project update no. 2

One of my favorite images I took for my project this week.

This week for my project I was able to go out and take pictures. I went out for a walk down by the Fox River, and tried to capture people going about their days as well as other things that caught my eye. I created a Flickr album of the photos I took this week. I'm hoping to look back at the end of the project at each week's images and be able to see the improvement overtime. The lighting was not the best the day I went out for these pictures, which is something I obviously can't control, but would love to try to go out on a better lit day next time. I haven't edited any of the images yet. Right now I'm thinking I'll wait till I gather more images over the next few weeks, and then pick out my best ones to edit in Photoshop and create my photo book with. 

Connecting to Simulations by Jean Baudrillard and the "resurrection of difference," I think my project can somewhat be universally understood without much cultural knowledge. Photography in general is a very inclusive and understandable medium for people around the world and in different cultures. There isn't any words or concepts to get, a picture oftentimes can speak for itself. Part of the beauty of art is what the viewer interprets for themselves, even if that wasn't the artist's intent. While a photograph might have something in it that one may not recognize or understand, photography as a whole I think is fairly accessible to most. 

A quote from Baudrillard that stood out to me says, "our entire linear and accumulative culture would collapse if we could not stockpile the past in plain view" (19). This can connect directly to photography, as it is a medium bent on capturing memories and history. He continues, saying that "we need a visible past...a visible myth of origin to reassure us as to our ends" (19). Photography does just this. I wonder how Baudrillard felt about the medium. Would he have thought it to be a simulacra replacing reality?  

Another photo I took this week. The flash went off on my camera giving the stop sign this neon glow, making it look almost unreal.