Masters of Photography Reflection

In general, the Inspired by a Master project varies greatly among groups, and even individuals in the same groups. This can be attributed to the limitations of photographing conditions here on school, and also the style of the original photographer’s shooting. For me, the largest issue we encountered was a lack of subject for taking pictures of. My group’s chosen photographer was Josef Sudek, who took pictures of inanimate objects and man-made items in a natural context. Unfortunately, there are very few matured trees on campus, and it’s a tad bit difficult to find plates lying around on tables. This taught me the art of compromise! I thought that the photograph isn’t only defined by the object it’s capturing, but rather, the impact of a photograph, which can be achieved through various means.

At the beginning of the year, I viewed photography solely as a means of compressing a world of information (objects) into something viewable in two dimensions. But as time goes by, photographs can fade or get lost, but the significance of the photograph lives on infinitely. I now think that the best photograph isn’t only decided by how pretty or aesthetically pleasing it is, but rather, how much effect it has on people. The best photograph can spur action, whether it be just a compliment to the photographer or a worldwide war.

The masters of photography were masters because people thought their photographs were worth remembering and said so. In current day, people might think these photographers’ works are boring, outdated, or pointless, if they didn’t know anything about the photographers themselves, but these photographers still mean something because we know about them through other people’s words, and, if we look closely, their photographs as well.

During the span of this project, I learned that groupwork is difficult, but satisfying. Some advantages of working in a group include getting new perspectives (quite literally). You learn to get into the strangest places and see the strangest things in a seemingly normal environment. Most people don’t notice there’s a three-foot (about) tall red Japanese maple by the library, across from the gym, and less people wonder about whether it was planted there, or just blown there as a seed by the wind. When we go out there together, we notice these things. Groupwork has its disadvantages as well, the primary one being less freedom to move about quicklier. It takes more time to stop and wait for others, but this again can translate into more time for stopping and looking around. The lapse in time is a minor inconvenience.

I don’t believe I would have done anything differently with the project, had I been given the choice, but I do think there is simply so much I could have done more. With a tighter deadline, there was less time to enjoy and more time to work, but there was something pleasant about a deadline, too, learning to find fun in work. With more time, I would have taken a few more pictures here and there and played around with different ideas. However, taken into considerations the limitations of school campus (again), I think we, as a group, worked decently.

In response to the question about people working harder than others, I think some people may have gotten very bored with emulating their photographer’s style/photography, leading to poorer effort and less enthusiasm. A lot of this might be from not thinking that they could do as well as their photographer, since there were some photographers who edited their work through extensive “Photoshopping.”