HW 1 – Photo Description

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1. 

   XavierV

   August 29, 2023 at 7:45 pm

   1. This picture I chose was taken by Michael Kenna and it’s a shot of upper Manhattan and the Washington bridge. One thing you will notice is that the photo is in black and white and I got to say I think it compliments the view with Manhattan and all its lights. It really tells the truth that this city never sleeps. I think the intention of this shot was to give a good look at the city at night to show the bright lights it has. The black and white kind of makes it look like this photo was taken in the 60’s. I feel like the purpose of this image was to show manhattan in the night. One thing Iike about this photo is that it shows the upper side of Manhattan and you see a lot of the old buildings that have probably been here for like 30/50 years. The bottom of Manhattan has a lot of newer buildings and a time square, so showing the top side of Manhattan gives people more looks to Manhattan then the parts that are always advertised in the media. It gives me a griminess mood like old 80’s comic books like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
   2. For this photo I got to say the three elements that it shows are Leading Lines, Patterns, and Diagonal. I said Leading Lines because the way the photo is set and how Manhattan looks makes you focus your eyes to the top right. I said Pattern because the noir look makes the buildings bleed out to each other, but still comes out unique because of the building lights and the different sizes of the buildings. And Last I said Diagonal was because in the front you see Manhattan going bottom left to top right and behind it you see the Washington bridge going top right to left. It gives off the sense of movement and the different paths of New York. 

   Photo Link:

   

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2. 

   Ifetayo Juni Forrest

   September 1, 2023 at 1:31 am

   1. The photo I’ll be discussing for this assignment is Thomas Holton’s “Peeking at the Neighbors” from their series The Lams of Ludlow Street I. The picture is taken of a New York City rooftop and a young boy peering over the edge of it, presumably his family’s clothes hung to his right and casting a dramatic shadow. I believe that the intension of the photo is to express the barrier between the safety of the boy’s home and the mystery of the outside world, evoking ideas of childish curiosity and a desire to expand his world. The photograph itself is isolated but hopeful, there’s an underlying feeling of danger but excitement at the same time and I as a viewer can’t help but think about how much time I spent in my childhood gambling my wellbeing for the treasure of experience and knowledge. 

   2. The three elements I think are used most prominently are Diagonals, Rule of Thirds, and Fill the Frame. The photograph drew my attention with the incredible shadows cast by the shirts illuminated by the light of sunset, their diagonal lines add a skewing element that brings the space to life. The photo is pretty clearly divided into thirds like telling 3 stories: the story of the drying laundry answering questions about who might have put them their, the story of the farside pillar grounding the setting in gritty and familiar urban realism, and the most important story of the child who inhabits this world but is mentally breaking free of it by looking outside of it to a world the viewer only has the ability to imagine. All of it comes back to filling the frame, every inch of this photograph adds to the ambiance if the overall piece and fills out the city that the child is exploring with his eyes. For example the reflective puddle on the ground behind him tells us that the weather recently wouldn’t have allowed for hanging cloths or spying, and the far right windows tell us about the architectural congestion that allows him the opportunity to discretely be apart of other lives in the neighborhood. Anyway I really fw this photo in particular.

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     rmichals (Post author)

     October 2, 2023 at 1:53 pm

     This is a lovely moment evoking the curiosity of childhood.

     The photo’s composition does rely on diagonal, in both the shadows cast across the frame and the edge of the roof.the boy could be siad to be placed with the rule of thirds. this isn’t however the kind of photo we generally mean when we say fill the frame. That usually means getting close to the subject and not showing much background.

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3. 

   Esayas Cohn

   September 2, 2023 at 7:13 pm

     The Photo I chose from Suzanne Steins New York 2 collection is labled “DSC02205”. This image is taking place in the heart of New York, school girls (orthodox jewish) in the winter on a wet and snowy day. So much so you can’t tell if this is their morning journey or an afternoon trudge back home. Nonetheless their mood is not the intended center of this image. They are all wearing extremely vibrant and individually unique colored backpacks with a line of 7 pairs of army-like steel black boots geared up for battle. Their mode of transportation hinted in the background (A school bus). This mood is certainly what I feel from the photographer’s point of view.

   Speaking of views, the leading lines of the pavement direct us into their line of view and the unknown scary but intriguing direction they are marching towards. Most clearly we can see the patterns and repetition in their attire but only to a certain point ending with their vibrant and contrasting bags. Lastly their figure to ground is definitely playing a role for the viewer as we touched on the schoolbus, you can definitely feel a relationship built between the subjects of the photo and the mountainous snow building up in the background of the photo. In closing the reason I chose this image was because I was drawn to the magical yet ominous energy of the photo. It was the first picture that really caught my eye and made me start to analyze and point out the different skills the photographer used. As well as a built up story created in my own head because it naturally made me very curious.

   

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