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Photograph Analysis Assignment Analyzing a photograph: Before you get started, browse through these links to get a better understanding of the process and key aspects of how to analyze a photograph. Reading through these articles will help you know what to focus on when looking at an image. Helpful articles https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-read-a-photograph--cms-25495 https://intrepidexposures.com/photo-inspiration/how-do-we-read-a-photograph/ https://www.blog.theteamw.com/2013/02/19/15-questions-to-ask-yourself-when-evaluating- a-photo/ http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2017/11/14/how-to-visually-analyze-your-photography- compositions/ https://www.danieljgregory.com/inspiration/analyzing-photographs/ About light - https://www.diyphotography.net/analyzing-light-breakdown-lighting-photo/ About composition - http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/165/how-to-analyze- composition/ These are the steps:

1) Go through the exercise of data gathering (see below). 2) Use your data gathering notes to write your analysis. Compose your analysis into 3

paragarphs: a. Describe the image (the subject, foreground, background, shapes, lines), the

style or genre of the photo, the process. Give some background as to the time period (artist, date, location are included in each photo).

b. Analyze the composition (composition, content, context). c. Interpret the content (think about artist intention, context of social, political,

cultural event at the time). This is not the only way to analyze and interpret an artwork. There are many ways of going about the task. This is my way of helping you ease into this. If you have other ways of analyzing visual images, go for it. Just map your thoughts into 3 paragraphs for me. Data gathering steps:

1) Describing what you see: a. Foreground (the subject matter) b. Midground (anything between the subject matter and the background) c. Background d. Genre, style (is it abstract, expressionistic) e. Subject matter (people, animal, landscape, architecture…) f. Elements (line, shape & size, texture, value (color/or shades of gray)

2) Composition:

a. Movement

b. Light (well lit could make things seem bright, clarity, openness; darkly lit subject could make things seem mischievious or devious…)

c. Placement (are objects/people placed close/tight to each other? Spread out?...) d. Framing (close up, wideshot…) e. Space f. Balance (symmetrical, assymetrical) g. Camera angle (low angle makes subject seem larger than reality, high angle

makes the subject look small).

3) Process: a. Type/format (color, black and white, polaroid, digital, etc…)

4) Context:

a. Cultural (beliefs/practices) b. Political c. Social (class, race,

5) Content:

a. Theme b. Visual representation c. Symbolic representation d. Viewpoint (subjective or obejective) e. Artist intention f. Viewer interpretation

Example of how I answer number 1 in the data gathering part:

Foreground: Exterior stucco wall with giant hole

Midground: neighborhood (you can tell by the casual clothing and closeness) children playing (because they are smiling)

Background: more walls. Is this a fenced off area? In a war zone? (the holes in the walls denote some sort of gun blasts, rubbles on the floor). Tall walls are meant to block certain things out.

Subject matter: Children playing in an area that seems filled with physical destruction. It is in another country (middle east? – their clothes). It is a representational image (meaning not abstract, what you see is what you get – images that are represented is exactly what they are). It is a black/white photograph. Lots of contrast between the smoothness of the wall surface and the roughness of the rubbles on the ground (you can come back later in #5 to talk about the possible symbolism behind this).