WEEK TWO- USES OF PHOTOGRAPHY
During week two of Uses of Photography I found it incredibly interesting to learn in depth how aperture, shutter speed, exposure and many other useful photography techniques help to improve different aspects of images. The task ‘100 shots around the block’ was extremely insightful as it encouraged us to learn more about our cameras and how to use them manually. During this activity, the class divided into small groups and wandered the city searching for photo opportunities that could arise. This activity helped me to pay attention to smaller details such as the design and architecture of the buildings around me. I found that I was more prone to taking photos of buildings and landscapes then groups of/ or individual people, this made sense to me as I personally prefer to take images of nature and my surroundings then of staged shoots or people. This correlated with the week two reading ‘In Plato’s Cave’ by Susan Sontag which commented on how taking “a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or things) mortality, vulnerability, mutuality.”
During week two we presented our Pecha Kucha PowerPoints that focused on exploring a photographer and providing the rest of the class with insight into the lives and work of these photographers. My presentation centred around the photography of Max Dupain, an Australian photographer who focused some of his images around Australian life. Through creating this PowerPoint, I was able to draw understanding from the week two text again through Susan Sontag’s quote that “photographs actively promote nostalgia”. Dupain’s images captured a particular time in Australian history. His images encapsulate the Australian experience through shots of Bondi beach in the 1920s and groups of people gathering on the beach. Overall, through pairing the weeks reading with both the 100 shots around the block activity and my Pecha Kucha style PowerPoint I was able to discover how I can manually use my camera to capture both personal and nostalgic images.
Reference:
Sontag, S (1979) In Plato’s Cave; chapter 1, pp 3-24, Penguin, Harmondsworth