One Week Sketch

In 1952, Henri Cartier-Bresson published a book called The Decisive Moment, a title that captures the reliance of his photographic oeuvre on the formal element of time. Theoretians such as Roland Barthes have pointed out how the photograph refers to a specific time and place. But what happens to the idea of a "decisive moment" in contemporary photography, where artists direct, stage, and composite their photographs?

In this assignment, the artist is asked to create a series of 5 images that break the conventions of time and space in photography-- to create an "indecisive moment" that could not have existed without the will and hand of the photographer.

Example artists: Jeff Wall, Anthony Giocolea, Arthur Tress, Patrick Nagatani

Josh Cerf

      The indecisive moment. This is the shot that can occur at any time. It usually happens at an inconvenient time when a camera is nowhere near. It is a shot that one misses and regrets missing, as he lay in bed at night, loosing sleep, over the simple fact that his camera was in his room rather than in his hand. Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, camera in hand. There were two boys standing out behind the dorm when it happened. I saw him making a phone call, and anyone that is standing by the back door of a building in a white hat and leather jacket when it is 30¡ out is up to no good. This was my chance to capture something that I may never see again. I ducked behind a tree and shot the images through a chain link fence. Once the kid in the hat hung up his cell phone another boy came around the side of the building. He was carrying a yellow envelope. The two boys exchanged the envelope for a stack of cash. It could have been an essay for a final exam or it could have been a list of user names and passwords to get into the HWS user interface and hard drive mainframe. I however captured the transaction in full that happened in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.

Ying Yi Chen

This series of pictures I made is simply based on the idea of capturing something which is unique in our daily life. The first two photos were taken when I was babysitting the little girl. They are chosen from tons of pictures I took since both of them show the most interesting facial expressions. The third photo shows exactly the stopped moment when the guy started Break Dancing, meanwhile, the forth picture shows an extended dancing effect in contrast with the previous one. The reason why I think the fifth picture is special is that there were four red cars waiting in line at the same time coincidentally. Moreover, the color of this picture is also quite interesting since it is a composite picture of two major colors, red on the left hand side and blue on the right. Although the motion of the figure in the last picture is quite normal, the vantage point and framing makes the photo quite special.

Ziying Chen

I made this series of pictures to express the indecisive motion and the effect of tilt-shift photography.By using the photoshop,I made the tilt-shift effect in the pictures without using lesbaby lens.IÕm trying to use this effect to emphasize the objects and indesive motion that I want to express.
The theme of my indecisive motion is flying and falling,we can see 5 people flying and falling in a quite unique way in the picture.

Francesca DeLuca

For my project I took the idea of a vending machine and instead of getting a can of soda, you get a light bulb. The theme of the project is manufacturing ideas, hence using the light bulb. In the first slide you see Evan putting a dollar into the vending machine. In the second slide you see him push “Idea”. The third slide is showing him grab the light bulb, just like it was a soda. In the fourth slide Evan is digesting the “Idea”. The fifth slide is a picture of him getting an idea. The point of the project is to look at how people get ideas differently. Everyone has unique points of view on various topics and how they are inspired come differently. This is just an example of how ideas can be manufactured.

Emily Desmery

For these five pictures I tried to show a series of events. I wanted to show the steps of getting ready in the morning. I first start with my subject brushing her hair, then moving on to applying deodorant, brushing her teeth, putting in contacts, and finally calling her friend to tell her she’s ready. All of these pictures were thought out and staged and I played with mirrors in every picture to create a different effect and to make the picture be able to stand on its own. In the third picture I tried out the technique we saw in the lecture where the photographer is reflected in the mirror and the subject is in front of the camera. In this picture, the photographer is in focus and the subject is blurry. This is to emphasize the technique experimented with in the photo. There is also a harsh light focused on the subject coming from the top left of the frame. In the other four pictures, the subject is the only focus and the only thing that is in the frame. This is to enhance the task being performed.

Brittany Flaherty

For my indecisive moment project, I was inspired by some of the photographs that we looked at in class to think about reflections. Once I thought about it, I realized that cameras have very similar effects on people as mirrors do; both objects make people act unnaturally, whether it’s because they’re posing or they’re just uncomfortable. I wanted to play around with images involving reflections in order to show that what’s reflected in a mirror, or captured on camera, isn’t always true to life, especially when people are aware that they are being reflected in a mirror or captured in a photograph. I set up these images by showing myself doing one thing in person, and doing something entirely different in the mirror. As the project developed, I realized that this could also be a commentary on the difference between the way people perceive themselves and the way they are seen by others, which is the direction I currently plan on taking this project if I decided to continue on with it.

Kurtis Gibbs and Tyler Cassell

To create the “indecisive moment” I have strived to capture unique moments in time by catching felons “red handed”. Therefore, the title of this series is “Caught Red Handed”. In the judicial system, it is hard to defend your client or prosecute the offender if there is no evidence. By being in the right place at the right time I was able to catch people in the act of committing crimes. Because it is so rare that you ever have physical evidence, I thought it was unique to break the conventions of time and space by staging a scene. Clearly these individuals are not really breaking into cars or kidnapping people, but by making it look real the viewer would never know.
I think that these pictures are interesting because it makes the viewer question whether or not this crime is really being committed. It then makes them wonder why the photographer allowed them to do this if it was their job to report them. I chose to print these pictures in black and white to make the setting more ambiguous and allow the viewer to focus on what is happening in the picture rather than the time of day, weather, setting etc.

Evan Kirk

Duy Nguyen

I love the idea of telling a story with many different characters but only one actor. I had fun creating these photos, sort of an excuse for me to put on clothes I normally never wear. Each photo basically is a scene created from my mind, every characters, clothing, actions and expressions is artificially created. As for the story in each picture however, I don’t really have any specifications, what happen in each scene is left for the viewers to decide.

Ideas and visions in our head are often hard to grasp. Most people dreams at night and wake up remembering nothing more than a vague impression. To clarify ideas we write them down on papers in a organized, orderly manner. In these photos I’m basically doing the exact thing as writing down ideas on paper, only I’m visualizing them using images instead of words.

Alex Pugliese

Xiao Lin

The attempted idea portrayed in this series of images is the idea of the physical and mental space that curiosity occupies. It is human nature to be curious and wonder what’s inside a box, an envelope, or someone’s house. The images are to show the wandering of one’s mind as one wonders what is inside of something. When I get curious of a certain idea or subject I want to find out everything about it. In this house example, the subject’s mind wanders inside the house, and then the most curious part is to explore the more intimate part of the house – upstairs. Now that one’s being up and down the house it is tempting to see what it looks like outside of the house from within.  I think that if in reality it is possible to really get into someone’s house and roam as the mind does; it almost feels as though you have achieved something. Looking out the window, down on the ground, this moment makes you feel a bit goofy.
It is important to note that the subject’s curiosity is no more than that of the lens of the camera. For example, in the last image, as the subject wonders what it feels like to look outside from the inside, I wonder what it feels like to see what it is like to look at eh subject’s experience from the outside.