Project Blog Post: compare two polaroids

advertisement 1

advertisement 2

The two advertisements which are compared in the following paragraph basically show the same structure: a picture with a text beneath it. The most apparent difference is the fact that the first one is in black-and-white and the second one is coloured. Although a Polaroid Land Camera can be seen in both pictures they do not present the same model.  While the one in the black-and-white ad is clearly an older version because of its unwieldy size, the other one is much more compact. Besides, the older camera prints the photos on top, whereas the newer version prints them at the bottom. Furthermore, the settings of the two pictures are completely different. The first  one shows a man wearing a hat and a suit looking fascinated at the old polaroid camera which is displayed in a shop window.  In the background, a lot of other people are walking down the street. In contrast, the second ad only shows the polaroid camera from the front on a plain white background which represents the idea that less is more to draw the attention of the potential customer only on the camera.  Apart from these visual differences, also the texts beneath both pictures extol the Polaroid Land Camera in  a completely different way. The text of the older ad is instructional as it uses a lot of imperatives to encourage the reader to go and get the camera which the title already indicates. Further, the text appeals more to men than to women as the ad was published in 1956, a  time where men earned money as head of the family and were in control of the spendings. The second text addresses a problem of modern society: the loss of privacy. Therefore, it praises the polaroid camera as being the only trustworthy way of keeping your pictures safe. Generally, it can be said that both ads have very little similarities as they have been created and published in different periods.

[327]

peer feedback:

1.) The group members that reviewed our text said that a couple of our sentences were too long.

2.) Further, they criticised that our text contained too many linking words.

3.) They said that we should refer directly to the NSA-scandal which we think is not necessary as we think that the ad does not explicitly refer to that particular case. For us, it refers to the problem of the loss of privacy in general.

4.) They also did not like the structure of our text but they liked our content. However, we decided to stick to our original structure because we think in terms of logos our text is fine.

 Final Version:

The two advertisements which are compared in the following paragraph basically show the same structure: a picture with a text beneath it. The most apparent difference is the fact that the first one is in black-and-white and the second one is coloured. Although a Polaroid Land Camera can be seen in both pictures they do not present the same model.  The one in the black-and-white ad is an older version and is of an unwieldy size. The other camera is a more recent model and is much more compact due to its smaller size. Besides, the older camera prints the photos on top, whereas the newer version prints them at the bottom. The settings of the two pictures are completely different. The first  one shows a man wearing a hat and a suit looking fascinated at the old polaroid camera which is displayed in a shop window.  In the background, several people are walking down the street. The second ad shows the polaroid camera from the front on a plain white background. This represents the idea that less is more and draws the attention of the potential customer only on the camera.  Apart from these visual differences, the texts beneath both pictures extol the Polaroid Land Camera in  a completely different way. The text of the older ad is instructional as it uses a lot of imperatives to encourage the reader to go and get the camera which the title already indicates. Further, the text appeals more to men than to women as the ad was published in 1956, a  time where men were seen as head of the family and in control of the spendings. The second text addresses a problem of modern society: the loss of privacy. It praises the polaroid camera as being the only trustworthy way of keeping your pictures safe. Generally, it can be said that both ads have very little similarities as they have been created and published in different periods.
[327 words]

Project Blog Post - Napalm Girl

http://sharemarysword.blogspot.co.at/2014/04/project-blog-post-2-napalm-girl.html

narrative text: little history of photography

Draft 1:

Little history of photography

Here I am in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. He often looks at me amazed and says that he would have never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the photographs in the room. My favorite one is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She sure had been wealthy. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was very long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks just like a drawing. When I first saw the photograph I was surprised because the woman did not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” In times of early photography people kept a distance to the camera. They were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake beach. Props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew of the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs got lost because of the mezzotint process. It is a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo, the special aura of the daguerreotypes, back because they associated it with prestige. So with the gum print photographers simulated the halo.

My third favorite photograph only shows a broken window. The whole picture seems surreal. It is signed by Atget who, I believe, did not pay much attention to capturing the aura. Still, it looks beautiful to me in a strange way.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here busily.  Yesterday he was reading a book which seemed to be in a sorry state. I caught a glimpse of the author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him so far. Suddenly he frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

 [399 words]

Peer Feedback:

My fellow students who proofread my text said that they liked it in general very much. Still there had been some mistakes.

·        For the most part, the mistakes were related to sentence structure. So I decided to follow the ideas of my friends because they seemed appropriate.

·         They also had a problem with the ending of my text. They thought the owner of my narrator would be Baudelaire which clearly wasn’t my intention. So I rewrote the last part to make it less confusing.

·         I also made some preposition mistakes for example: “surrounded with a halo” instead of “by”.

I think the feedback of my peers is very handful as it gives me a different perspective. I think that I could improve my text with the help of them.

 

 Final Version:

I am standing on a pine-wooded shelf in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. Grandpa often looks at me amazed and says he never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a silvery-gray gleaming digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the expressive photographs in the office. My favorite is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray sitting on a black, metal bench outside. Regardless of her age, her eyes seem full of life. She is surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks like a perfect drawing. What surprised me most is that the woman does not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” People kept a distance to the camera and were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake, sandy beach. Exaggerated props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs, the halo, got lost because of the mezzotint process which was a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo back because they associated it with prestige. So photographers simulated it.

My third favorite photograph shows a broken window and shards of glass covered with raindrops sprinkling in the sun. The picture seems surreal. Still, it looks breathtaking.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here. Yesterday he was reading a book by an author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him. Suddenly my owner frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

[398 words]

A day in the life of Livia Perschy

Every Thursday mirrors a typical day of my life. I get up at 7 a.m. and pretend to be a morning person which is impossible. So the first thing I do is drinking some coffee and waiting until the caffeine awakes my body. Now I am able to take a shower without constantly fearing to fall asleep again. The warm water gives my body enough energy so that I am finally ready to go study at the ITAT. Actually, I love being there even on a Thursday where classes start at 8:15 a.m. and finish at 16:45 p.m. My fellow students are just amazing. Seeing the I-want-sleep-look drawn into their faces always makes me laugh. When I come home in the evening I wonder what delicious meal I could possibly cook with literally nothing. That is when my roommate says: “Bought us something to eat!” I cannot help but smile. Sometimes we open a bottle of white wine (after some years you even like the cheap ones) and enjoy watching a good movie. I ignore the inner voice of mine telling me to do my homework and think: “Once in a while you have to relax even if that means studying hard on the next day.” That is fine with me because life is too short to forget about having fun!