Andreas Gursky & Muhammed Muheisen

Andreas Gursky
Gursky is a son of a German commercial photographer, along with a photographer himself that's been around since before the 90's. In his photographs, Gursky has a great handle on how he uses color. Everything is balanced and mixes well together. If he was doing this project with us he wouldn't have had a problem. He has also been known to have a high point of view in a majority of his photographs. Typically, a view you wouldn't think to look at, let alone photograph, making his points of view very interesting. To me it seems as if Gursky has the ability to take a picture of something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary.  For example, he has lots of pictures of architecture that seem to be very simple, yet, it isn't nearly as easy to pull off as he makes it. I can't just go off an take a picture of apartment porches and make it look as photogenic as he did. However, at the same time seeing images that have the same kind of feel to it over and over to it get kind of boring after awhile. Don't get me wrong, I do like his work, but I think I can only handle a little of it before I get bored. Out of the pictures I saw of Gursky's, this image of the hotel has to be my favorite. The way you can look down you can see the carpet on the floors and when you look up you can see the ceilings, really catches my eye.

Muhammed Muheisen
Muhammed Muheisen is a Pakistani photographer that is known for taking pictures of other Pakistan people where some of his most famous pictures come from the recent war going on in Iraq. Even though he isn't that well known of a photographer and hasn't been around too long, he's been given lots of awards for his images including photo of the year in 2007. What I noticed in Muheisen's photographs was he has the ability to create designs even in war images where you wouldn't expect to find designs. It's not like he can stage half of the stuff he sees. Plus, the things and people he is photographing are so intense and violent, yet he seems to make it all appealing to the eye. Muheisen even seems to be able to take pictures of people dying with their dignity, instead of just shoving a camera in their face for their last few moments. His use of colors in his pictures I feel are either very good in some, or just okay. The ones that work very well together seem to have the same color scheme and blend very well. My favorite photograph of Muheisen's was this one with the little boy and the toy guns. It's just ironic that the guns are pointed at the little boy as he's wearing a shirt that says America and colors of the wall, along with the tone of the wall, all the match.

Paint Chip Critique

Before the critique I felt like I hadn't done the best job ever, but I still thought my photographs of "Yesterday's Yellow" were good. However, after the critique I realized that even though there were some good images, there were a lot of spots I could have improved on. I also learned from what was said about a few other photographs from other students on things I could try in the future or improve on.

Weaknesses:
Two of my five photographs looked like someone else took them because they weren't strong at all compared to the rest. One was a picture of an old fashioned diner that was said to have looked just like a tourist took the picture. After looking at it longer, I have to agree. I had taken other angles of the diner but there was some lens flare in them. I should have paid more attention and either gone back to shoot it again, or try even more angles. The other one that wasn't as strong was a picture of a an old soccer goal; from the angle I took the photograph it looked like I was focusing mainly on the rusted pole of the goal, instead of capturing the entire goal itself. That is another one I could have gone back and taken even more pictures of or printed out one with a better angle which portrays what I was trying to say better. Another thing I realized during critique was I need to get adjusted to printing on Red River paper. One of my pictures was a little too bright. But I'm sure with practice I'll be able to fix that in no time.

Strengths:
Three of my five photographs were said to be very strong due to the way I was able to capture almost the essence of a story. I had a picture of an old mailbox on a yellow house which you never see anymore. Everything in the picture seemed to be spot on. Another photograph was of an old yellow house with broken windows and a crooked stairway. Someone stated in the class it would have looked better if the windows were centered but I had them off centered on purpose and I personally feel that's what helped make the photograph successful. I didn't want everything to be completely centered and was trying to do the rule of thirds. Another strength I had during this project was my depth of field, especially in my photograph with the tractor. The name of the tractor was up close, then you were able to see the tree growing in and around the tractor, and finally the old house in the background, making it very successful.

Overall, it was a good critique and I have a few ideas on what I can do in the future to improve my photography.