This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Colorizing Historical Photographs


Oscar II, King of Norway and Sweden

During the first class, a handful of us included photographs as either an evidence or artifact. It can be an evidence of our existence or an artifact to show a specific historical context. Maybe it was just the way that they worded their headline, 'Realistically colorized historical photos make the past seem incredibly real', but it came off as if color is what makes it real and believable, as if color makes it more present in today's world. Understandably, cameras these days have filters. We like having black & white pictures or valencia or earlybird and it seems to have become quite a struggle to pick which filter to present our final photos of food or selfies in. 

The question that I'm pondering upon is: What effects does color (monochromatic, sepia, color) bring to a photograph and how does it impact its story?

Article: http://twentytwowords.com/realistically-colorized-historical-photos-make-the-past-seem-incredibly-real-36-pictures/-


-Nova

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