1 min 1 image: Melissa Portillo

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Melissa Portillo

Elliott Erwitt, "Santa Monica, CA (California Kiss)"

1955, Gelatin silver print

"Elliott Erwitt is an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings."

The photograph 'California kiss' caught my attention immediately because of how happy the subjects are. It made me feel happy and warm inside. Elliott captured a moment at the right time. I really like how he captured the couple laughing and kissing from the reflection in a car's sideview mirror. I thought it was important to keep the background out of focus and the couple in focus because it shows what a strong special moment the couple are having. It just seems almost like a dream like moment, which really interests me.

ABOUT

This blog was inspired by the 1 Image 1 Minute written column in X-TRA and subsequent live iterations of the project by Micol Hebron. The inspiration for the 1 Image 1 Minute column was a similar project produced by Belgian director Agnès Varda (and later written about by Rosalind Krauss) for French television in 1983.

For this blog (and their assignment), students in Niku Kashef's photography classes are asked to select a photograph (that they did not make) that inspires or intrigues them in some way and to speak about it for exactly 1 minute (roughly 150 written words). Students post their name, the artists' name, title of the photograph, year the photograph was made and the medium along with their ~150 words.

In the second part of the assignment, students are asked to either use the image they chose to speak to OR a new image and make an inspiration image based on the photographic/2d design aspects of that image (eg direction/type of light, perspective, depth of field, focus, color palate, etc).

To add to this blog and contribute a post, please contact niku(at)csun(dot)edu