What Does Photography Mean to Me?

  Looking back at the Still Life assignment sheet, Chema Madoz image was the one that stood out to me. I really love this picture because I would of never though of putting plates in between the sewage floor. It's like such a creative way of maying a still life picture and is very unique to me. Madoz is known for his surrealist and poetic photographs. Looking over some of his images they look really architectural and has a lot of structure to it. In some of the images I see, instead of taking pictures with people it is mainly of objects. But these look like two objects that were created together. I am curious on how that is possible and yet he could of made the image in the most simplest way. 

  This image right here I really love and I'm actually curious on how it was made. It looks very 3D as if some of his face is popping out of the screen. As I was doing my research I realized that he has so many different types of photography styles such as: symmetry, cropping, use of negative space, violation of rule of thirds, the use of corners, and etc. So cut outs I can say is my favorite of all his works.  The fact that he didn't limit his work to one type of style and had so many options to work with, I like. Normally artist stick to one style and there is nothing wring with that but sometimes we want to see something new that they can give us.  Looking through his "environmental portraiture" he really captures the essence of the person and the work that they do. Also, looking at the other portraits he has done, he really makes them look superior and I like that because its there image and there time to shine. 

               Ralph Gibson is an American photographer that is known for his photographic books and working in black-and-white images. As I read up on him I am seeing people refer to his images as having "erotic subject matter"and "mysterious" but I don't see it. In his images I don't see anything compared to Micheal Keena. Keena really displayed that mysterious look in his photographs by it looking sharp and coming in from all angels.  His main focus in his work is to communicate "contextualization" and "surreal juxtaposition." I actually think surrealism is kind of cool. I specially like it in drawings and painting but I question how people are able to do in photographs. I don't like surrealism as much in photographs as in drawings but it still looks somewhat cool to see what people are able to accomplish with people or objects they use.