WEEK 1 ASSIGNMENT

  Susan Songtag Response 

"Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are"

Susan explains how paintings and drawings can be interpreted to mean various messages to a viewer's eye and it becomes hard to make the paintings about one specific topic. This goes hand in hand with photographs, the ability of one single shot to be misinterpreted if the angle is slightly off or the lighting is dim. There becomes a standard for picture taking and finding the best one that can tell the right story.

"...photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing.."

Photos have a way of speaking to us with our eyes and minds. They create an outlet for conversation and questions that trigger the need for more. When you see any image you ask "where was this taken? why was this taken? who's this?" the curiosity that is sparked makes your imagination run. 

Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series”Response 

"Cheers to Me", Guemely Pinto, 2023

Recreation of Untitled, from the Kitchen Table Series, 1990

“This woman can stand in for me and for you; she can stand in for the audience, she leads you
into history. She’s a witness and a guide,” 

"I’m a woman who’s engaged with the world. I feel as at home in Seville as in Spanish Harlem. (laughter) So I have these curious interests. I’m walking down curious paths trying to connect the dots."

Throughout both of these text, I could see myself going through these same phases in life as Weems. Being in my young 20's I want a lot for myself yet I'm still curious to find out what the world has to offer. In the "Kitchen Table Series" she sets up this stage where she is a women with her own power and making her own rules, yet she's connected through different places she's lived that have made an impact in her life that either inspired her or taught her new meanings.