Visual Metaphor

Ellie Pagnano

3/16/16

P.6

A voice that can barely speak

David Rosenberg

 

I am now old,

though that wasn’t always the case,

I have seen more than I should have,

And lived longer than many of my kind,

Some believe what I went through was a myth,

Though I would love to ask them how they would feel if their mother, brother, or father got Taken away,

If you never got to see them again,

How would you feel?

When the people that used to be your neighbors got thrown into gas chambers,

Other starved to death,

How would you feel if you got reduced down to numbers

Digits that cause you to be inferior; less than,

I have seen more death than I would like to admit,

And though these events happened long ago,

The memories are etched in my mind,

I wonder sometimes why me and not them,

Why was I spared out of the six million taken?

This world makes me sad, angry, upset,

Why so many people waste their lives when so many didn’t get the chance to lives thiers,

Through my eyes I cry for the ones that don’t believe,

Though I speak for the ones that do,

And I am a SURVIVOR.

I am a blanket of darkness,

I’m the whisper that sends chills up your spine,

The one so many are afraid of,

I am the cool, eerie feeling you get when you hear footsteps in your house late at night,

I am misunderstood,

To some I’m a celebration,

And to other the worst thing that their mind can imagine,

I’m the unfathomable,

The one thing people aren’t sure of,

I’m the question that people would love to answer,

As she is one of the last survivors,

Soon I will absorb her too,

No one knows me,

No one can see me,

And no one can even visualize me,

But the people who suffered the Holocaust can come pretty close,

Their experience people may say is worst than death,

Though I know similarly to Hitler people fear me,

Because I am the time bomb that will explode,

And no one knows when,

I am Death.

I am not old,

I have not lived through a Holocaust,

But I know those who have,

The event is not burned in my mind,

The numbers are not  burned on my skin,

I see the blanket of darkness though,

We share that fate,

I know what’s it’s like to have the blanket absorb a soul,

To see the light fade out at the end of the tunnel,

While your hands begin to shake,

The feeling of loss consumes you,

The darkness eats you up inside,

Life is a constant struggle to survive,

Step by step she continues,

While in my own mind I’m drowning,

Struggling to come up for air,

To get out of the haze and find myself,

To know what I want to do in this life,

While she has no one left in hers,

A fight were battling,

As seconds tick by,

Time.

Time has separated us,

Left us on a street with no map,

And though we’re more common than not,

Our paths will never cross but they do merge,

Because she is a hero,

And soon,

Darkness will absorb us both.

Group Portraits - Inspirations for what I want to do

These are some portraits of group photography that I would like to emulate. I really enjoy the style and fluidity of the photo even though they’re posed.

Annie Leibovitz Life Through a Lens- Summary and Inspiring pictures

Annie Leibovits definatly is one of those photographers that when you see her pictures it makes you think. Her work for Vanity Fair and the Rolling Stones was both interesting and unique, it had her trademark. She knew the “ defining moment” even when others would of put down thier camera. I really enjoyed her pictures for both magazines both different but equally as memorizing. Though if I had to pick one over the other, I would say Vanity Fair. I think for two reasons, one it’s really hard to position people the right way and get the photo to look good ( I know from the Magazine project last year) and two because of how crazy her photo shoots were; she branched out and tried new stuff.  I also enjoyed the colos she used in her photos. I don’t think I’ve seen photos from the film before, or at least not that I remeber. Throughout the film we got to know Annie as not only a famous photographer but a person. How the role just became her and how she adapted to such a crazy lifestyle. At first she wanted to be an art teacher and it shows how easy things can change, wich I think was an importand message. I believe Leibovitz had such a long career because she was creative, bossy, smart, she saw an image and she fufilled the idea despite the cost. As others said in the movie she saw things others didn’t.

Here are some of my favorite photos done by her:

Henri Cartier Bresson-The Decisive Moment

Who was Henri Cartie Bresson:
Henri was a frech photgrapher whos spontaneous photos helped establish photojournalism as an art form. Always seen with his camera, he is knows as one of the most influential photgraphers of the 20th century. He was the oldest of five children and his family was wealthy, he was educated in Paris and soon developed his love for both photgraphy and literature. In later years he traveled to Africa to hunt both Antelope and Boar he regained his interest in potography and enjoyed taking shots moreso then printing them. His ideas remained he same for most of his life, loving the natrual beauty of the image and not thinking it needed any croping or enhancing.

The Decisive Moment means that thier is a single instance the meaning of an event was most clearly represented graphically. It was the responsibility of the phtographer to capture that representation. It refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself. Bresson made such a big impact on photography due to his abilities to capture such moments. He said two key factors played in to knowing when to take the shot, knowing and intuition. Knowing requires constant attention and it’s intentional while intuition is soly based on instinct. 

Some of his famous work: 

I really like all these photos, not only can you see the decisive moment clearly, it feels like your almost apart of the photo due to it being so spontaneous; as if you’re spying.  My favorite photo may be the first one. I love how happy the single persons seems so happy in comparison to the couple. I also think it’s a beautiful photo witht he Effiel Tower in the background.

Alfred Stieglitz-Photography as Art- His life and famous piecies

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was incredibly influential in making photgraphy an accepted fine art form over his 50 year career. He also ran some New York art galeries in the 20’s and was married to Georgia O’keeffe. He was very brights atttending a private school until his junior year of highschool and then went to school in Germany for his last year. He then went off to study mechanical engineering in Berlin  wich is where he was first introduced to photogrpahy. He enrolled in a chemistry class that researched the chemistry of photography. He then submitted work for a holiday contest in a British Magazine named “ Amateur Photographer” where he recieved first for this piece. 

His brother helped him buy a buisness and from their he worked soly on photgroahy and ended up getting a job at the Ameteur photgrapher, writing, regularly. Over all his work showed a great master of technacality; he had tone, texture and revealed different ideas. His later work show a decline in pictorial photogrpahy and a rise about the modern world. 

Here are some of his most famous works:

I choose a variety of pictures, I like the last photo of his wifes hands, though it has a really creepy almost possesed feel to it. I also really like “ To Hold the Moment” the tress with the lights. The two photos are similar in the sense that their both dark and mostly only have two colors. 

 

Light, Shadow, and Reflection Pictures

These photos were taken when Michiko and I experimented with the project and had Bella as our model. We tried different background with the lights off in the room and got some really interesting photos with some cool shadows, light and reflection. I really like how they all turned out because thier different and show different backgrounds. My favorite picture has to be the last one. I love the background with the light reflecting off her face. The shutters in the back also complete the photo, wich is intersting because at first I was going to crop it out. 

Light, Shadow, Reflection Contact sheet and some pictures taken over Winter Break

This picture I actually took over winter break, but it works as a silhouette wich is really nice. I like how you can see the brisels on the tree and the sharp contrast between the black fern and white background. I also like the grass which is visible but doesn’t draw to much attention.