Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Pema Phurpatsang Task#1




Thomas Struth’s photography collection is something beyond outstanding. Through his photography he explored features such as landscape, interior, portraits or urban architecture. What stood out most about Thomas Struth's collection was his museum photographs.
Thomas Struth had a concept of photographing his subjects in museums where he would be able to capturing the raw emotion and body motion of the viewers without them knowing they are being photographed; I decided to follow in the same footsteps. I captured customers ordering their meals, looking at the menu or waiting in line to order at our local Tim Horton near Ryerson University.
By doing so I was able to show natural presence of people when they have no idea they are being photographed as well as their innocence in society. Human behavior seems to change when the mind knows it is being watched, therefore by secretly photographing the customers i was able to capture the raw emotions and body motion of people at the Tim Horton's, just like Thomas Struth did with his viewers at the Museum.
Any comment and feedback will be much appreciated. This task was a tad bit difficult due to the fact I had to keep the camera concealed otherwise I would not be able to capture the raw emotions of people in line. Also, the camera needed to be concealed because many of the fast food restaurants around the campus would not allow me to take pictures inside their establishments.

2 comments:

  1. Taking a picture of someone's back towards you is a bit of a cop out if you didn't want people to know you were taking a picture of them. If she wasn't in the centre of the photo and taking up quite a portion of the image, this wouldn't be a problem. It is a good concept, that instead of musuems and galleries, you can find the same poses when ordering at a fast food place. I can imagine how difficult it would be to secretly photograph (I've been there too) but I would reshoot somewhere where there isn't such a tiny space. Do you have other images where you can see more of people's faces?

    -Camille-Marie Rojas

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  2. I agree with Camille that the woman in the centre takes up too much attention, but it's a great idea and everyone else in the shot works well. If you do have another shot similar you should post it too!

    Heather Cummings

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