Brook's Blog

       Lee Friedlander was born in Aberdeen Washington to immigrant parents on July 14th, 1934 (Wikipedia). According to Wikipedia, he is known as a very shy and private man, notoriously giving very few interviews and staying away from social media, so not much is known about his private life or how he grew up. What we do know, is that his mother, Kaari Nurmi, died when the photographer was just seven years old. While little to nothing is known about his upbringing, we do know that he took an interest in photography around the age of fourteen (icp.org).     Friedlander is famous for his work in cities across the United States, most notably, New York City. He would take his camera out every day, and photograph things he deemed interesting enough to take photos of. He is quoted as saying:  "You don't have to go out looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out, and the pictures are staring at you ." - Lee Friedlander (artnet.com)  ...

     Emmanuel Radnitzky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian-Jewish immigrants on August 27th, 1890. He grew up in a fairly large family consisting of his mother and father, him as the eldest child, a brother, and two sisters. It is a shame that his family felt they had to hide their ethnic and religious background due to the discrimination of the times. In 1912, they decided to change their surname to Ray for these reasons. Emmanuel changed his first name as well, leading to the name we associate with his work today (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray)  .     Ray grew up working in his parents' home-run tailor shop. He was ashamed of this as well, which I find both very interesting and sad. Back in the early to mid 1900s, it was more of a burden than a blessing to have the public knowing of your humble background than it was if you grew up in a wealthy home with more respected parents. Today, Ray could proudly shout out his humble begi...

     I remember when the game Life is Strange  was released. It was 2013, I was eleven, the Xbox was still insanely popular, and the "choose your own story" gaming genre was getting more and more popular. At the time, Life is Strange  was considered a good game, with good mechanics, and good, likeable characters. Not so much now. It was very popular. I remember Pewdiepie playing it, and because he played it, I bought it. I used to call it my favorite game.     The game follows art college student Max Caulfield and her newly acquired time-travel powers, and the mystery of disappearing and traumatized girls in the town she grew up and goes to school in. In the first scene where we witness Max's powers, she is in her classroom where the professor is giving a lecture on Photography. Max is an art student. It was the first time I had heard of Louis Daguerre and the daguerreotypes he invented that turned into the first self-portraits. It's been a fact that w...