Category: HW1-Composition (Page 2 of 4)

The photography I chose is “Compton Cowboys” by Christopher Gregory-Rivera. This is work about cowboys in Compton, capturing the moments in their lives and their work. The photo I chose is attached below. I chose this photo as I found the composition to be interesting with the water and the beauty of the horse. As well as capturing the surrounding details of the area, including a tropical tree on the right side of the composition. What makes this photo really interesting to me is that the fact that I don’t get to see many horses here in NYC. While there are horses on the streets near Central Park, the aspect of keeping a horse out of the city is something unique to me. Gregory Rivera shows the delight of the horse and the woman (who I assume is a cowboy in this region) as a good caretaker for this horse.

At first glance for me, I can see the contrast from light and dark. Mainly on the horse, but also some of the details of the trees. The darker color on the leaves compared to the bright sky or the lighter color of the tree trunk. Another element that can be seen is the rules of third. On the left side is a woman with a hose spraying water onto a horse. On the right side it is part of the horse and the tropical tree. While in the middle of photo is the horse, but it isn’t centered. This makes the composition into sections to look more dramatic with each piece having action going on. Lastly the frame within frame could be seen in this photograph. The usage of the pen is a dividing aspect to the woman and the horse. While the background of the photograph is the neighborhood of Compton in LA.

The photograph I choose is part of a collection from Chris Gregory Rivera in 2014. The collection is called Evidencia and is a search for answers in Mexico for the The photograph I choose is part of a collection from Chris Gregory Rivera in 2014. The collection is called Evidencia and is a search for answers in Mexico for the many people who went missing. The location of this image is the hills of Iguala which is near Sierra Madre a town nearby. This image is of a landscape shot that captures the human-made road and all the plant life on this hill. Since this image has to do with his search for answers so it’s where many of the local town folk go in search of those who either went missing or are currently missing due to cartel activity in the area. Christopher Gregory Rivera captures just how often the road is used and just how big this hill is and how it seems to go on forever. I feel a sense of disconnect from what I am used to seeing everyday this is a change of scenery for me since I don’t see much forestation or human-made roads often in the city. I like the image because it goes to show a nice depth of field and really goes to show just how far/big something is.

The use of leading lines is present in this image because your eyes are lead to the middle of the page with the human-made road. The road also seems to reappear again leading your eyes deeper into the image. symmetry can also be seem slightly present in this image, it can be seen on both sides of the human-made road where you can see plant growth but on one side more than the other. The rule of third is also present, this can be noticed by the way the pictures guides your eyes to the middle making that road the subject of the image.

This picture was taken by Malin Fezehai. I chose it from the portraits section on her website and unfortunately doesn’t have a title or caption (or at least I was not able to find them). In the picture a beautiful lady has been portraited while looking down on her hands (maybe holding something really tiny and not visible to the observer) sitting on one edge of a bed or couch really close to a window that shows an amazing green landscape. The picture could be telling so many stories such as about a lonely moment of the lady in her home while chilling after a long day, a moment of peace in her trip in an exotic place escaping from an heartbreaking relationship. It might be portraying an intimate conversation of the lady with nature, a moment of meditation or even the waiting time for someone or something. In between all those different interpretations I like to think that the lady is in a moment of meditation/revelation. As the picture reminds me an rnb music video, I imagine the lady singing (about her distant lover as in a romantic scene) about that peace she found in being in the nature. She seems calm and enjoying her moment of loneliness while totally lost in a deep thought. The green of the leaves right outside the window gives a sense of hope in her story. The warm light underlines the beauty of her skin. It is like she is looking from her inside world which has calm and warm tones (the brown/red/yellow shades of the pillow, of the lamp and of the window details) to a world full of hope and vitality. Bathed in the light coming from the window she seems confident in her body and maybe having a moment of revelation while thinking. Looking outside the window I got lost in the “jungle” landscape which for me doesn’t have an end and it represents an endless world of hopes for the lady. I really liked this picture from the first moment I saw it because of the contrast between the light and darkness, but also because of the contrast between the colors of the outside the window and the inside of the room which makes the picture deep and at the same time look like a photoshopped composition. 

The photographer uses more than three compositional principles. The first one I noticed immediately is the contrast of light and darkness where the light is used to define the silhouette of the lady and just few elements or details in the composition, leaving all the not essential elements outside. The light gives deepness to the landscape in the background, gives confidence to the lady’s body but also creates a shadow of the lady that appears huge and predominant (it seems like we can see the dark side of the main character in this picture, her dark reflection). Furthermore, the light represents the communication between the foreground (the lady and the room) with the world outside the window. Another compositional principle I noticed is the frame within a frame which is created by the darkness around the center of the picture and the second frame created by the window’s frame. The same darkness creates also a negative space from which the parts of the picture hit by the light emerge (a sort of figure to ground). Lastly the lady is pictured in one of the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines that divide the picture in thirds. In fact, the corners of the window frame underline the subdivision in thirds. 

 Alex Webster is the name of the photographer. I choose Alex and one of his projects on Diaspora Japan. The idea is about the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland. In this case is people move from Africa to Japan. I feel like home when I look at the photograph. The subject possesses a hair bun, engaged language and culture. I love this photo because of the confidence that can be seen in the portrait.

Experiences of people of African descent living in Japan is what the photographer is trying to say in the photograph. The purpose of the image is the positive look from them.  I believe the author chose this shoot for a thumbnail of the interview series because of the elegant look from him.   

Three of the formal elements we discussed in class that are most important in the photo that I selected are symmetry, figure to ground, contrast of light and dark. The photographer’s use of those three compositional principles is dynamic. That composition carries the feeling of the that makes you look at it repeatedly. Symmetry is nearly perfect because the subject is right at the center. The “Line of Symmetry” is the imaginary line where you could fold the image and have both halves match. In terms of landscape, a person is a character, and a city is a background. About contrast of light and dark, the light on his face creates the perfect contrast with his dark eyes. His hairstyle interrupted the color texture of his eyes and was a window to the soul. Hierarchically, my eyes start looking at his face, follows his eyes downward, then up towards his hair, then downwards to the white balcony behind his shoulder which merge seamlessly into the colorful city behind him.

The name of the photographer is Christopher Gregory Rivera. The image is part of a series called Sinking Countries in 2019. The series was photographed in a Fijian Village of Vunidogoloa. The subject of the image I have chosen is a father and his son in their home which is built with only a number of resources and is covered in colorful clothes which are separating the rooms within the house. The purpose of the photograph is to show the contrast between the destroyed village and how the community within it has still made a way of living. The bright color clothes hung around the father and the son is making them stand out, the pattern of their clothing is also bringing attention to them. The message I see is that even though the community within this village has lost a lot to natural disasters they still have a spirit of life which is being demonstrated through the bright colored clothes they make and wear. I really like this image because it has so much color and life in it. 

There are a lot of contrasting patterns within the image, the pattern on the clothes in the background is a lot busier than the patterns on the clothes of the father and the son which makes them stand out in front of the image. There is also a bit of a contrast between light and dark. The light is coming from the right side of the image and lighting up the subject of the image while the background is darker compared to the subject of the image. There is a hint of symmetry in the background of the image. The cloth hanging behind the subject is put right in the middle of the image and it is dividing the room into three parts. The cloth under their feet is also dividing the room floor into two different sections.