Category: 1_Student Posts (Page 7 of 9)

I am in love with this unnamed portrait by Malin Fezehai. This portrait was taken in landscape orientation, capturing a scene of two young black girls in the foreground, and several similarly dressed adults in the background. The two girls in the foreground both wore gray hooded shoals, floral gowns tattered with white buttons, and a necklace with an iteration of a cross at the center. The two girls occupy the left two-thirds of the frame, looking directly into the camera with a piercing stare, almost as if to reject the viewers’ presence into their cultural space. The centered girl did not have her hood on and was holding a flaming stick, serving as a torch, at around chest height. The flame illuminates her face and exposed clavicle with warm-toned natural light, casting shadows above her lips, down her nose bridge, and atop her clavicle. The other girl on the left third of the frame, who, judging by proximity and appearance, appeared to be her sister, had half of her face submerged in shadow. The position of the flame cast a heavy shadow on the right side of her face, essentially splitting her face in half with highlights on the tip of her nose, left half of her jaw, cheek, and eye socket. By utilizing high contrast of lights and darks paired with the girls’ seemingly unshakable glare, Fezehai established intense visual drama by creating an extremely unsettling atmosphere. Looking at this photograph, I felt that the two girls were studying me, declaring that they could see me even if no one else could, and telling me to leave all at once.

Fezehai frames the adults in the background across the top third of the frame, creating a visual hierarchy that begins at the eyes of the children and guides the viewer to the adults in the background. This framing can also represent the cultural hierarchy of the community, with the elders at the top and children below. The adults are wearing gray shoals wrapped around their heads and some of which are also carrying torches. The torches the adults are holding are considerably thicker than the one the young girl in the foreground has in her hand. Furthermore, in the rightmost third of the frame, the background shows a woman wrapped in a red and gray shoal instead of the much more prevalent solid gray shoals that almost everyone else wore. These differences between the children in the foreground and the adults in the background could represent the childrens’ cultural infancy to not yet being able to fully embody the traditions of their elders. The asymmetry of the composition and the lone hooded person in the bottom right corner of the frame also contributed to the mystery of these people’s culture. Whether they were crouching to pick something up, or they are a dejected member of this community the viewer will never know. Still, framing the children by surrounding them with their culture’s elders creates a strong sense of belonging, community, and protectiveness from the children’s perspective, while also instilling an ever-present unease to the viewers for intruding into a cultural space many of us have no part in.

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.