ITAP Part 2-Genius of Photography Questions Part 3

Genius of Photography Questions Part 3

1.What is described as “One of the most familiar concepts in photography”?

In 1933 something was captured in Paris by Henri Cartier Bresson armed with a revolutionary new camera, he had shot a moment that took only a fraction of a second to shoot but came to be known as a ‘decisive moment’ that is the most familiar concept in all of photography. It has become a strategy that has illuminated photography’s potential for everyone. His decisive moments transformed the faces of photography.

2.Should you trust a photograph? (1.38m G3)

Trusting a photograph was probably a huge mistake from the beginning, however people still believe photographs.

3.What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?

The Leica was a revolutionary development in camera technology launched in Germany in 1925,  it was a compact, quiet with the latest lens and technology it gave birth to a whole new style of instant photography and allowed you to be present in the moment as well as glide through the moment. 

4.What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?

People believe the pictures it’s the photograph that’s in your passport not a painting because paintings are less visually expressive than the actual photographs. As for George Bernard Shaw he  said that he would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot which is what the power of photography is.

5.Why were Tony Vaccaros’ negatives destroyed by the army censors?

The ten roles that Vaccaro developed were destroyed by the army censor as they had contained images of dead GI’s that were decisive moments that the world wasn’t yet ready to accept during that time. 

6.Who was Henryk Ross and what was his job?

Heinryk Ross along with a 160 Polish Jews had works at the site of the infamous ghetto in Woodge, Poland. It was incarcerated for 4 years until the ghetto was shut down in 1944, Ross was a photographer who kept a unique record of what happened there. Among his many duties as the ghetto’s official propaganda photographers Ross had to document the production of goods by the inhabitants of Woodge sold to make money for their captors.

7.Which show was a “sticking plaster for the wounds of the war”, how many people saw it and what “cliché” did it end on?

The ‘Family of Man’ was an exhibition held in New York in 1955; it was a public statement on behalf of humanity and was photography’s big response to a world rapidly moving from hot to cold war. The show was comprised of over 500 images that were selected from millions of images, from 273 photographers both amateur and professional. The show had over 9 million visitors by 1964; it was a sticking plaster for the wounds of war and represented everything photojournalism’s deity Henri Cartier Bresson stood for. It had concluded with an optimistic cliché that it was the beginning of the sentimental journey through life.

 8.Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?

Joel Meyerowitz photographed ground zero in color because photographing it in black of white would have kept it as a tragedy because it had a tragic element in photographing not war per se but the collapse of it, but only resulted in destruction. Our human hard drive creates a series of still photographs within our brains, if they were domestic, international or of family of birth or of death but what Meyerowitz was trying to achieve was to record history as it is too important not to and that making direct contact with the human hard drive helped record for all time a sense of what happened during 9/11. Shooting in color helped show how the destruction and chaos was at the time.