My Evolving Relationship with Photography

For the past few years, photography has developed into a passion and a bit of an obsession of mine. I have passed many milestones to reach my current skill level, but the beauty of photography is that it is a never-ending process filled with challenges of reflection and self-improvement. Throughout the duration of this course in Paris and London, I was constantly pushing myself to live in the moment while capturing it as effectively as possible. At the same time, I was delighted to befriend my peers and have the ability to document our journey together. I found myself shift throughout the course from being focused primarily on photographing interesting landscape to becoming captivated with the human subject. Photography became an interesting means to connecting with my peers as we were often one another's best subjects. In reflection, the photographs of the people I know are far more meaningful to me now than any beautiful landscape. This was an wonderful trip which left me feeling more evolved as a photographer and a human being. I have seen an exciting maturation in my photographs as they are much more skillfully executed as well as thoughtful. I look forward to the memories I will capture on film in the future, and the times I will undoubtedly look through these photographs fondly. The final photography assignment was "A Day in Your Life", and the photographs can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89539116@N04/8273301297/in/set-72157632251278008

Psychological Differences Between the Same Subject, Painted and Photographed

There are a number of obvious and not so obvious differences across varying art modes such as painting and photography. All of these differing factors would have an influential role in determining the psychological mindset of the subject, and ultimately how they may be perceived through the final work of art. The first would be the skill set of the artist, as well as their ultimate vision for what they want to portray. The artist has the power to control everything from how the subject is posed to how the subject interacts with the artist, and this process would greatly differ from photography to painting. The second factor would be the actual personality and physical characteristics of the subject. Photography is a much easier method to give a realistic depiction of how someone looks, which may be intimidating or more liberating depending on the perspective of the artist and subject. Painting is also generally a more time-consuming project requiring attention to detail, but also allowing for more artistic liberties as the image can be manipulated and changed at will. The time commitment and ability to stray from reality has the potential to influence the temperament of the subject, which could perhaps be seen in the final product. From my personal experience, my subjects relationship with the camera is increasingly comfortable in proportion to how comfortable my subjects are with me. That is to say, strangers are often very distant and wary of the camera, and good friends are at ease and playful with the camera, and this can clearly be seen in my photographs. Please refer to the following link to see some examples of this in today's assignment of "A Sense of Time and Place": http://www.flickr.com/photos/89539116@N04/sets/72157632262121961/