Natalia's Photography Blog

  Hiroshi Sugimoto is a talented photographer who often uses black and white photography in combination with long exposures to capture images that surpass reality. I particularly enjoy the photos where he captures images of water and the sea and the long exposures of movie theaters. Sugimoto's images are simple and beautiful. I really enjoy the image above because of the clear cut down the middle where the sky separates from the water, and the beautiful blend of the tones of the water.  Especially with Hiroshi Sugimoto's series of using long exposure to photograph entire movies in a movie theater, he seems to push the boundaries of reality. While the environment seems to look familiar to the viewer, the idea that we are actually looking at an entire movie captured as one image can lead us to question what reality is. It makes me wonder about how we perceive the world on a daily basis. What is our "shutter speed," and how would the world change if this were different. ...

  Alec Soth is a very technical photographer who creates beautiful and visually interesting photos. His use of muted, pale colors brings a feeling of antiqueness, dream-like feel, or a distant memory. When I look at his photos, I begin to ask more questions rather than questions being answered. Although people are often present in a lot of Soth's photos, there is still a feel of loneliness and despair, especially in the photos I provided here. Even though the people are surrounded by beautiful scenery or partaking in things they assumedly enjoy, their face shows a blank, uninterested expression.  These photos show incredible details, giving an almost painterly effect. The serious longing faces of the subject make me feel sad and worried for them. It feels like they are all feeling the weight of the world, the depth of life on their shoulders. The use of all sorts of subjects, rather than a specific demographic of people, while they are all exhibiting a very similar expression ...

 Ralph Gibson is a very talented artist that approaches photography in a very simplistic, minimalistic way but also exhibits very technical qualities. I really enjoy the black and white, raw quality of his photos. Like we talked about in class, Gibson arranges his photos in a way that juxtaposes humans versus objects what would otherwise be mundane. Placing a photo of an object next to a human adds a layer of meaning to the object that would not be there without the other, but also adds a simplistic feel to the human that would not be there without the object.  Gibson also chooses to place photos next to each other that usually compliment each other beautifully with complimentary forms or contrasting tones. For example, the image above shows two of Gibson's photos. Both of these images show sharp lines created by light and shadows which compliment each other, while the first image is very light and has a lot of middle greys while the second photo has a lot of darks and lights ...