The Art of Photography

Is photography art? Or is art photography?

This has been a highly debated subject over the past century, ever since technology evolved into what it is today. You can call art vision, imagination, or seeing, but it all comes down to the same thing: art is the ability to envision a final result in your mind's eye, and then to make it reality with the tools at hand. Cameras are our tools and photos are the final result. It's never been about the device. It's always been about seeing something, knowing how you want it to look, and making it sculpting it perfectly to your imagination.

Making it so is the easy part.

Seeing it in the first place is what makes a photographer an artist.

Power of observation is essential.

And snapping a camera is trivial.

Photography and painting are the same. Each renders imagination in a concrete form. The difference is that painters can work from mere imagination while photographers have life as a starting point. Both can take lifetimes to master the tools to make imaginations exactly as we intend. 

Although, its only one facet in art, I believe photography is definitely art.

My favorite form of art. 

Arts/Cultural Event: Zac Brown Band

October 10, 2012. I see cowboy boots, jean shorts, and plaid everywhere! Including myself. My roommate, Sophie and I are strolling through the Bryce Jordan Center, followed by two other girls, Kiersten and Maria who live down the halls from us. The sounds of our cowboy boots clack on the shiny floor and we’re profusely rubbing our arms to warm up after walking all the way from East halls through the bitter, October cold. Just earlier that day, I remember feeling really sick in the morning and thinking, “I’m definitely not going to be able to go.” I had skipped almost all of my classes that day in hopes of getting better, but I still remained in bed all day with Zac Brown Band playing lightly on my Spotify. It was such a tease and I don’t know why I would put myself through that, but I just didn’t have the energy to get up and change it. Every time the song ‘Chicken Fried’, I died a little bit inside. Why of all days, does my immune system choose to fail me now?

Around five o’ clock that evening, Sophie gets back from class and begins to try on different country themed outfits. Kiersten and Maria would also casually stroll into the room and ask opinions on their own arrangement of plaid and denim. I was so jealous. By the time ‘Chicken Fried’ came on for what seemed like the hundredth time, I made a rash decision, jumped out of bed, and declared, “I’m going!” I quickly showered, changed into a simple white dress and a denim button down, pairing the outfit with brown boots, and out the door we went.

After a quick ten minute walk to the BJC, here I stand in the stands, feeling completely cured and absolutely completely in shock that I will be seeing my all time favorite band in mere minutes. After the opening band left the stage and the stage turned dark, I was shaking with excitement. All of a sudden, the lights went crazy and there he was, Zac Brown! The next hour was full of dramatic lighting, t-shirt guns firing into the crowd, and everyone in the BJC becoming one voice and singing together to the melody of the music. After a couple hours, I was starting to lose my voice, but I was waiting for just one thing. My waiting paid off during the very last song of the concert, Chicken Fried! The crowd absolutely exploded and I was screaming at the top of my lungs until the very end. I inevitably lost my voice the next day but it was worth it for the perfect ending to a perfect concert.   

Beginning of the End

Beginning of the End:

1) English 15 Seminar; my very first college class. August 27^th, set my alarm super early so I could shower, get ready in my preplanned outfit, and have even more time to navigate my way through Penn State’s enormous campus (with an even bigger map, making it obvious that I am indeed a freshman). That day was sunny, perfect, and the air just rang with the pending excitement of the start of something new. Stepping into Willard for the first time, I expected I would be stepping into a big auditorium where class would take place with a couple hundred other undergrads. I had been warned about how big Penn State classrooms could be before even applying here, and I had been bracing myself all summer for them. Therefore, much to my surprise I was quite ecstatic to learn that my first class only consisted of about 20 or so people. I walked in and there was barely anyone in the classroom so I checked the time…I was 15 minutes early. Guess I planned out too much walking time. That never happened again. The day went by very fast. We were informed about our several projects, met our very nice professor, and that was the end of it; so far, so good. I can’t believe that was more than three months ago.

As the year progressed, I found out that this English class was by far, not only my first, but also my favorite college class this semester. This is due to many reasons, the first of which being it was my smallest class. All of my other classes confirmed my previous fears of huge lecture halls. Another reason is my all of a sudden liking towards writing. I blame all of the blogging. When we were informed that our biggest project in the class would be to make a blog and write in it occasionally, I have to admit that I wasn’t too enthused. In the past, I had always dreaded writing essays and I never even really understood the concept of blogging. I always thought that bloggers were either just angry people venting or a place for moms to trade recipes. This class changed my past opinions entirely. I learned that could indeed be for normal people talking about their adventures. And we did go on many adventures in this English class, such as a trip to an arboretum, and art museum and even a university run play. Not any ordinary English class that I had experienced in the past. The only catch was that we had to blog about our adventures. At first, I was a little hesitant, merely because I disliked writing anything in general, but our blog project changed that. I learned that writing for enjoyment was much better than the essays from high school. Instead of sitting down, trying to write about some obscure subject that in no way relates to you at all, I got to sit down and actually write about my day. Such a nice change. From this I learned that writing can actually be enjoyable. Blogging for me was just like telling somebody about my day and then writing it all down. Easy Peasy. That, to me was the most important thing I got from this English 15 class; a newly found enjoyment in writing.

 

2) http://imporvedartsmarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/social-network.html?showComment=1355188752427#c6540779126841929729

 

http://colorfulspots.blogspot.com/p/in-the.html

 

http://articulatingtheartsatpennstate.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water.html?showComment=1355189327176#c3203788016328083364

 

http://contemplationsoacck.blogspot.com/2012/09/backyard-wonderland.html?showComment=1355189641355#c2664278043975910320

 

http://knaviello.blogspot.com/2012/10/animal-house.html#comment-form

 

http://jrose412.blogspot.com/2012/12/for-love-of-music.html?showComment=1355189901150#c3019474808931805010

 

http://the1meltingpot.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brow-water.html?showComment=1355190302043#c5401115039648666618

 

http://haileyhere.blogspot.com/2012/09/do-i-walk-by-h.html?showComment=1355190763373#c8467344611836795684

 

http://knaviello.blogspot.com/2012/11/exit-through-gift-shop.html?showComment=1355190971484#c4218712677646672198

 

http://colorfulspots.blogspot.com/p/my-palmer-museum-visit.html?showComment=1355191184272

 

3) Ms. S, I filled out the SRTEs! J

In Red and Brown Water

The play ‘In the Red and Brown Water’ by Tarell Alvin McCraney is an enticing play that follows the life of a young girl named Oya. The play starts out with very traditional music and dancing by all of the actors, to the beat created by a three man band on the far left side of the stage. I was very compelled by these dancers and musicians because they set the tone for the entire play. The band used very unique instruments such as, what looked like, traditional African drums and wind chimes, giving the play a very cultural vibe to go with the actors’ very traditional dance. They wore all white wardrobes which gave all the dances an ethereal effect.

Once the dancing and music ceases, a girl introducing herself as Oya steps out into the middle of the stage. She narrates her actions for the audience and it soon becomes clear that every character does so as well, which made understanding the plot very easy for an amateur like me. From first introduction, the audience learns that Oya is a very good runner (almost good enough for nationals) but it is also becomes clear that her mother disapproves. The beginning of the plot revolves around Oya’s dilemma of going to states vs. staying home with her mother. She ends up choosing staying home over the states offer from “the man from state”, which in my opinion was the better choice, since her mother dies soon afterwards.

Oya continues her life by holding up her household and but it’s soon derailed when she is begins a love interest with Shango whom doesn’t treat her very well. Nevertheless, it is clear that they are deeply in love; made obvious with one recurring line throughout the play, when Shango reaches for Oya’s ear and “circles, caresses.” Shango soon leaves to join the army. When this happens, Oya settles for another admirer from her past, Ogun Size. They marry but her first concern resides apparently on getting pregnant. Events also begin to complicate after Shango, her true love, returns from the war. Even with both men competing for her, Oya’s main concern still remains on becoming pregnant…but with whom?

I believe this was the most important dilemma in the storyline for the main characters since at stake, was Oya’s happiness, future, and potential family. In the end, unfortunately things don’t work out in her favor. She chooses Shango but is betrayed when Shango knocks up another girl, Shun. The departing scene is Oya insisting on giving Shango a gift in congratulations; her ear; the ear that he had so often “circled, and caressed.” The audience is left with Oya passed out in the middle of the stage and a sense of wonder of “what’s after this?”

The only other plays that I have seen were Lion King and Rent on Broadway. These plays were both based on popular, well known storylines so of course I was very skeptical watching ‘In Red and Brown Water.’ I was a little overwhelmed in the beginning with the ‘all-of-a-sudden’ dancing and loud, unfamiliar music, but as the story progressed and the characters began developing, I really enjoyed the experience. I applaud McCraney on this production and thank him for opening my eyes to more types of theatre.

The Social Network

The Social Network

 

I watched The Social Network two years ago when it came out in theatres; so when I saw its name on the list of movies premiered in the Film Festival, the choice was obvious. Of course I watched it again because I remembered that I had walked out of the theatre thinking, “what a great movie!” What could be a more perfect than a college kid writing a review about a movie about other college kids? The Social Network is set on the Harvard University campus as a student there by the name of Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) creates the social networking site known as Facebook; another favorite topic of mine. The plot is full of drama; and the directors make that clear by setting the entire film as a flashback since it begins with several people suing Zuckerberg while the rest of the storyline explains how it got to that point. One of the people suing him is Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield; aka Spiderman). Eduardo starts out as Zuckerberg’s best friend from Harvard, the co-founder of Facebook, as well as the suave, popular counterpart to Zuckerberg’s socially awkward, pompous persona. As the plot twists and turns, Zuckerberg becomes badly influenced by a man named Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), a self proclaimed entrepreneur and business failure, who managed to squirm his way to a cut in Facebook. The duo ends up scamming Eduardo out of his fair share of Facebook, inevitably ending up in lawsuit. The other couple suing Zuckerberg in the movie is the twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (played by Armie Hammer and Josh Pence). They’re accusing Zuckerberg of stealing their idea of creating a social networking site after they went to Zuckerberg in the beginning of the film in attempt to get him to build one for them; since he is in fact the genius that he is. “Technically” Zuckerberg didn’t steal their idea, but in reality, he did. The writers of The Social Network did a great job in confusing the viewers on who to root for. Throughout the entire film, I felt annoyed that I couldn’t pity the poor, dorky main character as I do in other films; mostly due to the fact that Zuckerberg was portrayed as a pompous know-it-all who was rude to almost everybody that spoke to him. I give props to Jesse Eisenberg for his acting in this film because there is no way a real person could be that socially awkward. On the other hand, I couldn’t possibly root for the Winklevoss twins because 1) they’re portrayed as the antagonists, and 2) their last names are just pretentious. Therefore, I became the #1 Eduardo fan. All in all, the actors were great, the conflicts were great; and I think I loved The Social Network the most because it put an intriguing storyline behind one of my most favorite websites/severe addiction of Facebook.

ArboreFun

A typical, miserable Monday morning beginning with three classes in a row starting with an 8am; weather is rainy, cold, windy, and signs of fall finally making an appearance.  I thought no way could this get any worse, right? Wrong. I started the day with my Psych 100 class. It’s in the Sparks building which is only steps away from Willard Building where this lovely English class takes place, so I usually manage to get there quite early. However this Monday felt quite unusual. I sit to my regular seat in English, with only one other person from my class in the room. I sit there for a good fifteen minutes before I realize that nobody else is coming in. Tracing back to Friday, which seemed ages ago, I distinctly remember hearing our Professor telling us to meet at the Arboretum. With this, I bounce out of my seat, informing my classmate along the way, and we rush toward the complete other side of campus. As we’re zigzagging through East, I think, this is exactly where my miserable day started. Fate was tempting me to call it a day and crawl back into abandoned bed which was just mere steps away from where I was at that very moment. But no, I managed to persevere on our trek towards the Arboretum. We reached our class in record time and joined to the group before they split to explore. The class had met under a huge white overhang that looked like it was straight out of a 5 star hotel. Past it was a maze of trees and plants. I was amazed that what only appeared to be a little garden of bushes outside my dorm room window, actually managed to block out the entire campus from our perspective. Under the overhang, we broke up into our respective small groups and were left to own devices. I soon found out that wandering around trees were very peaceful. After a month of being surrounded by thousands of other Penn State undergrads with cars and Cata buses going to and fro; being in a secluded garden with the only other people appearing to be my English class and a couple of other elderly people, kind of put me at peace with my day. Getting lost in streams of colors and scents of the flowers had a very therapeutic effect. I remember thinking: I’ve found my happy place. Getting lost in a maze of trees, being amazed by how many plants are still alive, finding my favorite flower (sunflower), and even discovering huge fountains and gourd pavilions; I didn’t even feel the time fly by. Before I knew it, class was over and everybody was already gone. My group and I made our way back to East and I remember feeling so glad that I hadn’t taken the easy route and went back to bed before even giving the Arboretum a chance. As we left, I realized that the sky had cleared, the sun was shining, and I had the rest of the day to myself; the perfect ending to a disastrous beginning.

"Affirmative Action"

                                          

In the past, I had never really shown very much interest in the subject of art. My senior year of high school, I took an AP Art History class and everything we studied never seemed to catch my interest in any way. I just didn’t understand how simple paintings and sculptures could draw so much attention. I just thought of the pieces as, merely just plain paint on canvas that just so happened to be worth a lot of money. So as you can imagine, I wasn’t very enthused when I found out that our very first “field trip” in English 15S was indeed a trip to the only art museum on Penn State’s campus, the Palmer Museum of Art. When I arrived, I wondered aimlessly around the first floor as I observed art from ancient Asia and Europe, and thought, “This isn’t very much compared to my several trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art I used to take with my school, but at least it’s less walking.” After I circled the first floor about two or three times, I decided to explore the second level of the museum. As soon as I reached the very last steps of the staircase, the very first painting that caught my eye was the bright red and yellow mass of “Affirmative Action” by Jack Kearns. The little plaque next to it read “painted in 1987 with acrylic on canvas”. Even though it is only one piece out of the several in the very contemporary exhibit of the second floor in the Palmer, in my opinion is the most eye-catching. It depicts a woman smashing a large rock into pieces with what appears to be a hammer. Her facial expression is aggressive and her build is very muscular, yet her attire is very feminine as she dons high heels and a sundress. Although it was the colors of the work that caught my eye, it was the subject matter that made me stay and keep on observing. “Affirmative Action” was painted during World War II, when all of the men in America were oversees defending out country. So who would do all of the work at home? I’m sure all of you have learned from a history class in high school of some sort, that in this particular situation, the women of America stepped up to the plate and this painting draws attention to exactly that. It uses pathos to play to the emotions saying “women are strong and can hold up the fort just as well as the men” since back in those times, it was frowned upon for a women to be anything other than a caregiver, a cook, a maid, and most importantly a wife. The painting was a political message promoting equality among the minority groups of America and encouraging society to allow them to go to work and lend a helping hand when the country was in trouble. Jack Kearns did an excellent job of sending out this message in a creative ways. For this, he was known as “purveyor of Pop Art with a conscience.”