WARNING: Since it is a paper, it is going to be almost 6-page long. Enjoy though.
People and Individual
Imagine that you are thrown into a
world created on the basis of photographs. You may see the people from 1960s or
the celebrities you saw on the magazine last night. Through those photographs,
we are actually experiencing others’ reality. People use photography to take a
record of our lives and convey the messages we have at the very moment. We can gain
deeper insight of social issues, such as wars, races,
gender, etc., from those photographs. Meanwhile, we
are able to look into the scenes through photographers’ eyes. Apart from the
strong messages encompassed in those pictures, human being is the most common
subject matter in photography. However, have you even thought about the feeling
of those subject matters? Can we actually capture the personality of a person
from those photographs and how do they feel about living as human?
In the genre of documentary photography, there are too many kinds
of subsets related to human, but only the candid photographs and portraits are
purely pertaining to being as an individual and a part of the groups as human. Speaking
of the best candid photographs, Henri Cartier-Bresson is definitely the master.
This French photographer looks into people’s minds in a third person point of
view but not in a voyeuristic way. Compared to those who are shot in a set
scene, people in his photographs generally look more comfortable, since they
are being themselves, instead of being the person posting for living up to
others’ expectations. Take his picture “Rue Mouffetard (1954)” as an example,
the child was proudly walking with a satisfied beam and holding two giant glass
bottles. He was gratified indeed, but more important is that he was marching
forward as if nobody was around. In the picture “ROMANIA. In a train (1975)”
the lovely couple cuddled together. The girl looked asleep lying on the guy’s
body while the guy was holding the girl in his arm. Even though the girl looked
tired and slightly worried with her palm on her forehead, the scene was silent
and peaceful somehow. Rather than being typically gooey couple showing off their
love, they were more like family, which the love transcended the romance and
became much more connected. There are also other kinds of people in
Cartier-Bresson’s photographs. People were hugging, kissing, smiling,
protesting, and merely gazing the camera. They were as diverse and complicated
as we are. It is exactly this connection that makes Cartier-Bresson’s works
special, because that is how we exist in the world as individual.
 |
“Rue Mouffetard (1954)” |
 |
| “ROMANIA. In a train (1975)” |
In the more recent period, Elliott Erwitt is another outstanding
photographers who focuses on candid photos, especially in an ironic or absurd
way. He shoots people with his Leica in a deliberately old-fashioned way. In
his works “Dance School (1977),” you can see children dancing with carefulness
and happiness. This picture was taken for the story about “upper class”
children getting dancing lessons and being taught the “social graces.” Their
emotions were so different even though they were in the same space and experiencing
the same thing. Everything seemed normal and had no conflict at all although
some of them looked slightly begrudging while others looked enjoyed. Another
extraordinary picture of him is “HUNGARY. 1964. Budapest.” A woman waving her
hand looked sorrowful as if she was seeing her beloved leave whereas people on
the train mostly looked joyous and aspiring. This leaving moment actually
happens around the world all the time, but we have never been aware of the
trivia happening on others; however, the photography helps us catch the moment
to completely immerse ourselves in the scene. The moment was too diverse to be
comprehended, but it was also condensed into a single photo seamlessly.
 |
| “Dance School (1977)” |
 |
| “HUNGARY. 1964. Budapest” |
Compared to the photographs of Cartier-Bresson and Erwitt, the
Greek photographer, Lukas Vasilikos, captures people in a relatively silent and
invisible way. He has both colorful and black-and-white works. Looking at his
works is like peeking the lives through a kaleidoscope. His street photographs give art the perfect
distance for viewers to be indulged but not lost. If we have to classify these
three photographers, Erwitt talks about being human being from an internal
point of view while Cartier-Bresson pushes himself a little bit outwards;
Vasilikos views human being as a completely outsider. Through his photographs,
you can definitely feel the emotion of the subject matters but the feeling is
remote. You may feel touched because of the far-reaching affection, but
meanwhile, the strangeness emerges from the turbulence of all emotions. This is
the first time I feel rusty as a human being because they are just right in
front of you but you are not able to reach out to their hearts. The tighter you
try to snatch the strands of emotion, the faster it vaporizes in your hands. In
the picture “Athens (December 15, 2013)” every person fell into their own
contemplation somehow. Some were gazing the other side while others were
talking. The distance between those people has two layers in this single
picture, which are the one between people in the picture and that between them
and you. You will never say it is lonely or sad, but only slightly empty as if
you are a ghost having haunted the world for so long that human is boring in
your opinion. There is another special
technique he utilizes quite a lot in this works, which is the visual complex.
Layers are the essential point in his photographs. Compared to the first two
photographers, Vasilikos creates the unique layers as if those people were shot
in different time and then blended together. What makes him special from the
previous masters is that in his work, you don’t necessarily feel the peaceful
match. For example, “love (July 19, 2011)” conveys love in an oblique way. The
shadows of people were kissing while a stranger was passing by with his eyes
closed. Even though there were layers, they didn’t clash with each other.
However, they didn’t mingle together perfectly, either. They were just
dispassionate or even indifferent.
 |
| “Athens (December 15, 2013)” |
 |
| “love (July 19, 2011)” |
Aside from candid photographs, another genre related to human is
portrait. In portraits, there are two types – one is the real portrait; another
is the illusional portrait. That is, the real portrait is the one presented as
the reality. People’s personality and emotion are automatically revealed
through the photographs. Nevertheless, the illusional portrait is the one that
people, especially celebrities, are told to be. They are sometimes emotionless
or pretending they are the role model as we want them to be. Needless to say, the
master of the real portraits is Yousuf Karsh. Looking at his photograph of
Albert Einstein, I suddenly realized that the reason why Einstein is admired is
not merely because of his prominent performance in physics, but also his deep
insight of humanity. He perfectly included the slight sadness, weariness and wit
of Einstein in a photo in very incredibly delicate fashion. However, in the age
of media explosion, the portraits in most magazines are aimed at stimulating
the sales. Thus, the human portraits are usually distorted in the particular
way that match consumers’ anticipation.
This distorted illusional portrait is created more recently.
People in the photographs tend to post in the way they are told, which are
mostly seen on magazines. In the near period, Sebastian Kim is a brilliant
example. He works for lots of popular magazines, such as Interview and The New
York Times Magazine. Most of his photographs have a sharing style. That is to
say, they are all slightly dramatic and relatively emotionless. In the
pictures, people are usually gazing the lens with serious but not stiff face.
They don’t smile, either. The possible reason is that he might try to build up
the distance of viewers and subject matters on purpose, especially when they
are famous celebrities. This doesn’t actually give us the feeling of arrogance;
instead, they are just different from the way we know. They are not
entertaining but rather serious. His photograph that shot Meryl Streep on Time
is an example. She looked serious and tough. However, we will never assume she
is exactly the same as her in the photo. In fact, this kind of photograph
creates a slightly unrealistic image but also a little bit convincing enough to
establish new impression. In other words, while we are viewing this kind of
portrait, we know it’s slightly fake since it’s not the original posture from
the subject matter; however, we believe this subconsciously. Through the
photographs, he creates the emotion.
The reason why the photographs of people are relatively tricky to
comprehend is that as human we are complicated. We are so unique to be an
individual but also mediocre enough to be viewed as a part of human being. In
lives, we are always trying to strike the balance between being the person and
being a person from the society. All of the photographers mentioned above focus
on human being. Even though I roughly categorize them into two groups, they
share resemblances. They share emotions. Probably due to the fact that we are
the same creature, the vibe is much stronger than other types of photographs,
such as animals and landscapes. Moreover, they are pure. There are tons of
photographs not only related to human but also to social issues. It is always
not bad to raise the awareness of those critical issues, but if we trace back
to the root to find the solution, it is us that stand in the way. It was human
being that set up the fire of the first war and let the frame of hatred
sparkle. However, in these photographs, people are apparently different but
they get along with each other in a harmony. This doesn’t mean that we should
get rid of these issues; instead, this is the other way around in terms of
thinking of human. We look ourselves from the nature of being a human. We are
all the same at this point. Even though we are complicated, capricious and
unreasonable in some way, we still have happiness, love and tolerance.
Citation
"Elliott
Erwitt." Elliott Erwitt.
Web. 4 May 2015. <http://www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/en/index.html>.
"Elliott
Erwitt: My Photographic Home." The
Leica Camera. Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/interviews/elliott-erwitt-my-photographic-home/>.
"Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard." Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard. Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bressonmouffetard.htm>.
"Lukas
Vasilikos - Portfolio - VIVO Collective - Street Photography." VIVO Collective Street Photography.
Web. 4 May 2015. <http://www.street-photographers.com/author/lukasvasilikos>.
"Magnum
Photos." Magnum Photos.
Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z1OG>.
"Portraits." RSS. Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://www.sebastiankim.com/portraits/>.
"Sebastian
Kim - Photographer." MODELS.com.
Web. 4 May 2015. <http://models.com/people/sebastian-kim>.
"Yousuf
Karsh / Photographer." Yousuf
Karsh / Photographer. Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://www.karsh.org/#/the_work/portraits/audrey_hepburn>.
沒有留言:
張貼留言