VIRTUAL ESSAY

There are two photographers I want to share with all of you today. First of all, I would like to talk about Lee Towndrow, who is a visual artist in New York City, U.S. Moreover, his work of photographer has appeared in Time magazine, The Paris Review and Das magazine.  His picture has varieties of styles, specially with personal normal life. That was totally illustrated what people always do when they are on vacation or how they feel.  I posted some examples of his works of art below.

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/Lee Towndrow
'Weekend'
2013

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/Lee Towndrow
'Weekend'
2013

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/Lee Towndrow
'Weekend'
2013

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/Lee Towndrow
'Weekend'
2013

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/Lee Towndrow
'Weekend'
2013

However, those picture were made by different time and place but we still can notice there is only one topic on those photographs- easy life, and happy time. With the development of society, more and more people are always under pressure, such as jobs and family, and I think the selected photographer wants to use this group of  images talking about how people enjoy their weekend and what they always do on the weekend as well. More importantly, photographer tried to transmit a positive attitude. For example, though we all have ourbad days, we should focus on talking about the good things in your life and the things you have to look forward to instead of  the annoying little things that upset you. We can easily see how happy and relax from their face through these pictures.          
The following photographer I would like to say who named Alex Prager , as she was inspired by Lee Towndrow's work of art that started her photography journey. Let us see following pictures.                                                                               

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end
"Week-end"
2010 

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end
"Week-end"
2010 

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end
"Week-end"
2010 

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end
"Week-end"
2010 

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end
"Week-end"
2010 

Alex Prager is an American art photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in L.A.  From all last 5 picture I posted above, we can see her style of photograph is similar with film. Her photographs primarily use staged sets and models to create " film-like"images that invite a myiad references, not only to the history of Holloywood and photography, and also the cinematic image in art contexts. 

-What is the similarities and differences between the photographs of the followers and the work of the selected photographer. 

For the similarities of followers' photographs and selected photographer's work of art, they both captured good timing of person's facial expressions that makes audience understand what they feel like when they are under camera.  We both know that they are both film-maker and photographer, so they will adjust picture a little bit to make it get better and better, but they will not change any truth on images because they were trying to protect the reality of the information which was showed on the photos.  

Most importantly, the main topic they want to say is how people enjoy their weekend. Different people have different ways. They may choose other way to spend their deserved weekend.  

For the part of differences I want to say. Apparently, these two groups of picture have complete different style although they both have same topic, because Lee's art is closed to person's normal life, and more based on their real feeling. On the other hand, follower Alex Prager chose other type of shooting, as I mentioned before, he is film-maker, so all picture he made is kind of 'film-like' style.  Obviously,  all poses of model in pictures are set up by follower.  It may make viewer misunderstand there are some fake scenes on there. For the photographic type of these two groups of picture, Lee Towndrow's style is pretty closed to documentary photography and Alex Prager used the type of artistic one. 

—The reasons I believe that the followers were impacted by the selected photographer.

These two groups of picture are all talking about how people feel like about weekend, or how they live on the weekend. However,follower(Alex Prager) is kind of move-like style, even thought she used similar photographic way from the selected photographer(Lee Towndrow), so I can see this work of art which was made by Alex Prager is inspired by Lee Towndrow.  

 —The most important aspects of the work of the selected photographer through the images of his/her followers. 

By distinguishing between the selected photographer's art and follower's, I think the most important aspect in their photos is person's real life. Although Alex edited color and style of images, but these two photographers all cared about the reality of photos, I believe they want to express photo's reality and real mood and emotion what people having in photograph, because this is one of most important component in art of photography.

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Prager  

http://alexprager.com/#!/photography/Week-end

http://leetowndrow.com/weekend/

The impact of digital technology on photography

-What has been the impact of digital photography on journalism?

The development of digital photography improves the efficiency of taking photos. Obviously, spreading information fast takes advantage from digital era. Such as kim Kardashian’s photo from Jean-Paul Goude for Paper magazine , after her post the photo in her instagram , she got 594000 like since taken and posted on the internet is not taking 24 hours,( BAYLEY, L. ).

Photo by Wang,D,2008, Beijing 
http://121.img.pp.sohu.com/images/blog/2008/2/25/15/9/118ed5819b5.jpg

Through the two pictures below you can see that through digital photography we are able to capture every moment, the exact colors of the leaves, how the direct light hits each branch. With the photo, you can see the Poplar branches which are dead because of dry and feeling the painful about this poplar, this photo give us a feeling about desperation, from this photo we also can see the moment about the desert after the wind through. Overall this digital photo gives us a clear vision which expresses the photographer’s sense which is the hopeless about the life.  The role of digital photography is not only capturing a moment, but also allows showing exactly what the photographer seeing at that moment. Digital photography has also brought different kinds of technology that can be used to alter photographs such as toning, highlight, contrast and saturation.  In those two photos, there is a huge different between the original photo and the edited photo. He used the toning which helps this photo looks more vivid and improve the poplar branches and the desert’s comparison. Thus, this edited photo which strengthen the layer about this photo to express the photographer’s emotion.

In a conclusion, high automatically camera brings convenience for photographer to capture the every moment. It won’t miss each wonderful moment. Nowadays, digital photography became more and more normal to record people’s daily life.

-What has been the impact of digital photography of journalism?

With the rapid development of modern science and technology, digital photography instead of film. Digital technology as a new technology, or a kind of new media, its birth and continue to infiltrate in people's life, is having a profound impact on all aspects of social life, and even change some industry original operating rules and industrial concept, news photography industry is one of the important industries affected by digital technology. After the application of digital camera in the news photography has not only changed the storage medium image, but also affects all aspects of propagation of news photography. In other words, the digital photography makes the image from shooting to release has become very convenient. In the era of the film as the main light-sensitive material, take a successful sports photo may waste a lot of film. However, through digital imaging equipment, the sport's moments quickly and correctly, a perfect record, which is very important for journalism. With the help of high definition photographs, sports news has become more vivid when it comes to audience’s eyes.

The picture below is about the moment Usain Bolt reach the finishing line of man’s 100-metres final of 2012 London Olympic Games. 

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

2012，

London,U.K

However, there is not only good effect from digital photography, also, people can edit and PS with digital photo. Therefore, people can create something does not exist in some area but show to public. 

Here is an example in China. A farmer showed a photo to public and say he took the photo in woods. As we can see there is a tiger in photo and it is a Huanan Tiger which was already extinct in wild woods. This photo caused big argument in China. Local government believe this photo is true and they were planning to build a industry chain like tourism and apply Tiger brand. Since government believe this find would help to develop local economy, they tell every journalist that the photo is true. Although they never try to find the tiger again.

Photo by Zhenglong Zhou,2007
Shanxi,China

Photo by Zhenglong Zhou,2007
Shanxi,China 

Photo by CNS News,2008
London, U.K

However, there were also many specialists doubt this photo is fake. They said this tiger look like a dull tiger and it could not be a real tiger in woods. After a few month, someone find this picture and showed to public. Until this time, the public believe that tiger is fake and local government had nothing to say.

We do not know how this photo came out or is there anyone support the farmer to fake tiger photo, but what we know is digital photography bring lots of convenience and provide us better experience. Therefore, digital photography is just a tool for journalists, the point is how to use this tool. If journalists use it in a wrong way, it could cause many mislead and problems. The tiger is a great example that digital photography can fake journalism and have negative impact in public. Therefore, journalists have responsibility to use digital photography for providing real news to public and never fake photos.

Reference

 BAYLEY, L. (2014, December 5). Kim Kardashian attends the launch of THAT magazine. Retrieved March 21, 2015, from http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/news/celebrity/2014/11/12/kim-kardashian-naked-for-papermag-break-the-internet

Group members: Heting Wang(100852745)

                            Haokai  Guo (100872603)

                            Qiong Hu        (100867283)

                            Jiaxing Chen (100903744)

                            Tong Zheng  (100805016)

Press photography V.S Art photography

To be honest, the question of what is the differenct between art and press photographs that is a tough question to figure out, because they are quite similar between each other as boy and girl twins. They are both from same ‘mother' , and they have similar ‘face’but they are trying to express different things.
The major difference between the press photography and art photography is the purposes of photographers and the functions of the work of photography.

"Endless Books" by Dina Belenko, Jan 16th 2014 http://www.yingmoo.com/chuangyiinfo_34119.html

" Morning, City" by Liuen Jim
http://slide.news.sina.com.cn/c/slide_1_17763_14985.html#p=1

Rather, press photography could be defined as those photographs which describe centain news on the social media. Moreover, press photographers have signification effect on the journalism, and they take shoot of the important moments to visually support the news or stories in the print media. Compare to the purpose of press photography. art photography is more on the visual party that makes reviewer feel more creative and unconstrained. The similarities between them are they both use a type of tool capturing the image, and show us what they want to say, such as camera or paint.  More importantly, both of photographers should have some creativitity thoughts and strong skills of photography to make pitures.
Moreover, let us look at two photographs I posted above. First, this work of art which is made by new Russian photogragher, Dina Belenko. I think photographer just want to tell us everything should seem like sample and interesting, and I just use some food we always eat in the morning and created it as mysterious ‘space’. We can see how imaginateive this phtogragher is.  Second, that is totally based on really truth(press photographs), which is described the one of busy mornings in a city of China. From this picture, we can directly see what really happened on street and what kinds of problems are reflected from this picture as well.
Then, I would like to talk about is it ethical and acceptable to alter art photographs.
In my opinion, it depends on situation. For example, it is your own work of art, it is acceptable and ethical, because it represents your own ideas and ethics as well. However, it is absolutely not ethical and acceptable if you alter someone's photographs, because you may ruin an original purpose of his or her photographs.
Last, someone will ask is it still ethical and acceptable to alter press photographs. My answer is no, it is not ethical and acceptable to change alter press photographs. No matter with your own press photographs or someone else's, because all press photographs are base on real stories or affairs. If you alter the press photographs a little bit, audience may misunderstand the truth of affairs or what really happened on the picture. 

Sources: 

https://manojpandya.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/assignment-2-press-photography-versus-art-photography-2/

http://news.sina.com.cn/photo/rmsyb10/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/79516153@N03/11989764113