Section BKM5B

On October 13, Baruch College offered a gallery tour for students at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, at 1:00 p.m. This tour was held to help students comprehend and appreciate photographs displayed at the photo exhibition, The Nature of Landscape/The  Nature of Photography.
The fact that I would be able to enjoy 12 different styles of photographs motivated me to participate in. I know very little about photography, however, I was very satisfied by this tour. Above of all, the instructor’s explanation for each photograph was remarkably helpful to improve my understanding of this unfamiliar art form. Before this gallery tour, I had thought that photographs were merely copies of the real world, but the tour proved that I was wrong. Even when a subject was very ordinary, like a farm or trees,  it took me sometime to recognize what it was. It was an amazing experience to see things through other people’s eyes. At this gallery tour, I learned that photographers are artists who interpret the world and convey those ideas by taking pictures, which requires creativity no less than drawing or sculpturing.
I would like to recommend it to other students, since, as mentioned above, it helps to understand and appreciate photographs more thoroughly.

Workshop: Sidney Miskin Gallery Tour / the Nature of Landscape
October 13 | 1PM | Arts @ Baruch

I went to see the photo exhibition at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery on the nature of landscapes on Wednesday and although the overall collection is pretty small, I liked how the room was arranged so that someone could easily be able to walk in one path and be able to see all the photos along the way. I wanted to go to this workshop because I guess of time convenience, but as a person who likes a bit of creativity, I wanted to see what Baruch had in terms of arts. They had separated the students into small groups so that we were able to get a good view and it would be less cluttered. The goals of the workshop were to give students a different aspect of photography and to cultivate a learning experience by observing photographs taken in unique ways.

The tour was a brief walk through the gallery and the guide, Dr. Kraskin focused on works from Marilyn Bridges, a photographer who also enjoyed flying aircraft. Most of her pictures were from an aerial shot and she took photos depicting the landscape of fields and rocks in a different way. One photo was of a large field of what might be corn, but from an aerial view, it seemed to look like carpeting. Another photo was showing a formation of mountains. In this one, she took it at an angle where there’s a great amount of contrast between light and dark. In particular, I thought her photo of the horse embedded into the ground was interesting. While the horse was independent from the background, it seemed to belong there and it looked like something off a child’s fantasy.

I also remember Lucian Clergue’s photo of body art that alluded to landscapes. The nude men and women represented the curves and angles of something that resembled a desert or hills. Our final stop was the works of Robert A. Schaefer and how he takes the negatives of his film and print them in different hues. Whilst his black and white photograph showed the ice forming on the wheat and the different shadows of the fences and plants, the blue version of the photo took away those elements and gave a different perspective of the same scene.

I think I liked the workshop because it was a break from the “college-related” activities and I liked the atmosphere of the gallery. It was simple yet modern and I had enjoyed looking at the photos that weren’t featured on the tour like the white flower that was taken with a different lens. It was a refreshing experience and I think people should at least check the gallery out, because it’s a change of pace.

Yesterday I attended the gallery tour at Sidney Mishkin Gallery behind the 23rd street building. The tour started at 1 o’clock but it seemed as if the tours began earlier than 1. This workshop fulfilled the arts in baruch category. It was actually my third time viewing the gallery but with a tour guide actually describing the various pictures, I got a better understanding of the aspects of each photograph. In the gallery there were mostly black and white pictures and as the guide explained all the photographs were taken of nature and landscapes. The artists manipulated these landscapes and took the picture from their perspectives.

There was one set of photographs that really stood out to me taken by Marilyn Bridges. She was actually a pilot and ideally her pictures were taken from a bird’s eye view. It made me realize the drastic differences from another perspective and not to always look at things from one certain angle.  One must be versatile to be truly successful.

This workshop met my expectations. I actually learned a lot more the third time around. I guess it’s like they say the third time really is the charm. I’d recommend this workshop to anyone really; especially those into art and photography. There were a lot of interesting and amazing pictures. I think everyone can leave with something they’d learn or appreciate.