Sunday, February 26, 2017

Whitescapes



The picture on the left is a white mug on top of a white refrigerator with the lights off. The picture on the right are the same two objects with the lights on.

The photo on the left: With the lights off the refrigerator appears to be a grey mixed with white. The mug here appears to be even more white where the light hits against the shadows that are forming from the lights being off.
The photo on the right: The refrigerator has a cool white that almost appears blue. The mug here looks like warmer more vibrant white.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Ways of Seeing

Two insights I gained from John Berger's video "Ways of Seeing" were that the eye is the center of the visible world and you take it with you as you walk, and how cameras have changed the way people are able to view paintings.

When Berger stated that your eye is the center of visible world and you take it with you as you walk, was an interesting concept to me because it is true. I can relate that to being abroad and seeing fascinating monuments and taking photos of them. The issue with this was that what the camera was capturing versus what I was seeing was completely different. One may still think the photos are nice but to see them in person was surreal. Specifically, the Eiffel Tower was a monument that I believed to be stunning. I never thought I would care for Paris but when I got there everything had so much detail and was beautiful, that I wanted to take pictures of it all. Below I have two different views of the Eiffel Tower. On the left I am showing a perception of someone taking a photo of myself viewing it from afar. In real life the tower was crystal clear and stood so apparently above every other building. In this photo, however, all you can see is it faintly out in the distance. The same goes for it lit up at night. The light that illuminated from the Eiffel Tower was so bright I could not believe my eyes. In the photo on the right it again does not do the real life image justice. This is what Berger was trying to convey about how you truly cannot see an image the same way unless you are present in real life. 




The other insight I gained from watching this video, was how cameras can change the viewing  of a painting. He mentioned that when you're looking at an image through a camera it is never truly still because of all the hidden moving lines that allow a camera to display an image. We may not be able to notice it too distinctly but it is there and happening. It can change how you are viewing a painting and how you understand its meaning. He also mentions that if you are not looking at the painting in real life you cannot understand the details that are fully there. I found this to all be interesting because I never thought about the difference in me seeing a picture of a painting versus being able to see the textures, colors and meanings in real life.