Review: Traud, Heller, Bell eds (2006). Education of a Photographer. NY: Allworth Press. Section One: Reflections on the Medium:What It Means to Photograph Pt 2

Daile Kaplan:  The Soul of the Image and Visual Literacy (2005)

An essay that appears to be intended for wide public dissemination, such as a newspaper editorial, highlighting the importance of visual literacy in shaping responsible citizenry.  Briefly reviews the history of intellectual and public policy efforts to raise awareness of visual literacy as well as outlining a few current projects (in the U.S.), concluding with a call to action from the reader. 

Vilém Flusser - Towards a Philosophy of Photography (extract) (1984)

Minuscule extract in which the author argues that against the developmental tide turning humans into products of their machines, or apparatuses, photographers seem to have retained some degree of freedom on their production of images.  For the photographer, freedom “equals playing against the apparatus.”  Must look into the full text of this one.

Review: Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection

Following on from Linfield’s review of Robert Capa’s work in Cruel Radiance, I was fortunate to find this tome of a text in the university library, nearly 1000 images in 600 pages covering Capa’s entire 22 year career.  Presented thus it seems so slight.  It helps to recall that photography was not always a near instant process of shoot, edit in camera, and upload.  It might have taken weeks before images were processed and published.  Sometimes they might not have been seen at all.  Two examples worth noting from Capa’s life are shots from Omaha Beach, the US Army landing in Normandy in which Capa participated at great risk to his own life.  All but 11 images of the landing were destroyed by a careless lab worker in London, while images of US soldiers abusing German captives were prohibited from being published by US military censors.

P&P: Assignment Four: A Sense of Place

This assignment was slightly revised in response to tutor feedback.  What follows is my reflection on the tutor report and a revised version of the assignment submission.

Reflection

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