Photographers during the Harlem Renaissance Essay Example for Free

Photographers during the Harlem Renaissance Essay The years between World War I and the Great Depression was a period of prosperity for the United States. 1 There were plenty of jobs in the city especially in the North which caused 750,000 African Americans to migrate from the South. Harlem, a section of New York City, drew a great number of African Americans, consequently making it the largest community of African Americans in the whole world. In the 1920’s, the African Americans that have settled in Harlem experienced a â€Å"spiritual coming of age† and were able to find an opportunity for â€Å"group expression and self determination. 2 As a result, literature, art, music and social commentary, usually concerning the African-American culture, began to flourish in Harlem. 3 Originally called the New Negro Movement, the revolution became more popular as Harlem Renaissance. Aside from writers, dancers, blues and jazz artists, the Harlem Renaissance was able to produce renowned photographers that became known for their own creative ways of depicting the literary and socially revolutionary era. This paper will present the photography styles of three photographers from the Harlem Renaissance namely: James VanDerZee, Carl Van Vechten and Gordon Parks. James VanDerZee Born on June 29, 1886 in Lennox, Massachusetts, VanderZee is almost completely self-taught in photography. 4 He started taking pictures as a child but got his first exposure in photography when he worked as a darkroom assistant in Newark, New Jersey in 1915. He ultimately became a portraitist and returned to Harlem in 1916, setting up his own portrait studio at a music conservatory that his sister founded in 1911. He soon set about the business of photographing Harlem. Prominent citizens, socialites, political and religious leaders graced his studio. 5 The portrait of Bill â€Å"Bojangles† Robinson, the famous tap dancer, taken in 1933 is shown in a double portrait. He also 3 photographed Florence Mills, a famous actress during that era; Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. , minister of Abyssinian Baptist Church; Jack Johnson, former heavyweight champion; and Marcus Garvey, the African American nationalist who promoted a â€Å"Back to Africa† movement in the 1920’s. 6 VanderZee also photographed ordinary African Americans, usually during momentous occasions in their lives such as weddings or funerals. Since infant mortality was higher during his time than it is now, VanDerzee was often asked to take a picture of a loved one who had died so that the bereaved family will have something in remembrance of their departed loved ones. 7 His pictures were ultimately published as Harlem Book of the Dead. In his portraits of children, he positions the child as if asleep and usually holding their favorite toy. In other cases, he inserts pictures of angels and photographs of the child when he was still alive, into the pictures of the dead body that he took. He does this in order to â€Å"take the gruesomeness of the picture† and make it look like the children suffer no longer but have found rest. One of the trademarks of VanDerZee’s photographs is his depiction of his fellow African Americans as beautiful and dignified. 7 One of his well-known works, The Couple at Harlem, taken in 1932, shows a couple dressed in raccoon coats posing beside their Cadillac. This portrait, characteristic of VanDerZee, shows security and prosperity in the neighborhood. As early as the 1930’s, VanDerzee was already experimenting with photography styles. He already does retouching of photographs, at times even adding adornments to the pictures that he took. He erases wrinkles, adds jewelry, and creates his own backdrop in order to create a touch entirely his own. 7 He may sometimes cut down the mouth or sharpen the nose in order to make the image more pleasing to look at. VanDerZee, when working in 4 his studio, used plenty of props such as backdrops, costumes and architectural elements in order to achieve a photograph with an air of Victorian and Edwardian era to it. 4 The Couple At Harlem. [Online Image] Available http://ls. berkeley. edu/~shiffrar/photog/vanderzee. jpg, 1932 VanDerzee also experimented with other photographic techniques such as the double-exposure technique. This style was used in The Last Goodbye, Overseas, which features a wartime cartoon superimposed on the photograph of a soldier. The viewer, upon looking at the soldier’s photograph will be able to see his thought as he remembers his lost companions. 5 By the same technique, he created Future Expectations (Wedding Day, Harlem) which features a bride and groom posing in front of a fireplace. A dream-like image of their future daughter, holding a doll in her lap, appears next to the couple. VanDerZee, then etched into the negative the image of a heart linked together, which is found inside the fireplace. 5 Future Expectations. [Online Image] Available http://www. sptimes. com/News/022201/Weekend/Portrait_of_a_communi. shtml, 1926 Carl Van Vechten Van Vechten spent most of his life not really as a photographer but as a writer. He published essays relating to music, ballet and cats – the feline creatures being his obsession. He wrote his first novel in 1922, and published the highly controversial novel, â€Å"Nigger Heaven† in 1926. 8 Unlike VanDerZee who photographs celebrities and common people of both genders, Van Vechten’s photographs involve mostly women. He seem to be passionately interested in female portraits for even as a youth in Iowa, he took photographs of his paternal grandmother and later on of two little black girls in front of a beach house in Ohio. 9 Van Vechten sometimes prints these photos to use in regular correspondence. Some of his more famous subjects include jazz artists Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith.

George Gershwin Essay -- essays research papers

George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz on September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. George began his professional career in "Tin Pan Alley," a location in New York City where aspiring composers and songwriters would bring their scores to a publisher trying to sell the tunes for cash. Two years after he started work for Jerome Remick, George had his first song published. "When You Want 'Em You Can't Get 'Em" was not an instantly famous, but it did begin to attract the attention of some of the Broadway composers of the day. During this time of professional growth, George kept his job as a rehearsal pianist and studied piano, theory and orchestration with the best of the best. George's first big hit was a song delivered by Al Jolson in the Broadway musical Sinbad. "Swanee" became an instant hit and propelled George's music before the Broadway audience regularly. In 1919, George composed the music for La, La Lucille, his first full musical score. From 1920 to 1924 he supplied producer George White with several songs for use in the immensely popular George White Scandals series. Behind Rhapsody in Blue, George is mainly known for numerous songs, which have become a part of the American songbook. The full scale collaboration of George and Ira Gershw in as composer/lyricist began in 1924 with the musical Lady Be Good!. The musical featured songs such as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady, be Good" among others. One song, which wa...

Antz vs Lion King Political

People may just watch Disney movies and walk out of the theater without having any knowledge of the meaning in the movie they just watched. They take their kids to pass the time away and maybe laugh for a few moments. Despite this, these people should know that inside every movie there is a meaning, even if it is an animated Disney movie. In this paper, I will discuss the movie Antz and the movie The Lion King. In the movie Antz, directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson, Z 4195 is a worker ant. Feeling unimportant in this conformity system, he accidentally meets beautiful Princess Bala, who has a similar problem on the other end of the social scale. In order to meet her again, Z switches sides with his soldier friend Weaver. By doing this, he ends up crossing the path of General Mandible (Bala's fiance), who wants to divide the ant society into a superior, strong race (soldiers) and an inferior, soon to be killed race (the workers). But Z and Bala, both oblivious of the dangerous situation, try to leave the cruel system by heading for Insectopia, where there is no such system and all insects coexist in harmony. In the movie The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, a young lion prince is born in Africa, making his uncle Scar the second in line to be king. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, in order to make himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, so Simba leaves the kingdom. After years of exile he returns back to the kingdom to take back what was once his father’s, and now his. After watching both of the films, there seemed to be a political message in both of them. In the movie Antz, it seems as if they are trying to show a totalitarian government. According to the American Heritage dictionary, totalitarian is defined as: being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed (American Heritage). In other words, General Mandible runs a totalitarian government in order to make the army ants superior than the worker ants. He wants to take full control of the ant colony by marrying the princess and trying to kill the queen in order to make himself king. The one ant, Z, tries to promote individualism so it can be the remedy for the totalitarian government General Mandible is trying to run. Individualism is defined as: belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence (American Heritage). He tries to tell the other ants that they don’t have to work if they don’t want to. The work they do is the reason why their society is becoming larger. In the movie The Lion King, it seems as if it shows a dictatorship. Dictatorship is defined as: Absolute or despotic control or power (American Heritage). Despite this, Scar, the inferior brother to King Mufasa, tries to take control over Mufasa and Simba and rule the lands. King Mufasa and the animals of Africa are the protagonists. The antagonists are Scar and the Hyenas, who want to control Africa. Some critics have said that Scar is portrayed as Hitler, who leads the hyenas (Nazis) to overthrow King Mufasa and the rest of the animals (Europe) (IMDB). When Scar does take over, everything starts to deteriorate (such as the Nazis did to Eastern Europe). It seemed as if they were running concentration camps. When Simba returns, everything returns to normal-the trees grow back and the grass turns bright green again, symbolizing the relief ceased (The Nazi fall). In a way, these two films are similar. In each movie, both of the antagonists are depicted as evil and angry. They try to take control of the whole colony or kingdom. When they see an obstacle in the way, they try to eliminate it so they can obtain an easy path to the throne. In the movie Antz, individualism is represented as a great value. Z, the individualistic ant, tries to confront General Mandible for his wrongdoings. He tries to stand up for himself and what he believes in, and soon after the rest of the colony starts to follow his ideas. Seeing that Z has now won over the colony with his beliefs, General Mandible gives out a compelling speech about how the colony needs the workers, and that they have their place in helping build a better colony. He goes on to tell his soldiers, â€Å"Gentlemen, now you can see how dangerous individualism can be. It makes us†¦vulnerable. † (Antz, General Mandible). This is why he wants to destroy the working ants. He knows that if the ants all become individualistic, that he will be overrun and not be able to pursue the superior race that he greatly wants. Later on, Z goes on to tell Princess Bala, â€Å"†¦he just died in my arms. I don’t think that once in his life he made his own choice. † (Antz, Z). Here he is talking about one of the soldiers, who told Z not to follow orders all of his life. This scene depicts the reality of the ant colony; unfortunately, the entire colony, especially the ants, were always following commands and following orders-they had no choice. On the contrary, The Lion King does not depict any degree of unhappiness under the rule of King Mufasa. All the animals are living in harmony, doing as they please; therefore, their individualism is not threatened by King Mufasa’s power. Once Scar comes into rule, he begins to dictate and change everything about the kingdom. He gave the hyenas superior authority over the lions and the other animals. Soon, the rest of the animals start to leave the area and the kingdom becomes infested solely with hyenas. With the dictatorship of Scar, the animals’ freedom and sense of individualism was diminished. The political power in each film is exercised in a similar matter. Both movies contain a monarchy, which contains a queen in the movie Antz, and a king in the movie The Lion King. In the movie Antz, the queen ant has a daughter who is the princess. Soon after the Queen dies, the princess will take her place and so on. In order for General Mandible to take control of the whole colony and become king, he must marry Princess Bala. He takes advantage of the monarchy, and turns it into more of a totalitarian government. On the other hand, The Lion King, has a different approach to its monarchy. King Mufasa expresses to his son that they follow the â€Å"Circle of Life† (Allers, Minkoff). In the â€Å"Circle of Life†, King Mufasa explains that, â€Å"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life†. (Allers, Minkoff). The kingdom in which they live, is not about exercising a control in one’s power, but rather, it is about respect. King Mufasa does take pride in being king, but he does not command and tell the other animals what to do in every aspect of their lives. Scar was second in line to the throne, being King Mufasa’s brother, but Simba’s birth made him the direct heir to the throne, thus pushing back Scar to third in line. And as the story goes, Scar becomes furious and turns on his own family because he is greedy. He then goes on to kill his brother and he tries to kill Simba but with no success. Simba returns from going away for a while, and goes back to being king and completing the â€Å"Circle of Life†. In each of the films, it shows us what a government should do in a situation where it endangers its people. In Antz, after General Mandible takes the soldier ants out of the colony, and closes in the working ants, the worker ants come together and help each other out. The people (ants) of the government (ant colony), need to stick together and not be against each other. In the end, General Mandible says, â€Å"I am the colony†, and soon after tries to kill Z but ends up killing himself. The colony came together and stood up for what they believed in, and took down the tyrant who was trying to make the colony â€Å"better† by turning it into a totalitarian government. In The Lion King, the government (jungle) does not really put up a fight against Scar. They let him control the lands and do whatever he pleases with the hyenas. Only when Simba comes back, the other lions are motivated to fight. In a point in the movie, Scar is cornered and blames everything on the hyenas and is soon after pushed over the cliff by Simba. Although Scar killed King Mufasa, Simba did not want to kill Scar. Instead justice was served when the hyenas attacked Scar because he had turned his back on them after false promises. You can see that all over the world, there have been dictators, such as Fidel Castro or Hitler, that have fallen. They have fallen not only because of their decisions, but because of the people. Like the aforementioned, there is more to a movie than you think. Before doing this paper, I just thought these movies were just animated films that were made for children. But the truth is that they have a meaning towards the adult viewers also. I believe that in Antz, the ants try to overthrow General Mandible’s totalitarian government in order to achieve a full sense of individualism. In the movie The Lion King, I believe that there is a dictatorship when Scar is in command. He does not rule the lands like King Mufasa, who gave everyone an equal right to live and be happy. Despite the antagonist’s attempts to rule, their justice is served, and in both movies the protagonists get what they want. All in all, always find the true meaning behind a film.

Evaluation Of A Project Management ( Apm ) Essay - 1600 Words

A project is a temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business product in accordance to an agreed business case (PRINCE2 2005). However, this definition doesn’t seem to elaborate on all the principles and numerous factors, which define a project as compared to Association for Project Management (APM). APM defines a project as an endeavor in which, human materials and financial resources are organized in a novel. Therefore, being able to deliver a unique scope of work of given specification often within constraints of cost and time, in order to achieve beneficial changes which is defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives. It’s common for a project to be mistaken for an operation or vise verse. Though, the difference between these two subject/principles is highly distinctive. George D (2000) states that an operation is a permanent or ongoing execution of activities, which produces repetitive results, the results maybe in a form of a product or service. An operation usually has the same resources, same tasks and a standard output expectation. For example, a construction company might embark on a project to purchase two heavy-duty dumb trucks to help transport materials on sites. This project will have a start date and a fixed finish date. The project manager will set dates for the duration it will take to collect finances, with the help from the finance office, when to make transactions and if the is training required forShow MoreRelatedBusiness Organization, Atlantic, Pacific Management1513 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Providing Next Level Service,† is a philosophy that more companies should strive to carry out. 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