Lens Culture Reviews

"My Brother's War"

The concept behind this work is beautiful, the idea of exploring the life of a brother/caretaker who committed suicide do to post-traumatic stress disorder is so intimate (just like buildings!). Unlike some people who shall not be named, the images beauty can stand on it's own and is only enhanced by the concept rather than completely held up by it. The quality of light in these images are simply beautiful and the way she uses refraction is extremely creative. The images where she chooses to hold up an image from her brother's army days sort of reminds me of my final for last semester. The way she lines up elements in the image to the background is flawless.

"Jennifer's Family"

The concept behind this group, once again, is beautiful. The idea behind depicting a family stricken with poverty as a happy normal family can say so much without saying anything at all. It's a new look at a family of this caliber that can almost be related to Robert Frank's,  "The Americans".

"Immortal"

With this series, as the writing says, the cultural references are overflowing. The artist pays homage to renaissance painting and the greek gods of mythology while referencing the use the over use of photoshop in the media to create an unrealistic ideal of perfection (totally my idea!). I only recently noticed that none of them have eyebrows! Which is weird but also reminiscent of the "Mona Lisa".

From Here To There: Alec Soth's America

Alec Soth decided to give out 4 assignments to all of his followers on Flickr and I thought these were the most successful from each assignment:

Assignment #1:

I felt this was the most successful because the artist creatively depicted the museum guard in a way not many people see them. It looks like it was shot with film as it has that beautiful color palette that comes from using color film. I felt like this one was best out of the ones depicted by far, the others seem amateur in comparison.

Assignment #2:

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to put up the whole photo story or just the one image so I just picked this one. I love this image because you can just tell it's right in the middle of a conversation, maybe they were talking about cigarettes. Also, the blue of her jacket matches and accentuates the blue of her eyes.

Assignment #3:

I'm not too sure who's the photographer and who's the person taking a picture of the photographer but i think the image on the right was taken by the photographer. It's such an odd image where you can't even see the person who's taking the picture from what I'm guessing is the flash. Also, the little girl on the left is sort of just floating in space, same goes for the clock above.

Assignment #4:

So this was the only picture depicted for this assignment…but whatever. I love the quote! I think it's hilarious! Only problem I have is I don't feel like she's trying to avoid the camera I feel like the photographer just shot her as she happened to be walking away.

Color Photo

Thomas Struth

I had to put this image because I just thought it was amazing! The colors make the people sitting in the church look like a part of the paintings on the wall. I don't know if it's just me seeing this or if I'm even doing this blog right (the paper was kinda confusing, Ron).

Tanyth Berkeley

I'm not absolutely sure why but I really like this image. I love the way the tree hugs her head and the muted color scheme. The image makes the model seem pretty in an odd way because you know in real life she's not the best looking person, maybe it's just the image that's really beautiful…I don't know.

Lise Sarfati

This last image is really strange. She looks like a mannequin, with her porcelain looking face and bright red lipstick. Her hair kind of looks like a wig too. The way the photographer activated the negative space   in the sky is amazing, it almost looks like the clouds are this explosion that bounces your eye around in the negative sky and brings you down to the figure.