Errol Morris on Photography

This video summarized the idea that photography is not always realism.  People assume that because a photograph is taken of real objects, there is so much that can be left out, or cropped out to skew the realistic parts of a photograph.  Morris makes a point that there is so much that you can do to a photograph to make it different than the human eye actually sees.  An example made in the video was the pathway where the elephant was cropped out.  Had the elephant been in the picture, the image would be completely different.  The main point of this video is that photography is not as real as most think, it can be skewed to how the photographer wants it to be, therefore not showing all of the reality.

Ways of Seeing

This video was very interesting, in part because it was an old film, but also because it mentioned things I really had not heard of before.  With the invention of the camera, everything we knew about seeing changed.  This video made a point about the fact that after a camera was invented, the whole world of imagery changed.  The camera changed not only what we see, but how we see everything.  Even paintings from pre camera era, were viewed differently after the invention of a camera.  Because before a camera, we could view the painting in generally one location, after the invention of the camera, the paintings came to you.  Often times these paintings defined the buildings they were located in, however now this was no longer, paintings were on the move.

Masters of Illusion

This video was very insightful as an artist and photographer.  With the video being primarily about depth and vanishing points, the information was very useful.  Vanishing points are one of the key parts of any piece of art.  For example, a vanishing point can give a painting depth, and have it make sense to a viewer. Another example, for a simple photograph, depth can add so much to a single image.  This video was very helpful and I am sure I will reference this video again for future projects.