Within the second week of the Month/Semester, Brian allowed the class to experiment and find our styles of photograhy by sending us around the CBD to practice using manual setting in a camera, whether it is from a DSLR or from your everyday-smartphone. It was a super-bright and sunny day, what a coincidence. I had the opportunity to check around A’beckett street. After 1 hour of sight-seeing and picture-taking, I went back with the others to check on the photos and saved it in the shared class folder.
3 days after Tuesday we had our second class. Project Brief 1 was due, which everyone in the class had to present a photographer/visual artist that inspired them. For mine I chose Duane Michals, an American photographer whose work I find very attractive.
He is the person first known for his Photo-sequences, mini movies that entails a narrative around love, mortality, sexuality, life & celebration of youth. He also likes to put his handwriting as an extension of his picture to give more context and background he believes the picture alone can not tell you. He doesn’t believe that “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Because you can only learn so much from a photo.
I love how Duane likes to break the rules, since he doesn’t know that there is a rule. He does what his mind provoked him to do, and let his emotion lead the creative process of his work. While often criticized, it only inspires him more to continue his work.