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Anders Petersen: Café Lehmitz

‘Café Lehmitz’ showcases a collection of Black and White photograph taken by Anders Petersen. It is a presentation of people who gathered in a pub near red-light district and formed a welcoming family-like community. Often times when conducting projects, introducing groups whose identities were being attached with less valued terms, gestures of pettiness can really dominate the individuality. They become a symbol of something rather than actual people who live through the struggle. However, the way Petersen observes, positions and shots pictures, managed to minimize even dismiss such alienation. I think it’s a matter of understanding by heart and persistence.

 

For instance, the photographer himself is totally invisible in pictures. High contrast of the grey scale, rough crumbs and a sense of mellowness, all the effort are made in order to speak the mutual understanding of each other, not necessarily by using literal means, such as showing the co-presence of himself and others. On the contrary, there are a lot of close shots of faces and upper bodies, it seems like the physical distance between Petersen and his subjects is slowly dissolving as pages being flipped.

 

What's also important to notice, pictures in the book showcase a variety of activities happened inside the pub. Through the arrangement of prints, their personalities and a great friendliness are telling. Fighting, dancing, laughing and many more, it’s obvious Petersen spends more than enough time to make sure the people around him and himself are comfortably working together. From seeing the flow and selection of images, it’s undeniable that the photographer really bonds with those who had being taken pictures of.

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Deprivation and Freedom: A Philosophical Enquiry by Richard T. Hull

‘Deprivation and Freedom’ discusses topics regarding social deprivation. It covers areas in moral and political philosophy by investigating the idea, the seriousness and many more aspects of deprivation.

 

The measurable and abstract deprivation occupies the context of discussion. Although the presentation of both reflects on individual’s life differed greatly, one common internal feeling is being mentioned frequently – a sense of lacking. I think it explains what I felt when examining the relationship between one of our professional identities, ‘artist’ and what we provide, ‘artwork’. To externalize the unspeakable, in a way is to voluntarily flake off a piece of self and let it become something self-explanatory. As the distance between oneself and this piece of goods is being revealed, a lack of connection creates the space of further interpretation made by others.

 

The focus of measurable deprivation, largely elaborated by deconstructing the justifiability of levels of sympathy, uses various examples and social experiments. The examination sets the deprivation broadly in our society, where containment and freedom, poor-and-rich and the disabled group all contributed to the definition. Also, it goes into private life and personal choices in order to study the recognition of deprivation. These different settings show ways of evaluating social issues, which is something we can all learn from when doing research and drafting proposals. Empathizing with those we borrowed authority of explaining from, where we symbolized, simplified and transported cultural and historical content, is a selfre-sponsibility.   

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Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limón

‘Sharks in the Rivers’ is a collection of poems written by the American poet Ada Limón. Going back to Limón’s early life living in the rural area to years later adapting big busy city, she had a deepened reflection regarding human condition and various life struggles. The usage of thematic resonance is being applied by a constant mention of several metaphors, such as river, bird, sky and other animals. A blend of mechanical way of function in modern life and almost mythical description of wildlife creatures is much anticipated.

 

The contrast between a strong build-up of imagery and a sense of compressed feeling, is what I found most genius. A piece of contented work is something that not only gives away ‘truths’ in the offered narrative, but also introduce the power of ‘naming’ our own ones. As reading through the literal metaphors, I realized I was claiming what cannot be solved at the same time. What’s more, most of the poems in this book start with very little, an ordinary scene, location or object, then reach things that are much larger.

 

This quality of poems in general, is very similar to the quality of artworks. Both of them don't really define or reply, but rather tell and suggest. Whether being a literal or visual presentation of things the poet wants to say, ‘Sharks in the Rivers’ manages to convey the disturbance caused by an inconsistency of harmony between surroundings and the image of inner-self. I believe this is a major topic for our time, which we have to come back and visit again and again. Maybe not to find answers for solving this, but to learn and grasp something meaningful from a sense of helplessness.     

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La Jetée, 1962

La Jetée introduces a poetic quality to one very common way of arranging images, some may say that in today’s time, it can be named as ‘PowerPoint’ with sound playing in the background. For me, it’s the value of story telling and how the estrangement of the story itself makes 'La Jetée' extremely captivating. Black & Whtie still shots erase any further interpretation regarding colors or tones, distancing visual language from strings of literal ones offered by normal colored films. These are frozen moments of motions, being deprived from the liner time, just like the man who is being chosen to conduct the time-travel mission.

 

The film also presents a study of the relationship between sound and image. Since photomontages have been speeded and controlled by sound effects and voiceover, the consistency of liner-time editing based on a script is heavily corrupted. From putting down a deliberate clash between the stillness of single picture and the floating nature of sound, two static means are combined as solution not only to explain the narrative, but also to tell ambient subjects, such as memory, time, trauma and emotion, which are being inserted in La Jetée.

 

The exhaustion of showcasing inner feelings can conserve the fluidity of narrative, as it remains untouched but being told by actual elements of film language: picture and sound. A mixture of both narrative and emotion is delivered, for being the result of La Jetée’s ‘mood-board’ type of presentation with voice narrating. Within less than half an hour, the film becomes something moving and enriched, a collection of materials for studying much cultural and artistic discussion.    

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Rebel Without a Cause, 1955

‘The Earth, will be destroyed as we began, in a burst of gas and fire… In all the immensity of our universe and the galaxies beyond, the earth will not be missed. Through the infinite reaches of space, the problems of man seem trivial and naïve indeed, and man, existing alone, seems himself an episode of little consequence.’

 

Unbalanced hormone, recklessness, melodrama and more, words are being punctuated when painting a picture of adolescent years. The emotional roller coaster ride for youngsters is too insignificant to be seen, most of the time. We all were teenagers once, a cultural identity and one social force that is hard to abandon. These years shaped the way of how we present ourselves and process various inner feelings. Rebel as one of the most important youth rebellion films has taught me two practical means to approach a discussion regarding the cultural identity when, age-wise I can no longer be identified with.

 

Usage of metaphors:

The illusion of one perfect grown-up’s world planted long in a soon-to-be adult’s head, the disillusionment of such imaginary, tangled then being tear apart by the lecturer in Rebel, introducing cosmic as a metaphor to tell the director’s perspective of what youth means. Also,  bright colors and symbolic objects have been contributed to the realism of youth life. Commonly acknowledged policy of objecthood and an understanding of color scheme, used as metaphors, are telling the story and extending a piece of sympathy.

Red: blood, death, romance, fragile moments

Daisy: innocence, tribute, pureness

A bottle of milk: habits of children, a taste of childhood 

 

The implication of information:

As a film portrays young people’s petulance, low angle shooting is significantly relevant. It implies a childish way of observing, which may be extravagant for a teenager’s height, but it surely brings out the physical and psychological difference between adults and youngsters. Additionally, characters’ lines heighten such contrast in the screenplay and the choice of words. A tone of restlessness and romance is being suggested by teenage characters, at the same time adult characters’ lines are adopting senses of stiffness and passiveness.

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