Week 5

Annie Liebovitz at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia

"William S. Burroughs in his garage, lawrence, Kansas 1995"

"Sarajevo; fallen bicycle of teenage boy just killed by a sniper, 1994"

These two photos were the two that stood out the most to me in the Annie Liebovitz exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The first photo of William Burroughs stood out to me because the picture is so detailed you can see the weathered skin of Burroughs. Every wrinkle, dot, and sag, represents a year, a month, a decade in his life. Its so real and in front of your face, you can't help but notice and observe the frailty of life and the toll that life itself takes on each individual.
The second photo of the fallen bicycle is important because of the visual impact it gives. You can see the blood of the boy who died moments later in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It really has a whole story behind this picture which you can feel just by looking at it.

Week 4

Images, Power, Politics

I. Arthur Felig (Weegee) June 12, 1899 - December 26, 1968

     1. Their First Murder (Before 1945)
     2. Weegee working in the back of his Chevrolet in 1942
          a. where he developed all his photos on the spot
     3. Emmett Till
          b. “whistled” at a white woman so white men tortured him to death
     4. Emmett Till’s brutalized body in his casket, 1955
     5. Fire Escape: Nice View, Sleeps 8
     6. Hell’s Kitchen

II. Robert Frank

     1. “Trolly” New Orleans
          a. denotation: people on trolley
          b. connotation” segregation between black and whites with the blacks being pushed to                the back of the bus

III. MCA Head of Artistic Programs on Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990 - 2005

     1. She stuck up 2 panels and put up all of her pictures so she could choose the ones for the           exebition and live with them to ensure their quality and importance
     2. born in 1949 in Connecticut (3rd child of 6 children)
     3. fun-loving family (can be seen in the pictures of her parents)
     4. over the 15 year span of the photogtraphs one can notice:
          a. father grows increasingly fail
          b. loses good friend Susan Songtag
          c. Annie had 3 children (2001, first child born same year of world trade center)
          d. great interest in the body (olympic athletes, Johnny Depp, Kate Monson)
     5. San Francisco Art Academy graduate
          a. in her 3rd year, she was having her images printed in the Rolling Stone
     6. by 1973 she was the regular editor of Rolling Stone
          a. went on the road with Rolling Stone’s band traveling cross-country
          b. took the last image of John Lenon nearly 4 hours before he was killed
     7. went to work for Vanity Fair after Rolling Stone
          a. caused quite a scandal with her first picture
     8. Annie was 51 when her first daughter was born

IV. Rosemary Laing - Australian

     1. Bride photographs
          a. staged photography with trampolines and women in bridal gowns
          b. some with bullet holes, others with birds, all falling from the sky

Week 3

What is culture and how does it effect the meaning of a product or artwork?

I. Define: Culture
     a. high culture --> philosophy, intellectual pursuit
     b. low culture --> everyday consumption of goods and services as well as popular activities           and sports
     c. if barbie went to Nigeria
          - just a doll
          - not interpretable the same way
          - skin color

II. Barbie in Time (culture)

     a. history reflects the fashion of the time
     b. blonde, big lips, large eyes, extreme proportions, very long legs, blue eyes proportional           differences is between breast and waist measurements
     c. having the figure of barbie gives a woman power

III. Bratz

     a. features can be paralleled to the features babies are born with
     b. babies represent innocence, compliance, submission, manipulable, sweetness,           unquestioning love
     c. these offer the male a sense of power
          - 2 sources of power in our society: money and sex
          - this perpetuates and old paradigm (the imbalance between the sexes)

IV. Culture vs. Popular Culture
     a. Culture
          - the process of society’s intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development (ex.                philosophers, poet, etc.)
          - particular way of life of a people, period, or group (ex. the development of literacy, the                types of sports played, the celebration of festivals)
          - works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity novels, ballets, operas, fine art
     b. Popular Culture
          - phenomenon evolving out of the consumerist and emerging youth culture of the 50s                and 60s
          - its products are accessible and mass produced
          - work deliberately setting out to win favor with the masses or specific communities
          - culture produced by industy and consumed and popularised by word of mouth and the                media
     c. Criticisms of Popular Culture
          - Theodore Adorno of the “Frankfurt School” described consumers of such culture                victims. Political implications are: that this process maintains public passivity                towards instructions. In this way, visual communication is an agent of ideology