A Famous Test In China

There is a famous test in China named Gao Kao, which is a collage entrance exam, every students who wants to attend universities in China have to take that exam. Of course, I did it before. So, I took these pictures in my high school and made them to be part of my memory.

Gao Kao is a nightmare to all students, it has been taken once a year, in June 7^th and 8^th, on those days, whole society seems nervous, because this test will decide the school students attend in the future, in other word, lots of parents believe that the test will almost determined their child’s future. Every public transportations are prior for students, police and ambulance are ready to deal with any accident. The whole atmosphere makes students feel nervous, and who is much more nervous are their parents. Even though the test is already start, lost of parents are still looking inside of the school anxiously.       

To tell the truth, I hate this test very much. Because I don’t think students’ more than ten years’ hardworking can only decide by one test. How about if some students are not doing well this time, they have to say good-bye to their dream. Otherwise, they need to prepare it for another whole year to take this test again. 

As for me, I still remember that year when I studied for Gao Kao. I am an art student, so it is seems like the way I have been thinking and studying is different from those students who is major in math or science. In this case, I need to study really hard in order to follow their steps. In this case, everything thing in my life became study; I gained ten ponds due to only sit and no exercise. Finally, thanks god, I did it, I attend Beijing Film Academy successfully.

Masao Yamamoto

In this week, our whole class went to Jackson Fine Art together, at this time, I saw a two box of Images from Masao Yamamoto. It is easy to recognize from his name, this photographer is from Japan.

Yamamoto was born in 1957 in Japan, starting learned drawing when he was young. After that, he started shooting pictures since 80 century, and until the middle of 90 century, he’s exhibition was held in America.

Yamamoto prefer small pictures to big pictures, he loves to put his work in a box or in the pocket. “It is because small picture was cheaper in the beginning, but I thought small pictures were easy to carry and I liked my works after someone carrying for some days.” He said.  

Most of his works were shooting in Japan, Landscapes, animals and people. I love the ways he shooting animals, for example, a dog sitting beside the cherry tree is one of my favorite pictures, it is seem like Fall, since most of the grass is turned yellow and there are few leafs on those branches. The picture looked old, and with green, yellow and a little red on it, which made people feel very comfortable.

I also believe that Yamamoto loves monkeys very much, those monkeys in his pictures are really cute. One picture is a monkey sitting in the snow, and another one is a line of monkeys, walking along a river, seems they are going home. A small monkey even sitting on he’s mother’s back, which makes me feel warmer in the snowing day.

In conclusion, I like Masao Yamamoto’s photography very much. I like the ways he deal with the photo’s margin and I also fascinating with the yellow and brown color on his picture.

Tribute to the Master

“Some people say my pictures are sad, some think they’re funny. Funny and sad, aren’t they really the same thing? They add up to normality.”——Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt was born in 1928 in France. When he was 11 years old, Erwitt immigrated to United States with his family and started his new life in New York. After that, he went back to Europe traveling and photographing in Italy and France, since then, his professional career was started.

I went to Jackson Fine Art with my friend this Thursday, on January 14, 2016, to see the exhibition of a photography master, which is Elliott Erwitt. I have to say that the silver hair and the big glasses on his face made him looks cute and kind, even reminded me with my grandpa. Of course, each of his work is good enough to be called masterpieces and most of them touched me a lot.

Elliott loves dog, since dogs are an essential part of his work. I love dogs as well, those pictures with dogs are so cute and funny, which shows me his special feeling to dogs. For example, there are four legs and a small dog in the picture, the small dog is wearing a sweater and a hat, besides those fours legs are two belong with a woman, the other two belong with another dog. Moreover, I remember there are two spotty dogs in a picture; both of them are wearing glasses.  

Elliott loves shooting people as well, he’s pictures looks different from others due to the special angle he use to view the world. For instance, one of my favorite is that, with the background of sea and sunset, there is one car’s reflector shows two lovers are kissing in the car. It’s totally different with just two people stand in front of the sea, hugging or kissing each other. Another one my favorite is a boy in a car and his right eye just place where the break window is. So that, it’s looks like the boys’ eye is broken! What an interesting picture it is!

Elliott believes that only black and white is the right way for photography. He has been taking pictures for his whole life and never loosing enthusiasm with his career. I respect his spirit of focus as well as his persistent belief.  

The significance of color in photography

As for me, color is a really important element in my daily life, as well as my art, and it also makes me feel happy. I mean, I don't hate black and with, since those are necessary in photography sometimes. For example, black and white is easy to show not only the texture of pictures’ detail but also the overall sense of pictures. However, even though black and white photography preferred by lot of world famous photographers, I still believe that color photography is my way.

Firstly, color is a way to express emotion in photography. As people knows that, red means vitality; green means peace; blue means sad and black means death. The most color in the picture determined the strongest feeling that the author would like to convey. For example, forest makes people feel comfortable and full of hope; sunrise means energetic and enthusiasm; lake is easy to show clean and pure. Therefore, audiences are able to feel the emotion simply and directly by color photography.    

Secondly, it is easy to represent the emphasis by color photography. Sometimes, big contrast between subject and background may play an important role in stress the main point of a picture. For instance, in the picture, if the subject is bright and the background is light, people can identify the subject. Besides, if the subject and the background are both bright or light, use different color can highlight the subject as well. So, in order to give prominence to subject, color photography will be a wise choice.

     

Lastly, color can make pictures looks more interesting. As color’s match may create fantastic visual effect. For example, large areas of different colors are able to divide screen into many pieces, so that pictures are looked interesting by those patterns. In this case, color may be the subject in the picture

All in all, I strongly consider that color is essential in photography, which endue pictures more expressive and visual impact as well as makes picture seems more attractive.