There was an old Chinese saying, "One picture is worth ten thousand words." What this mean is that, a picture tells a story just as well as a large amount of descriptive text. When we lay our eyes on a picture, it brings back nostalgic memories. Different facial expression and background settings convey different stories altogether. The two famous pictures, "Village School" and "Children's Puppet Theatre" are good examples for us to see how different settings and mood convey different stories and perception when is viewed.
"Village School" is a picture taken by Margaret Bourke-White, an American lady during the 1990's who is well known for her contributions to photojournalism. She is also the first American photographer who was permitted into the Soviet Union. In this picture, you see children being arranged into a V-shaped composition, similar to the hand sign of "peace". The boy in the front has a mischievous smile, while the two boys in the second row appears to be looking confused, not knowing what they should do and where they should be looking at. The gap between one another in the seats arrangement shows zero interaction among them. This creates a very tensed atmosphere. Gaze into their eyes, and it shows no sign of life. The overall expression and color in this picture looks dead.
The "Children's Puppet Theatre" on the other hand, has very rich expression from each kids. The boy on the left has his hands covering his ears. The girl next to him has her mouth wide open, as if she was yelling for help. The boy in black, right above her has his hands raised, yelling in excitement. The two girls towards the right are both hugging and resting on each other's head. One of the girl look very amused on what is shown in front of them, while the other look very calm. The personal space between one and another are close, this creates interaction and each has different reaction towards what they are looking at.
The lighting in "Village School" is dull and with the children dressed in black, making the scene looking depress. With the black-white colors and facial expression, it reminds a similar scene of our everyday life. The black and white color symbolizes clothes white-collar workers wear. White shirt on the inside, black coat on the outside. When engage with work, we are always looking real serious, and the working environments often impose strict supervision. We are expected to obey all rules and regulations and behave in a regular way, like those boys in the picture. However, the mood and colors in "Children's Puppet Theatre" shows the opposite. We often see this type of expression after work. We scream, we yell, we laugh and we joke. There is life in the eyes, burning with passion.
Even though the subject focus of both pictures are the same, each produces different outcome. On one side the children are sitting still and calm while on the other hand, the children are free and easy. The theme of the photographs that could be drawn are collectivity vs individuality. One has to conform to authority and another, is free to express how they feel. Yet, both pictures show how brutally honest children are when expressing themselves. When they are marvelously happy, you see big toothy smile on their face. When they are unutterably sad, you see tears rolling down their face. Being able to express their emotion honestly is what makes them children.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
ChanLan Hong / Tuesday / Reaction Essay / 9 a.m
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Second Draft
ReplyDeletePicture speaks to you. Have you ever had the moments where, when we lay our eyes on a picture, it brings back nostalgic memories? There are even times when we could relate the pictures to something that has happened in our life. The facial expressions and background settings from pictures affects greatly to how the picture will tell its’ story. In this part, we will be looking at two famous pictures, “Village School” and “Children’s Puppet Theatre”. These two pictures serve as a good example for us to see how different settings and mood convey different stories and perception when is viewed.
“Village School” is a picture taken by Margaret Bourke-White, an American lady during the 1990’s who is well known for her contributions to photojournalism. She is also the first American photographer who was permitted into the Soviet Union. In this picture, you see children being arranged into a V-shaped composition, similar to the hand sign of “V”, indicating peace. The boy in front has a mischievous smile, while the two boys on the second row appears to be looking confused, not knowing what they should do and where they should be looking at. Boys on the third and fourth row cannot help being curious about the person in front who is trying to take a picture of them. Camera probably is not a widely used gadget in the village those boys are staying. The gap between one and another in the seats arrangement shows zero interaction among them. This creates a very tensed atmosphere. Gaze into their eyes, and it shows no sign of life. The overall expression and color in this picture looks dead.
The “Children’s Puppet Theatre” was taken by Alfred Eisenstadt, a full time photographer hailed from Germany. This picture never ceased to amaze people with the diverse range of expression and emotions expressed by each kid even though they are experiencing the same moments together. The boy on the left has his hands covering his ears as if there was a loud explosion. The girl next to the boy has her mouth wide open, as if she was yelling for help. The boy in black, right above the girl has his hands raised, yelling in excitement. The two girls towards the right are both hugging and resting on each other’s head. One of the girl look very amused on what is shown in front of them, while the other look very calm. The personal space between one and another are close, this creates interaction among the kids.
The lighting in “Village School” is dull and with most of the boys dressed in black. With the black-white clothes and facial expression of the boys, it reminds me of a similar scene in our daily life. The black and white color symbolizes clothes white-collar workers wear. White shirt on the inside, black coat on the outside. When engage with work, we are always looking real serious, and the working environments often impose strict supervision just like the picture, where the children are confined in a room while workers are put into a cubicle at workplaces. We are expected to obey all rules and regulations and behave in a regular way, like those boys in the picture. However, the mood and colors in “Children’s Puppet Theatre” shows the opposite. We often see this type of expression after work. We scream, we yell, we laugh and we joke. There is life in the eyes, burning with passion.
Two groups of children, however, on one side the children are sitting still and calm while on the other, the children are free and easy. The theme of the photographs that could be drawn is collectivity versus individuality. In “Village School”, one has to conform to authority and in “Children’s Puppet Theatre”, one is free to express how they feel. Yet, both pictures show how brutally honest children are when expressing themselves. When they are marvelously happy, you see big toothy smile on their face. When they are unutterably sad, you see tears rolling down their face. Both pictures are focusing on the same subject but the difference in mood and arrangements yield unique elements for each picture.