"Art is a representation not of what the eye sees, but of what the soul seeks," 
 William Stillman.

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."
 

- Henry David Thoreau

Next...20th Century

 As you might be able to tell by the post title, this set of images is in the style of the 20th century photographer! How exciting. Last week was the 19th century now it is the 20th century. So many years so many changes. What you can expect and see is images with a modern approach. Fragments, selective focus, unusual angles, juxtaposition, non-grounded buildings, fragmentary views, details, interesting lighting... those are the things a 20th century photographer would utilize in their framing.

 I know that these two centuries of photographers and photographs don't seem that much different, but you can see that there were more radical views of buildings in the 20th century. They become more experimental, and not so straight forward, or dead-pan type of images.

Where these were taken was at the fishing pier down by the power plant in Oak Creek. I love this spot because no one is ever down there, and the views of this massive complex, to me, is fantastic. I love standing by something so big, and the feeling of being so small. I like the feeling of being little, and unimportant. This building has interesting shapes to it. There are so many different parts of it, and they each have their own character. Some parts are very simple, and plain. While others are complex and intricate. One of the best parts is when you are driving down the big hill toward the pier and you can look out over the buildings. That point is when I felt like I was on the same level as the structure, then when I finished my drive down that hill, I again felt the massive structure hanging over me.

In these images I wanted to show all the parts of the building. From the simple parts, to the complex ones that I am not sure what they are used for. I also wanted to show how massive the buildings are. All of the interesting detail. Typically 20th century photographers use color in their work, but I went with the black and white just to simplify the differences in structures. Keep that in mind when looking at the work of 20th century photographers. The only other thing I might do with these images is put a black boarder around them. Other then that, that was my experience of  the 20th century photographer.

Photograph in the manner of a 19th century photograher they said.

Dekoven Center Racine, Wisconsin

 Last week in class, our lesson and assignment was about the 19th century photographers. Or the people who started the craft. At that time in history, photographs would photograph buildings because those were the only things that wouldn't move and mess up the exposure. Their style was very straight forward. They captured the buildings essence. It was as if they were shooting for a magazine.



The photographers wanted people to get the idea of how big the building was, how it looked, the details, the "catalog" views.

My favorite house in downtown Racine, since I was a little tot.

  Some of these images are not the best 19th century photographer photographs, but they were the images I submitted for my assignment, so I wanted to share them with everyone.

Here is a list of the most famous 19th century photographers- William Henry Fox Talbot, Eugene Atget, and Francis Frith. 

 This was a difficult concept for me, as well as other people in my class. To strip down what your style is to photograph is a more simple way, is a hard thing to do. Many people in class including myself, felt like there was going to be a lack of style in these images. I am glad I chose to shoot in downtown Racine. I knew the architecture would fit well with the 19th century style. I just started shooting everything in a straight forward mind frame. I tried to keep them simple. I think I had some success. Not the best, but it was a nice experience to go back into history and try to capture an image in the way one of them would have.

Chapel at the Dekoven Center Racine, Wisconsin

Dekoven Center