å Tuesday, February 28th, 2017

After reading the articles and watching the videos, I learned how hard it truly was to produce work like Jerry Uelsmann and how talented he was at creating images and montages prior to the creation of photoshop.  Before photoshop the art of graphic design was entirely different.  It would take days to produce work that we now can produce in a matter of minuets.  Photos had to be developed in the dark room, then cut to be able to combine with another photos then those two photos had to be turned into one picture.  I have gotten a chance to experience this process or at least one way we use to produce edited images before photoshop.

Befoe Photoshop…
I found these articles to be interesting to see how photographers like Jerry Uelsmann and others like him, used there creativity and there understanding of exposer within the dark room to make collaged like images by using multiple negatives. Giving the world the first look at mixed negatives that gives the worlds its first look at surrealism thought photography, manipulating peoples visually appearance through the medium. This created a medium that was what Jerry said was for him sub concusses yet visually produced a deeper meaning from within. It was show in the Met exhibition called Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop. which it shows image created in that way that comments entertainment, political, fantasy…, etc. Technology has made it so easy to make the images, it’s interesting to see how this was made before the technology I believe seeing them in person would truly make them outstanding.

Prior to these videos and articles, I was one of the many people today who had no idea what kind of stuff goes on behind the scenes in a dark room. Sure, I have gotten a disposable camera and had someone at the local pharmacy develop them for me but I never knew what they were actually doing. After viewing the video about Jerry Uelsmann, it made me have a much higher appreciation for all of the work that we do on the computer. Now a days if you want something to be photoshopped you can download one of the thousands of simplistic photoshop apps the world has to offer. In this video he takes us through the process of what it takes to “edit” or produce a photo in a dark room. This process is lengthy and can be time consuming, but if we wanted to do this same process today, we could simply use a computer program. In the articles that we were given, they went over how people made photos look edited without actually using a computer. I think that these other articles were very eye-opening because prior to seeing these I just thought that people did not edit photos in the old days. Seeing that it was possible back then with what they have made me realize that anything I set my mind can be achieved, especially given the resources we have today.

Before reading these articles and watching the videos I had almost no perception of how photos used to be made or the impressive art of making a photomontage. Our generation has grown up with technology everywhere. Even babies these days can be seen using iPods or iPads. I myself have no experience with black rooms or creating images from negatives which is why I found the articles and videos so fascinating! It is incredible to watch Jerry Uelsmann go step by step through the process of making a photomontage. One mistake and the whole project had to be done over again. I did not even know that graphic design existed in the 18th and 19th centuries. It makes me appreciate the technology of today and the ease of photoshop to a greater extent. Today we can create montages in a matter of minutes all by just moving a finger. While I can appreciate the art of the old fashioned black room way of photography, I prefer the computer.