Hw1

Dawoud Bey-Harlem Stories

Photograph: Man in a bowler hat

http://www.wbez.org/blogs/alison-cuddy/2012-05/photographer-dawoud-beys-landmark-moment-two-exhibits-two-chicago

This is an image of an older gentleman taken in 1975, although it was taken in 1975 Dawoud Bey particularly wanted to take the photograph of this man because he had on the attire of someone in the 1930’s or 1940’s. The man was elegantly dressed, he posed in a way that showed he had confidence, from the gesture of his body language, and his eye contact. There is also a nice contrast of light and dark from his white collard shirt and bow tie against his black jacket and his white hair against his dark skin. The feeling I get when  I observed this photograph was that this was a man who was proud of him self and also confident. He thought highly of himself no matter where he was or what was going on at that moment in time. The background tells a story of a time maybe when things where hard but you did whatever it took to make your self happy.

Dawoud used elements such as figure to ground by choosing a background that looked rough and placing his subject who was elegantly dressed to show contrast between the subject and the background which helped create the feeling of success in a rather difficult environment. He also used contrast of light and dark  which  gave the feeling of sophistication, as well as charm and neatness. In addition he used the element of filling the frame which creates a feeling of closeness with the subject and makes it more personal. He placed the dominant eye in the center of the photo which gives the viewer the illusion that the eye is following them no matter what angle they are looking at the image, creating an intimate connection with the the subject. Looking at this photograph and analyzing it by identifying the elements in which the photographer used allows you to appreciate how the mood was created and captured.