Writing about Photography: Writing Analytically.

Exercise: Analyse a Photograph.

This is a landscape image taken in the higher reaches of the Yorkshire Dales.
The eye is drawn immediately to the frothy water and to the light coloured rock on the right. The boundaries of the rivulet are well defined by the tussocky grass on both sides. The picture is well balanced with the rivulet occupying the bottom left and the dark rocks the top right. The eye is led by the stream down the valley to the hint of softer dales in the distance.
The sole intention of this image could have been to provide an interesting landscape image. If so a variation in the lighting would have been an improvement. However this image is one of a group intending to show a common theme - water. This scene captures the subject halfway through the portion of its life cycle - from rain falling, to the water's arrival at a large lake. This particular image shows a small energetic stream careering down the mountainside. The purpose of the project was to illustrate the various energy states that water travels through in the selected phases of its life cycle.
Planning and research  was required for this image and the potential value of the scene recognised when found. The photographer must have also realised that to illustrate the flow characteristics of moving water that slow shutter speeds could be required and hence a tripod. Here the lighting is dull and it appears that the tripod was set up straddling the water course. The energy of the water has been captured by using a slow speed  and an aperture that provides sharpness to the immediate area and depth to the image.
The image succeeds within its frame of reference. This would perhaps have more impact on the viewer if seen with the other images comprising the group.




Exercise: Research and Analysis.


The year is 1968. The American involvement in the Vietnam War
 has escalated over the last 10 years from a position of giving
advice and material aid to one of now being fully engaged. The Tet offensive of Hue, an historic city on the west coast of Vietnam, has been in progress for several day, much of the fighting being close quarter street fighting. Heavy losses havebeen sustained by both sides.
In 1968 photographic journalists were allowed to move through a military area more or less as they pleased. Today they are ‘embedded’ within the military and propaganda departments.
Don McCullin – the cameraman – armed only with a coupleof 38mm cameras, risked his life with the front line soldiers to achieve his objective. His intention was to show to the public the horrors of war. This image, one of hundreds that he took of this war and other international disasters does not show the blood and gore of a wounded soldier, but shows the mental damage that a human being can suffer after periods of intense stress of the battle field.
The image, a portrait, is not one that is set up in a studio or a wedding group but an image that has been shot under the most arduous conditions. It falls into the category of a street shot but here the photographer is not concerned with the possible reaction of the subject but rather if his head is going to be blown off by a bullet from a sniper.
There can be little planning for this sort of shot. In all candid shots one can only take into consideration the prevailing lighting conditions, have the film loaded with film of the suitable speed and set the camera parameters as far as possible.
In structure, it is a simple image, a frontal view of the top half of the sitting subject. The image is almost symmetrical about a vertical centre line, the slight offset adding interest. His weapon butt is resting on the ground and the fingers of his hands encircle it, encompassing it just enough to stop himself falling forward. The viewer’s eye is first drawn to the face topped by the bright helmet, the eye then wanders over the haggard, grimy face noticing the loose lips and then to the shadow under the helmet rim. It is here that the essence of the picture lies. The eyes are not looking at the camera, they are not focusing, and they are seeing only something that is part of his mental vision. He has been battered by explosives, and covered in dust. He has narrowly missed death and seen images that his mind can’t cope with. He is shell shocked.
The exposure has captured all the essential features. Shadow details are all there. The only nit picking criticism would be of the burnt out sky at the top left. One interesting feature, possibly unintentional, is that of the inverted cross at the top right, depicting evil.
The intention of the photographer was to remind the public of the terrible effect war can have on the individual. It is dramatically successful.