ARE COMPUTERS MAKING OUR LIVES WORSE/ DISCOURSE DEBATE

I find this a very interesting subject in which i am contempt with my opinion because i feel i agree and also argue against.

FOR COMPUTERS

I think computers are very important because they give us an advantage and help us do certain things a little quicker. As for the whole nation they help keep us safe because they can do things for us that we might not be able to see using the human eye or brain, such as tracking peoples every move and CCTV for catching criminals. i feel this is important for the development of the world, with computers we can shop at home, monitor things without having to move around a great deal and we also get the opportunity to communicated with one another all over the world without any great difficulty. I feel these are all the positives that computers have for us and this helps us move forward and not backwards in our quest for developing a better world and environment for us.

AGAINST COMPUTERS

I might seem safe but behind every computer the is someone watching and monitoring every computers owners actions. This makes me think twice and be a bit wary about computers when it comes to sharing your private life on there. We are nowadays very depended on computers to teach us things that should come natural, such as traditional learning, in some cases exercise, and babysitting. Computers are capable of doing anything nowadays and this makes us the human race very lazy as we now do not have to leave the comfort of out homes to get out and do things and we would normally do if we did not have computers we are now being tracked out every movement through passports and oyster card which now all have chips and this enables the government to monitor our every movement. The privacy is non-existent to be honest. So these are the negatives that come with computers.

FINAL THOUGHT/VERDICT

All in all i think when it comes down to it i think computers come with both negatives and positives it all depends on how we use them as a nation. Are we using them for purposeful issues or are we using them for marketing purposes only, for every computer used all over the world there is some else making money for it but i think if we use computers for positive reasons then all is good.

Fashion Photography

Above is Tocarra an Americas next top Model contestant who actually won the show as a big girl and represented plus size models in a positive way. this is one of the shots from the show which she took and i can see a lot of discomfort , the fear factor of having a huge tarantula crawling on your hand and she managed to stay calm and pull of the look they were going for, i love this image it says a lot about the bravery that fashion models have to show in order to produce their best work.

Fashion Photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other items of fashion and it is most often conducted for Fashion magazines and advertisements.

I personally enjoy it because it is very bold and creative, nowadays fashion photography goes beyond just showing off the garment, there is more to it, there are now teams of designers, make up artists, and stylists working very hard to make the image very interesting. the poses and body postures used nowadays are very uncomfortable and eccentric, but the final image is always stunning. there are a number of photographers whose work i enjoy in Fashion and i will be looking at their work and stating what stands out from their work and what it is that makes me tick about their work.

Rankin

This is one of my favourite fashion photographers Rankin. The British photographer is very unique and like to try things that have never been done before, Rankin likes to push the boundaries and be creative with every picture he produces. In the programme 7 photographs which changed Fashion he basically recreates a number of existing famous fashion photographs which are well respected in the fashion world, also these images have been  taken by very famous photographers of the past. 

On the left is the original image shot by Blumenfield for the Vogue front cover. It is a classic image in which Rankin has recreated and put his own little twist to it adding more bolder make up and also shifting things and including certain aspect which other people wouldn't dare to change about the original image and Rankin's has crossed this border ad actually made his recreation a better version. i lover Rankin's version it is more up to date and i feel like i can relate to it more, and actually get excited by it. it has a lot more going on it is not boring and it is way sexier than the original shot.

Modernism/ Post-Modernism

My understanding of Modernism is that it is about understanding cultural existence of things such as, ethnic backgrounds, communities, originality,tradition and religion. I think you can change things around to benefit the community, cultural existence and tradition of the original subject. This is Modernism because the focus is on developing the subject. The words creation, depth and purpose come to mind when talking about Modernism, because they just about summarise why a certain thing is the way it is.

Post Modernism is more about focusing on the aesthetic side of things, it it about the finished product and in some cases profit. Developing something so that it benefits business and appearance. There is no worries on how this product or subject would benefit the community or country or the people.It is all about the desire of something and taking a chance with something not really knowing what the after effects will be.

Luke Swank is a modernist photographer and i have chosen to look at one of his photographs, i specifically like this photograph when it comes to this subject because it is a classic example of what modernism in terms of photography is, or how its portrayed. This is a standard picture the photographer has not focused on the lighting,cropping or composition as much because he is trying to tell a story about the subject and the people who go there and the community surrounding it, i think that he has achieved this and still kept the image it simply and sophisticated.

Man Ray

Man Ray is another unique photographer, i think would be listed on the category of post-modernist photographers. his style is so unique that its all about the aesthetics of the image. he uses various techniques from making photographs in the darkroom just by sprinkling and scattering interesting objects on photographic paper and then just switching the light on very briefly to allow these objects to imprint themselves on the paper and then just developing it out, no camera involved. The image above is an example of post modernism in relation to photography.

Bibliography/References

http://landscapist.squarespace.com/journal/2007/3/29/urban-ku-47-why-im-a-postmodernist-sort-of.html

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/6aa/6aa109.htm

http://esteflex.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-postmodernism.html

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/images/ray.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/ray.shtml&usg=__iQCpl-jhvRtK5lpHPabkCWJ10r4=&h=333&w=500&sz=47&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=3xlAOlWz3yUUtM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMan%2BRay%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

FEMINISM

Hilary Clinton,Mike Hackabee,John Mc Caine and Barack Obama, from this alone you can tell who the stress is getting the better off.


Feminism is the belief that women should have political,sexual and intellectual rights equal to those of men. We come from times where man used to rule every thing. in today's society we have seen this idea of alpha male slightly evaporate as women have now a voice and can do things for themselves. the independence of today's women has changed how we view women today.

In the olden days there where no women at office, parliament, sport and other significant human roles. in this day and age there seem to be more more women getting involved in everything that men can do women believe they can also do. i think this is a fair situation although i do think the male and the female species are both built differently and there are certain things that women can not do in which man can easily do, these things are commonly situations which demand dominance, physical strength, control of emotions and so forth. i believe men can deal with these situations better, they can deal with pressure better than women can as women can always easily get emotional hence the reason why i think there are a lot of male presidents than they are women.

i have chosen Hilary Clinton as my stud for this subject because i feel she is today's feminist. she believes that a women can be in office and run the government of America. this is all well and fair enough but Hilary's campaign came to a blow or halt because she did not work hard enough to get the majority vote, she did not put in as much work as the other candidates did. she automatically assumed that she would get the votes simply on the fact that because she is the wife of the popular former president bill Clinton then everyone was going to vote for her, but this was not the case and that is why President Barack Obama won the election in my point of view because he put in the hard work and did not try to take the easy way.

Commercial Photography.

This is a shot that i took while on holiday last year, hugely influenced by the people above, footballer David Beckham and actor Djimon Hounsou.

This is another field of photography which i find interesting depending on what is being commercialised. I find underwear adverts very interesting in the way their shot and done. There is a lot you can do for this kind of commercials because you can have single shots ,group shots, and even shots with both male and female models in them.

The thing i love about these kind of shots is there are no limits they can be done in all sorts of locations, such as the sea, studio, or anyplace desired. They are normally well planned photography because by looking at the image you are always able to tell that a lot of research and careful planning went into them and also careful consideration as to which model to use , this where i think they are clever and know how to get their customers attention.

Above are two of my favourite adverts of male underwear ever because they are both individually aesthetic. The models used are also a huge part of why i like them. they are two different ads but to me i see a possibility of making one image with these type of models. i like the black model because his skin tone is very dark and that's what makes it work for me. i like the contrast of a white guy and a very dark black guy. so i had an idea that why cant there be an advert of both a very dark black guy and a pale but not too pale white model both in one shot. this was an idea which was always playing on my mind for about two years, as i had seen adverts of people like Freddie Ljunberg, Orlando Bloom and many more famous models.

One day on my hotel Balcony while on holiday my two friends set by the wall enjoying the sun and on the background of this was a distracting tree but this was the shot i had always visualised for a couple of years and i now had the opportunity to take it. It was natural and i had to obviously direct certain body stance but other than that it is one of those images you can never take again because the original is always the one that means a lot.

i think this image can be used to commercialise male underwear, maybe holiday destinations as my models look as thought they are enjoying the hot sun i also think that it can be used as a model agency symbol or a front cover for a women's magazine to idolise male bodies.

By Condry Calvin Mlilo

SEMIOTICS

Semiotics is the way we communicate to one another. It is the interaction between us with Text and cultural interaction. It is external reality the ability of being aware of things being communicated to us. when signs are used the are often related to knowledge. We communicate to each other with intent, negotiate and exchange meanings this is in relation to sign communication. A sign has a physical form and is organised into codes such as words,gestures and architecture.

Semiotics has been used for many years even before the time of film and television. There has always been signs from ancient times, paintings and drawings have always used semiotics. In today's society a lot of adverts use a lot of obvious signs/semiotics. On this post i am going to try and and discuss some of my favourite adverts that have used semiotics to communicated and wheel me in and other customers in.

The advert above is one of my favourite of all times because of the way they have used signs that have nothing to do with the product their selling but yet have successfully been able to get a lot of customers tuned in and wanting to know more about this product. Sex plays a very being part in this advert, women shaking their ass is a symbol that this company is targeting a male demographic. I also think maybe young women are also a target market here because this advert sort of makes you want to dance to it and i can see a lot of young career women getting up and shaking their ass. This use of signs here i think is a perfect example of semiotics. i think the car is about being fun and music and there is a summer feeling about the car being sold so this automatically widens their target audience and gets a lot of admirers for their product.

this was a well planned advert and if you didn't know what it was about you would think it was something else being sold to you but at the end of the advert you get informed and it all sort of makes sense and you kind of like the product even more.

By Condry Calvin Mlilo

CAUGHT SLIPPIN' ( PORTRAITURE/ PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY.)

Raven, Asad, Asad-2, Basil and Rui "2oo8"

For this blog post i have decided to take a gamble and put on show a very interesting series of portraits that i have taken in the past year. its almost an ongoing project. I call this " Caught Slipping". Slipping is a term used in urban culture which means caught off guard. i have taken a series of images of friends and family members which i caught of guard. These are moments you can not remake they are moments which when captured make great photographs, and i also have flipped the script in the sense that the Sleeping stands for Sleeping in the photographs. so my subject or sitters are actually caught of guard dosing off.

Raven is a close friend of mine. i took this shot on an Easy jet flight to Portugal. we were on our way to lads week holiday. It was five of us and we looking forward to a week of sun,booze and sexy females. The night before we waited at the air pot for hours because we had a six O'clock flight and we didn't want to be late as we were from London and flying from Luton. i think the wait had finally kicked in during the flight and quite a few of us dosed off and i was able to capture Raven , Asad and Rui. i like Raven's shot because there is a lot going on the sleeping technique used is fascinating and they way he opens his mouth as he snores is quite comical and adds to the picture.

I think it also became a fascination of how people all have different ways of sleeping as to the techniques used, Asad leans forward and also in both shots he uses his hand for support on the weight of his head compared to Raven and Rui who both let their head back on the head rest and both actually open their mouths as they snore. I suddenly became intrigued by this and through out the holiday i got shots of my friends tired and sleepy. The final shot is my cousin Basil and this was actually on his birthday 22nd night. the whole family had gone out for dinner and had a lot of fun, there was music and drink at a famous South African restaurant by the West end. The night had finally taken a toll on him and i found it quite overwhelming and somehow sweet in a sense that the fellow had a very long day opening presents and eating and dancing away celebrating a big day in his life. i think this image puts an icing on the cake on the series because of the story behind it. This story of Basil's 2'nd birthday is very sweet i find, maybe this is because we are related and it means more to me than it would to a normal observer to the image.

These are my portraits of friends and Family, i hope you enjoy this particular blog because its almost my own personal project. The is also a documentary feel to it so reading the post will actually help with the understanding of the images and hopefully this will make it more enjoyable.

By Condry . Calvin . Mlilo

Eileen Perrier

Eillen's mom "Grace"

Above "Red,Gold,Green"

Afro Hair Beauty Show "1998 to present"

Following her first ever visit to her native Ghana young documentary photographer Eileen Perrier decided to work in color and to carry on a project which would link her visit and her family. Her images from Ghana sort of showed a better side of things and a more happier side on Africa than those of the media which were in black and white, Eileen could not relate to the black and white images showing poverty and distress in Africa as she was raise in the United Kingdom, so i feel she decide to flip the script to instead use color and show vibrancy and beauty in a more positive way.

After the visit to Ghana she began to do portraits of her own family, she would go to members of her family set up a backdrop in a space in the family home and then take portraits of them. she called this project Red, Gold and Green, amongst this piece are portraits of her aunts, extended family members and her mother. She also did projects on total strangers with whom otherwise she never have had the opportunity to meet so this is what makes some of her work fascinating, the courage to walk up to strangers and ask to take their photograph/ portrait. This is evident from her projects such as the Paris Metro station tittle "Nation 1999", the "Afro Hair and Beauty Show 1998", and advertising in the London Loot newspaper and on GLR radio for the project "Grace 2000" named after her late mother. i like the project Grace because in the images is an image of her mother which is the last image she took of her mother alive. its almost as though this was meant to happen for this project because this particular image suits perfect with the project and naming it after her mother makes it that extra little bit meaning full.

I had the pleasure to meet Eileen Perrier after her seminar and was able to get a autograph just to put the icing on the cake after her lovely presentation of her work.

http://www.eileenperrier.com/page12.htm

http://www.eileenperrier.com/

NAN GOLDIN

"Nan and Brian in bed" 1981 "The Hug" 1980

Nan Goldin is an American Documentary photographer born in the 1950's. She grew up in Washington DC in an upper-middle class Jewish family in the Boston Massachusetts suburb of Lexington. She attended a local high school until she enrolled into the Boston community school where a teacher introduced her to a camera. At this stage she was just 15 years old. Her first solo show consisted of images about the city's gay and transsexual communities which she was introduced to by her friend David Armstrong. After she graduated Nan Goldin moved to where she began work on the post-punk new wave music scene, along with the city's most vibrant gay culture of the late 1070s and early 1980s. She was drawn to the hard drug culture and this is evident in her work from her famous work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency a tittle taken from a song in the moments.

Nan Goldin had a view on sexual relationships and was fascinated by different sexualities and also found it interesting how men and women are seen in relationships as to the roles they play. she took photographs from her own personal relationships, close friends and the circle of life she lived in. The photographs above are the ones that stand out for me because she portraits her boyfriend Brian in a very masculine way in which she seems to be the smaller player in the relationship.In the photograph titled Brian and Nan in bed they seems to be a lack of communication suggesting a crack or a bad time in the relationship. they also seems to be no positive body language which gives away a negative vibe between the two, i find this very fascinating that she was willing to portrait/ document her own life/ relationships in this way, for me it makes it that extra little bit more interesting and more meaningful.

In the other image entitled The Hug, there seems to be much happiness and sexuality. it is almost a very romantic shot in which she is clinging onto the arms of her very masculine partner. I think in this shot she was trying to show what attracts her in a man and i am not surer if this is the same partner in the other image Brian. The arm coming around her waist on a very aggressive but yet gentle way suggest the feeling of safety. she seems to feel very safe and happy with this guy and i find this photograph very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKDsrMH-Sg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEk&feature=related

SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY.

I find sports photography very fascinating because of the time and skill it takes to get a good photograph. It is all about that decisive moment and knowing when to snap the shot. i like sports photography which show a lot of action and different things happening all in one frame. i have chosen one of the shots i have personally taken to show on my blog because this photograph has a great story behind it.

I went on holiday last summer with my friends to Portugal and one day we were at the pool area with a football having fun. i always carried my SLR around with me in case i see something worth shooting and there it was my friend Moses bicycle kicking the ball from the edge of the pool and lending in the pool. as soon as i saw what he was going to attempt i got ready quietly and waited for that freeze moment of the shot.i like the composition of the shot, his whole body is in the frame, and the ball, and also in the background you can see other holiday goers just getting on with their sun tanning. i also like the fact that you can see my friend Rui' looking over as he walks across the pool area and he glances at Moses as he is about to connect with the ball.

The image above is of Didier Drogba after the Barcelona versus Chelsea. It is a great photographic shot because it captured emotion just another side of sport which you don't get to see in photography but i love the expression on his face, he was basically angry that his team had lost the game and felt that the referee was bias and decided to show it. it shows how passionate he is and how much he loves the game and his club. i think for this reason this shot is beautiful and is very significant. it is the type of image that will be remembered for a long time in the world of football and sports photography. This image shows that photography can do certain things that other forms of media can not produce.

Gerhard Richter Portraits.

Betty,1977

selbstportrait, 1996

My understanding of Gerhard Richter's work is that he had a very unconventional approach to portraiture. The visit to the National Portrait Gallery showed that the work that was on show was paintings that he had made mostly from Newspaper magazines in the 60's. He also had a few private collections in which he had painted of family members, or from people he associated with, from his circle of work and life. i found most of his work very fascinating because it left me with a lot of unanswered question in which i had to make up my own stories and answers to try and understand each individual painting. The reason why i felt like this is because Gerhard Richter obscured most of his work the reason being that he believed that A portrait must not express anything of the sitters 'soul', essence or character', this was almost a portraiture code he lived by because he followed it up in most of his work, he backed it up.

The way that Gerhard Richter worked left us as observers with some questions and also makes us question the relationships between the people blurred in his portraits just like he did. he is also teaching us that we have a unique way of viewing the world. There is some of his personal paintings in which he did not obscure the sitter, maybe this is because these where people that meant a great deal to him and he wanted to show the world their personalities and characteristics. An example for this is the painting titled Betty, 1977. in this piece his daughter is in focus and the painting is in color and its a very vibrant portrait. The pictures above the page are some examples of his work. i have chosen a self portrait of him because it compliments the saying he mentioned " a portrait must not express anything of the sitters 'soul' essence or character."

http://www.gerhard-richter.com

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/biography/work/

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/exhibitions/exhibition.php?exID=581

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY/ A 13 NIGHT SHOT

A night shot, of the A13 by the Beckton flyover. This was shot from the old Beckton alps ski slope. the col

our contrast of this image is amazing. It is shot on a digital canon 350 D camera at the shutter speed of 30 secs. i enjoy the way i have managed to capture the movement of cars and the stillness of the night street lights from a far distance.

The dark shades of black look really good ad contrast well with the rest of the image as it is a night shot.i also like the whole panoramic feel to the image, you sort of really get drawn in and find yourself following the lines of the motorway. your start to concentrate on the middle part of the image. originally the image was shot as a landscape so that it can give me an option as to where to crop it. i like night photography because because its about patience, technique, and take a bit of concentration to get the shot that you want.

This is a shot taken in Paris,i like the lighting because it actually took me a long time to get this shot. this city is poorly lit at night unlike London and new york, so i had to shoot this at 30sec and f8 to get the light in. This is why i like night photography its about patience and persistence