B and S--This is so much fun and I find myself thinking all day about these images and about your task as you organize and present them....
SUMAIYA #2e01, roll 2--These two photos of the woman mashing somethng in a pot-lovely how the photographer stayed with her subject and got an animated gesture (and probably some words) and then got the perfectly composed shot next.
This refusal to let one image say it all is something I like very much and may be suggestive of what we do when we think about moving images and the need to see what went on before and after THE shot was taken. Communicates a greater sense of time, and close looking and listening. Granting full meaning to the shot that came before the shot seems like an expansive way of seeing.
THEO 15, Roll 1-Wonderful composition--playing with frames and rectangles. By using a high angle shot, he catches the boys lying on a mat and reading books that all refer to the picutre frame itself. The term for this is mise-en-abime, and its used constantly in classical cinema to emphasize the "picture-frame" as a "natural" entity, almost like the human eye. Great shadow play of light and the two pairs of shoes are just perfect--outside the mat as frame.
#15, Roll 2. Theo gets some of the same intensity by framing the figure on the bed (her head framed by the pillow-rectangle)
and by choosing the high angle shot he gets that play with frames. I am not trying to say he is conscious of this, but rather that when a person uses a camera and looks through a lens and sees a frame, there is an inclination to make that device obvious to selects and frames his subject. This is but one example of how a camera-consciousness emerges in the act of photographing and in the act of looking at a photograph--its all about re-presentation. I have been emphasizing this aspect of these images, because to me, its what makes for a specific "way of seeing".
PATRICIA
-#7,8,9,10, Roll 2. As usual I am drawn to these series images, where there is a sense of movement and, in this case dance and performance. The addition of a second figure in the last shot suggests the power of the camera to recruit new performers-- and suddenly, there is a fellow dancer. The visual interest of the empty clothesline and the empty space really gives this little dancer a fabulous stage. Patricia has a good eye for those things.
SELINA -1b03, Roll 1. The well-to-do -man of a certain age with his car, house and satellite set up is situated perfectly by this shot. He even stands to the side of these powerful symbols, as though to assume a somewhat humbler place (and we assume he likes leaning on the wall) Terrific composition and content too.
STELLA-#1, Roll 5. Another car tire shot. This time alittle boy who is almost the size of the tire he is rolling. Nive shadows and suggestion of adults present, but not interfering with this boy's mobility.
-#3, Roll 5 Woman in front of pink house with red bouganvillia. (spelled wrong) Fascinating composition, colors, and pose by the subject. Part of that series includes the next group of women with plants and flowers. #s 4,5,6.
NELLY
I like her short narrative about her sister Yaa and her son Ben. Its a fine photo--balanced and beautifully composed, with the mother and child holding their own in front of all that stuff-barrels and towels and coffee cans. I like the way the photo tells the sister's story too, how she holds the soapy baby so that he faces the camera and she faces him. (the vertical shot works better, it has no number) Added to what Nelly says about loving her and feeling loved by her, its a very complex portrait.
"Mother Cooking for Aunt" is a lovely two-part series on Roll 2. Great sense of the space and the work and the body of the working woman as she wrestles with that pot of something thick and white
VICTORIA
Victoria's shots with many people and lots going on are hard to read in this format. Some look really interesting, and she is one of the few who is willing to take on the levels of complexity involved in these compositions. She works carefully with camera angles and has a real sense for how to frame a shot. Daring and encompassing.
-#10, Roll 1-What a gorgeous shot! Camera angle is all encompassing, and look how much is going on with these two figures in this complex space. Table top and covered bowl, bucket, vertical line of light--shape of the slip on the woman in the foreground--just beautiful visually.
Joseph Teye
As I read Joseph Teye's narrative, I am struck by how he is very conscious of the camera as a presence, a force, even a personality in the situation that is unfolding. His sense of telling the story with the camera and with words that complement and position the camera is impressive. I am wondering about this as an organizing principle for your final cut--which of the students is able or interested in bringing the camera, as a character, into the story. How does that determine a camera style that might differ from the people who write about the camera as a hidden extension of themselves, not so much as a part of the social fabric.
-"the car tire pushers" #6 and #7, Roll 1 are both wonderful images, and the narration that accompanies them works so forcefully to show how Joseph experiences the camera as a an element or even a character that moves the story.
-pulling the vines is just plain a great shot # 17, Roll 1. The lighting, the movement of the figure, and of course it also goes along with the story that he tells about collecting goat feed. Is there a photo of the goats? Oh yes, I see one with a goat and a chicken just out and about. # 1, Roll 2. Nice positions of figures in this shot.
-I love the "God is King" (# 3, Roll 2) yams and rice shop! Wonderful sense of movement and action about the way she serves and poses as a server.
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