Category: HW1_Composition (Page 1 of 3)

The photograph that I picked is “playing on the roof” by Thomas Holton.

An Asian American family  by the surname Lam is being photographed through periods of their life in their apartment, which is still an ongoing event. The photographer is trying to show how this family living in a compact apartment in Manhattan’s Chinatown goes about their lives and stfuggles. What is happening in this photograph is that  there is a child in a red sweatshirt and khaki pants. She is standing at the top of a flight of stairs whilst the outside light is lighting her up from behind. The intention behind this image is a child looking down at their parents to see if their parents are watching them. What I feel from this photograph is that it is almost like looking at a scene of a flashback, the colors are dulled out like a memory is usually depicted. It brings back feelings of nostalgia of a similar moment that happened in my life. What the photographer is trying to convey are moments of nostalgia with the faded lighting and being primarily focused on one subject. It can trigger memories for both parties, the one viewing through the lens or a general memory for someone remembering their childhood.

 The reason why this image stuck out to me so much is because of the lighting. It can also be interrupted as a figure to ground, most of the colors are in the greys except for the child. It brings out the attention to them. The main subject, the girl in red, is only highly focused and the other one is the leading lines, the stairs leading up to the  little girl who is standing at the top of the flight of stairs. This is an excellent use of leading lines because the leading lines lead up to a subject of focus. The next one is diagonal, the photograph is  taken from a corner which helps give a look into different planes of the ceiling. For example the the ceiling above the the floucenet lights are starting from the top right and heading in a diagonal towards the center, the vanishing point of the room. 

http://www.michaelkenna.net/gallery.php?id=14

“Empire State Building from Twin Towers Viewfinder, New York City, USA, 1998”

Michael Kenna’s gallery contained photos of numerous well-known landmarks and locations in New York City from 1976-2010. I’ve always found landmarks of cities interesting, so these photos attracted my attention. The photo I chose is named “Empire State Building from Twin Towers Viewfinder, New York City, USA, 1998”. I chose this photo because it reminded me of one of the photos I took for the class activity last Wednesday. As the title mentions, the photograph was taken on the Twin Towers looking though the viewfinder. The picture is fuzzy and blurry, but you can still tell what building is being photographed. In my opinion, the longer you look at the photograph, the clearer the building looks. I believe Kenna’s intention was to show the viewer how recognizable the Empire State Building is. Even though the photo is not totally clear, you can still recognize one of NYC’s most known buildings.

The first formal element that comes to mind when looking at the photo is frame within a frame. Kenna uses the Twin Tower’s viewfinder to frame the Empire State Building and the other smaller building next to it. You could tell Kenna positioned the lens of the camera either inside of the view finder or zoomed into the viewfinder because of the darkness surrounding the main target (Empire State Building). Michael Kenna also used the rule of thirds. The Empire State Building is not exactly in the middle of the photo. It’s slightly offset to the right of the frame within the frame.