HW #1- Sandra Jarro

The photograph I chose was of West Wall: LIRR, Hunters Point, 2004 (7th photograph) by Jeff Liao because of its colors, variety of shadows, lights and darks from the sun, and that gives the photograph a calm yet peaceful feeling to walk by. In the photo the first thing that catches the eye of the viewer is the lonely man walking on the side walk, away from the other people in front of him. He seems he’s taking his time on his way home. The background is composed of buildings, all of different sizes. To the right of the image its a railroad station with passengers waiting for the train. Meanwhile the left of the image is composed of a line of cars passing by and a building behind them. The image also includes part of the sky as its background, and in the middle a tall building with what I believe has a banner on top.

The use of line, shape, pattern, balance, and contrast of dark and light varies within the photograph. Liao’s use of line in the photograph is shown in the perpendicular way the sidewalk is to the buildings in the background. As the man walks towards the buildings, it gives a sense of direction or path. There is also the use of cars going in a straight line in a different direction as the man is going. The buildings on the sides also form a narrow line that kind of meets where the tall building is. There is not much of a pattern except for the line of cars and the buildings in the background. Everything in the image have some sort of shape, the shape that I believe catches my attention the most is the tall building almost located in the center of the image. That image gives an unbalance feeling to the rest of the buildings in the photograph. Liao also uses contrast between dark and light. In the photograph the sun, which is setting to the left, brings out the bright side making the left of the image more brighter and the right more darker. The light of the sun is hitting against the cars, buildings and people to the left creating a shadow to the right of them.