I love this article because it speaks to how photography straddles a fine line between art and a documentary instrument. As an artist I personally see photography as another iteration of visual knowledge – somewhere between sculpture and theatre. Where we experience that captured moment in time – yes posed - arranged and framed by the photographer – but we do this subjectively through our imagination and communications all the time ! Having lived in New York City for many years – it can be beautiful and ugly at the same time. You can’t describe it – but a photograph can capture it. Yet, as archivists, to separate and dumb down the value of photographic documents by labeling them as “images,” “picture files,” and “graphic media” is to lose an opportunity for knowledge sharing and access. Those who hold to the textual paradigm – see the world as flat.
This is a great article! It reminds me of a Photographer named Richard Renaldi he poses strangers in public as if they knew each other. I think it is amazing to see the reaction he got from those being photographed.
See the story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/richard-renaldi_n_3604763.html
His project site here: http://www.renaldi.com/projects/?page=about#id=album-11&num=content-188
I love this (especially that first girl and the artist in the full fur coat!) and think it goes to show how the uses of photography are always evolving -- this strikes me as a very 21st-century project, speaking to our need to connect and see the world as a smaller, friendlier place -- even if the project originated online. There's a photographer doing a similar project in Boston now: http://portraitsofboston.com/
I love this article because it speaks to how photography straddles a fine line between art and a documentary instrument. As an artist I personally see photography as another iteration of visual knowledge – somewhere between sculpture and theatre. Where we experience that captured moment in time – yes posed - arranged and framed by the photographer – but we do this subjectively through our imagination and communications all the time !
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in New York City for many years – it can be beautiful and ugly at the same time. You can’t describe it – but a photograph can capture it.
Yet, as archivists, to separate and dumb down the value of photographic documents by labeling them as “images,” “picture files,” and “graphic media” is to lose an opportunity for knowledge sharing and access.
Those who hold to the textual paradigm – see the world as flat.
This is a great article! It reminds me of a Photographer named Richard Renaldi he poses strangers in public as if they knew each other. I think it is amazing to see the reaction he got from those being photographed.
ReplyDeleteSee the story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/richard-renaldi_n_3604763.html
His project site here: http://www.renaldi.com/projects/?page=about#id=album-11&num=content-188
I love this (especially that first girl and the artist in the full fur coat!) and think it goes to show how the uses of photography are always evolving -- this strikes me as a very 21st-century project, speaking to our need to connect and see the world as a smaller, friendlier place -- even if the project originated online. There's a photographer doing a similar project in Boston now: http://portraitsofboston.com/
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing, Cassandra. I just started following the Portraits of Boston on Facebook. Good stuff.
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