Contemporary Photography Project

Myra Green

Images by Myra Green:

R.D., Rochester, New York (2009), 2007- 2012

Inspired images:

Mr. Willett

For these images I tried to make them more vibrant and high key as opposed to lowkey because most of Myra's images are brighter and in direct/indirect sunlight. These images have more indirect sunlight but I edited them to enhance the brightness to better match her images. I kept the subject the same because the collection that her images are based on is "my white friends". All of her images seem to be staged and the subject is aware that the photo id being taken. I asked Mr. Willet if I could take a picture of him and had him try to recreate the first image above in the "Images by Myra Green" section and the second one is his own pose he picked.

Bio:

Myra Green was born in New York City in 1975 but grew up in Harlem. She went to college to pursue her career and became an Associate Professor of Photography at Columbia College Chicago. She has a different approach to her work. She uses high contrast black glass ambrotypes which are pictures printed on glass made by a wet plate. She chose this form of photo for some of her images to get people to consider the one-dimensional way African Americans are viewed in society. She has always felt judged by her skin color first and by her character second. The title of one of her collections “Character Recognition” is meant to make you wonder if African American people, in general, are judged by their skin color before their character. She also talks about how she stands out in a group of white people as being black whereas a group of white people isn't typically seen for their skin color first. She became a photographer to confront matters of race as well as personal identity throughout her work. She grew up in a mostly black neighborhood in Harlem but went to mostly white schools in the upper east side of New York (she herself is African American). She wanted to see if she could photograph her friends for their whiteness since when they looked at some of the images in her “Character Recognition” they seemed to only be focused on the “blackness” of the person or family.

“Greene uses her friends' styles, gestures, and natural environments to create an image of them that captures their whiteness”

Message: Can you capture the stereotype of a person's color through their actions in a photograph?

Julie Blackmon

Images by Julie Blackmon:

Fire, released 2014, Homegrown
Lot for Sale, released 2014, Homegrown
Airstream, released 2014, Homegrown
Girl Across the Street, released 2014, Homegrown

Inspired images:

Dragged, released 2022
Trapped, released 2022
Dance Recital, released 2022
4. Boy in Bin, released 2022

For these images I also used the same subject as Julie because she photographed the chaos that came with having a lot of children all playing together. These pictures were taken at my church with all of the kids we have to watch while the parents were in service. I let the kids just play normally and took pictures as we went along. I found this important because the kids in her pictures weren't necessarily aware that their picture was being taken. I got permission prior but still got the element of surprise which just added to the chaos of the images. Another thing I noticed about Julie's images is that they were all sort of the same amount of brightness throughout sort of like a painting. Either that or the subject was enhanced. I tried to have a mix of those 2 things when editing my images to show the variation between the two.

Bio:

Julie Blackmon was born in Springfield, MO in 1966. She went to Southwest Missouri State University and studied art education and photography. She got her first Merit Award from the Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, MO, in 2004. Julie grew up in a big family and was the oldest of 9 children. She currently has 3 kids of her own but was inspired by her life as a child while having so many siblings as well as the actions of her own children. She likes to photograph children in families doing normal kid activities. She wanted to capture the chaos and excitement that came with being part of a large family which some may not be familiar with depending on how they grew up. She was also inspired by the works of Sally Mann and Keith Carter and based some of her pictures off of their work. I found that interesting because we were tasked to take images inspired by photographers as well.

Compare and Contrast

Myra Green:

Compositional:

Typically more vibrant images
If it's a darker image it includes some kind of bright aspect to it (ex. light through a window into a darker room)
The lighting is usually even throughout the image and if not it is usually an example of informal balance

Subject:

White people doing everyday activities
The subject is aware the image is being taken and poses

Theme:

What is the photographer trying to communicate through his/her photos?
The photographer is trying to capture the whiteness of her white friends to see if she can find patterns in the racial stereotypes

Critique:

I like that the people know they are being photographed so they can strike a pose or do whatever they please but in the environment, they were already in. It makes the pictures more wholesome because the location is not staged even if their pose is. I am not a huge fan of her gelly prints just because they don’t really capture the details that some of her other work does. Some of these images seem like something either me or one of my family members would do which sort of confirms the stereotype in a way considering my family is white.

Julie Blackmon
Compositional:

Often has carefully placed props in reference to Danish and Flemish painters (more specifically Jan Steen) (photoshopped in some instances, ex. kid in the cage)
all different kinds of lighting depending on where the image was taken but nothing was dark enough for it to not look appealing to the eye.

Subject:

the activities and behaviors of children in big families
the chaos that comes with being a kid and having a lot of siblings

Theme:

You can find beauty in the chaos
She also wanted to mix everyday life with other components such as humor which makes the image more relatable and personable

Critique:

I like that her images are capturing all the chaos and craziness that a lot of kids can bring to the table on a regular basis. It also touches on the emotions of the people being photographed. Most of the time the kids didn’t know their picture was taken and if they did they just stared at the camera which I thought both of these pieces added to the image. I don’t like some of the darker images because sometimes kids can be a little creepy which is shown in some of the lowkey images. Some of the images reminded me of my childhood and all the fun I used to have with my brother. When kids used to play outside and get dirtier as opposed to now when technology is more readily available to younger and younger kids.

Similarities

Both photographers made good use of light. A lot of the images were high key/informal balance for Myra Greene and a lot of informal balance as well for Julie Blackmon. They both like to photograph people in their natural environments doing normal activities. They also both focus on people and how they interact in their own lives each and every day. The images are not taken out of the context of the person's typical activities or events.

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