Idea of Cuba...Idea of Rodeo....

Photographer Alex Harris documents various locations and individuals, all in their natural habitat. In a way, i find this very similar to my own personal style of documentary photography, or at least very similar in the direction in which i am capturing what i see around me in the rodeo world. Harris has a way of moving about his subjects in a way that does not inhibit them in any way, it leaves them free to move, live, walk, eat, sleep, sit, stand. In the scope of rodeo, this is necessary to have freedom of movement, for both photographer and subject, i have found that an incredible dialogue and dance is created in the whole environment of rodeo. Between the livestock and handlers, between the participants and the spectators, and i have even found that my own presence has its own peculiar role in the rodeo. Harris manages to move about his subjects as they are continuing on with their lives, yet there is a comfortable awareness that his subjects contain. I am, and have been working on attaining this in my photographs. Largely, i am trying to place myself in the midst of the action while allowing my subjects to move naturally, capturing the moments before and after...i am working to capture a stillness within the action.
I have found in Harris' work he creates a setting and a habitat for these people, without "othering" them or forcing them to appear one particular way or another. He is capturing these people in their natural habitats, as they have a living dialogue with their environment. In a way, the rodeo is a cowboy's natural habitat, he is in the midst of what he knows, what he has always known, his comforts and fears all brought together in one place. I can see the parallels in how Harris creates an environment in his work with my own. Neither the subject nor the environment completely dominates the other, they work in a harmony to tell stories about each other. In Harris' photograph Lazo de la Vega, October 2002, there is a moment of action, where we see four young men playing a game of soccer in what looks to be a park square. While there is dynamic action in this photograph, the icons in this photo add a sort of stillness, the environment speaks volumes for these subjects in a simple setting, and i find that neither dominates or takes away from the other, the photograph is balanced in harmonious union. Harris himself said that there was a sort of moment of waiting in this series, as though his subjects, the Cubans, are all waiting for something to happen, for something to improve. In my work, i find that there is a similar anticipation in my subjects, an anticipation to witness something grand, to do something grand, to witness a spectacle, and to make a spectacle.
Similarly, i find my composition "style" to be quite similar in some ways to Harris'. A lot of his photographs seem to be dominantly composed with the subject in the center of the photograph. In addition to this, there seems to be a lot of varied perspectives, such as capturing a scene through a window, framing though a doorway or glass. Harris in this series used multiple times a car dashboard/front windshield, creating a narrative of the outside world within a specific environment that helps to narrate or causes the viewer to question the relation between the two. In this manner, i find that i am capturing photographs that are framed by using the environment of the rodeo. Using fences, bars, posts, and ropes have all at once been a hindrance and a help for composing photographs. In a way, all the fences and pens that separate the calves from the riders, the riders from the bulls, the bulls from the audience, can and do very much inhibit some photographs, they create lines that separate the subjects in detrimental ways and interrupt various forms and scenes. In other ways, these lines provide beautiful frames for people, actions, scenes, they isolate or group together various subjects making some images incredibly dynamic and powerful.
Another perspective or focus that Harris seemed to capture in the Cuba series was the idea of "the gaze." With a dominant presence of almost identical looking, mass produced busts of Jose Marti, there is a looming sort of feeling and intrusion of the lives of the Cuban people. There are many varied glances throughout this body of work, we see people looking at others, people gazing directly into the camera, surreptitious glances, even seemingly voyeuristic glances of the viewers themselves. I find a parallel in my work in this manner, there are people constantly eyeing up their competition, whether it be other people, or a raging animal they are about to climb onto. Likewise, there are the often looked-past animals, and their gaze and their own role and outlook that they have on the situation which they have been thrust into. I have found all of these various glances and gazes fascinating, how there is a multitude of complexities within a simple glance.
Overall, i found Harris' work to be interesting and beautiful to look at. There are so many parallels that i find i can draw between his work and mine. From the perspectives, to the capturing of a moment within a unique environment, i found looking at his work extremely useful and helpful while being inspiring and motivating to finish, and even continue my documentation of rodeos.

CCP Viewing

The photograph which most captured my attention was a photo depicting a western rodeo scene taken by photographer Kozo Miyoshi. The photograph was captured with a large format, black and white film camera, giving the photograph a large range of vivid details. This black and white photograph has a variety of textural qualities in the richness of detail from the foreground to the background of the photo. The contrast was perfectly balanced, with dark shadows balancing out the white highlights, giving the image a dynamic feel to the stillness of the photograph. The scene depicted in this photograph shows two men standing next to/holding a horse that is being hosed down with large amounts of water. There is a sort of stillness to this image, a moment caught in time which gives the photo a timeless feel, as though in the midst of a busy moment, there was a pause. What most grabbed my attention are the subjects and how they stand out from the setting. The setting/environment is a beautiful western scene, with mountains in the background and what appears to be a fall/winter cloudy sky. The subjects, two men in waterproof trenchcoats and rubber boots are standing next to a horse, one with the reigns in hand, while the horse is being washed with a hose from far off. The horse is a beautiful, short and stocky long-haired horse, seeminly untypical of rodeos.
To me, it communicates a moment of stillness in its dynamic nature. It conveys emotions of tradition and ritual through the eyes of someone who is not familiar with such actions. There is almost a whimsical hint to the two men, as they stand there being photographed during a banal ritual of washing a horse. However, all in all there is a beauty and a stillness in the dynamic action of the photograph.

WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

The documentary "War Photographer" was in the most basic terms a very moving, compelling and insightful film into the realm and into the personal life of a war photographer. I believe every photographer with aspirations to document "real life" wonder where their careers will take them, what they will see and document, and whether they will actually be able to hold up a camera in the midst of a unimaginable situations. This film exposed many of these aspects, showing the first-hand experiences of photographer James Nachtwey in the very midst of war torn villages, slums, and battles. I found this perspective from a "camera cam" to be an insightful view of how Nachtwey himself worked, moved, captured, thought, viewed and lived in the most dreadful of situations possibly imaginable to man. Bombarded with tear gas, caught in the cross-fire, faced with misery, suffering, and even death, Nachtwey showed determination that seems impossible for one to posses.
Personally, i wondered what kind of person Nachtwey was that could even get in the personal space of intolerable pain and suffering. He enters the lives of these people because they let him, they want him to, they maybe even feel empowered being utterly human in front of the lens, as though it is giving them a voice. Nachtwey's mannerisms are gentle and understanding, and i believe that his genuine nature speak to his subjects. While he may not be weeping with them, or suffering with them, i got the feeling that his subjects could sense his compassion, allowing them to be open to him. Personally, i would feel too shy and intrusive, and heartless to want to get into the face of someone who is grieving, or shoot away while there is death and pain all around, but perhaps i simply could not handle all the emotions and drama around me.
To me, i was most drawn to Nachtwey's images of the aftermath of such wars and battles. The photographs of grieving people in such emotional agony were in a way so beautiful to me. The way that grieving people interact with others grieving is completely unique, the body language transforms, and to me it almost becomes other-worldly, even angelic. The photographs of the weeping women in Kosovo and others such as the photographs of the weeping girl all possess a sort of classical painting feel, how their bodies are positioned with each other, and how they carry themselves convey so much emotion, it is almost as though i can feel myself physically moving through the photograph. These photos containing loss and suffering were the most beautiful photographs to me while they were still incredibly emotionally compelling.
I was most astounded to watch Nachtwey work in his element. His element is war-torn villages, the most desperate slums, and the battle field. He moves and works like fluid, and what is most astounding to me on an instinctual level is how he simply has not been killed in the line of duty. Out of pure fear i find such a thing imaginable for me to do, and it made me wonder and just what kind of person Nachtwey really is, living day in and day out in the midst of death and injustice, how he keeps going, how he copes, and how he simply does not get depressed to the point of wanting to end his life. While i greatly respect and marvel at his work, i don't believe i could ever photograph in the way that he does, i could not live day in and day out with those first hand experiences of death and injustice, it would simply be too much for me to handle. I concluded that Nachtwey is simply a very different kind of person, his drive and his love is his compassion for exposing the wrongs and digging up the injustice with his camera, i believe he is equipped with this ability and an art that virtually no one else contains.

Worth a Thousand Words

Fifteen

Here are my Fifteen!

Project Proposals

Idea One

Abandoned- My first idea revolves around the subject of abandoned houses and other human structures that were once occupied, or had the intention of holding or housing people. I find the structure and nature of abandoned human structures fascinating, what they hold inside, if anything, and their exterior structure, how they affect the land and how the land affects it. I would like to go about capturing the photographs in a very straight forward manner, by photographing the structure itself inside and out. I am currently torn on how i wish to portray the body of work, and as of now, i wish to both print and mount photographs as well as having video of my experiences and of the houses side by side, because i think they would both supplement each other. As far as execution for this project, i believe it will hold both components of ease and accessibility, where other structures will be more difficult to access, perhaps even tread the line of illegal trespassing. I believe i will have regular access to one or more of these structures, seeing as they stay put and do not move location to location or have any changing agendas. However, some houses i have in mind that i wish to photograph do require some lengthy travel to reach.

The significance of this project derives from my personal fascination of abandoned houses and stems to more important issues of how they interact with the land and with people, and ultimately the character they take on after they have been vacated. I plan to develop the project with a time-based element that will require constant documenting of some structures, and document how they change and morph over the changing seasons. I may even choose to do some very, very long (weeks to months) pinhole photographs of certain structures. I would like to photograph these structures at any and all hours of the day and night and witness the different characters they take on. I expect that there can be obstacles and trials to this project, perhaps legality being one of them, as well as straight up being terrified of some of these places, i plan to have at least one other person there with me...at least at night. As for costs, i can not imagine it will cost too much, seeing as i already have my digital camera, tripod, various lenses, some lighting equipment (that i do not forsee needing). I do forsee costs in printing, gas money to drive places, and other small costs such as making various pinhole cameras. Overall, i am very excited about this project, i believe i will find new components about my fascination with abandoned houses/structures to develop and perhap reveal to me aspects that i have never known before, and i am more than excited to share this with an audience.

Rodeo- My other idea has become almost equally as fascinating to me the more i have thought about it. There is a culture of rodeo that springs up in small pockets here and there, mostly in the southwest, that hosts an incredibly diverse and peculair group of peoples. From the "performers" to the "athletes" to the crowd and surrounding people it draws, the rodeo culture is a very fascinating one. With a long history behind it, traditions can be seen all around. There are so many aspects to a single rodeo, however, that i find it would be hard to narrow it down to one, or a few. My method of capture would be to go with my digital camera and try to capture the action, as well as the people in stills. As in the other project, i believe i would want to capture and print photographs to portray the stillness that people may not necessarily see at such events.

I believe this project could be much more difficult in many different ways. First of all, the project would be incredibly event based, and the events themselves would dictate when and where i would be photographing. Having looked at the list of rodeos in Arizona this season, there are one to two every month in various locations around the state. Also adding to the costs of transportation would definately be admittance fees and other costs. Knowing that i would want access and availability to more intimate settings and shots, i would perhaps look into getting a press pass or back stage pass of sorts to gain access to more variety of photographs. This project would require of me a lot more effort and time and committment to the events. Overall, this project may be one that i wish to take on at a later point in my line as a photographer, once i can become more comfortable with my camera in such overwhelming situations, and once i can become more comfortable taking portraits of people. This project does really excite me and hold a lot of interest to me, and i would, at one point or another, love to photograph such subject matter.

Project 1