looking into the lens of others

Tuesday I went to a movie… by myself as I tend to do with movies. I went to see Annie Leibovitz: Life through a lens. It was about Annie, a well renowned photographer that has done amazing work for rolling stone and Vanity Fair. She started young, experienced a lot and learned as she went. This film was so inspiring. I laughed, I cried, I stared and I would see it again. Ir was interesting to hear here talk about the difficulties in capturing dance. My favorite thing about her as a photographer was her ability to work with her subjects. She is effective by making her subjects feel comfortable and getting to know them first. Once she knows them she has this ability to bring out a part of that person and show it to the world. Her portraiture is amazing. Many of her images remind me of captured moments in peoples lives. Everything seems so real and natural, even when it is staged. I love it.





While I have been in Prague I have tried to visit all the photo exhibitions that I can. The first one I went to was in Old town. The artist, Jan Saudek had very racy images. Almost all the picture consisted of a naked person interestingly positioned, dressed and posed. Many of these subjects were in front of a window which was differently altered with colors and graphics in each image. The overall styles of these pictures were black and white with selected parts of the picture in over saturated colors. I think I only liked 3 photos in the whole gallery (the 3 without nude people). It just wasn’t my taste.



I also went to view a Martha Rosler exhibition. She had a variety of series, 2 were called Bringing the war home. The first war was Vietnam and the second a more recent war, the war in Iraq. Here images are more like collages. She does a lot of transposing images and combining different pictures to set up a more compete and compelling, sometimes controversial image. The bringing the war home series consisted of stereotypical homes, housewives and families laced with fragmented images of the war( wounded soldiers, exploding bombs, weapons, suffering, torture and blood). It was very shocking yet oddly realistic.




Another photo exhibit I visited displayed older photos (all B&W) that were taken in Prague near Wenceslas Square. The flier that directed me there said “Vilem Kropp Na Vaclavaku o Vaclavaku." Each photo was accompanied by a brief description of the image. This exhibit helped give me a feel of how this part of the city was during the 60-80’s. Many photographs were like looking at well composed snapshots of the past.

Right off one of the Metro stops was yet another Photo exhibit: 'Alive'. The photos were set up on billboard like stands. All the images were of nature and animals and were paired with a description talking about the status of the subject in today's world. Many of the pictures were extreme close-ups. The exhibition makes me want to go on a safari in Africa! (this is just a snapshot of a piece of the exhibit.) I found a link to an article about 'Alive' that used one of my favorite images.