osakamic

In the beginning of this semester, I have had little experience in doing anthropology. When I watched the two films in class starring these two amazing photographers, Annie Leibovitz and James Natchway, I learned a lot about how to do proper photography as well as learning about the interesting styles both photographers had to offer.



Annie Leibovitz was born in October 2, 1949. She was one of 6 children born by Sam, an Airforce Lieutenant and Marilyn Leibovitz, a dance instructor. Annie enrolled in the San Francisco Art institue in 1967 where she began to grow a love for photography. She was one of the beginning photographers of Rolling Stone magazine and soon after, performed her work for the magazine "Vanity Fair".



Annie Leibovitz's style, in my point of view, stretches out to wide varieties. Her photos are hard to put in just one catagory. Some are stylish, others have a raw and gritty, yet cool looking feeling (ex, the photo of Keith Richards), and some look like they come from a renaissance painting. Her picture all look to be planned out well. She also respects all the people who she takes pictures of and puts them at ease. Also, she takes many, many pictures of the same object so that she can choose which one would be the best cover of the next magazine published. I think that what all of her pictures have in common is that all of them have a raw, strange classical sense of beauty. Looking at her pictures to me is almost like looking at art gallery. Her photos are beautiful and Annie is a truly talented photographer.







Another very talented photographer, James Natchwey, grew up in Massachuttes and graduated from Dartmouth College. He originally studied art history and political science. When he saw images from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement, it had a powerful affect on him and moved him to become a photographer.



Natchwey first started his work as a Newspaper photographer in 1976 in New Mexico. In 1980, he moved to New York to start his career as being a freelance magazine photographer. The first foreign assignment he had was to cover civil strife in Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike. Since that assignment, he has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues.

Natchwey's pictures, unlike Annie Leibowitz's pictures are not meant to be art, but meant to protray the graphicness and reality of where he's been and what he's seen. Being a war photograher, his pictures are meant to protray a message to the world that these are the kinds of pains these third-world countries have to go through in order to survive. He hopes that through his pictures, that he can make a diffference and can somehow reduce the pains of these countries even by a small amount. Similar to Leibowvitz, he gains the respect of the people he photographs before he does so. He is making the subject feel at ease, and at the same time, not making the subject feel like an object. He also gets in the middle of the action when shootings/tear gas come and fearlessly takes pictures, becoming part of the moment.







As far as differences go, I feel that Leibowitz plans out her photos very often, while Natchwey takes photos while the action is happening. Both also have very different purposes in their photography, in which one makes covers and makes the pictures look appealing like art, while the other shows the graphic nature of war and relays out messages to people. They have different styles of photograhy, but the one thing that they both used, and that I've learned from them is this. Give respect to the people whom you are photographing. That means to never take their pictures without their permission, and treat them kindly. Another thing that I've learned from both of them is to take many pictures of the subject. This is so that they can look at all of the pictures they've taken and can decide which picture is the best to use. The more pictures you take, the more likely you'll find the picture you want of that subject.


Both are very different, yet very talented photograhers who have been in their field of work for a long time. Looking at their methods has taught me to become a better anthropologist. These tips will help me improve when I am taking pictures of the subjects that I am studying/writing about.






Micah Olson



Biography Sources


Annie Leibovitz
http://www.fullissue.com/index.php/annie-leibovitz-biography-1949%E2%80%93.html

James Natchwey
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photographer-james-nachtwey/

So, I have found that this is kind of a difficult subject to talk about because I'm going to be talking about people in a different culture than my own, and I really don't want anyone taking offense in what I type. Please keep in mind that what I'm about  to talk about will be from my own perspective about the people of Japan, and is not factual unless stated otherwise.

From everywhere you go in Japan, you will see an enormous amount of Japanese people walking in the streets, in stores, everywhere you turn. The Japanese population makes up an extremely large majority of japan, hence there are not many Gaijin (foreigners) living in this country. Depending on where you go, the japanese people you come across will have a different minor set of personalities. I've been told by a Japanese friend of mine that Tokyo is a competitive world full of working people. Because they are very busy, they are difficult to get a hold of. There are Japanese parents that are rather uptight with their children because they want them to be hard workers and to be successful in the future, thus they put them in cram school.  Now I've only been to a very few amount of places in Japan, but after living in Osaka for a month,  I've seen differences between people here in Kansai, and people in Tokyo. One of the differences that I've noticed is that they have different dialects and they sometimes tend to pronounce words differently, which is difficult for me to understand because I've been learning only regular Japanese both back at home and at Kansai Gaidai. Also, again this is my opinion, but I find people in Osaka to be more of a warmer kind of people and more laid back than the people in Tokyo. Even so, whether you are in any part of Japan, if you ask for help, the Japanese will be more than happy to come to your aid. Compared to my hometown, which is in America, I find that the Japanese are more trustworthy and polite. If say, in America you left your wallet in a public shower, chances are that someone is going to steal your wallet and you'll never find it again. If you're in Japan however, people usually leave things be.




I find overall that Japan is a hard working society. Many students in my university have part time jobs and use that in order to accumulate currency for their financial needs/wants. Because of this, back when I was in America and wanted to talk to my japanese friends, my friends were very busy because they were constantly dealing with school, their job, and whatever else they need to deal with. I've noticed that even homeless people in Japan tend to work in order to scrounge up money in order to buy food. Also, I notice that I rarely ever see any fat people in Japan. This is because not many Japanese drive, but they rather walk or ride bicycles. I've even seen salarymen with business suits ride bicycles to work. Compared to America, I see that the Japanese tends to get a lot more excercise just by simply walking back and forth betweeen destinations. Also, some companies and schools tend to have morning exercises in order for the workers to be feeling  "genki"(good/energetic)  for the rest of the day.

That's my post for now. More will be put up later ^_^

So, this is the neighborhood which I currently live in Japan. This place is a nice quiet little neighborhood full of children and the elderly. I will admit that the first few weeks that I've been traveling to school and back, I've been nearly killed a few times (jk, for the relatives who are reading this blog), but yes, I did have difficulties like other new students did in finding their way to school, or getting around even. I've gotten lost a few times, and I've bought fabric softner which what I thought was bleach for my clothes, but I believe that these are trials in which everyone has to go through the first time they enter this country. For the first few week and a half, I've always went home with a group, but since I was living here, I definately couldn't keep this on forever, so I had to ask my dormmates directions and so forth.



Curently I know my directions to get to the school and to the Sanko store for whenever I need groceries. I'm still having trouble finding my way around, but I feel that this is a very nice neighborhood to be in, even though that there are a lot of old people who complain, or try to find something to complain about because they dont like College Student Foreigners living near their neighborhoods. Of course however I dont blame them considering how poorly the houses are built around the area. From what I've heard, the way the walls are designed in each of the houses are like you can hear everything that happens around the neighborhood. I've never been in these sort of houses, but I have experienced staying in a Japanese Apartment room, and when I was staying over my friend's place I could clearly hear the *relations* some Japanese couple was having next door.  Now, I dont think that the college students are as unpleasant to the neighbors as someone having loud intercourse next door to you, but I can understand that Japanese tend to get afraid when they see foreigners drinking out in the open. Nevertheless, all the people I've met so far in Kansai Gaidai are very kind roommates who give you advice and help you get your way around. Everyone here I know, although they do like to have crazy fun every now and then, is smart and reasonable. Being the quiet little area it is, and having all the kind people in the seminar house around to help you and give you advice makes stayiing here all the more worthwhile.

The reason why I decided to upload these two pictures was because this was my first time actually being in snow. When I walked around the campus, I thought that the scenery was beautiful. It was snowing another day before this day on a weekend, but it only snowed in the morning then stopped in the afternoon, and I wasn't able to take a picture. I thought to myself that I was in a rare scenery since I heard from other Japanese that it snows rarely in Osaka. I couldn't pass this up. Of course these weren't the only two pictures I've taken while it was snowing in Kansai. I've taken many other pictures to show to my family and friends of course. However, I believe that these two pictures out of all the other pictures I've taken were my favorite.

The first picture that I have here is a picture of the flower garden to the right of the main building. The snow along with the flowers I thought made a great combination, so I ended up taking a few pictures of the flower garden. The small red flowers along with the bits of snow on top looked amazing  to me, something that I never see in my hometown since I live in Florida.

The other picture which I have uploaded is a picture that I have taken right outside the Kansai Gaidai main entrance. Again, the combination with the snow and the flowers were absoultely beautiful. What I also like about this picture too though is how you see the little shops outside of the school and how it's a bit foggy. I think the fog adds a lot to the atmosphere of this photo, and makes it more nostalgic and beautiful. I think it makes this picture that much more important when I go back to America and look back at these photos.

These are just the few of many that I will be uploading soon. I will be looking forward to uploading more photos and telling my adventures in Japan. ^_^


Micah Olson

 

This blog is a class project for my "Visual Anthropology" class; as such it is for educational purposes only. All photos posted here are taken by the blog author unless otherwise noted. If any problem with the posting of a particular photo is brought to my attention, I will earnestly review the problem and remove the photo if necessary. Also I do not endorse any of the products that come advertised as a part of the livejournal format



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