Wiki & Abstracts (no.19) - Photographic Philosopher: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams:

Photographic Philosopher 

Ansel Adams is one of the most significant photographers that has ever picked up a camera.

Adams revolutionized photography. Before him, photography was resented in the art world. It was seen as a cheap, easy way to create an image, and therefor it wasn't considered a fine art. Adams changed all that. He cultivated a style of photography that used sharp focus, high contrast, and carefully composed compositions to capture  the raw, untouched beauty of nature.

Ansel Adams had a personal philosophy that the place you grew up or lives shapes you. So he was a advocate for protecting the environment and was inspired by beautiful landscapes.

His work went even further to benefit our country. Because Adams took pictures our national park ands natural landmarks, and

 brought attention to how some places should be protected from development and logging.

Here are some examples of his work!

ROSE AND DRIFTWOOD

FROZEN LAKE AND CLIFFS

WIND TREE CLIFF

ASPENS

SAND DUNES, SUNRISE

CLEARING WINTER STORM

REDWOODS, BULL CREEK

MOON AND HALF DOME

MOONRISE

WHITE HOUSE RUIN

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 17) - Foreign Films

Foreign films are great windows into other cultures and countries. In a global world with global media, understanding other cultures is essential. Plus they're just great entertainment.

Here's a few of my favorites:

DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Pan's Labyrinth

Bread & Tulips

Second Generation

Monsoon Wedding

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE SUGGESTIONS!

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 16) - Movie Parodies.

I love to laugh.

I love it when films are funny.

But its even funnier when films get made fun of.

Hence, the MOVIE SPOOF blog post!

300. One of my favorite movies of all time.

The Latino Comedy Projects "300".



(to be continued...)

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 15) - Music in Films

I LOVE music.

So naturally I think that a great film should have a great musical soundtrack or a film score. Here are some of my favorite scenes and their accompanying music tracks.

Fight Club + Where is My Mind? = EPIC

Pulp Fiction + Swinging = CLASSIC

Black Snake Moan + Stack o' Lee = AWESOME

 

(to be continued...)

Wiki & Abstracts (no.14) - Movie Quotes Rule

One thing I love about films, is great movie Quotes!!!!!!!

For some reason they stick and become apart of our everyday dialogue and get embedded in our pop culture.

Sometimes Quotes can be EPIC...

Sometimes Quotes can be ROMANTIC...

Sometimes Quotes can be just plain CREEPY...

But in my opinion, the best Quotes are the CHEESY ones!

Enjoy.

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 13) - Advertising in Films

Product placement is huge in films now. How often do we notice it though?

Here is examples of product placement is the film Transformers.

 A big-budget feature film that has expectations of grossing millions may attract many commercial interests; however, the film studio must also analyze if a product fits with the image of the film. A high-profile star may draw more attention to a product, and therefore, in many cases, this becomes a separate point of negotiation within his or her contract. Firms paid $722 million in fees, free product placement, and promotional support for film placement in 2005, and by 2010, spending on film placement is predicted to surge to $1.8 billion. In 2002, Volkswagen spent a estimated $200 million in fees to be integrated into NBC Universal films.

Here's a documentary film about product placement in films:

THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD

 

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 12) - Women in Media (Part 4)

Since we are currently learning about documentaries I thought I continue my series of WOMEN IN MEDIA with a blog about documentaries about or by women. Check it!

Living Goddess:  

As a revolution ignites in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, the hidden lives of three young girls who are worshipped as gods unfolds. Their magical world of secret Tantric rituals, blood sacrifice and childish mischief is changed forever as the violence closes in.

(to be continued...)

                              


                    

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 11) - Documentary Photography

Since we are on the subject of documentaries,

I thought I write about one of my favorite mediums of media..

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY!

This genre of photography aims to document or record an event, culture, person, history, and/or landscape with a photograph. This type of photography is objective and seeks to reveal the candid truth about its subject.

Can also be called Photojournalism. 

Documentary Photography has been a tool to bring some of humankind's most devastating truths to the surface..

Lewis Hine photographed Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution. His work brought to light the atrocities of children as young as four working 16 hour days in dangerous work environments for low pay. After Hine's photographs became public they created an awareness and helped outlaw child labor.

***Child labor still exists all over the world.***

"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." - Dorothy Lange

Dorothea Lange captured images of

the utter desperation of the people hit hardest by the Great Depression. Her work inspired to government to create more incentives for the struggling lower classes.

Nan Goldin is one of the few documentary photographers who turns the camera on herself. Apart of the underground counterculture of New York City she documented her life struggles with drugs, domestic abuse, and her relationships. Her work in the 80's made people rethink physical abuse and AIDS.

Here is a video mash up of some documentary photographs that impacted millions and inspired movements.



Wiki & Abstracts (no. 10) - Executive Order?

I brought up in class after we watched the first half of POLICE STATE FOUR: THE RISE OF FEMA that I was confused with the terminology. Because I rarely read about government the onslaught of political phrases left me thinking....

....WHOA....WAIT...WHAT?

(I am not a person who reads news papers or watches the news, because frankly it brings me down. That and I really do not trust even half the headlines. I guess I should probably start, but only if I find a source of news that I feel is legit.)

The one phrase that popped up a lot that Alex Jones seemed to be pretty fired up about was EXECUTIVE ORDER.

executive order: noun, an order having the force of law issued by the president of the U.S. to the army, navy, or other part of the executive branch of the government.

Executive Orders have been used by every chief executive since the time of George Washington. Most of these directives were unpublished and were only seen by the agencies involved. In the early 1900s, the State Department began numbering them; there are now over 13,000 numbered orders.

Executive Orders are controversial because they allow the President to make major decisions, even law, without the consent of Congress. This, of course, runs against the general logic of the Constitution -- that no one should have power to act unilaterally.

 Never the less, Congress often gives the President considerable leeway in implementing and administering federal law and programs. Sometimes, Congress cannot agree exactly how to implement a law or program.

In effect, this leaves the decision to the federal agencies involved and the President that stands at their head. When Congress fails to spell out in detail how a law is to be executed, it leaves the door open for the President to provide those details in the form of Executive Orders.

For more info on Executive Orders check out:

Executive Orders - Wikipedia

Recent Executive Orders Issued.

Example of an Executive Order.

Still confused as to how this is legit?

Me too.

 

Wiki & Abstracts (no.9) - Women's Role in Media (part 3)

In part three of my WOMEN IN MEDIA blog post I want to focus on women we SHOULD be listening too.

This woman who knows her stuff and is an EXPERT on this topic.

The video below features Jean Kilbourne who speaks about her groundbreaking analysis of advertising's depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.

(TO BE CONTINUED....)



Wiki & Abstracts (no. 8) - Women's Role in Media (part 2)

HOW IS BEAUTY DEFINED IN THE MEDIA?

beau·ty

  [byoo-tee]

noun, plural -ties.

 

1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

 

2. a beautiful person, especially a woman

 

 

 

The media plays a HUGE ROLE in how woman see themselves. Commercials manipulate you to think that their product will make you like the models you see on the screen. Magazines portray iconic images of what is beautiful at the moment. But is it real?

 

Watch the video below..

 

 

 

How does seeing these images of what "beauty" is in the media over and over again affecting women? Even worse, how is it effecting young girls?

 

 

THIS VIDEO CONTAINS IMAGES THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED DISTURBING. BUT THE TRUTH ISN'T ALWAYS PRETTY. NO PUN INTENDED.

 

 

Women's role in the media is a super controversial topic. But the fact is the media is being used as a tool by huge corporations to sell us a limited definition of beauty. And let's face it ladies, they're BANKING off our insecurities.

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 7) - Womens Role in the Media (part 1)

We all know that the media shapes our reality, but how does it effect women in particular?

IF THERE IS ONE MOVIE EVERY WOMAN SHOULD WATCH, IT'S THIS ONE. WOMAN ARE BEING DECEIVED EVERYDAY THAT THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH WITHOUT BEAUTY PRODUCTS. THEY ARE BEING DECEIVED THAT THAT THE DEFINITION OF BEAUTY IS ONLY EXCLUDED TO MODELS AND MOVIE STARS. WOMAN ARE BEING DECEIVED THAT HOW GOOD LOOKING THEY ARE DETERMINES THEIR WORTH...

IN MY OPINION, THIS IS THE BIGGEST DECEPTION THE MEDIA PUSHES ON OUR GENERATION.



Wiki & Abstracts (no. 6) - ANNUIT COEPTIS

On the first or second day of class Rob asked us if we knew what the above symbol meant.

After some research I discovered that our country has a long history of putting symbols on our nations currency. The symbol in question especially was tough to find some information on. What I did find though is that this above symbol has a lot of meaning in every last detail, including the number of layers (13) in the pyramid.

The two slogans ANNUIT COEPTIS and NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM are Latin:

ANNUIT COEPTIS - "God favors our undertaking", or God favors the advancement of U.S.A.

NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM - "A New Order of the Ages"

What about the actual pyramid? And the eye?

The symbol above is most well known as the EYE OF PROVIDENCE, or the eye of God watching over humankind. It was a symbol often used by the Free Masons, a exclusive group that has long been associated with conspiracy theories.

What about the 13 layers in the pyramid?

The 13 layers signify the 13 colonies; the building blocks of our future country.

So basically, our founding fathers loved symbolism. Since I am also a big fan of symbolism (in my artwork) so I don't see anything strange with using ancient images and language to decorated our currency. But in my research, I found a lot of people who find the symbolism suspicious.

Check out this...

This is just ONE video that I found, I actually made myself watch at least 10 others before choosing this one. And honestly this was probably the least crazy of all. It makes you think though, why are some people so ready to believe that our government is out to get us? And why would anyone think that they would print their diabolical plot for world domination out on a piece of paper that millions of Americans use everyday?

Any thoughts?

Wiki & Abstracts (no. 5) - Conspiracy Theory

 So all this talk about deception and media got me thinking about conspiracy theories. I have never really paid attention to the notion but I realized even if most of the evidence in a conspiracy theory is bunk, our culture pays a lot of attention to the idea of a powerful elite secretively controlling or hiding something from the masses. So I did so research and came up with the Top 5 Conspiracy Theories of our modern media.




conspiracy theory:

 

noun

1. a theory that explains an event as being the result of a plot by a covert group or organization; a belief that a particular unexplained event was caused by such a group.

2. the idea that many important political events or economic and social trends are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.

 

 

1. Government Hiding UFO's

 

2. JFK Assassination

3. Princess Diana Killed By Royal Family

4. Global Warming Isn't Real

5. Government Allowed 9/11 to Happen

Makes you wonder, huh?