The Mirror With a Memory:
Going through this reading I was reminded of my IB art class a great deal. In this class we had to do artist critiques very often where we'd examine the works put out by the different artists we were studying and apply the different elements and principles of art to their works. Judging from this reading and from my experience looking over Riis' images I'd have to say that his work was not that of an amateur. While he claims he "had to use it [...] and beyond that [he] never went"the images he produced were so high grade that I'm disinclined to believe this. Each shot was taken with extreme care to show exactly what Riis wanted to be seen. They are both artistic and aesthetic. They show the squalor of the urban poor so precisely and meticulously that he could not have just snapped a picture and moved on.
In the case of "Five Cents a Spot" the scene is taken as a whole. It shows the whole of the room, further adding to the idea of crowded-ness. The people and their surroundings are dingy and dirty, further emphasized by the dark values in the room. Such a rendering took careful thought, obvious with the intent to provoke sympathy, so it's highly unlikely that Riis only used photography because he had to.
Any other art students/ex-students, do you agree with this interpretation? Can you find just as many artistic techniques as I have in any number of Riis' pictures?
да спаткання,
Jon
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
How the Other Century Lived
How the Other Half Lives:
The line I was really drawn to in reading Chapters 1-4 was in the third chapter (yeah no page numbers), "The poorest immigrant comes here with the purpose and ambition to better himself, and given half a chance, might be reasonably expected to make the most of it". I found this to be particularly striking because of the differences I see between the immigrants of the turn of the century and the people of today. Riis seems to agree with Alger, that the American dream is still real, and that one just needs to have the drive and maybe a little luck to achieve it. Today so few Americans are still chasing this dream. They believe that the rights and privileges of American citizenry are obligatory, that they are entitled to them. This cannot be further from the truth. One still needs to WORK for a living, they need to CONTRIBUTE to society in a meaningful way, they can't just party it up like the idiots on Jersey Shore (I know, I'm ashamed I even mentioned that show here too). Thats why I admire the individuals Riis portrays so much more than anyone in my generation (Very stereotypically of course).
The immigrants that Riis shows live hard lives, unfair lives, lives deemed to be of little consequence or meaning, but they fought for what they had. The policies that the government enacted to preserve their lives were just, and long overdue. The contributions they made helped to bring this nation into the modern age. They lived in squalid conditions to be sure, but out of that filth came a generation of men and women who rose above the odds, to "better themselves", and who overcame. They were the true Americans, regardless of their origin of birth.
Ok, that does it for my tirade. How does it make you feel? Do you pity those depicted less? Do you not feel so superior to their conditions? It's humbling to me at least.
Agur,
Jon
The line I was really drawn to in reading Chapters 1-4 was in the third chapter (yeah no page numbers), "The poorest immigrant comes here with the purpose and ambition to better himself, and given half a chance, might be reasonably expected to make the most of it". I found this to be particularly striking because of the differences I see between the immigrants of the turn of the century and the people of today. Riis seems to agree with Alger, that the American dream is still real, and that one just needs to have the drive and maybe a little luck to achieve it. Today so few Americans are still chasing this dream. They believe that the rights and privileges of American citizenry are obligatory, that they are entitled to them. This cannot be further from the truth. One still needs to WORK for a living, they need to CONTRIBUTE to society in a meaningful way, they can't just party it up like the idiots on Jersey Shore (I know, I'm ashamed I even mentioned that show here too). Thats why I admire the individuals Riis portrays so much more than anyone in my generation (Very stereotypically of course).
The immigrants that Riis shows live hard lives, unfair lives, lives deemed to be of little consequence or meaning, but they fought for what they had. The policies that the government enacted to preserve their lives were just, and long overdue. The contributions they made helped to bring this nation into the modern age. They lived in squalid conditions to be sure, but out of that filth came a generation of men and women who rose above the odds, to "better themselves", and who overcame. They were the true Americans, regardless of their origin of birth.
Ok, that does it for my tirade. How does it make you feel? Do you pity those depicted less? Do you not feel so superior to their conditions? It's humbling to me at least.
Agur,
Jon
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