Gallery - Luke Kim

I was able to visit the Hill Gallery website and look at some of the pictures. There was this one artist whose name was Bill Rauhauser. He started taking pictures since 1960 until now. I was able to see what he took from back in the 1960s until now. They are so awesome and every picture tells a story. It was interesting because Bill did not major in photography or any other communication media stuff. He was actually an Engineering major and it took 18 years for him to finally change his filed.

Bill’s pictures are all very natural. Bill claims himself as a street photographer. He never staged or manipulated photos because he believed that staged pictures destroy the credibility. His pictures are all black and white because he insisted that color also could influence the viewer. This is very interesting because I thought colors add more credibility to the picture but he thought in a different way. He wanted the viewers to see the shape rather than the colors.

My favorite picture from his collection is “Three Men on a Beach.” It is a picture of three black men sitting on the sand and staring at the ocean. Of course it is black and white. Bill tried to reduce the preconception that the viewer might have on black people by avoiding the color. Also the focus is clearly on the men so it is easy to realize what he wants us to see. I think a little bit of rule of third is incorporated too. I would be really interested to hear the real story of this picture if someone could explain it for me.

I went out the streets and took a picture of people walking. It is natural and no stage is set up, so it is pretty similar to Bill’s pictures. It is also black and white. While Bill had wide depth of field, mine has a shallow depth, focusing on the Asian guy (sorry if he is not an Asian, but he spoke Chinese).