It turns out that my selection of POWs is a bit different from what you’ve chosen. Let me explain why. You can see the entire page at: http://isc.temple.edu/digiphoto-aae/Photo_S14/artSmartphone_S14/indexC1b.html
SELF-PORTRAITURE / PORTRAITURE
First of all, I find that a lot of your self-portraiture is really excellent. The shots by Janelle, Kajal, Katie, Laura, Maggie, Michael, Sam, Sean, and Steve are all very interesting. And I am not sure, but I also think that the photos by Kristi and Rita may or may not be self-portraits, (and actually, I am not sure about Kajal). But its not important - these are great examples of portraiture that are imbued with personality and mystery, all aided by the toned B&W technique. There is just enough there to make me interested and enough hidden to make me want to know more about these people. That is about half of the class, so that shows some real sophisticated shooting going on. And I congratulate you for that.
Some of these are more pensive and some even fraught with emotion like Janelle’s shot, Kajal’s picture with the hand in the mouth, and Maggie sitting out there in the snow, worried or scared about... what?!
Then we have Michael’s pensive shot looking down into the lens and Lindsey’s “guy in the car with the smoke”. I should mention one of Kristi’s first pictures pulling her hair up over above her head. That was an interesting shot, seen from the rear.
And most of all, if you look at Steve’s entire sequence of photographs, there are a lot of shots that are about him – almost an autobiographical series. After looking at these I feel like I know this guy after just the first critique. That’s pretty powerful. (Look at his post on the blog.)
Some of the shots are just more fun like Laura’s and Sam’s. And then we get Katie, just dreaming away. Kristie’s “Everlast” shot and Rita’s shot move more into the realm of anonymity. I’m not sure who either of these people are but there’s enough there to pique my interest and keep me looking at these photographs and wondering. You should all take a look at a series of photos by Philadelphia photo-artist Sarah Stolfa called “The Regulars”, shot when she as working at McGlinchys, an infamous Philly bar.
HANDS and FEET
Then we get to two pictures of hands - one by Jasmine and the other by Megan. The first seems like she might be proud that she got this ring from her sweetheart. The other one is just, well, I’m not sure. But I am intrigued. I should also say that the quality of the toning in Jasmine’s shot is extraordinary. Most of the shots in the Crit that have been softened by just the right little bit of warm tonality.
There also quite a few pictures of feet in this group. I didn’t pick any of those as a POW but as a group it is starting sort of a trend. These trends seem to happen within a class from time to time. I’m not sure why, but it is really interesting. This seems like the collective unconscious is sneaking up all of us.
SPACES / ENVIRONMENT
The last few pictures in the set are about interesting spaces. Alex and Hynda both have these very empty, lonely outside spaces.
Aubrey, Jada and Kelsey have some interior spaces for us to think about. And let me mention Maggie again because in her self-portrait she includes the environment for her person to be worried inside of, and Rita again because the space is just as important as the person. So both the person and the place have a similar complementary effect on the audience.
There are some other shots, Jasmine’s violet room, Katie’s lamp fragment and Maggie’s desk lamp that include a sense of interior space that become rather personal. What makes these work is that these are all places that I can be in and spend time hanging out. The longer you can make your audience stay involved with your photograph the better the photo is.
MINIMALISM
There are also a couple of shots that are very minimal and yet still intriguing. (Am I running out of adjectives?). These include the light fixture by Michael and a ceiling fan by Jada. Both manage to make a relatively empty frame come alive by the way the subject is viewed.
TONING
And Maggie has to get the Toning Prize. Her landscapes and her interior spaces all look incredible with her subtle sense of tonality. Katie’s fence, Aubrey’s old building and Lindsay’s self-portrait also benefit from really good toning.
And that brings us back to people...
CONCLUSION
In the photographs you picked for POWs there a lot of good photographs, but not nearly as good as the ones I’ve selected the reasons above. Some of them may be a bit too simple - try to get more that one photograph in your photograph! But I am not going to make any disparaging remarks because I believe in positive reinforcement. So we’re going to leave this commentary here. I hope you will look carefully and consider the things I’ve written above and see how the photographs have used these elements. I hope you will adopt some of these ways of seeing, feeling and thinking into your own photographs in the future. I look forward to see what you will do with color now.
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