Going Home
Ed Clark’s photograph named ‘Going home’ is a very touching one, and
really causes you to feel the subject’s pain.
I see a navy shipman that is very patriotic and also emotionally broken by the
death of former president Franklin D Roosevelt. This shows that the navy
shipman loved his country and would do anything to protect it.
The subject in the photograph, Graham Jackson, was playing the song
‘Goin home’ on his accordion as the funeral train passed, which would be an
emotional moment for anyone who loses someone they look up to or idolize.
I believe that this photo accurately depicts the truth of the situation
because you see that everyone in the picture is also emotional and touched by
the playing of the accordion.
Clark could have cut the women out of the
photograph in this instance and just focused on Graham Jackson, but he decided
to include them because this showed that the death of Roosevelt had a
nationwide effect on the people, not just one member of the navy.
Photo Analysis
Photo by: Ed Clark
Year Created: 1945
Principle #1: Subjects expression – The photographer really captured the subject’s pain
and emotion in this picture which doesn’t seem to be staged, as it is said he
was playing a song as the funeral train passed by, so it was a sensitive
moment. The photographer not only captured the subject’s expression, but also
the reactions of others to the subject’s emotion. The emotion in the women’s
faces watching shows you that they feel his pain also, and that he was playing
a very relevant song for the sad situation.
Principle #2: Is the image
black & white or color? – The image is in black and white and I think this
is the case because it seems that this was the photographer’s choice.
Brucemuseum.org states that Clark was forced to carry around an outdated large
studio camera because this was the only tool available for him at the time. He
then moved to smaller cameras with faster films, which I’m not sure that they
had a color function, but maybe Clark was too used to shooting in black and
white and didn’t want to make the transition to color just yet.
Principle #3: In or out of
focus – The main focus of this photograph is on the subject and his facial
expression. What makes this photo great is that the photographer gives just
enough depth of field to see the women in the backgrounds emotions also, while
slightly blurring the background making sure not to distract you from the main
subject.
Image A - Truth
Unfortunately, photographs like this are usually only seen
by people who set out to look for them.
Whenever you hear about poverty or extreme cases of
hardship, you are lead towards photographs of people, mainly children, in parts
of Africa. Unfortunately, what the media never shows you are the photographs of
people who are experiencing poverty in your own country, such as the United
States of America. The media only shows you what the people want to see, which
a lot of the time might not be the truth. The real truth about the economy and
wealth of the United States is that there in fact are families who are living
on the streets, or in a home with barely any income, or enough food to feed
themselves or their children. This photograph here, to me, represents the
truth.
Yes, the photograph was most probably staged and it does
look like the family is posed for the shot, but this does not alter the truth,
it just makes it easier to see.
In my opinion, the truth of a photograph is one that shows
the real meaning, and concern of the situation. The truth of this photograph is
that there are thousands of cases in the United States that share this
situation where there is not enough food in the house to feed the family.
Poverty exists everywhere, but the media only show us photographs of it
occurring in other countries so we forget about it happening in our own.
When speaking about this photograph, I used the Emotion, and
also the logic way of knowing to determine that this photograph is the truth. It
is not ethically right not to expose the public to poverty that is happening in
their own country, and this is backed up by my own experience of all the images
I have read about or seen on the television, purely showing poverty in parts of
Africa.
Photo Analysis
Photo by: John Partipilo
Year Created: 2012
Principle #1: Quality of light –The main/only source of light in the photograph is
from the open fridge, which really draws your attention to that first, showing
that there is barely any food in there, and that the girl is so hungry that she
is climbing to try to find something to eat. This light from the fridge
perfectly lights up the important things in the room such as the baby and
mothers face, showing you the suffering that they are going through.
Principle #2: Contrast
Appropriate – The way that
this photograph was shot makes the important parts of the photograph light up,
leaving everything else to be dark like they are living in a dark, cold home.
There are dark areas which are unimportant to the photograph, but very bright
areas where the photographer wants you to look at, so the level of contrast is
perfect for the situation.
Principle #3: What feelings
does the image create? – The way the fridge lights up the important parts of the, causes you to
feel how the subjects in the image are feeling. You feel the darkness of the
situation due to the lack of light in the room. You feel the mother’s pain
after her husband’s death, leaving her with no money to feed her family. Not
only is she mourning her husband’s death, but she is struggling to provide for
her family due to lack of funds.
Image B - Not Truth
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Photo by - Rex Features
Image Source -
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This photograph was taken in 1935 and shows Nazi leader
Adolf Hitler laughing with a colleague or friend. To me, this photograph is not
a true representation of the leader’s personality or what he stands for. The
photographer is making Hitler out to be one that never takes himself seriously
or someone that is able to joke about often. When you look at this picture you
would not think that this man was the leader of Nazi Germany. This photograph
may have been taken so that people would portray Hitler as a nice person
instead of the mass murderer that he was.
Professor Nordell speaks in his video on the content section
of module 11 about when he took photographs of the Massachusetts governor. He
was able to take a photograph or the governor looking heroic one minute, then
next minute capture a moment where he looks “like a bum”. This proves that the
truth in photographs can easily be altered and the control is in the hands of
the photographer. Nordell also says talks about how he wanted to accurately
depict the truth of the situation by saying “So this is the message I wanted to get across, but might be the real truth of the situation”.
The truth of the situation is created by the photographer and
what message he chooses to convey at that time. In this case, the photographer
was most probably under orders from Hitler himself to take a photograph of him
which makes it look like he is laid back, able to laugh and joke around, and
that he is capable of being a nice person.
In this image, the photographer leads the
viewer to believe that this moment of laughter is a true representation of the
Nazi Leader.
I used the language and logic ways of
knowing when forming my argument that this photograph does not depict the
truth. Facts show that Hitler was a mass murderer, and that he would use
techniques such as this photograph, to make his people like him.
Photo Analysis
Photo by: Rex Features
Year Created: 1935
Principle #1: Rule of thirds – The photographer avoided capturing
Hitler and his colleague in the centre of the frame, and decided to put them
off to the side. This draws your attention to that side of the photograph and
to Hitler’s expression. This allows you to see the surrounding of the
photograph, but with shallow depth of field to show that this information
wasn’t relevant and the attention should be on the subjects.
Principle #2: Depth of field – A fairly shallow depth of
field was used in order to maintain focus on Hitler’s facial expression. The
depth of field allows you to see the environment in which the photograph was
taken, but does not show the background in much detail.
Principle #3: Exposure time – A quick shutter
speed was used to capture the moment as you can tell by the photograph that the
man next to Hitler was genuinely in a moment laughing and was not posed.
I am not sure what shutter speeds were available for
shooting back in 1935, but the correct one was used to freeze the moment of
laughter.
