The Genius of Photography (PART 5)

1. Who said 'The camera gave me the license to strip away what you want people to know about you, to reveal what you can't help people knowing about you' and when was it said?Diane Arbus said this statement in the early 60s, where she often went around the streets photographing unusual people and not the 'norm' to society. Its said that she was photographing people and reflecting her own personality and issues through these.

2. Do photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?
Photographers can tend to prey on vulnerable people because they are out on the streets and capturing people showing their true emotion. These people who are exposed socially and culturally and the person behind the camera can either feel compassion or too drive by their hungry eye.

3. Who is Colin Wood?
Colin wood in 1962 was a young skinny 7 year old boy who was photographed by Diane Arbus in Central Park, she captured many photos of him that day but chose only one shot where he clutches a toy hand grenade in one hand and has a tense claw like hand in the other. She was very curious of him and although he loved being photographed and gave her funny expressions, he was on his own and his parents were going through a divorce, she found it to be a reflection on herself.

4. Why do you think Dian Arbus commited suicide?
She had so many issues and didn't want to be herself that you can see in photos of different people a reflection on herself and her insecurities. Most people did not get her work and was against it, she photographed out of the 'ordinary' people and must have all got too much when she started to become too famous for such work.

5. Why and how did Larry Clark shoot tulsa?
Larry Clark shot Tulsa the way he lived it, he photographed everything around him, what was happening with his friends, taking drugs, messing with guns, violence. He documented close up personal things that nobody else would of at that time (1970s)

6. Try to explain the concept of 'confessional photography' and 'what is the impolite genre?'
Confessional photography is about the truth of real life and the misunderstanding of the world. Its photos with meaning, and intimacy, things that people don't want to know about. The impolite genre is the oposite its photos that are rude, descriptive and quite often shocking and disturbing.

7. What will Araki not photograph and why?
Araki photographed everything and anything that went on around him if your not taking a picture of that moment you won't really remember it so much. He now only photographs what he wants to remember.

8. What is the premise of Postmodernism?
Our culture now is so saturated by the media and media models of how people live and we believe thats how the live their lifes but its all made up by the media myth. It goes against the idea of portraiture because going into a studio all dressed up is not really revealing your character or identity.