Wednesday, February 16, 2011

For Feb 22nd: Doug Rickard's A New American Picture

 
From "A New American Picture Book" by Doug Rickard

You just spent a week making and thinking about the cell phone as a camera.  But there are image capturing devices everywhere in our society, we don't even notice anymore.  Are we becoming the subject of a mass camera eye?  Read about this new book carefully and look at the images.  Write a paragraph.  Does this give you any new ideas about photography or our society?  Is this art?  Would you consider Doug Rickard a photographer?

Look at these two links for sure and others that you may find upon googling:

http://www.americansuburb.com/

http://5b4.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-american-picture-by-doug-rickard.html
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4 comments:

  1. Leah Cirker-StarkFebruary 18, 2011 at 1:11 PM

    I guess I do have a bit of a problem with the way these were taken. That's not to say that I don't think they're beautiful, haunting, and amazing, but because he didn't take the photos himself, I feel it lacks some of the needed originality. It's like how I rarely take pictures of the sky, because I think it's so much more beautiful in reality and I can't take credit for creating it, or like taking photos of sea shells; you do capture a moment, but you didn't really create that moment.
    I'm not going to get all paranoid, because yes, it sucks that every street in the country is under some type of surveillance, but we put more out in public than anyone ever looks for. Photography has a lot of mainstream uses, but it still retains it's integrity.

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  2. Maggie LandFebruary 20, 2011 at 8:55 AM

    I completely enjoy Rickard's photographs as well as the way the he "takes" the images. I believe that anything can be art. I mean for instance, I have always loved Hannah Hoch, but many people can fight that she didn't exactly "make" her own artwork, but I believe, any one who has an idea and pushes forward to follow through can call it their "own". I am sure that Rickard probably put a ton of time going through google maps to find these amazingly depressing pictures. I mean there are MILLIONS of images on google maps, and Rickard had to decide what area of the world he wanted to look at (if more than one) and he is exploring what is shown and captured of us that we would never know of. I mean, for all I know there could be pictures of me all over the internet that I don't know about.

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  3. ho.loveFebruary 21, 2011 at 1:37 PM

    This is an interesting topic that was brought up the other day in one of my classes, pertaining to the issue of how we are having our photo taken multiple times a day without our noticing, e.g. surveillance cameras. At first the idea of someone taking snap shots off of Google images sounds like a cheap shot at art, but after looking at the images i actually grew a liking to them. They have a beautiful feel to them. In a way its very much so like taking a photograph with a camera. He has the ability to choose which frame to "capture" since Google images has the ability to pan.

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  4. PaigeFebruary 21, 2011 at 2:07 PM

    this is wonderful i love it and i do believe he is a photographer. its just that he doesn't have to leave the house to do his work but he is able to go places he wouldn't be able to otherwise. which is amazing because i have been having problems being in my own environment and this is a perfect solution. also he does have to find and frame the images its just that he doesn't capture moments but depending on the photo that isn't always needed.

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