Reading Visual Arts: Unit IV on Photography

Mariano Marcos State University Rankings

• QS 4-Star Rating
• Impact Rankings 2023, Rank 601-800 in the world
• Rank 3 among Philippine State Universities and Colleges (SUCs)
• Green Metric Rank 2 in the Philippines
• World University Rankings, Rank 2 among Philippine SUCs
• Ranking 101st-200th in the World University Rankings for Innovation
• Applied HE™ Public University Ranking: ASEAN 2024, Rank 2

Reading Visual Arts Course

• Instructor: Edmar M. Delos Santos
• Email: [email protected]
• College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Languages & Literature
• Focus on reading photography, overview, different mediums, styles, history, and appropriate approaches to evaluating masterpieces.

Unit IV- Reading Photography

• Unit IV provides information on the overview, different mediums, styles, history of photography
• Identifies appropriate approaches to reading various masterpieces
• Learning aims include evaluating messages, techniques, and forms of photography.

End of Lesson Requirements

• Identify the basic definition and history of photography and its types
• Identify appropriate approaches for reading various photos
• Apply appropriate approach(es) in reading a particular photo
• Research a local photographer
• Evaluate form, technique, medium, and meaning of visual art
• Present evaluation of a photo
• Record experience and impressions of encountered photos

Types of Photography

• Nature Photography: Out-door scenes, wildlife (oceans, mountains, forests, animals, plants)
• Editorial Photography: Photos for publication (magazines, websites, newspapers) covering various fields (sports, product, food, fashion, travel)
• Portrait Photography: Capturing identity and personality of subjects
• Landscape Photography: Sceneries of mountains, deserts, forests, or mountains, with a wide-view focus

Photojournalism

• Specific branch of editorial photography
• Tells stories through a series of pictures, often accompanied by documentation for media companies

Photography Definition

• Process for recording images of actions produced by light on light-sensitive materials
• Originates from Greek words, Photos (light) and graphein (to draw), first used in the 1830s

Camera and Photography Development

• Camera Obscura (Pinhole Camera): Early ancestor of cameras, using a dark room and a tiny hole to project inverted images.
• Daguerreotype (1830s): First successful form of photography, named after Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre, using mercury vapor, iodine, and bromine treatments, accompanying kits.
• Kodak Film Camera (1880s): First portable and commercial camera, invented by George Eastman, using 100-exposure film rolls.
• Digital Camera (20th-21st Century): Development of filmless electronic cameras in 1972, followed by commercialization in 1981 by Texas Instruments Incorporated, and Sony Corporation with use of a minicomputer disk drive to capture images from a video camera.
• Point and Shoot camera: Hand-held and compact cameras.
• DSLR camera: Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera, with manual or autofocus feature using a digital sensor that captures thousands of photos and videos.
• Mobile Photography: 21st-century technology that allows anytime and anywhere photography using smartphones.

Famous Photographs

• Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl: Front cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine, portraying a young Afghan girl named Sharbat Gula during the Soviet-Afghan War, in 2002 National Geographic identified her, whose identity remained unknown for 17 years. Criticized by viewers regarding her plight.
• Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother: Captured during the Great Depression (1936), depicting a widowed migrant farmworker named Florence Owens Thompson and her children, a symbol of the Great Depression.
• Kevin Carter's The Vulture and The Little Girl: Captured a desperate Sudanese girl during famine in 1993: Criticized by viewers for not offering help
• Raffy Lerma's 'Pieta-like' "war on drugs" photo (2016): Depicting the suffering under the drug war in the Philippines. Critiqued by the former President.