Ashley Wingate Assignment #1.

After looking at the exhibition "Adapting Spaces," I realized that the works created by the four artists really went together quite well. The photographs all complemented one another by means of the association between the subjects and the places they are in. The story that I interpreted from the photographs was that people affect the environment, as well as the environment affecting human nature itself. The more I walked around and studied the photographs, I could see how people ruin the environment by tearing down forests to building more houses. Then I saw how nature takes form and ruins the "destruction" the people have made through natural disasters and so forth. Starting with John Mann's work, showing people in the environment; you can see they aren't being destructive with it, but they are treating it with care as they explore it. Then as you move on to Ryan Adrick's work, it becomes more about nature compromising with people. You see nature surrounding what appears to be an abandoned building in one photograph, while the others appear to be a continuum of this. Next, you view the work of Tracy Longley-Cook, as she appears to show nature as unsettling. Her photographs seemed as though the were taken in ob secure settings where people need to be more perceptive to their environment and what surrounds them. Lastly, looking as the work of Daniel Kariko, you can see the destruction by the change of the environment over time due to natural disasters and so on.

The photograph I was drawn to the most at this particular exhibition was "Divining for Air," by Tracy Longley-Cook. I was drawn to her work the most because I have a passion for black and white photography. This particular photograph was a digital pigment print. I really liked the overall tonality of this photograph, as well as the power behind it. I believe Tracy Longley-Cook did a great job of creating an unsure/energetic/powerful mood in this photograph by the particular lighting that was used, as well as the strong shadows created by the storm clouds. I also feel like she created a texture with the clouds by making them appear very rough and sharp with detail. Lastly, I liked the angle of view in which she took the photograph. She shifted the angle of view to be looking up at the sky, while including showing her subject in the photograph looking up to the sky. By doing so, she truly created the overall power and mood of the photograph by the way she angled and centered her subjects.

I picked this photograph because I truly love black and white photographs. When I looked at "Divining for Air," there were just so many details of the photograph running though my head. First, I was captured by the overall tonality of the picture, as well as the angle of view that was used to take the picture. I liked the angle of view because it makes the viewer feel as though they should be smaller compared to the big subject, being the sky. Second, I really liked the mood that was created by the particular use of lighting, texture, and focus. By making the sky so well focused, it helped create the overall mood of the photograph, as well as the use of the natural lighting. Lastly, I believe that there is a symbolic meaning behind the person holding the stick to the sky. However, the picture leave me to ponder the fact of what it is, just as the photographer has meant it to.