GRA 2330 Digital Photography Wed 230

John Bhatia

Gra 2330 Photo1

Homework 1

http://www.michaelkenna.net/gallery_images/bd5a5e41.jpg

Michael Kenna – Winter Morning

Michael Kenna captured Gramercy Park during the winter of 2003, he conveniently titled his photograph ‘Winter Morning’. The photos subject, a lone sculpture in Gramercy Park during the winter. From what it appears the snow has just passed, because there is still enough snow on the branches to have them bend, and there seems to be no foot print in the snow. The mood feels to be solitude one object in the middle and many other subjects distant from the center and from the sculpture. It also has a calming feel, as there is little to no motion. It’s also calming because it is quiet, if you were to in vision yourself there at the moment of the click, you would be very relaxed.

More specifically he uses perspective lines to guide you past the foreground to the mid ground. His use of lines also goes vertical, along with many organic free flowing lines caused by the branches. But that also cuts the scene in half, the bottom half is very structured and the top half is very free- curving. There are only two types of figures in this picture, the man made sculpture, which can be broken down into natural forms, and the organic trees. There also is square like shape on the ground acting as the perimeter counter to the circular bowl. The image in a way gets cut into two, the top follows a very cross hatch pattern and the lower portion has no pattern at all. The photo is very cohesive you can cut it up from many different angles and the weight doesn’t flow any heavier to any one side, it’s very structured and symmetrical. Despite being captured in 2003 the image is black and white. The contrast marks the ground negative space perfectly it’s just out of the way enough to get noticed as a foundation. The image has a nice contrast, the details that need to be noticed first have a sharp edge to the lesser important followed by the details that enhance the mood with subtleness. All these elements sum up the overall mood, I feel this image would not look as good as it does if it had color, because there is less to get distracted by, if the  image was taken in color then the vibrant colors of the materials would be disorientating from the subject.

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

The photograph that caught my attention and mesmerized me in a certain way was “twin towers, study one, New York City, Usa, 1978” by photographer Michael Kenna. In the picture we can see the twin towers standing above Kenna like two giants. Taken from a worm’s eye view angle which made the building look taller than what they already were. It creates sort of a majestic feel to it, making the towers bigger than us and not by size, but by importance, magnitude and impact that they would indirectly eventually have in our lives, creating an emotional connection, a direct relationship between the photograph and the viewers. In my opinion, developing that relationship is just as important as capturing the desired image. I believe the mood can be interpreted in many ways because of what unfortunately happened to the world trade center on september 11th 2001. Therefore I believe the mood is a bit melancholic and sad. In the picture, the day appears to be cloudy and with little light to indicate otherwise, and although the photograph was taken in 1978, as years passed by, and events occurred, the importance of the picture has increased dramatically.

The diagonal alignment of the towers guide our eyes towards the little light that the photo has, which is located right on top of the buildings, making it look kind of like a halo and giving it a godlike feel to it in a sense. The asymmetry of the photograph which can be found specially on the left tower help create and develop the mood. The contrast between the dark of the buildings and the light of the sky contributes to develop that sense of magic that the picture portrays. The dark of the towers allow the top to pop up due to having more light, creating a more appealing looking picture.