Elena Leyva

AMD 105

April 28, 2022

MOPA Reflection

When I visited the Museum of Photographic Art there was one specific piece that stood out to me. That image was “Prostitute looking out window” by Jerry W. Berndt, photographed in 1968. There were a few other images that stood out to me or that I thought were interesting, but this particular image really captured my attention. I really enjoyed the composition of this image with the woman on one side of the image and the window on the other side. I also liked how the sides were highly contrasted with the woman's side being mostly bright with a touch of black, and the window’s side being the opposite. I decided to photograph inspired by this image as well as photographs inspired by “Maiden Camellia'' by Takashi Tomo-oka, and “Tokyo Compression #18” by Michael Wolf. I chose to recreate images that stood out to me in terms of shading and contrast, as well as things I thought I could recreate in a way that still suited the way I like to take images myself.

The museum was split into two sections, one dedicated to artists like the ones listed above, and the other section was solely for a different artist. I do not necessarily enjoy the highlighted artist’s work. I felt that the images in his catalog were not special to the photographer, but rather were images I felt anybody could have created. I also think I have consumed so many images like his already that it just feels quite boring to see now. I didn’t think his images were bad, but they didn’t stand out to me as special or creative, which is what I would personally prefer in an artwork.