Today we headed to the Victoria and Albert museum and into the Prints and Drawings archive. We had the chance to look at lots of photography prints previously exhibited there up close and personal, without frames or covers.
For a small task, we selected 3 images that we had the chance to look at and analysed them.
My first image was one I was very excited to see: 'Afghan Girl', a portrait of Sharbat Gula, a 12 year old Afghan refugee taken in 1984 by Steve Mccurry. The image later became a National Geographic cover, and is one of the most well recognised images in history.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
What really stands out to me in this image is the colour palette. The reds and greens, opposites on the colour wheel, create an eye catching contrast throughout the entire image. The image is composed with very little dead space, and with the model sitting at an angle we find ourselves drawn straight to her eyes, which are very intense and part of what made this image so famous.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
In terms of the context, this image was taken in 1984, when Sharbat Gula was in a temporary school in a refugee camp in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan. Steve Mccurry is a photographer famous for his portraiture and colour palettes and this image was later used as the cover for the June 1985 National Geographic magazine, where it received worldwide recognition.
This photograph was actually one that caught my eye years ago when I first got into photography. I was subscribed to National Geographic and they had images by Steve Mccurry, and when I looked into him I found this image, and it really stood out to me as being so powerful. I would say I was heavily influenced by Mccurry, as I really think about colour palettes within my work.
The second image that caught my eye was a lesser known Ansel Adams landscape. I haven't even been able to find it on the internet so the only image I have is one I took in the prints and drawings room.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Technically I find this image highly impressive. It was most likely shot on large format film, and in typical Ansel Adams fashion, likely at an unbelievably small aperture, maybe even f46. He has composed it in a way to include almost now dead space, and the image is entirely in focus, creating a very clear and contrasting image.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Ansel Adams is often referred to as the best landscape photographer in history, shooting on film at a time when landscape photography was not as prominent. It speaks volumes that there are images of this quality in existence, that are still relatively unknown.
For me this image is about both chaos and silence. In a way the countless trees, and contrasting tones create an almost chaotic feel. Yet the wilderness seems almost silent. Without any information about this image, not even where it was taken, I like that we will never really understand what Ansel Adams sees here.
The final image that caught my attention was a photograph by an unknown artist. There was a collection of 10 or so images dated 1975 of varying scenes in what I presume to be rural Spain.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
The thing that stands out to me about this image is the compositional structure. If you look carefully you can see almost 3 bands of people, at the very foreground we have 3 elderly people, slightly behind there are lots of people who seem to be younger, and then high up at the back we have a row of children. This clever use of the rule of thirds turns what could've been just a snapshot into a quality photograph.
For me, with this image, I love the questions it poses to the viewer. Without any context other than the date and the fact that it it is in rural Spain (the other images in the collection had Spanish road signs) we have very little idea of what is happening. Is it a funeral? A wedding? Where are we? Who are the people at the front? I also love that every person seems to be looking a different way, not to one fixed point. It opens up a new question for what every single one of them is looking at. For me, sometimes not knowing the answers makes it a better photo.