Moises Saman (1974)- Mateo Micucci

Moises is a Peruvian/Spanish photojournalist who was born in Peru and relocated to Barcelona, Spain at the age of 1. It was during his lat year of university, in 1998, that he first became interested in photography, being influenced by the events of the balkan wars and the work of photo journalist covering it.

Moises interned at sever newspaper agencies in California and, upon graduation, in New York before packing up and traveling to Kosovo to document the immediate aftermath of the Balkan Wars.

Between 200-2007 he worked for the New York Newsday Newspaper, covering covering the fallout of the 9/11 attacks, allowing him to travel between Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries. After wards he became a freelance photographer, contributing to the  The New York Times, Human Rights Watch, Newsweek, and TIME Magazine, among other international publications.
In 2010 Moises was invited to join Magnum Photos as a Nominee. He now lives between Cairo and New York City.

AFGHANISTAN. Marja. March 2010. US Marines kneel behind a smoke screen at an helicopter landing zone in Marja, Helmand Province.

 

RAQ. Baghdad, March 2003.A boy with a hunting rifle runs through the British Cemetery in 

central Baghdad during a sandstorm

GREECE, Athens. July 2009. An asylum seeker sleeps under the Kifisou Bridge near the immigration office in the Petro Rally district of Athens where hundreds of asylum seekers wait for hours through the night to have a chance to apply for asylum.

AFGHANISTAN. Kunar Province. March 2010. Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province

EL SALVADOR. Ilopango. May 2007. A female gang member is found raped and murdered on a   road in the town of Ilopango

IRAQ. Baghdad, Iraq. July 2004. A man tries to tame an Arabian horse looted from one of Saddam Hussien's palaces

1. My first in impression was how powerful and large the Arabian horse seems, compared to the young man, yet they both seem fearless.

2. The work portrays the struggle between Powerful and massive Hussein rule vs the Iraqi people.

3.Although both subjects are of different size, Moises uses diagonal lines that form a triangle to bring both of them together.

4. When examining the photograph one notices triangles, as well as the soft/smooth yet dirty texture of the horses body. One is also drawn by the bright whites of the horse in contrast with the dark colors of the young man.

5. There diagonal lines organize the photograph as well as an uneven horizontal line. Two very powerful lines that bring the man and horse together as if about to clash.

Analysis

1. What stands out in the photo is the is the power and muscles of the horse and how fearles the man seems to be approaching it. It is as if defining a certain period in the Iraqi war.

2. As mentioned before, diagonal organize the photograph. 

3. The white hair of the horse contrasts well with the dark skin and colorful clothes of the young man 

Interpretation

. Taken in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2004. The photo ms to showcase the early periods of the Iraqi war, bringing to mind Iraqi citizens revolting against their government and toppling statues of Saddam Hussein. In other words, a David vs Goliath scene. The ordinary Iraqi man vs the enormous power of the Saddam Hussein regime, or in this case his horse.

Evaluation

1. My first impression did not change, in anything it was enhanced. It is a very powerful photo, considering the time period. 

2. I do think it was a successful photograph. The photographer expertly uses lines, shapes to organize the photo and draw the viewers eyes where he wants them.

3. I do find it unique. Photojournalism, as a medium, communicates humanity, good and bad. I think his photograph really captures an intense period of conflict in the history of the Iraqi people.

4. Haha, I would love to try. It would be an honor and a privilege to document such important issues  in the world, that should and must be known by all

5. They do.

6. Yes, Moises expertly set up the shot.

7. Yes. In fact, as soon as I have the money, I will buy it; along with others.

8. Allot.

9. Incredibly so. 

Octavia-Gianni Berengo Gardin Final Project

Reflection on photography...

The History of the Kodak Brownie

Lightroom Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBK7icaDhNA

Giovanna. My photographer is a famous reporter: Carol Guzy

Carol Guzy

    As Eugene Smith once said, “Let truth be the prejudice.” The photographer Carol Guzy reminded, continuing, “A photograph can be a powerful witness and an eloquent voice for those who have none. Pictures inform, educate, enlighten, captivate, and spur governments into action. They are historical documents and poignant reminders of our human frailties. Sometimes they touch our very souls.”

Carol Guzy

Carol Guzy grew up in a working class family in Bethlehem and studied in public schools. Her father died when she was young remaining alone with her ill mother. Instead of becoming  a nurse as she was asked by her family, she enrolled in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, completing a two-year photography course. Eventually, he professor Walter Michot introduced her to photojournalism. The Miami Herald first recognized her talent, hiring her in the journal. In the following years she travelled to Africa, Louisiana, Kosovo, Germany, Albania, States ,  and many other places, witnessing the suffering and grief of victims in many places around the world and at the same time recalling the marvelous highlighted side that each of them has the right to shine.[1] However, the place that she found most attractive and inspiring for her work was Haiti. In an interview she said, “It’s not me, it’s Haiti. I have been to a lot of places. Haiti is the most intense—both positive and negative. The Haitian spirit touches your soul. After the quake, the Haitians mourned, they prayed, they cried, they picked themselves up and moved along. It’s unnerving. “After eight years from her graduation in Fort Lauderdale, she moved to Washington where she won her first Pulitzer in 1986 for news photography in Haiti. However, she later won other two Pulitzer Prizes.

The artist released many interview and wrote herself many essays that help to read her pictures. However, the perception of her work is very immediate. In fact, through the interviews of the artist, it emerges her intent with the camera and her idea of photography, which confirms her intent of spontaneity ,not intended to alter the pictures and facts represented. In fact, she stresses, the human side, which, as she says, is “a privilege” for the photographer and the viewer to “witness” and report to the world.

In terms of photographic style, her pictures show that she gives lot of importance to the “moment “rather than looking for the right aperture or shutter. This is, in fact, again explained in more than one interview of the artist, when  she talks of the value of the “light we glimpse within every being” which is more important than the objective “right light” to catch in the atmosphere. This attention to the soul, putting her not behind the lens, yet as a human, within all the feelings and emotions, witnessing with the lens of the camera the same moment that helpless people experienced with their real eyes, is what makes her photographs unique. Also her profound motivation to follow her artistic vacation of photography, overcoming the necessity of her family to have her to have a concrete job compared to art, strongly emerges through her images.

Carol’s concern seems to be to bring out the issue of separation between reality and media; sufferance and lack of empathy with the sufferance of people who cannot leave their reality. Her images become a place of meditation, a place to experience; a didactic-empathic-aesthetic guide toward the life most us think is helpless.  Furthermore, she seems to bring out issues that concern human behavior that she finds “horrific”, in order to pose a quest and stress how it is an individual responsibility to change things.

 “At times I reflect on just why we do this. There’s certainly an emotional toll from witnessing man’s inhumanity, especially covering stories in places like Haiti and Rwanda.”

                                           Carol Guzy

 Guzy’s often uses the rule of the third in her photos, however always giving importance first to the emotions of the characters portrait and their spontaneity, and as a mirror effect, provoking the same sensation in the viewer. Sometimes, in order to convey a great deal of emotions, her choice is to use only one hue of color instead of a more realistic bright colors choice. [2]Furthermore, she seems to naturally arrange the light in the compositions in order to stress the role of the characters and grab the viewers’ attention. Other methods found in Guzy’s style, to put in evidence her focal point, is the adoption of a brightening effect that she puts on the subject of her interest. For instance, we can see this in the picture that won the Pulitzer Price in 2000, where, in fact, not the boy is brightest element of the composition attracting the viewer’s attention over the rest of the image.

 The culture contex, the stereotypes , and the individual biases are all elements that the artist fully respects and of which promotes the value. In fact, her work adheres to the professional standards that photojournalism requires, yet, takes and asks for each individual moral responsibility to do so. Her pictures respect and celebrate the private moment and essential content of it .In fact, she demonstrates dignity, sensibility, objectivity, to visually reports the people, the environment, and the so intimate and universal sufferance of the human being she represents.

Figure 1

Agim Shala, 2, is passed through barbed wire fencing at an Arab camp as members of his family are reunited after feeling Kosovo. This image is part of the portfolio that won the 2000 Pulitzer in feature photography. According to Guzy, “Family members were greeting relatives they had through were dead…It was a happy moment.” [3]

This picture is one example in which Guzy shows a preference for colors and brightness, especially in the main focus of the composition, the baby. In fact, this contributes to creates in the viewer a feeling  of empathetic emotional link, also thanks to the movement of the baby toward us which almost call us to grab him. Here, the realistic effect is strong as in all her photographs. However, this is due more to the moment captured than to the technical skills , which however is represented at best, embodying perfectly the right composition ,colors, light to represent at best the subjects and their profound feelings.

Figure 2

An earthquake killed 230000 Haitians, left 1,5 millions homeless, and flattened cities and towns, particularly the county’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Guzy caught a couple walking hand in hand past burning building littered with dead bodies. “It was a sweet moment, amid Armageddon. So Haitian-they up and move on, regardless of what befalls them.”[4]

In this picture the focus is on the couple and the photographer creates a contrast using the pre-existing light coming from the background, giving to the picture an impression of delicacy and reality. The eye is drawn spontaneously on the focal point of the composition, as per her style, since she probably did not even set rationally the rule of three even if here it seems to dominate. However, what first grabs our attention, are the emotions permeating the scene; in fact, she is able to capture the moment and fix the feeling to make it perceivable to us. The dynamic  aspect of the picture, as in the previous one, is a common aspect of her photographs, stirring up the physical immobility, encouraging a movement of hope and reaction. In this picture, the characters vanish both into darkness and into whiteness. As Arnheim points out in his studies on visual perception, this effect reminds of the Japanese painter Sesshu(image 3) [5], where mountains emerge from fog so that viewers imagination is required to complete the meaning of the image. As figure 2 shows, the appearance and disappearance sensation, provokes and invite the viewer for a reflection not to forget the suffer of these people.

Image 3

                                                          

Image 4

Memunatu Mansaray imitates the Statue of Liberty, America’s symbol of freedom, during a charity boat tour. She came to the United States with a group of Sierra Leonean war amputees to receive prosthetic limbs in 2000. They had endured rebel brutality, but their vitality and spirit remained intact. [6]

This picture shows a swallow depth of field with the young girl sharp depicted in the foreground. The use of black and white for this photograph gives more importance to the feeling, since here color might have had represented a distraction from the main and only focus of the composition. As we can read in the caption, Guzy calls by name the little girl, giving importance to one over many similar stories which have been forgotten and that otherwise would not be considered. Furthermore, she shows respect toward the sensibility of the Sierra Leonean war amputees, portraying the most vulnerable victims, a young girl , imitating the Statue of Liberty at her shoulder with the unawareness and innocence that only children have. In this way she open the doors of hope even in a tragic story, being able to catch the essence of a moment of joy. Everything preserves the natural, untouched, vulnerable looking and Guzy’s subjects confirm this; the most spontaneous being in the world, victims and children.

Work Cited

   “Carol Guzy.” The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

  Gross, Larry P. Image Ethics in the Digital Age. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

  Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. New Version, Expanded and Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

http://live.washingtonpost.com/pulitzer-prize-winners-washington-post-guzy-khan-carioti.html

http://photography.about.com/od/famousphotographersbios/a/CarolGuzyBiography.htm

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[1] Carol Guzy in first person in a written essey talks of this.

[2] We can see this in picture 4.

[3] Source and credit : Carol Guzy/The Washington Post

[4] Source and credit: Carol Guzy/ The Washington post via Getty Images

[5] Sesshu , Image 3

[6] Source :  Carol Guzy/ Alaska Quarterly Review