The Inspiration Piece
My inspiration piece is the Blossom Restaurant, one of the Silver Gelatin Prints of Berenice Abbott of October 24, 1935, Vintage (New York City). According to Martin (2018), Abbott regarded metropolis’ visual anarchy through a display of barbershop prices and bold window signs that advertised restaurant offerings. The artist’s practice was a definition of her work in late-Depression Era New York. In the hotel, rooms were rented for 35 cents a night, and the restaurant also offered meals from 30 to 15 cents.
Furthermore, the advertised restaurant menu showed price entries such as 15 cents for oxtail stew and 25 cents for pig knuckles (Martin, 2018). The photograph has a clear sense of busyness and a strong contrast of barbershop and hotel services. The photograph of the blossom restaurant was thus inspirational because despite Abbott taking the picture during the depression, she deduced it as an astonishing vigor of the city. Moreover, there were signs above the door to the left advertising available food. Barbers offered services, whose costs were advertised to the stairwell’s right, such as 30 cents for ladies’ bob and 10 cents for shaving.
My Art Piece
My selected art piece (figure 2) was taken from downtown Miami by my iPhone 12 phone. It is a picture of the freedom tower, a Cuban symbol of freedom when Cuban were escaping communism and oppression back in Cuba. It is considered the ‘‘Ellis Island of the South.’’ From 1962 to 1963, it played the historical role of harboring Cuban refugees who pursued political asylum from Fidel Castro’s regime. It is also viewed as the National Historic Landmark, and it demonstrates the Cuban exodus due to the Cold War that saw them resettling in the US. The United States gave the refugees a warm welcome due to the political climate.
Connection
Thematically, figure 1 represents a documentary photograph, while figure 2 illustrates an adventure, and the connection between them is that they both represent great historical moments. For instance, my inspiration photograph dates back to the 1930s when America suffered the great depression that began after the stock market crashed in 1929. The global crisis lasted for ten years in what became known as the worldwide economic crisis. Similarly, my piece (figure 2) dates back in history to the 1960s at the regime of Fidel Castro, when the Cubans sought political asylum in the United States (Sawyer, 2017). Therefore, the photograph represents a sign of freedom and hope where there was the resettlement of the Cuban refugees during the Cold War.
The photographs connect to pre-technological societies, and the two look alike because they are all tall buildings with close to similar shapes. However, according to Martin (2018), they are different because figure 1 is a black and white silver print photographed as though taking portraits while figure two is a colored picture photographed on an adventure. Moreover, the two pictures have different mediums, and figure 1 was taken by a hand-held Kurt-Bentzin camera while figure 2 was taken by iPhone 12 camera. The medium affects the texture or color of the work of art and helps the viewers interpret the art in a specific way. Finally, Sawyer (2017) posits that the formal elements are line, form, space, shape, texture, color, and pattern in photography which break down each thing a true artist should focus on. Besides, they are all critical but different because each brings its unique quality to a photograph.
References
Martin, F. D. (2018). Humanities through the arts (10th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Sawyer, R. K. (2017). Teaching creativity in art and design studio classes: A systematic literature review. The Educational Research Review, 22, 99-113.