Contemporary Photography Lecture

For this lecture I was at first a little uninterested because I heard the word photography but when I started to see some of the work it got my attention.  I enjoyed Edward Waston's black and white photos because they had good forms and excellent textures to the forms.  I also liked Ansel Adams's eye for nature.  After the lecture I looked at more of his work and the detailing of his work was so planned and thought out I could not help but appreciate it more. His work also reminded me of how people romanticize nature in novels.  I even liked the way Henri Cartier-Bresson took photos of everyday happenings.  I think it's interesting to see people take pictures of "ordinary things" because those are often the things we forget about the most and to have a picture of them is nice because they are relate-able to many.
 It was also interesting to think about whether or not a person has a right to take certain photos of people or not, because some one can easily argue that they are exposing that person and their lifestyle if the photographer does not know them personally but when they do know them people tend to excuse the "exposure."  This idea reminded me of when one of the guest speakers was talking to people from the street and getting to know them first and getting their consent before she took the photos.  It was a bit humorous and tragic that appropriation in photography is so not only easy to do but at times easy to get away with.  This makes it so confusing as to whom credit is due and a little frustrating because I don't want to give credit to someone who didn't take the shot first.
The digital photography also interested me because I like to think I can tell what's real and what's not in photos because I've used some software that can alter pictures, but like Bill said at first glance I would not have been the wiser.  It is fun though when you stop and pay attention to the detailing of the pictures you can easily decipher what's real and what's not.