Humans of New York - Brandon Stanton

What is the context?

What started out as Brandon Stanton’s simple idea of creating a catalogue of inhabitants of New York City took flight and became a worldwide well-known blog of photographs taken of strangers with their stories. Now Stanton travels to different countries around the world to seek new faces to capture and different stories to tell. 

Stanton had always been very passionate about certain things, such as the city of New York, photography, and filming. He went to the University of Georgia and after he finished there, got a job from a friend which went poorly after three years. He then moved to New York City and there he began taking portraits of strangers on the street. When he originally started to take photos for his catalogue, people would talk with him and he began to gather a collection of quotes and short stories from those he met. As he posted the photographs, he began to include these little blurbs and soon enough, he had a vibrant blog going. With his passion for photography, it took flight. Now, people follow his Tumblr account and like his posts on Facebook. Stanton initially had no plan for his project to become what it is today.

What is the artist communicating and how?

The pictures taken by Stanton of the people focus on the individual, leaving the surroundings blurred, thus emphasizing the focus he wanted to draw on the person/people he had taken pictures of. Also, by adding quotes said by the people, which Stanton had not originally planned, he gets the viewers to understand that each person is his or her own being, thus perfectly portraying the title of his series, Humans of New York. His portraits have now been published into a book with many of the stories he learned of in his endeavor to find and make a collection of stories of simply stranger on the street.

Photographer Brandon Stanton had never expected his blog to become so viral. Having this so, he did not particularly have a direction with what he wanted people to get out of it. When he initially began making the series, the idea of what he wanted it to become grew with the information he received from the people he talked with. He captures simple moving moments in life through his portraits, getting pictures of people with different expressions and such. Stanton then used his blog in an effort to raise money for the education of children in the inner-city. He worked with the principal of a middle school and had the initial goal of raising $100,000, but have now already raised $400,000, well beyond their wishes.      

Why do you find it beautiful?

There is this beauty in capturing moments and faces, ones which tell stories, whether or not they are a sentence long or a lengthy paragraph. In every one of Brandon Stanton’s photographs, he captures completely different faces, each one so unique with the different facial expressions and blurbs beneath the photos. What I love about Humans of New York and the pictures taken by Stanton are how he focuses on individuals, so that we realize how large the world really is with all of these different people from varying backgrounds. Adding the quotes from each person he takes pictures of gives them a backstory. It is nice to hear about the lives of random people rather than just seeing their faces in a photo. It gives them an identity and personality we can pinpoint, making them seem like any person we might run into or be friends with. By choosing to take photos of complete strangers on the streets of New York and elsewhere, it makes the series so random which is why I love it so much more, because we do not tend to acknowledge the strangers we walk past. In this way, Stanton allows everyone to be able to learn more about the people we never think twice of saying hello to.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

What is the context?

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is a Hindu temple located in Bartlett, IL, only around an hour away from Chicago. It includes the Stone Mandir, the Wooden Haveli, and an Understanding Hindu Dharma Exhibition. There are several other locations in the United States, like in Houston, TX, Atlanta, GA, and Toronto, ON. BAPS stands for Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Puroshottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, which is a Hindu organization centered on social service and seeking spirituality. It was discovered by Bhagwan Swaminarayan in the late eighteenth century and founded by Shastriji Maharaj in 1907. What this organization does is it addresses challenges, both social and moral as well as spiritual, that are faced in the world. There are a total of 3,850 centers around the world which assist in the cause of caring for others. They promote peace and harmony and encourage devotion to God in the Hindu culture. 

The Mandir is the place where Hindus come to worship and pray. The structure of it is built dependent on an architectural treaty they have that has been used in Indian architecture for many years. Ceremonies done in the Mandir are said to elevate the soul the realization of God. The Haveli is next to the Mandir and acts as a cultural center where certain events are held. The Haveli, which is a traditional type of mansion in India, is made of wood and has many intricate designs on the front carved into it. 

  

What is the artist communicating and how?

By building this place of worship, the people of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir wanted to create an area that expressed the peace and harmony that lays the foundation of the organization from which it was founded. The building, both inside and out, is symmetrical in the designs on the marble pillars and the layout of certain structures. Once you step inside and come to the second floor, there is a bluish cast in the room, and the ceiling is dome-shaped in areas. This blueness helps promote the feeling of peace and tranquility, as well as an attraction to the architecture of it.

The Haveli has absolutely stunning carvings of wood at the front of it. There are several symbolic motifs represented in the carvings in the pillars, arches, and balconies. All of these handcrafted details portray the amount of hard work put into the building of this temple and thus the meaning of it to the Hindu culture and the organization. Seeing such intricate details leaves the viewer further wanting to be enlightened and inspired while visiting. Inside the structure is very open and includes the vivid wooden carvings as well. Both of these buildings combined achieve the goal of BAPS to create a space where one could find God and experience transcending power of peace and harmony.  

Why do you find it beautiful?

When I first visited this place a while back, I remember being astonished by the beauty of it and the intricacy of the designs in the marble. From what I first recalled, it was deeply blue and radiantly white wherever I looked. We were not allowed to take pictures once inside and I remember being disappointed by that, but once I set foot inside the temple, I was glad they had that rule because no picture could capture what I was seeing and experiencing. It was so utterly peaceful and serene and not a sound disturbed the silence. I remember feeling the cold marble against my bare feet. At the time I did not know about the organization and their values, but I felt completely at peace, taking in everything I saw around me, admiring all the tiny details of the carvings on the walls and the shrines dedicated to certain Hindu gods.

I not only find it beautiful now for the physical beauty it holds, but also for the story behind BAPS and the work put into it to make this place of peace. Even the Dalai Lama commended the organization for the work it has done in promoting peace and harmony. I hope that I can visit the other locations around the world someday.

Freedom by Zenos Frudakis

What is the context?

"I wanted to create a sculpture almost anyone, regardless of their background, could look at and instantly recognize that it is about the idea of struggling to break free. This sculpture is about the struggle for achievement of freedom through the creative process."
- Zenos Frudakis

This life size sculpture titled Freedom was created by Zenos Frudakis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in June of 2001. It stands eight feet tall and twenty feet long and is made out of bronze. This sculptor is well known for making his monuments out of bronze. He makes his pieces available for the public to see. Of all his sculptures made, Freedom is the most highly known by people around the world. He has made many statues of famous, historic figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, and Winston Churchill. Frudakis' interest in sculpting began at an early age and ever since then, he has nurtured his interest to create the astounding figures that are there today.

In his sculpture, Frudakis added personal elements into it. His friend, a sculptor who had died of AIDS, had always talked about seeing something he had made available for the public to see. So he took what his friend had made and made it a part of his sculpture for all to see, as his friend had wished. He also added the face of his cat to it so there were little things on it personal to him. In the process of making the sculpture, he initially made a small model of it using clay and from there he began and built Freedom.


What is the artist communicating and how?

When Frudakis came up with the idea, he wanted to sculpt something that would be easy for a passerby in a car to figure out and understand the meaning of it. As clearly stated by the title of it, the focus of the piece is about escaping one’s mold and reaching the desired freedom from it. The use of bronze made to look like clay explained the idea that humans are born from earth and are thus made from that mold of clay and mud. The way the bronze was molded made it look as if completely made of dragging fingers marks on the clay, making indents. By doing this, Frudakis further represented the struggle of humanity to achieve freedom from whatever individual is unmolding from. His piece was all about breaking free from our own molds and becoming people, our own individuals.

The final step of the man, essentially now free, was made smooth with no finger indents, as if there was no longer a struggle. It was just purely smooth and slick like water that is free to take whatever shape it wishes, just as the man is now free from the mold to take whatever shape he wants. Each little detail in the sculpture, like the mini persons at the bottom freeing themselves and the coins, which were added to represent how money and art are related, presents the viewers with more to look at and find.

Another theme Frudakis wanted people to take away from his piece was the process of sculpting and how figures are made from a rough draft and fixed to become a finished product. This was shown in the progression of the body in the sculpture from the left to the right. Frudakis wanted it so that there was more than just one basic theme going on at once that could be understood from what he made. He wanted people to be able to interact with it emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Thus he wrote “stand here” in the fourth stage so people would experience what it felt like to be in a mold, struggling for freedom and become a part of the piece themselves.

Why do you find it beautiful?

Frudakis, through this sculpture, had created a beautiful way of depicting the concept of freedom. He did not use any sort of colors because the path to freedom is not something colorful or anything, and even then, having a certain freedom can be frightening. It is amazing how he was able to make bronze look just like clay. His thought of making indentations like fingers grabbing and clawing out was brilliant. The sculpture has a simplistic concept and nature to it, yet such thought was put into making it, with what to make it with and how to precisely sculpt each piece.

It was particularly intriguing how Frudakis made the piece interactive for people to experience. I loved that he did that, because it draws people in to look at it more closely and notice the other aspects of the sculpture, like the little Easter eggs he hid in there for people to find. Anyone walking by can take time and find a new thing at each viewing. He sculpted something that many people experience at some point or another. I loved the way he showed the progression towards freedom stage by stage, so that the feeling could be truly understood.

La Llorona by Beirut

Ever away from seeing more than life
The morning lies miles away from the night
No man ever could steal her heart
But With bright gold coins I'll take my shot

And all it takes to fall
If you don't walk, might as well crawl

All it takes to fall
What a quiet world after all
Of the things that you guessed will come
What a moment it was after all

What is the context?

The band, Beirut, was initiated by Zach Condon when he studied at the University of Mexico. Their music takes sounds from music around the world, incorporating it into their own pleasing melodies. Each of their albums are inspired by a location: Gulag Orkestar by Germany and elsewhere, The Flying Club Cup by France, and the March of Zapotec, from which this song came from, by Oaxaca in Mexico.  

The song title, La Llorona, means The Weeping Woman or mourner. It is based on an old myth told to children about a woman prideful of her beauty. In the story, the woman is said to be the most beautiful woman in the area, and is only willing to marry an equally handsome man with specific outlandish qualities. At last, she finds her perfect match and the two of them get married and have two kids. However, the husband begins to lose interest in her and ignores her, but still remains in contact with the children. Because of this, she developed a sort of jealousy and anger against her children, but hid it. One day, her husband went past her and her kids in a carriage with another woman and he only stepped out to speak with the children briefly, and left. This drove the woman mad and in that moment, anger took ahold of her. She threw her own kids in a river nearby and only after it was too late did she realize what she had done. She felt absolutely miserable. The next day, she was found dead by the villagers, so she was buried in a white dress. Some of the people said they heard the sound of a mournful cry out by the river saying “Where are my children?” Because of this, the woman was now referenced as La Llorona and since then children have been warned to never go near the river because La Llorona would snatch them away.

What is the artist communicating and how?

Through writing this song, Beirut made a portrayal of a well-known old myth in the Hispanic culture. The myth is meant to scare children, much like a scary story, but there is a mournful, pitying aspect to it that this song conveys through the lyrics and their meaning as well as the sounds themselves. In the first four lines, the perspective can be related to that of the man in the myth who wed her, especially in the second and third lines, which express a similarity to how the woman was picky about who she chose to marry. And the last lines relate to how in the end this beautiful yet conceited woman crumbled so easily.

The song was written thematically around the myth of La Llorona, but it does not specifically apply to the myth only. It can be interpreted differently, depending on what the listener knows or does not know. In general, the song, from what I understand, is about the meaning of myth and message behind it in that people can tumble so easily and the fragility of life. And also how easily one can fall from feeling so high and mighty and above everyone else to losing it all. The crescendos in the song help establish a sense of power in the song. They work in conveying the emotion of the myth, going from simply talking about her story to the peak of it. Using few lyrics keeps the song in a way simplistic, allowing it to just flow.

The theme with all of their albums and this album and the song in particular is how they connect different cultures, new ones to which they are exposed, to the music they make. The trumpet, accordion, flugelhorn, and drums are some of their staple instruments used, making for a unique blend of such beautiful sounds. 

Why do you find it beautiful?

The crescendos like at 1:15 are so strong and powerful and hit you suddenly but in a pleasant way. It makes me want to act as if I am conducting the song. The instruments used combine so well, especially as emphasized at the pause of just the instrumental sound like at the crescendo and also at 2:50. The blending of it is just indescribable, along with his voice being so soothing and relaxing. It makes one want to sway to it and not analyze it so much. It is a melodious brilliance.

What Beirut does in all their albums and songs is why they’re songs are so easily loveable. They bring sounds influenced by other cultures from where they have traveled into what they make. For example, like this song, from the album titled March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland influenced by a returning trip Condon took to Mexico. It’s brilliant, what they do.

Many of their songs have very short or repetitive lyrics, focusing on the rhythm of the music they want to create. I personally love the song especially for the instrumental aspect of it and the baroque style. The combination of all the instruments such as the flugelhorn, trumpet, and drums makes for such a soft to the ear sound reminiscent of the type of music I love. I have always loved Beirut for the beauty of the sound they create in each of their albums. 

The Scream by Edvard Munch

What is the context?

Edvard Munch, the man who painted The Scream, created the painting’s first form in 1893. Following that, he continued making 3 other forms of it in different mediums: pastel, tempera, and crayon. Munch was said to have been initially inspired by a real life experience he had. He had been walking along a boardwalk with his friends when all of a sudden, he froze and saw the sky turn a burning orange and everything becoming a blur before him. In an interview, he said, “I felt a vast infinite scream tear through nature.” Munch said it was the cry of nature. This painting is a part of the Frieze of Life series Munch established, which is about the progression of life through love, angst, and at last death.

Another factor about Munch that contributed to the idea of making this painting was the fact that he feared insanity. He saw his own sister go through it and from that, grew a fear of it. After he had finished this painting, he did not go back to the style he used for it, thinking only a madman could have done it. This painting was made before World War I, so some say it related to the anxiety leading up to it. Munch is known for being involved with expressionism & symbolism in his works.

What is the artist communicating and how?

By creating this work of art, Edvard Munch was able to convey a universal emotion for all to understand. It was a relatable sensation that was depicted in his painting. The figure in painting feels the cry of nature, just as Munch heard when he experienced something similar, as previously mentioned. It perceived something outside of reality, showing what the figure experience in its head. Munch also communicated the anxiety felt by the figure in reaction to everything around itself. He made use of the method of synesthesia in that he visually depicted sound (the cry of nature) and emotion (anxiety and pain). Munch also painted the figure in such a way that it became a part of its surrounding and curves with nature. When he felt the cry of nature, he wanted the figure to be seen as part of nature because it understood what nature was going through in that moment and felt the pain. By making the figure using the same curvature of lines and blending of paint, the figure became a part of the background, sharing similarities.

Munch used flowing, blending curves rather than precise lines to express the confusion and feeling of being lost in the mind that the figure felt in that moment. The distortion of the background scenery and the figure was like the distortion of mind. Also, Munch made the facial expression of the figure precisely to depict fear, worry, and panic in it. The figure almost seemed like it was close to death, communicating the strain on the modern man. Through details of keeping the fence, boardwalk, and the two men undistorted, Munch showed how amidst the figure undergoing this sudden feeling, there was a sense of reality right next to it, as if the figure was the insane one. The two men are on solid ground and don’t understand what the figure feels. As well as that, he used certain colors of burnt oranges and dark reds in the sky, depicting the nature of the cry, and brownish colors mixing together as if it was all disordered.

Why do you find it beautiful?

I found this painting by Munch to be particularly beautiful because of how he depicted a universal feeling so well to the point one could feel it just by observing his piece. I loved how he used distortion to show these internal emotions as well as all the other elements he took into consideration to get the desired effect. It is very powerful in its ability to convey this emotion of anxiety, fear, and pain.

The way I first interpreted the painting was a little different than how Munch came up with this idea. I thought it was depicting how the world is moving so fast around all of us and we need to pause for a second to just react to the fast-pace movement surrounding us which we become a part of, just as the figure in the painting was seen doing. The figure felt a feeling of anxiety and pain, but the two sane men in the background were normal in shape and easily identifiable as if they had no idea what this figure could understand, since they were just a part of the fast-moving world of work, unaware. When I learned about how Munch based The Scream off of a real experience, relating it to a figure feeling the cry of nature, I loved the painting even more so than before, especially because when I first saw this painting a while back, I thought the facial expression of the figure was funny.

The Blind Man Scene from Amélie

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The French film, La Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, was written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet in an attempt to make a more personal, emotional movie from what he had done in the past. In an interview he said, “Everything could be possible in Amélie - obviously I don't want to avoid fantasy and imagination - but I wanted to get emotion.” Essentially, he wanted his viewers to be able to connect with the character more easily and understand what the character felt. To help with this aspect, Jeunet purposefully set the time in which the film took place around the death of Princess Diana. By doing so, he prevented the film setting from seeming too old. Writer and director Jeunet was also influenced by the poet Jacques Prévert to create an image in his head of how he pictured the film to turn out. He loved adding details to every scene in possible.

Yann Tiersen, the writer of the song used in the scene, is a French musician who uses a variety of musical instruments to create the music he does. This particular song, La noyée, became a part of the soundtrack from the film, Amélie. Most of the songs from the film, which became well-known across the world, were merely made up of tracks he had previously made: La Valse des monstres, Rue des cascades, and Le Phare. Jean-Pierre Jeunet chose Yann Tiersen to put together a soundtrack perfect for his film. Many of the songs found in the soundtrack enhanced scenes in the film, like the particular scene described below.

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In the film, the protagonist Amélie Poulain decides to devote her life to making those near her happy after seeing the change that occurred in the man she returned an old box of memories to. Although, while doing so, she forgets about herself and is reminded so by the painter to go find her own happiness. The first theme Jean-Pierre Jeunet points out in the film is how you can help others find their true happiness but you must not neglect your own. In the scene called the Blind Man, we see how Jeunet works the theme into the film. It begins slowly as she realizes what she wants to do and a circular long shot is taken of her face and the way she reacts, as the narrator describes how she feels in the moment. By doing this, we tend to focus on her face despite the beautiful scenery around her in the shot. 

Though, when the scene reaches the streets and she sees her first mission, the shots move rapidly and shakily, absorbing all the sights around like how the blind man would have seen them. Having the scene shot this way made it seem like the viewers were the ones being carried around by Amélie. In this quick part of the scene, the colors still seem to somewhat blend together, although the colors pop out more, like the way they would to a man seeing the world for the first time. 

The second, more subtle theme Jeunet communicates throughout this film, especially in this scene in particular, is the importance of music to a film and the effects it can have on the reactions of the people watching. By having the song, “La noyée” play during this scene, the writer was able to stir up feelings of joy in the viewers, leaving smiles on their faces. The crescendo near the end of the song develops a fast-paced feeling of being rushed into something, but in a good way, the feeling of satisfaction one gets after doing something for the benefit of others.

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The scene begins on a slow pace, focusing on Amélie and her change in mood. It then picks up the pace when she finds someone in need of her newfound desire to help others and the scene moves rapidly as she assists the blind man in seeing the world. I love how immediately after her realization, the music picks up and the scene completely changes to fast, quick shots of everything around which the blind man could not see.

I find this scene from the film so beautiful because of the combinations of sounds used in the song. It begins on a gentle note, then becomes louder and faster as she assists the old man. The music by Yann Tiersen adds so much to this scene. In fact, it is almost as if the scene supports the music in portraying what is happening. Seeing the character in this scene and connecting the theme with it made me realize how relatable it was for me. For a while all I ever cared about was seeing other people happy and having my actions benefit others only, later realizing I could not forget about letting myself feel happy. By seeing Amélie experience the same feelings made the scene even more familiar and heart-warming.