to the ground my capturing someone's feet, shows us the awkwardness of two tourists in Rome, takes us on a journey soaring over building tops, and ends back on the ground with a touching scene between two people that would seem to have nothing in common. The camera is our tour guide.
These photographs speak about life experience. The first thing that came to mind was the idea of taking a year off after college to see the world. These photos scream about the desire for experience and the ability to live life through one’s own eyes. It produces an interesting feeling, and at times it appears to get too real (as in the photo of who I assumed was a heroin addict). These photos speak to how one perceives their own identity, through the experiences and sights that have been seen and lived.
ReplyDeleteI'm really struck here by the contrast between the personal and the universal and the permanent and the impermanent, where the photos of the buildings and ruins could be taken by anyone and at, to an extent, any time, while the pictures of the individual people could only have been captured in that one moment. The punctum for me is the photo of the man on the floor, because it straddles those two lines so well. It's unclear to me whether or not the photographer knows this man or has stumbled across him, and he seems so still and unlikely to get up that he borders between human and relic.
ReplyDeleteI called this essay "Sneakering." The first photo establishes the narrative for the rest, which don’t alone seem to have a direct story thread. But the sneakers make the story, like the camera, they wonder between and witness the scenes the photographer ultimately chooses to capture.
ReplyDeleteI am confused. Looking at these photos, I am jumping around with curiosity like a boy in a fruit market who wants to taste all the exotic flavors but doesn't have money to take the fruit with him. I do not enter these photos, but rather stand back like tourist with hands in my pockets.
ReplyDeleteThe simplicity of the captions -- the choice of place and year and just one additional word drove home the power of the contrast with the images from 1934 and 1910. Indeed, the earlier, "found" photographs didn't feel so different from the ones taken in the recent past by you. The commentary, however, takes this to an entirely different place than the photos take you to on their own -- the resistance to tourist photography is mainly only evident in the one called "pose" where the human subject is on side of the frame instead of at its center, indicating a resistance to the standard pose one would expect.
ReplyDelete