Just passed the course by MoMA. It was very interesting.
After six chapters (modules) of learning with a 10-questions-quiz after each chapter we had to pass a final assignment.
In 500 words, describe which module resonated with you the most and why. What are some of the issues, ideas, or themes that particularly interested you, and how did they change or complicate your understanding of photography?
Here my text:
Said first, all chapters of this course were interesting, they conveyed some basic informations about photography since its invention in the 1830's, from technical issues to artistic approaches to the medium.
Most interesting theme (due to its actuality) of all chapters is "Ocean of Images - Photography And Contemporary Culture". The arising questions "How do we perceive reality ?", "Is a photograph reality ?", "Describes a photograph reality ?", "What does a photograph tell ?" and the currently known artistic deals with these questions provide a multitude of possibilities to create own artistic works. The change from analogue to digital made aware that all is composed of pixels. Thomas Ruff showed this "aesthetic of the pixel" in his JPEG-series, a fact that american painter Chuck Close showed in an impressive way with his large sized "faces" - series already in the 90's.
Having said this, all images of our environment, taken through the lens of a camera, can be a basis for creating our own world/reality by manipulating these images in countless ways. We can blur, we can eliminate, we can change the ratio of height and width, we can change colors, we can change perspectives, we can add, we can merge and we can crop, only to name a few ways with which we can influence the viewer of an image.
I would like to show with my image (see below) one single way of manipulation: the reduction of image elements and the effect to the visual perception of the viewer.
To come back to the second part of the question: "how did they change or complicate your understanding of photography ?":
My approach to photography was somehow unusual. Before dealing with photography I wrote computer algorithms that created some graphic structures with randomly created colors. During this phase I recognized that our environment consisted of similar structures and I tried to capture these structures with the camera.
The first attempts showed blossoms of flowers which were deformed in post-processing with the fractal-algorithm by Benoit Mandelbrot. This was the beginning of a deeper understanding of all things that surround us and an intense occupation with the human visual perception. Photography evolved for me to be an ideal medium to deal with visual perception.
Finally I would like to mention in this context some thoughts about photography, by Zoe Leonard:
"What is photography ? Is it a print, an object or is it a jpg on your screen? Does it only exist if you print it out ? Does it only count if it’s a big file, a TIFF ? Or is it a snapshot on your phone or a slide projection, or is it the image you see in your mind before you click the shutter ? Is it that great picture you missed, the time you ran out of film or the camera jammed or you didn’t even have your camera with you ? In short, is photography an object or an image, or is it a way of seeing?" (Zoe Leonard)
You can see the certificate on my website:
https://hansmartindoelz.co/publications-exhibitions-awards/
Cheers, Hans-Martin
