Project 7: Cover Page & Paparazzi shot

In this project, we made a cover page of two images that we copied from Platon Antoniou and Irving Penn. We used digital for both Platon and Irving Penn and film for Paparazzi shots. Then we made fake interview, pretending that we were each Platon and Irving Penn.

Project 7: Paparazzi Shots

In this picture, the student is rushing through his homework right before class starts. He should have done his homework before but since he forgot to do it, he is copying someone else's. Also the blur on the top right corner gives the effect that the photograph was taken rapidly, giving the sense that it was paparazzi shot.
In this picture, I tried to portray how the students are misbehaving in class. The student in the front is surfing on the internet while she is supposed to be doing her class work. This is a typical sight of a class using laptops.

Project 7: Cover Page-Platon Interview

Another nominee of World’s 10 Greatest Photographers, Platon Antoniou shared his life story with V Magazine. Born in London in 1968, Antoniou was raised by English mother and Greek father and because his parents were an art historian and an architect, he was constantly exposed to the arts. Platon said, “While I was still a student at the Royal College of Art, I received British Vogue’s Best up-and-coming Photographer, and now I am receiving World’s 10 Greatest Photographers.”

After graduating, he started working for George, the

political and media cultural magazine and achieved one of his favorite projects, which was “a cross-country trip in order to document the 20 most fascinating men in America.” Since then, Platon’s fame spread all over the country and he has shot many commercials for luxurious brands. Now he is still a renowned photographer, residing in New York with his family,

Platon shared his story with his new project, Portraits of Power that he did for The New Yorker. Platon said, “This project was taken this past September, when there was a meeting of the United Nations in New York. I set up a tiny studio next to the General Assembly and hustled as many of them in front of my lens as possible. It was a five-day-long improvisation.” He added that It was very interesting to see the world leaders’ new faces through the portraits and added commentaries to each picture on the website Portraits of Power.

One of his portraits has made the cover of V Magazine, and us, the editors, thought it would be a perfect choice due to the model's hands. When asked about the

posture, Platon answered, "Oh yes, [chuckles] I totally had the desire to make the cover of V Magazine and asked the model to posture his hands. [chuckles] Actually, I had the model put up a V sign because I wanted to show the juxtaposition between his serious face and his hands. His face and clothing all say that he is a powerful, rich man. However his hands show a playful side of him and that is what I wanted to show with the portrait of the president of Brazil."

Original Photograph by Platon Antoniou

Original Magazine Cover

Project 7: Cover Page-Irving Penn Interview

Nominated as one of our World’s 10 Greatest Photographers, Irving Penn revealed his life story with the V Magazine. Irving Penn, born in June 16, 1917 started studying arts from an early age. Penn revealed that his paintings and drawings were published by Harper’s Bazaar for two years and has worked as an office boy and apprentice artist. He added on his experience working at Vogue magazine.

Penn continued on his story to his early career when his fame started to spread. During his assistant years with Alexander Liberman, he has gained a lot of recognition from Liberman and his one photograph as an assistant was published as the cover for Vogue magazine. This photograph, according to Penn, “launched [him] on his photographic career.”

At Vogue, he shot a lot of fashion photography and eventually founded his own studio in 1953, developing his own style of simplicity. Many depict his style to be d

istinct where there is a subject in front of a monotone backdrop or an acute corner. When asked about his technique using the corners, Penn answered that the technique is “a mean of closing people in,” and added that some felt secure and some felt trapped in the corners. He was able to capture their reactions on his photographs. He added “I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children.”

The above photograph is one of his latest works from his project and in this picture, he once again has used his typical technique of corner. When asked about the photograph, Penn responded, "If you see closely, the model's posture looks a bit awkward. His right arm is too far up. However his facial expression and posture all emanate a sense of isolation and loneliness. This sense goes very well with the use of corners, as he felt trapped in by the corners."

Penn has had many exhibitions, including Metropolitan Museum of A

rt, National Gallery of Art, J.Paul getty Museum and most recently National Portrait Gallery in London.

Original Photograph by Irving Penn

Project 6: Save the Children

In this assignment, we had to produce 3 competition prints for the Save the Children competition. The theme of the competition is Universal Education.

Project 6: Save the Children-Image Bank

Abbie Trayler Smith
Abbie Trayler Smith was born in 1977 in England. She taught photography herself and started with photography for the student newspaper. Then she continued to work for the Daily Telegraph. She has visited a lot of third world countries including, Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, Iraq and Darfur. She is mostly known for her documentary photographs in these countries. The above pictures are also from one of her documentaries. Since 2006, she is working as a freelance photographer with a wider variety of clients and focuses on her own projects.

As can be seen above, her documentary pictures are very similar to the ones on Save the Children website. They are mostly from third world countries and bring a sense of empathy for the subjects in the photos. Moreover they are mostly in colors and do not have a lot of editings done. However this seems to work the best with documentary pictures as they do not need any extra aids to convey their points. Additional editings will actually distract the viewers.

Karen Leslie

Karen Leslie is an American photographer and she specializes in modern portrait photography sessions of kids, familes and dogs. She is based in Central Florida. She went to college for marketing executive but changed her mind to photography and now she owns a small business, called KarenLeslie Photography.

This photograph is black and white and it arouses the feeling of motherhood. This could relate to the topic "Universal Education" as the baby's sister is teaching the baby something. They seem to be very connected and this brings a sense of family.

Meredith Zinner

Meredith Zinner is an American photographer specializing in infants, toddlers, children and families. She is a professional natural light photographer and is based in New York. During her sessions, she allows the children to show their individuality and characteristics naturally, instead of "preconceived notions or standardized props and set-ups." She also has her own business called, Meredith Zinner Photography.

This picture, on the other hand, does not depict universal education. However the connection between the father and the baby is very well shown. It once again shows the familial sense.

Sarah Lasker

Sarah Lasker is an amateur American photographer, base in Phoenix. She is a registered nurse and takes photographs as her hobby. She has a Flickr account in which she has a lot of followers and she goes as "sarah lasker" on flickr. Her photographs are of a wide variety including still life, portraits etc.

In this picture, the little girl is trying to take a picture of the dog. In the description of this picture, Sarah Lasker made a comment about how she was starting early with photography. Of course this may have been a joke but it could also connect to the education theme.

Project 6: Save the Children-Printing Compositions

This was one of my ideas for the final print; however I did not use this idea as my final print because first of all, it did not look nice to me and secondly, the idea did not come through as well. Even though this was an initial idea, it was very blurry and unfocused because I had to take it in a manual mode due to the close-up.
This is the original copy of my first final print. When I was taking this picture, I tried to use depth of field with the two kids in focus and front, and the teacher and the wall out of focus. Even though the focus worked, the background seemed a bit messy. I also liked this picture, because the two kids are wearing bold colors which help them be in focus.
This is the original copy of my second final print. I used the same technique as the one above when taking this picture. However the problem with this photograph was that the viewer's focus was not on the kids but on the teacher in the back because she's in the center and because of her size. Even though she is not in focus, the viewers immediately look at her before looking at the kids.

This is the original copy of my third final print. I, again, used depth of field in this picture and it seemed interesting to me how there are three subject in this picture. The pencil and the teacher in the back are out of focus, while the boy is in focus. I did not have much problem with this photograph.

This is the original copy of my last final print. This was added the very last minute, and so I am not very fond of this picture. However it diverses from other pictures in that it is of older children and it shows the higher education. Again, I used depth of field.

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This is my first final print. On Photoshop, I cropped the picture smaller to hide the messy background and made it brighter, to bring out the subjects.
This is my second final print. I had to edit a lot with this picture because of the problem that was already mentioned above. I first made this picture black and white and made my two subjects in color to bring them out. Then I blurred the background for more focus on the kids. Even though it kind of looks as if the kids were put in with Photoshop, it was the only way to make them focused.
This is my third final print. As I mentioned above, I did not have much problem with this picture and so, the only editing I made was the brightness. I also had to find out the name of this kid.

This is my last final print. As I mentioned above, it was last minute and so I did not have much time to think of what to edit. I cropped the picture on the right because it was a bit messy and made the girl in the front stand out by using the sharpen tool in Photoshop.