Scott Weavers
Media Production
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Robert Adams
Photographic Category: Black and white, landscape, nature, architecture
Purpose: His intent is to capture the ever changing landscape of the American West, as the pictures tell a small part of how the American West evolved and came to be. For example the middle two pictures show two completely different landscapes one of a petrol station and the other of roads and grassland.
Image analysis: In all of his images your eye is drawn to the middle third of the image which I think is his intention, as in the bottom image you are immediately attracted to the theme park. The lighting of the images is very clever as all of his images are black and white which means any light he uses enhances that part of the image and makes it prominant, for example the middle left image is of a petrol station has lights behind the words; giving the image a contrast. In every picture everything is in focus which suggest that Robert intends to capture very part the changing American West. Even if the image contains almost nothing such as the middle right image, it still has story to tell as those roads may lead to a different part of the American West.
Meaning: The meaning behind his images is to capture the vast landscape and to uncover the fragile beauty of the ever changing American West. The emotion I feel when I see his images is loneliness because there are no people in the images and the objects in the images are all by themselves; the photographer might be imply the America has abandoned the West. The black and white also creates a cold and sombre atmosphere which adds a new layer of meaning over the top, establishing a deeper and darker tone to the compositions.
William Eggleston
Photographic Category: Abstract, Still life, social documentary, colour, authentic
Purpose: I think his purpose is to take ordinary, everyday images in life and bring out the colour in it.
Image analysis: The geometry used is mainly straight to emphasise the normality of these images, with the exception of the top middle image which has the salt and pepper slanted but still has the edges of the table straight to give the image that balance; which reflects the balance of normal life. It looks like most of the image shave been clopped to draw our attention to a specific detail within the image. For example the left images looks like its been cropped to emphasise the ladies hair. Also the background for the top middle and top right image is out of focus to make the the red hair and table the main focus of the image. All the images feel very retro as Roberts seems to of added a sepia filter over the top not give it that old school vibe, this could be used to show that things such as salt and peeper and mcdonalds are timeless.
Meaning: The meaning of his images is to inspire a generation of colour photography and to educate the how we take photographs in colour. As he started using colour photography in 1965 meaning he was revolutionary in modern photography and made the way for the likes of David Lynch and Martin Parr. The emotion I feel about these images is joy and happiness because of the colour that the images bring out.
Bernd and hilla becher
Photographic category: Black and white, conceptual, still life, Architecture
Purpose: There purpose is to capture and document the disappearing German industrial architecture
Image analysis: The bottom two image are split into grids to emphasise how the buildings are slowly disappearing. Taking the images in black and white gives the buildings a sense of isolation and melancholy which personifies the mood of the disappearing buildings; making the colour fit for purpose. The composition of the images encompasses the whole architecture which suggests that there make the buildings looks lonely and isolated.
Meaning: The meaning behind the images is to emphasise how innocent and melancholy these buildings are as the disappear. Showing the images in a grid gives it added layer of meaning as it shows the buildings have purpose which is explored in the images. These images feel very powerful as there incurably simplistic but the composition of the image makes it look intimating.