Hwanhee Rhee_Reaction

 

 

 

I love taking pictures. I have my own DSLR so that on holiday I go to several places to enjoy my hobby. Last year I visited many places but two places was very memorable, so I want to introduce one picture for each places. The first photo was taken in Tanzania in the eastern Africa, and another one took place on Mapo Bridge in Seoul. Two photos show very different aspects of human life.

 

The first photo was taken when I was on missionary trip to a small town called Narungombe, located in the southwest side of Tanzania. We gave people some help for building a church, and performed for kids. I participated in that team for photographer and engineer. On that day on the photo, actually it was not that good day, because our generator was broken accidentally. The generator was so needed because almost every town outside the capital city had no electricity in Tanzania. When we were trying to fix it, there were already so many kids waiting for us to do something. So our guitarist started to perform. We gave them Jegi, colorful brushes used for Korean traditional game. Players should kick it as many as possible before they drop it. However, because the kids did not know the rule at all, they started to dance with our guitarist shaking and throwing them. Since we had brought several colors of Jegis, the scene was so beautiful and kids became much happier. The days was one of the most successful day for us even without the generator. When you look at the picture, you can see joyful kids face by face, and the harmony of colorful brushes. On the background, there is huge forest with very tall baobab trees. Taking this picture, I intended to show that the happiness is not that related with the progress of technology, but with optimism.

 

The second photo was on Mapo Bridge, well known for some dialogues printed on the banister. In the picture it says “Are you here alone?” Sun is falling down, so the atmosphere of the picture is little gloomy with the question. It was taken on the day before Chuseok, and that is why on the background the highway is crowded with vehicles. In addition, there are so many cars because you can go to Yeouido via this bridge, one of the most crowed places in Seoul. Mapo Bridge should be the crowded and vital place because it is made to be like that. However, as I intended to show from the picture, it is not like that at all. Even though there are so many cars and people on the bridge, no matter what happens, nobody cares. Seoul city put some dialogues on the banister to stop some people who comes the bridge to jump off to the river. Mapo Bridge is the place having the highest rate of suicide among bridges in Seoul.

 

Taking these pictures, I thought several times about the happiness, and the meaning of taking pictures. The photo contains several meanings by making people memorize only the moment of putting shutter. I want to take pictures making people think like that, and above all, making them happy. 

Kayeong Kim / Classification Essay / Tue 9 a.m.

The Korean slang was the first word that I heard from Filipinos friend. I cannot even describe my feelings of shock at then. I asked how he knew that word. His answer was simple. Koreans who lived near his town used that towards local people. He said that he realized that was a bad word by its accent. I felt shame and embarrassment. I thought it came from the ignorance of cultural misunderstandings. However it couldn't be an indulgence of bad behavior. It was not helpful for other people and a nation branding itself. I made up my mind to do something to reduce that kind of people because I wanted to contribute myself for building proud national brand. This was the first time that I decided to work in a public diplomacy field, though I didn't know the terminology at that time.

To be an expert of public diplomacy, we need to develop cultural awareness. It means balanced perspective to see the culture. We shouldn't be obsequious or supremacy. It is important because cultural diversity is only preserved when we have diverse cultures. In this case, the much is the better. Simply put into personal relationship, we don't want to admit others when others don't respect us. Especially this deal with public, we need to know their culture as much as we want to share our culture to them. Just a little interest helps to smooth the atmosphere when we share something among people. To know how to respect is the key for success.

 The second one is the ability to institutionalize. It is easy to think why the law or regulations are made and promulgated. It doesn't mean that we need to control people to be a nice person. We need to give motivation for people to be like that. And I think making regulations are the best way to practice it. Regulations can provide benefits to people. Some people might figure out the purpose under a basis. Furthermore, it helps to recognize good organizations that work hard to achieve the goal. Policy is simple way to make people get involved in the issue. It is also the way to make ideas happen in our daily life. Considering people as much as possible and attracting them with same criteria is the core competency in expert level.

 The last one is physical strength. It might sound weird because those two things I mentioned before were related with mental part. To do public diplomacy, we need to meet so much people who are in concern. Face-to-face meeting is the most effective way to communicate and spread culture. Actually, a professor who works for public diplomacy travels more than 5 countries in a quarter. He always prepares luggage materials by himself. To manage those things, healthy body is essential. Without body has no power to propel all ideas.

Those three things are core to be an expert of public diplomacy. However, you need to make sure that it is the tip of an iceberg. I suggest you to find your own way by referring many examples from others. In my opinion, willingness is the most important thing to achieve the goal. It is like fuel which propels a person to keep going forward. 

Joung Hwan Park / Reactive Essay / Tue 9am

"A picture is worth a thousand words." As this saying goes, complex ideas and a lot more can be conveyed through a single image. The history of photography goes way back to the 1800s, but as technology evolved along with time, the quality and techniques related to photography has paved way for a whole new dimension within photography. A photograph doesn't just capture the moment, but it also has the power to bring out emotion, thought and atmosphere of that captured moment.

The first picture, without knowing the title reminded me of children within a war camp during the war involving Nazis. The children's stiff looks without any smiles let off a sense that they were somewhat forced to be in that environment and that there weren't much room for them to do anything else than to simply sit and listen to whoever was in front of them. However, after seeing the title "Village School", I suddenly realized that these children's looks came about maybe because they weren't familiar with a camera and someone taking pictures with it. It's also interesting to see a number of kids that lose their concentration and have their eyes fixed on the camera because this might convey a lot of things such as curiosity, annoyance and excitement. In addition, the surroundings of the picture including the plain desks, walls and floor all go hand-in-hand with the image of a school located in a not-so-developed village in the past.

The second picture compared to the first, shows children with more emotion and motion. The fact that all the children have their eyes on something and not on the camera in turn makes me interested in what might have been in front of them at that time. Hence, this brought up the thought about how much of an effect different environments can have on children and their state of mind. I was able to find a mixture of emotions within the picture, but I believe the basic notable characteristic is excitement. Hence, if I was to sum up this picture in a word or two, my choice would be "frenzy".

          A picture or a photo allows people's imaginations to run free and create a platform for brainstorming different ideas and concepts. I wonder if it's for this reason that people, regardless of age, enjoy looking at picture rather than something that is full of text. There is not right or wrong in interpreting pictures because its ideas and concepts are bound to change depending on from whom and where they are viewed from.

Ju Hye Choi / Reaction Essay / Tues 9AM

     Last December I went on a family trip to Cambodia where I visited the largest Buddhist temple in the world, Angkor Wat. It was an enormous temple where people from all walks of life were scattered like ants everywhere. I took it as an opportunity to treasure moments of people living in Cambodia and so began taking pictures. Among them, have two pictures of two children one in each photograph. Both are of young Cambodian children who are seated in different places in the temple.

     In the first picture, a little Cambodian girl who seems to be under the age of 10 is kneeling at a corner on a wooden drawbridge. She is wearing a light grey shirt that is slightly ripped on the bottom. It is colored with brown and green drawings at the front which complements the vintage-like area that she is in. She is wearing a thin dark grey pants that is torn on both side of her knee which is revealing her skin. She has a wavy brunette hair which curls outwardly making her overall appearance seem like she has not taken a shower for a while. She is hiding her face in the corner as if she is shying away from the camera yet she has her hands put together palm to palm like she is forced to bring money home.

     Another picture is of another Cambodian girl who looks half the age of the girl in the other picture. She is wearing a bright shirt that has black, orange, pink and purple colors on it. She is wearing pink shorts that complement her shirt very well and it looks like she had her clothes washed the other day. The girl has a dark boyish haircut with a gold necklace around her neck. She has a coconut in front of her with a size larger than her head cut into half. She has one hand on one half of the coconut and the other on her mouth as she eats a little bit of the white coconut meal from the inside. She is sitting sideways to the camera showing the side view of her face and on top of a stony rampart, with a frown on her face. She has a white plastic in front of her opened and a bit far from her. It is as if she was hungry, she threw the plastic and did not bother to keep it close to her.  

     Unlike the first photograph, the other photograph has bright colors in fact many. The colors stand out and it makes the overall atmosphere a lot brighter than the first photograph. In addition, the girl in the second photograph is dressed more brightly, with necklace around her neck and some food to eat that she does not seem like a beggar.         However, looking at both pictures, they bring about the same feeling, hunger and adversity.

     Looking at both photographs, I noticed the importance of our facial expressions. The reason is that even though the little girl in the second photograph has bright clothes on and food to eat, they both photograph being about the same feeling. She does not seem that brighter than the girl in the first photograph. I believe it is the frown on her face. If she had a smile, maybe the story would be a little different. 

Ju Hye Choi / Reaction Essay / Tues 9AM

     Last December I went on a family trip to Cambodia where I visited the largest Buddhist temple in the world, Angkor Wat. It was an enormous temple where people from all walks of life were scattered like ants everywhere. I took it as an opportunity to treasure moments of people living in Cambodia and so began taking pictures. Among them, have two pictures of two children one in each photograph. Both are of young Cambodian children who are seated in different places in the temple.

     In the first picture, a little Cambodian girl who seems to be under the age of 10 is kneeling at a corner on a wooden drawbridge. She is wearing a light grey shirt that is slightly ripped on the bottom. It is colored with brown and green drawings at the front which complements the vintage-like area that she is in. She is wearing a thin dark grey pants that is torn on both side of her knee which is revealing her skin. She has a wavy brunette hair which curls outwardly making her overall appearance seem like she has not taken a shower for a while. She is hiding her face in the corner as if she is shying away from the camera yet she has her hands put together palm to palm like she is forced to bring money home.

     Another picture is of another Cambodian girl who looks half the age of the girl in the other picture. She is wearing a bright shirt that has black, orange, pink and purple colors on it. She is wearing pink shorts that complement her shirt very well and it looks like she had her clothes washed the other day. The girl has a dark boyish haircut with a gold necklace around her neck. She has a coconut in front of her with a size larger than her head cut into half. She has one hand on one half of the coconut and the other on her mouth as she eats a little bit of the white coconut meal from the inside. She is sitting sideways to the camera showing the side view of her face and on top of a stony rampart, with a frown on her face. She has a white plastic in front of her opened and a bit far from her. It is as if she was hungry, she threw the plastic and did not bother to keep it close to her.  

     Unlike the first photograph, the other photograph has bright colors in fact many. The colors stand out and it makes the overall atmosphere a lot brighter than the first photograph. In addition, the girl in the second photograph is dressed more brightly, with necklace around her neck and some food to eat that she does not seem like a beggar. However, looking at both pictures, they bring about the same feeling, hunger and adversity.

     Looking at both photographs, I noticed the importance of our facial expressions. The reason is that even though the little girl in the second photograph has bright clothes on and food to eat, they both photograph being about the same feeling. She does not seem that brighter than the girl in the first photograph. I believe it is the frown on her face. If she had a smile, maybe the story would be a little different. 

Simmy/ Reaction essay/Tue 9am

As children are the future of society, even photographers often focus their attention on children. The two photographs: "Village School" by Margaret Bourke-White and "Children's Puppet Theatre" by Alfred Eisenstadt both take children as the main characters. In the first photograph, children lack smile and the mood is kind of serious; while in the second photograph, the children seem to be excited and the mood is bright and happy.

In "Village School", the mood is cold and serious. Children sit rigidly, their faces show nothing but stolid indifference. We are able to imagine that the teachers are so strict to them that they are afraid of the teachers and are used to hiding their emotions. In addition, the main color is dark which strengthens the serious mood. Children are supposed to be naive and happy, maybe the photographer makes use of the contrast to convey the message that teachers shouldn't be so harsh and indifferent to students.

In "Children's Puppet Theatre", the mood is bright and happy. We can obviously see the excitement and delight from the children's faces. So it's easy to deduce that the children are immersed in the brilliant performance. Also, the photographer chooses the bright light to emphasize the atmosphere. By expressing the children's delight, perhaps the photographer just wants people who look at the picture to be influenced by this positive mood.

The similarity of the pictures is that they both choose children as the main center of interest. The difference is that the mood and message that they express are totally opposite. As analysed before, we can see the difference from the children's expressions and the light that the photographers use.

In conclusion, the two pictures are both focus on children, but the one is serious and without warmth, while the other is happy and positive. Personally, I think the photographers make use of the various elements properly; thus, the messages are clearly conveyed. 

Reaction Essay/ Yujin Song/ Tue 9am

Do you enjoy taking pictures? Today lots of people are interested in taking pictures. Some people take pictures to record their daily lives while others take pictures to deliver their thinking. There are various reasons why people take pictures, and the pictures create different atmosphere. The following two pictures, “Village School” and “Children’s Puppet Theatre,” are showing everyday life moments of children. The subjects of both photographs are children, but they are the good example of showing the different mood.

 

The children in the first photograph “Village School” seem to be stiff and nervous. Most of them are in short hair and staring at the camera with no facial expression. This makes me think they are under the strict instructions in the school. They are probably not encouraged to express their own thinking and feeling. Furthermore, they are in the same place but they do not communicate with each other. They seem to be ignorant to other children. As the children are arranged in an inverted triangle, the boy in the first row gets highlighted. He is lifting up his big round eyes toward the camera, not his head. He is both alert and curious.

 

On the other hand, the children in the second photograph “Children’s Puppet Theatre” are active and playful. They are expressing their feeling freely. The boy in the middle are stretching out his arm and shouting with excitement. The boy on the side is putting his hands on ears, and he may be afraid of what will happen in a few seconds. The kids on the other side are leaning together and one of them is showing curiosity on the show while the other is looking at the camera. All of the children do not hesitate to show their feeling so that the mood of the photograph is light and vibrant. Some children in the background are out of focus, but we know they are all having fun.

 

Although the two photographs are taking pictures of children, the moods are totally different. The children of “Village School” are arranged in an orderly manner, which makes the atmosphere gloomy and rigid. On the contrary, the children in “Children’s Puppet Theatre” are not standing in good order, but the mood is lighter and more playful as the facial expressions are various and straightforward. In addition, in “Village School,” the light shines only on the faces, which emphasizes the faces with blank expressions while the most part of “Children’s Puppet show” gets light, giving the bright atmosphere.

 

The two picture is similar but different. In “Village School,” children are stiff and they just remain still. They seem to be reluctant to show their feeling and they even don’t try to talk with others. Also, the light is only on the faces, they are highlighted much more. In contrast, the children in “Children’s Puppet Show” are more active and open. They feel free to show their feeling such as excitement and curiosity. Also, thanks to the dynamic facial expressions and light, the photograph is lively and bright. It is interesting that the same subjects can be captured in the very different way.