Richard Misrach

Up to this point in the class, this is the photographer whose pictures I like the most, and whose work I feel I can relate to the most. My favorites were of the nighttime images with unusual lighting on the subject. I like the dreamlike qualities that were apparent in his images. They were simple, but beautiful. All of his images seemed to communicate a kind of solitude that I seem to identify with. It seems like he is going to these places and spending a couple days there alone taking pictures. Most of his work seemed to be in the outdoors which is what I prefer to photograph, and with the exception of a few images, they were absent of people. I have never been one to photograph people, I'd rather interact with nature in my photographs. Overall I like the fact that he was taking images of real-life places, and through his photographic process, giving them a fantasy/dreamlike quality.

First Panoramic Image

Sally Mann

I have seen this video on Sally Mann once before, and even after viewing it this second time, I'm still unsure of what to think of her. I admire that she takes pictures because she enjoys it, and that there is not an intentional greater meaning that she is trying to communicate. She took pictures of dog bones because she took one and liked it, so she decided to take more; in her mind she is taking pictures because it is what she enjoys doing. I suppose how someone feels about her can be attributed to the culture that the viewer was raised in. It is hard for me to imagine taking pictures of my children like that in today's times because of all of the potentially negative things that might happen. But if I try to put myself in the context of where she is living, and how she was raised, then I understand her mindset behind the photographs; they were her children and they were nearby, so using them as a subject in her work was a no-brainer. I disagree with her daughter in that I believe the pictures of the immediate family is what she will be remembered for most; but I did enjoy looking at her landscape photographs, and the process behind creating them. I think it's admirable in today's digital times that she continues to take pictures using older methods, especially the collodion prints. It seems like it would be very fun to try and make prints in this manner, and I like her outlook of hoping she doesn't screw up completely, but maybe just a little bit to make it more interesting; this outlook just speaks more to her making these images for fun. Controversy or no controversy, her pictures are beautiful compositions that I enjoy looking at.

Collier Schorr

I thought it was interesting how Collier Schorr immersed herself into her subjects in order to photograph them. She wanted a strong relationship to form between the subject and the viewer, and for this she created a strong relationship between herself and the subject. She built a relationship over several years with a family in Germany, and used the sons in her work. She would have them portray soldiers, both German and American. These were not to show just a German Soldier or an American Soldier,, but what was beneath; the person. When she was photographing the wrestlers, she spoke of how she had a friend who was a wrestler, and how they spent hours discussing only wrestling. She would ask questions about things that were second nature to a wrestler, but that she needed to know for her work. She was so involved with her work that while she was photographing, you could see someone get body slammed almost into her; it seemed like she just enters a zone where all she sees is what is through her eyepiece. It was also interesting how she said she wanted to explore life, and explore what it would have been like to have been born a boy; so through her work, she was doing this. She was capturing moments of male adolescence that intrigued her because they were foreign to her.