Ha Huy Anh Pham
Daria Oprean
Pham:
"I feel like this topic is gonna be a hard one to put in words, since last I checked neither you and I have gotten a degree in comedy. In my own mind humor is best expressed through contrast and irony. Therefore it's especially easy to find humorous things when you are a foreigner to a new place. An (very specific) example that I found when I first came to Germany: the amazement and disgust that people there show when they find out that Asians eat animal organs. I'm pretty sure Germans also used to eat those things, since they provide so much nutritions and when times are hard you're gonna have to eat anything you've got that's available. That leads me to thinking whether everything we do today would be found funny as a result of technological and social advancements by humans 20 or 10 years from now?
I have something along the line of the above idea but also not exactly like that. The photo I took for this week is also a change in perspective. It's a rare moment in our little family when mom and dad are both having free time and just chilling at home. They don't appear as such on the outside, instead opting for the cold and industrious manner that most office workers are accustomed to. So just by changing the perspective (from the company car to inside our home), could we get to the point where even the most serious matters become hilarious? Should we be so worried about every tiny little detail when, in the grand scheme of things, nothing matters at all? Should we take photos of everything and capture every single moment in our life, since with a shift of perspective someone would find value in it and have a good laugh?"
"I feel like this topic is gonna be a hard one to put in words, since last I checked neither you and I have gotten a degree in comedy. In my own mind humor is best expressed through contrast and irony. Therefore it's especially easy to find humorous things when you are a foreigner to a new place. An (very specific) example that I found when I first came to Germany: the amazement and disgust that people there show when they find out that Asians eat animal organs. I'm pretty sure Germans also used to eat those things, since they provide so much nutritions and when times are hard you're gonna have to eat anything you've got that's available. That leads me to thinking whether everything we do today would be found funny as a result of technological and social advancements by humans 20 or 10 years from now?
I have something along the line of the above idea but also not exactly like that. The photo I took for this week is also a change in perspective. It's a rare moment in our little family when mom and dad are both having free time and just chilling at home. They don't appear as such on the outside, instead opting for the cold and industrious manner that most office workers are accustomed to. So just by changing the perspective (from the company car to inside our home), could we get to the point where even the most serious matters become hilarious? Should we be so worried about every tiny little detail when, in the grand scheme of things, nothing matters at all? Should we take photos of everything and capture every single moment in our life, since with a shift of perspective someone would find value in it and have a good laugh?"
Daria:
"I believe that a little bit of humor should exist in everything. Humor after all, ca be described in some cases as a coping mechanism, that arises out of us as a reaction to shock, anger, or fear. I remember the only car accident I've ever been in when I got out of the car and my first reaction was to laugh hysterically. But it was such an uncontrollable laugh, that all my friends got mad, and I had to wait separately until my mother picked me up because they thought I was insensitive. People who have pressure point massage, or who jump on the trampoline, or who have any form of cathartic experience, can mostly reside to hysterical laughter, or to a sudden explosion of emotion.
I also think humor is defined by the irony and by the "stupid shit" we see humans do in their day to day lives, the choices they make, what they leave behind, what beliefs they have. And I also think photography is a very funny way of showing that. Whether it is showing the way people look like the dogs they buy. or showing how similar we all are, or challenging the perspective of questioning some human ideologies and rituals.
I also think it might come from the fact that some artists don't take themselves that seriously. Which is a Great thing. I think this ability to keep yourself down to earth, and to laugh about yourself can spark up your creativity, because you will never be so full of yourself to not allow room for mistakes. Which is death in art. And this allows us to laugh at the people from a different perspective, not in the sense of you see something clearly funny by singling people out: I think it comes from the realization of our own human antics, quirks, and questionable actions.
That's kind of where my idea came from for my picture. Bert also took us to his good friend's exhibition, Lynne Cohen, and throughout her life she photographed interiors of public buildings, and in the details and settings there lied a subtle irony about human behavior and space, which I felt showed more than a "funny" street photography. She also had some images with human cut outs, so when I went to a school my friend was working in (fixing ventilation systems) I saw this bright red figure against the bright red curtains, which looked so human in the shadow, but in reality, it was nothing more than an object. So I liked how it kind of questioned human presence for me, also our dumb distinction between real or fake. If I had probably put an actual human there, the shadow wouldn't have looked that believable. Isn't that funny?"
"I believe that a little bit of humor should exist in everything. Humor after all, ca be described in some cases as a coping mechanism, that arises out of us as a reaction to shock, anger, or fear. I remember the only car accident I've ever been in when I got out of the car and my first reaction was to laugh hysterically. But it was such an uncontrollable laugh, that all my friends got mad, and I had to wait separately until my mother picked me up because they thought I was insensitive. People who have pressure point massage, or who jump on the trampoline, or who have any form of cathartic experience, can mostly reside to hysterical laughter, or to a sudden explosion of emotion.
I also think humor is defined by the irony and by the "stupid shit" we see humans do in their day to day lives, the choices they make, what they leave behind, what beliefs they have. And I also think photography is a very funny way of showing that. Whether it is showing the way people look like the dogs they buy. or showing how similar we all are, or challenging the perspective of questioning some human ideologies and rituals.
I also think it might come from the fact that some artists don't take themselves that seriously. Which is a Great thing. I think this ability to keep yourself down to earth, and to laugh about yourself can spark up your creativity, because you will never be so full of yourself to not allow room for mistakes. Which is death in art. And this allows us to laugh at the people from a different perspective, not in the sense of you see something clearly funny by singling people out: I think it comes from the realization of our own human antics, quirks, and questionable actions.
That's kind of where my idea came from for my picture. Bert also took us to his good friend's exhibition, Lynne Cohen, and throughout her life she photographed interiors of public buildings, and in the details and settings there lied a subtle irony about human behavior and space, which I felt showed more than a "funny" street photography. She also had some images with human cut outs, so when I went to a school my friend was working in (fixing ventilation systems) I saw this bright red figure against the bright red curtains, which looked so human in the shadow, but in reality, it was nothing more than an object. So I liked how it kind of questioned human presence for me, also our dumb distinction between real or fake. If I had probably put an actual human there, the shadow wouldn't have looked that believable. Isn't that funny?"