Carnegie Museum of Art Review

Design elements, such as color, depth, etc., are a part of every art form, whether it be in paintings, statues, and even photographs (yes photographs are an art form!) I had previously been to the Carnegie Museum of Art, but I never really looked at the art in an artist’s perspective until being in a digital photography class. Taking a successful, aesthetically beautiful photo includes not only an understanding of your camera and how it works, but also how to make your subject(s) look the way you want for your photos. This can include things like positioning your subject(s), positioning yourself at different angles, changing the lighting, etc. Aspects like color may be hard to change or enhance in real life, but having post-production knowledge can really be beneficial for your final photo. Viewing art like this made me think about how utilizing these things are also just as important in photography. Particularly in paintings, I started to notice how the painter would position him/herself in a certain spot to get the most beautiful angle in terms of the way the light was hitting and shadowing the subject(s). This is not the only reason an angle would be changed; it can also be for the simple fact that the artist wanted to make something more interesting, or even complex, by switching up the angle. In my photos above, I tried to position myself in order to capture shadows coming off of the artwork. I believe that the museum lighting helped me to capture the artwork in more appealing way by not only creating shadowing, but also to brighten any colors even more than they already are. For example, in the vacuum cleaner photo, the shadows and the colors really made me feel like I was back in the time period they were from, and by looking at my photo, I still feel that way since I captured all of those elements, and even took it from a side angle to give it a little “edge.” These seemingly little things are still important in creating the vibe you want to create when taking a photo. Say I had not angled the photo the way I did and did not capture the shadowing, and that I made the photo black and white instead of leaving it in color. While black and white gives off a similar “vintage” look that the vacuum cleaners have, I believe that black and white would do the photo a disservice because the colors are pastel, and a lot of appliances and furniture back in those times were pastel, so keeping the color would definitely help preserve the vintage-feel even more. The shadows coming off of the vacuum cleaners makes the photo more pleasant to view (in my opinion). If I had lacked to do any of those things, it would be a completely different photograph and might not give off the same vibe as I intended, and every photographer can use artwork/displays such as the ones at this museum as a reminder that these elements are important and should be utilized in his/her photography just as they are among these artists.