Extra credit-George Eastman House

Last week, I have a chance to visit the George Eastman house. I never expect there are so much interesting staff in the museum. The museum was built to memorial George Eastman and the whole photography history. There are different sections in the museum. A project called “The Birmingham” is displayed in the project area. Dawoud Bey, an artist based in Chicago, was invited by the Birmingham Museum of Art to create new work for the 50^th anniversary. Bey honored four girls died in the bombing and two boys died in radical violence. The project was combined of two parts-the photos and the split-screen video. This series of photos were consisted of the image of young boys and girls which is the same age as the victims in 1963 and the images of elder people who would be the same age as dead children if they still alive. The whole series of photo have a huge contrast and even shocking. As for the video, it enlightens me about this project. First of all, I did not pay so much attention to the video. The randomly arranged slow motion frames of a barbershop, beauty parlor, luncheonette, and schoolroom. Later, I think it works so well in the project. They are exactly the footages of the girls and boys if they did not die. The feeling of watching the frames those dead children would never have a chance to see is quite complex. This was the most emotional part of this visit. Also, it is a good example of multimedia. The combination of slow motion footages and solid photos creates a picture that the innocent victims were just standing in front of our eyes.

Another part I loved in the museum was a series of photos called “The Disappearance of Darkness” by Robert Burley. This section is all about the old buildings in Kodak Company. The shabby construction could not tell us more about the sad fact about this Kodak. The signboard was as bright as usual, but the depression could be seen everywhere in the company. One picture I loved so much was a man standing in front of the old building. He was absorbed in the building.

There are still other interesting parts of the museum. The history section gives us a sense of tracing back to when the first camera were invented. I could see the evolution of Reflex cameras and the Leica cameras. The innovation in photography history is a section that made photography closer to daily life.