Photograph in Analysis

Source:

Through the Lens: National Geographic greatest photograph

Picture in scrutiny:

Caption:

An off-duty sergeant in the Israeli Army lets down his guard for a kiss in West Jerusalem's Zion Square

Photographer:

Annie Griffiths Belt

Picture composition:

Medium long shot. Rule of thirds in place, with 1/3 of area covered by the couple and 2/3 of area covered by the the public, giving a very natural setting. This composition serves to show the contrast between the people(background) and the couple(foreground) which allows audiences to read that the couple are not in their private domain.

Semiotics at work:

Denotation

At face level, this picture basically denotes a man and a woman kissing at a square.

Conotation

However, with conotation, we learn that there are positive as well as negative readings into this picture.

Positive connotation

The presence of a soldier gives a sense of tension, dominance in authority and war. These are negative associations we tie to soldiers. However, the army personnel in this picture seems to be in a relaxed position, with almost a blissful emotion on his face. This creates a pleasant and peaceful atmosphere.

The picture below is yet another example of a pleasant atmosphere in the presence of a soldier. Soldiers, a representation of brutality and violence are here pictured as war heroes in a pleasant light.

Negative Connotation

Soldiers are expected to be a highly disciplined unit and standing in an upright posture like in the picture below. In contrast, the picture in discussion portrays the soldier in a laid back and slack manner, indicating a lax in discipline.

Understanding the Signs:

Iconic

The couple is publically displaying their affection for one another. This pda-ing is iconic of love.

Indexical

Gun and Soldier's uniform will lead to notions of violence, military and war. However, it can also lead to people viewing them as the 'heroes', 'patriots' or even 'protectors'.

Symbolic

1) Act of kissing would most commonly be read as feelings of love and endearment. However, in some cultural context, it may also be read as a form of greeting.

2) The western looking architecture/building found at the backdrop of the photo in analysis shows an importation of foreign architectural culture into the country's culture. It suggests a sense of globalization, with culture and ideas exchanged across borders and countries becoming more cosmopolitan.

For one who is familiar with the Israeli historical culture, the architecture actually reflects the culture importation from France. (The picture above is of a building in Lyon, France.)

3) Crew cut hair together with the green uniform symbolizes the typical outward appearance of a soldier.

4) The crest on the sleeve of the soldier's uniform represents the rank which the soldier is in. In this case it is the rank of a sergeant. For an Israeli soldier, it might be more familiar because he is part of the army. However, for an external audience, they might only be able to identify it as a representation of a soldier's place in the army hierarchy.

Metonymy

1) Circle of Harmony

The circle of harmony is a kind of unity which portrays a group of people sharing the same values in one way or another. It shows that they probably share a kind of relationship with one another or are part of the same community. This is evidently seen in the various circles drawn out in the following picture.

2) Soldiers are a metonymy of War

....as it is their duty to represent their nation to fight.

Irony

1) Reversal of roles.

Boys are often labelled as the 'skirtchasers'. However, for the picture in analysis, the active participant seems to be the lady. This is because she is easing forward towards the soldier to earn a kiss. The passive participant on the other hand is the soldier who is withdrawn and in the accepting position of the 'kiss'.

2)Violence vs Romance

In this photograph, the theme of war and love is highly juxaposed.

Soldier is representative of war, and War= hatred, misery, brutality. While couple is an embodiment of love, and Love= all encompassing, peaceful, blissfulness/happiness.

Modality

Low modality

Inappropriateness of carrying a gun in this situation makes some audiences skeptical about the authenticity of this picture. (It might be a contrived shot). People from other cultures might not understand the procedural system of patrolling in Israel and might question if the 'slack' behavior of a soldier and compare it to the understanding of their own cultures.

Also, some audiences who do not recognize the gun as being unloaded might fail to understand the 'relaxed' behavior of the soldier.

High modality

Audiences could believe this photograph as a snapshot of reality. It looks candid and the picture is composed in such a way that the public are not obscured. There is no obvious focus on only the couple.

The photograph below is another example of a candid photograph of the soldiers at the Zion Square. It shows the soldiers mingling within the public, sitting in a casual posture and chatting with one another. It were almost as if they were not in their army uniforms! (and notice the circle of harmony again!)

There might be high modality for our photograph in analysis due to the use of medium: The national geographic magazine. This is considered a credible source as it is a magazine which publishes about the truths of the world. Hence, audiences are likely to trust what they will see in the magazine. Similarly in the example below, the picture looks suspiciously 'posed', like a Hollywood scene. But this is a famous iconic photograph published in LIFE magazine which marks V-J day, the surrender of the Japanese in the WWII. Hence, there will be a high modality, due to the usage of medium.

Intertextuality

The picture is taken at the Zion Square in Jerusalem of Israel. Audiences who have been there will be familiar with the background.

Also, the crest rank is also the representation of the Israel Military authority.

Peer Evaluation

Mr Reddy commented that our slides seem to examine how the picture would be read in the Singapore culture. We have thus, somewhat obscured what other audiences might have read about the photograph. Hence in this blog, I have tried to steer away from analyzing in our context.

Also, he commented that the kiss between the man and the woman seems quite 'cold' and unpassionate. However, I would beg to differ. The lack of touch in the hands of the couple might have given the idea that they are not that passionately in love (man seems to be pushing the woman's hand away), however, this is because in the lady's hands, she is clutching a pair of sunglasses, which might have interfered or obstructed the closeness they shared. Even though there isn't much expression in the faces of the couple, it seems that they are sharing a soft, sweet moment together.

I personally enjoyed the presentation by jie ying and chew yue most. I thought that they had analyzed the posters pretty holistically. Also, I agree with them about the poster's use of creativity and humor that might have undermined the modality of the message.

I would rate them 9.5/10

Even though our presentation emphasized quite abit on the Singapore context, I think we managed to do a rather rounded analysis of our photograph, with many examples of other photographs to back up our stand.

On this note, I will rate my team's score against Chew yue and Jie ying 9.20/10

Realism,Formalism, Expressionism

Sorry. Photos will be up soon. Blogger hates me.

The initial intention was to define creep as the time that strides slowly. I had wanted to capture these in queues. Whenever people are lined up alone in queues, (be it for the buses, taxis, or in foodcourts) they wonder why time creeps by so slowly: some look at their watches impatiently, some sms their friends to 'look' busy, some yawn while slouching over the railings ...and etc.

picture 1: This is a window to reality. This is a scene we often witness at bus interchange. It is night, people are feeling tired after a day at work and are waiting for the bus to arrive so they can get home to shower and rest. From the commuters' body language, they are leaning against the railing and they look bored. It's almost like a window to show the boredom of waiting in life.

picture 2: The is an abstract view of a queue. This is part of what bounds a queue- the railings. Under the yellow lightings, it seeks to reveal a sense of time, since such artificial lightings is only available in the night. The chains of the rails are creeping downwards. The whole composition is supposed to evoke feelings of waiting in the late, empty night.

picture 3: This last picture has something to express. Over here, creep works two ways. The first reading is pretty much creep as time procession at an indefinitely slow rate when people are in queues. In the second reading, the creeps refer to the queue jumpers who inconsiderately cut the lines of the other people.

However, I think i failed in capturing the emotions that show the bore and impatience of people. It was even more difficult to execute when it seemed a little inethical to shoot right at people's faces while they are bounded in their queues and seeking their permission for an upclose shot was almost impossible.

Thus i came up with the second plan.

The dimension of creep I am exploring is the chill of 'murder and perversion' in a broad sense. The subject, the mannequin, was found in the dumps behind an alley at Chinatown.

Realism

The first picture is a window to what the eye sees when a person walks pass the rubbish dump. Over here, the creep element is only felt when one looks at the picture carefully. If you notice, there is a mannequin's body jutting out of the rubbish dump. When I first spotted the mannequin, it immediately came to me that it resembles a murder scene which we always watch in detective shows on television. The creepiness the audience is supposed to feel is that of the savage killing and the perversion to the extent of dismembering a women's body.

Formalism

The second picture is a formalistic view of the mannequin. This shot is zoomed into the hangars that extend from the stacked mannequin. In this photo, the meaning of creep is not hair-raising, as that shown in the first photo. Instead, it is simply using the metallic of the hangars to give notions of 'cold' and 'chill' that is usually associated with the feelings of creep. There is no direct meaning. It is only borrowing the metallic to associate feelings of creep to chill.

Expressionism

The final picture is shot to express the perversion of gaze. For this shot, I moved the mannequin's body into the rubbish dump. I lay the body in an alluring position to express a 'deadly attraction'. Deadly: creepiness due to notions of death (body in a 'coffin') Attraction: body of a woman, a perversed gaze of a creep. This pleasure of looking also termed, scopophilia, has been discussed by Laura Mulvey. In the photo, the angling of the camera lingers on the curvatures of the female body. This angling is such that one would immediately divert his or her attention to the naked mannequin. The intention is to speak of the relationship of power by putting audiences in a superior position to the object of gaze.

Problems encountered while doing this assignment is that I had too many ideas about one subject. Comparing to my classmates, like Gerald who worked on the idea of beauty creeping away, and Hui ling who focused on showing the creeping nature of smoke, I learnt that mine seems to have a broader definition, which might have complicated my message.

Comments that I received from the class is that the over treated colors of my photos looks a little distracting. I had thought of this as well. However, I went ahead with the large contrasts because I wanted to show intentionally the juxaposition of the mannequin and the environment.
From my classmate's presentation, I also learnt that I should have kept the realistic photo more natural and 'snapshot' like.

For my realistic shot, I realized that I had unconsciously framed the photo in the rule of thirds. Interestingly, Gerald did the reverse. He made sure that sihoulette of the building and the trees at the sides, breaking the rules of third. I think Gerald's shots were technically well taken as well. The colors contrast in a nice manner, they don't look artificial. Also his pessimism about the beauty creeping away is portrayed quite nicely throughout the photos.

Huiling's concept of smoke is also interesting. I particularly liked the expressionalism shot. Instead of just talking about the creeping motion of the smoke, she goes on to discuss how it diffuses in the air and cause second hand smoking. And the photo also almost gives a feeling that second hand smoking is so subtle: you don't really realise it, as shown by the group of people who seem unaffected by the old man's act of puffing his cigarette. In fact, I have heard of reports that say that second hand smoking can be more deadly than first hand smoking!

Hence, for this assignment, I rate Huiling: 9.0 and Gerald 9.7. Against Gerald's grade, I give myself a 8.7.

The day after a Beer Party

I was a little stumped by the theme. The day after sounded quite philosophical and futuristic because all that was going in my mind was "The day after tomorrow, where would you be?"- Yes, it's that American movie that kept resonating in my head.

After some conceptualization, I had a sense that, hey, it could be something as simple as "A day after a walk in the garden" or something along that line..Hence I decided to create a picture that portrays of a slice of one's life, like a "cut-out" sequence of events in a character's life.

when I first started embarking, the few problems I encounted with were: How to visualized the place? Have I taken enough pictures to piece the subject? What is the trick of shooting- is it a point, zoom and shoot? or is it a point, move about, zoom and shoot?

After my first attempt failed, I studied David Hockney's work and tried to understand the way he shoots- such that each piece seems to fit one another like a jigsaw and yet still has some sense of juxaposition.

Things that I have learnt after a little more experimenting with random objects was that before embarking on a shoot, I need to have a clear image outcome in my head and be systematic when taking the shots.


The day after a beer party

My photomontage shows some beer bottles left behind at the back alley around the red light district. What I was intending to show was a "cut-out" scene of what had happened the night before- I was almost imagining an atmosphere of good camarademie among a group foreign workers who are residing in the nearby hostels, eating, drinking beer, and making merry right into the late night (afterall they deserve it after a day's hard work), and then leaving the mess behind to return their dorms.

This picture was taken by squatting so as to capture the leading lines from the beer bottles to the road and finally towards the building. When I took some shots, I chose to zoom in to amplify the details of the object, for example, the pipe along the wall, the broken pieces of the bottles, the antennas on top of the old building etc., because I tried to keep in mind the criteria of our assignment which is to explore the "mechanical view of the mind".

When I went back home to compose the pictures, I decided to do something funny by using the pictures taken from my first attempt. Thus, I planted in the wet grounds, more rubbish, banana skins, stones, and parts of a bluer sky to complete my piece. I also cropped, enlarged the beer bottles to put them in focus. I did not fix the photomontage as fully completed pictures because I had wanted to emphasize the leadings lines. The second justification is that, the montage was of a messed up setting; putting it into a complete picture will give a neat feeling. And taking a leaf out of Hockney's style, I added a shot of my feet in the picture to give an element of presence. For this, I recieved feedback that it was rather effective in conveying a message that a person was overlooking at the mess created overnight. Thanks class, and also, credits to Hockney! By the way, the pair of feet was read by my Dad as some bugger who was still dead-drunk and lying on the road. Well, this is open to interpretion : )

Also, it was pointed out that my photomontage seems to have alot of empty spaces. Although the original intention was to show the leading lines and to keep the audiences inside the picture, I also agree with this criticism. I tried to work around with the spaces, but it was a give and take thing: I either had to sacrifice the feet and stretch my photomontage, or keep the feet and make do with the empty spaces. However, overall the class seems to have come to an agreement that the picture should be kept in the way it is. Any other ways to improve my piece? Your comments are appreciated.

I think the students who have greatly explored the interesting perspective of the "mechanical eye" are Shena, Yi Kang and Gerald because in their photomontage, they have met the requirements of creating a final piece that shows a different image from how one would normally percieve a real scene, which I did not effectively show.

In Yikang's work, I like that fact that he had created a panorama view around the house, making it seems as if the road is a U-bend. This photo has worked out because it managed to trick many classmates into believing what is being showcased.

From Gerald's montage, I learn the power of manipulating reality. Interestingly, his work made it seem as if the heavens and the earth were combining and reflected in a continnum. Also it gives me a feeling of viewing through a kaleidescope, where patterns work in symmetry, just like his montage.

Shena's montage brought across the theme really nicely. The criss-crossing railways reminds me of the times where I stand at crossroads, unsure and fearful of which route to take. It also struck me that she has quite brilliantly portrayed what was initially resonating my head, " The day after, where would you be?". On top of that, she tried to magnify objects to put them in focus of the picture. This reminds me of the photomontage by Hockney's Pearblossom Highway.

I rate
Yikang: 8.9
Shena: 9.0
Gerald: 9.7

Against Gerald's piece, I will rate myself 9.0 because though I did attempt to fulfill the assignment's criteria in terms of the mechanical's eye and composition, my piece seems lacking in terms of creativity and exploration. More improvements to be made! On to the next assignment.

nostalgia. childhood

This week's theme is change so I'm working on the concept of the losing our "old childhood". In the past, kids play with simple toys and improvise with objects to create games such as hopscotch, roleplaying, "dog and bone" etc... We don on our singlets and shorts, frequent places like mamashops for cheap snacks and toys, make mad dashes to the sandy playgrounds to "chop" the swings, and pester our parents to let us ride the 20 cents token musical machines.

Today, with globalization, living standards rises, leading to growing affluence in our society. Children wear expensive clothes and shoes. Increasingly, fanciful gadgets are manufactured to appeal to children, setting the trend of playing with sophisticated games. The vibrancy of the gaming culture across the globe have also led to the upspring of gaming markets that competes to serve to the needs of these "cyber" children. Play, has become more commercialized than before.




Remember jumping onto these retro looking weighing machines that can tell our fortune apart from our weights?

Having a card that tells you of the time that you weigh XXXkg, with a fortune being printed at the back brings back nostalgic memories of our past.

Our all-time favorite afterschool hangout place. These are now probably replaced by 24 hour convenience shops like 7-11.

"Sweet Pills" we used to make our Doc and Patient roleplaying games more convincing.

Squatting along sideroads and feasting on our favorite icecream. vs sitting in a Bens & Jerry icecream shop.

Riding musical machines and reaching out for...

....the flown away balloons (transitional pictures: the sense of losing the "old childhood")

Colorful and high quality Pokemon chips with the same game concept as our "Eraser game".

Fancier boots. Notice those wheels: don't they remind you of the new roller shoes popular amongst kids these days?



Our discmans that pales in comparison to the era of high storage MP3 players.

The time of today: we live in the age of high computer ownership and CYBERGAMING.

Losing our "old childhood" is inevitable. People progress and move on, leaving behind old time. Because this change is constant passing phase, it is only a matter of time that the current becomes another object of nostalgia.

For this assignment, I give myself 8.5/10. The class had commented that my photoessay could be interpreted without a writeup, and that I had managed to show the change quite clearly. In this case, I think because I had tried to plan the shots in according to this manner: The first four pictures depict our "old childhood". The 5th and 6th shot ( girl reaching out and balloons) brings viewers through the transitional stage. the 7th shot on the kids with pokemon chips shows the fusion between the old and new. The 8th-10th shots (the boots, ipod and PS2) shows the affluence and the increasing tech savvy culture. The last shot gives it a neat closure.

I like Yikang's photoessay. I give him 9/10 for capturing the mood of emptiness and nostalgia. Interestingly, while many of us tried to show stages of change, he instead, showed the changed state. I feel that it is not easy to evoke the emotions of people by merely showing the changed state, but he did it quite successfully.

I also like samantha's photos because they seem to look 3D while mine seems rather flat. On top of that she has captured objects that might otherwise gone unnoticed by others. I give her 9/10 for her technique.

Playing with lighting

This assignment made me realised how much effort a photographer must put in to get the best picture. Over a span of two days I went around experimenting and looking for subjects to shoot. It wasn't easy finding the right the kind of subjects to capture. I suddenly understood the importance of the 'photographer's eyes'. Another problem encountered was while handling the equipment. It was like, when you found the subject, you have to start playing around with the settings to get the best shot. And by the time you managed to set everything properly in place, the sunlight dims, the subject moves, the wind blows or worse still, the battery goes flat. It was indeed frustrating, but I believe everyone has to learn the hard way. Out of a total 150 shots, only a handful turned out right.

I recokened that since this is an assignment on light, I could try taking a day and a night shot to show that I have experimented under different lighting conditions and limitations.

Here's my 1st photograph. Day shot.

1/30s, F/5.6, FL 47mm, ISO 100

This picture is in its original form, without any photoshoping. (Earlier on I had the impression we could use image processing tools to do some editing)

This is a picture of a symmetrical composition of the two trunks, together with the sun beams backdrop giving a feeling of a beautiful refreshing day. 'Beginning with optimism' I call it. Within the similarity, the contrasts in the thickness of the trunks and the brightness stands out too. The whiteness of the sun spot give viewers a sense of presence. I think it also has depth of field as a classmate commented that it looks like it was taken in a forest ( correct me if I'm wrong!), but it was just 2 trees standing along some pavement around bugis.

My second piece, night shot.

15s, F/16 FL 24mm, ISO 200

This shot took me over an hour to capture. Because of the lack of tripod, I had to make do with what I had with me. I positioned the camera bag on the floor and placed the camera on top of it. As it was not elevated enough to capture the view I wanted, I had to placed softer materials like a cap under the camera lenses to keep it at the correct angle. I tested this shot with several times with different shutter speed, ranging from 8 to 20 seconds. It seems that the best shot was at 15 seconds. Also it was necessary to press the button at the right time, not too early or not too late, otherwise the beams of the car will not turn out nice.

This photo in my opinion, looks quite like a postcard image. It has depth of field as seen by the beams of the taxi's headlights, which in turn give viewers a kind of presence to the vehicle. Also, there is contrast between the bridge and the beam. From this picture, we can also see the red looming clouds overhead the bridge.

For this assignment, I will give myself 8/10. Upon second look at my 2nd photograph, it looks a little overexposed. I should have tried with different ISOs which could perhaps haven given me better outcomes. But overall I am quite pleased with the two shots. More room for improvement in next assignment! : )

I liked Samatha's work. I thought it was creative to take pictures of an artificial setting. Also, it seems to tell alot behind the photo. Something like a grim storyline. I will rate her 9/10.

dreamy me

Photogram was something new and I started off feeling rather confused about the kind of effect i should create. I wasn't sure if a photogram meant a x-rayed effect or a solid full-colored image like a camera could produce. Through the net, these two vastly different effects claimed themselves to be photograms which made me a little skeptical. Nonetheless, they deserve some credits for sparking off some ideas and inspirations for my work.

The initial plan was to scan a collage of stamps to represent myself as a stamp collector. In that I was hoping to create an assemblage of diverse patterns and colors. However, it turned out pretty cluttered and messy. I also tried scanning the pages in the stamp book (since it might look more organized and has a pretty tracing paper page) but to my dismay it turned out stark black.

I reckoned that it might be easier if I experimented with translucent objects. I used some stationeries and they created a boring composition which didn't really give a good representation of myself ha, other than the fact that they accompany through my school days.

Eventually, I decided to use my dreamcatcher-windchime which was a gift from a close friend. I positioned the dreamcatcher onto the scanner and placed a tracing paper over it to create a dreamy effect. This was truly representative of myself, since I'm known for sleeping and dreaming alot. Not only is it representative, it also has a nice mix of texture- the embroidery, the feathers, beads, metal which I think, compensates for the simplicity of my final work. The only adjustments made were desaturation, curves, brightness and contrast and cropping.

Haha, probably it is precisely too simple that I didn't recieve much feedback about how I should improve on this piece. I seeked my sister's opinion and she commented that it'll probably look more pleasing if it is in the portrait position. What do you guys think? Please feel free to comment. Your advice is truly appreciated :)

Self assesment:

7/10
It may look pretty simple and easy to create, but I managed to portray the dreaminess. The brightness and overexposure gives audiences the aura of stepping into a "new realm". I also tried to crop it in consideration to fit the rule of thirds.

However, I think whilst it may give a dreamy effect, it lacks some depth. A dream is to experience a sequence of images with sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations during sleep. But my image seems speak less of what goes beyong the dreamy effect.

I like shirlyn's work. I thought that the composition was nice and the sihoulette effect came out pretty. Though the chains were complicated and long, it wasn't over cluttered. Also, the "spilled" effect is a good way to symbolize a change in the state of events, giving some depth. I give her 8.5/10.

welcome to NM3223 blog!

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