Marisa DeMarco - Photographer: Walker Evans (Photo Analysis)

Couple at Coney Island, New York, 1928

Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975)

Gelatin silver print; 8 x 5 13/16 in. (204 x 14.8 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Photographic Collection) 

Biography:

Walker Evans is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Born in 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri, Evans showed much interest in art, literature, and creativity through childhood and adolescents. He moved to New York after finishing a year of college. In 1927, he went to Paris and studied writing and then photography. After a year in Paris writing short stories and nonfiction essays, Evans returned to New York not only as a writer but with a big interest in photography. Most of Evans' early photographs reveal the influence of European modernism, due to formalism and emphasis on graphic structure. But he wanted to develop his own style of realism. The Depression years of 1935–36 were those of great productivity and in 1935 he accepted a job from the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph a government-built resettlement community of unemployed coal miners in West Virginia. He had a full-time position as an "information specialist" in the Resettlement Administration, a New Deal agency in the Department of Agriculture. In September 1938, the Museum of Modern Art opened American Photographs, a retrospective of Evans' first ten years of photography. Between 1934 and 1965, Evans published more than 400 photographs and 45 articles in Fortune magazine. He worked at the magazine as Special Photographic Editor from 1945 to 1965 and not only developed the portfolios, executed the photographs, and designed the page layouts, but also wrote the texts. In 1975 he passed away.

Reference: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1987.1100.110

Description:

1.) My first impression of this photo is that it’s an intimate moment of a couple that are enjoying an afternoon at Coney Island. They are gently embracing and not aware that they are being photographed which makes it that much more sweet and romantic.

2.) It’s a timeless photo in the sense that it shows love and tenderness between two people spending a leisurely afternoon. However, the clothes and surroundings of course indicate that it was photographed from the early part of the 1900s.

3.) The subject of the photograph is that of a male and female with their backs to the photographer overlooking the water from the boardwalk at Coney Island.

4.) There is a formal balance of organic form (the couple’s bodies, the water, trees) in contrast with the geometric structure of the amusement park and the boardwalk. It’s a black & white photo hence there is a range of grayscale values. There are some elements of pattern and repetition within the architectural structures.

5.) There are a range of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines embedded within the photo. But mostly, it’s a vertically formatted piece. The space is at least 85% filled with positive elements and the couple’s heads are placed as the photo’s focal point. The space is relatively shallow.

Analysis:

1 1.)  The repetition of the boardwalk structure and building structure in the background—with lines and arches draws my attention in contrast to the softness of the couple’s embraced gestural position.

   2.) The space is organized around vertical structures. However there is a nice contrast of horizontal and diagonal lines, too.

    3.) This photograph shows informal (asymmetric) balance). The proportions are nicely define the couple in the foreground making them larger in site in relation to the building in the background. †he contrast is mostly midtones with the occasional pop of highlight and richness of shadow.

Interpretation:

1   1.)   The photo showcases a loving couple on a sunny afternoon overlooking the water and amusement park at Coney Island in it’s early incarnation.

2   2.)   The message shows a typical and leisurely afternoon that is both personal but also historic documenting the site.

3   3.)   The photo’s purpose is both romantic and documentary.

4   4.)   The photo feels nostalgic—it’s timeless.

5   5.)   It reminds me of my family that immigrated from Italy to Brooklyn. My grandparents always spoke of their fond memories at Coney Island.

Evaluation:

1  1.)   No, my impression was consistent.

2  2.)   Yes, I believe the photo is both formally and conceptually successful.

3  3.)   It’s unique because it captures this specific moment in time that can’t ever be recreated again—just as any photograph does.

4  4.)   No.

5  5.)   It’s a clearly composed and thoughtful photographic structure pertaining the principles and elements of art & design.

6 6.)   Yes, the photo was carefully planned—the photographer took his time to structure the position and placement of his relationship to the subject.

7 7.)   Sure, I would be happy to have this photo present in my home.

8 8.)   Certainly—it makes me self-aware of how to carefully consider compositional constructs when approaching my own photography.

9 9.)   This photo inspires me to leaf through old family photo albums in remembrance of my grandparents and their experiences of growing up in Brooklyn.

Guzy Giovanna

Carol Guzy

    As Eugene Smith once said, “Let truth be the prejudice.” The photographer Carol Guzy reminded, continuing, “A photograph can be a powerful witness and an eloquent voice for those who have none. Pictures inform, educate, enlighten, captivate, and spur governments into action. They are historical documents and poignant reminders of our human frailties. Sometimes they touch our very souls.”

Carol Guzy

Carol Guzy grew up in a working class family in Bethlehem and studied in public schools. Her father died when she was young remaining alone with her ill mother. Instead of becoming  a nurse as she was asked by her family, she enrolled in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, completing a two-year photography course. Eventually, he professor Walter Michot introduced her to photojournalism. The Miami Herald first recognized her talent, hiring her in the journal. In the following years she travelled to Africa, Louisiana, Kosovo, Germany, Albania, States ,  and many other places, witnessing the suffering and grief of victims in many places around the world and at the same time recalling the marvelous highlighted side that each of them has the right to shine.[1] However, the place that she found most attractive and inspiring for her work was Haiti. In an interview she said, “It’s not me, it’s Haiti. I have been to a lot of places. Haiti is the most intense—both positive and negative. The Haitian spirit touches your soul. After the quake, the Haitians mourned, they prayed, they cried, they picked themselves up and moved along. It’s unnerving. “After eight years from her graduation in Fort Lauderdale, she moved to Washington where she won her first Pulitzer in 1986 for news photography in Haiti. However, she later won other two Pulitzer Prizes.

The artist released many interview and wrote herself many essays that help to read her pictures. However, the perception of her work is very immediate. In fact, through the interviews of the artist, it emerges her intent with the camera and her idea of photography, which confirms her intent of spontaneity ,not intended to alter the pictures and facts represented. In fact, she stresses, the human side, which, as she says, is “a privilege” for the photographer and the viewer to “witness” and report to the world.

In terms of photographic style, her pictures show that she gives lot of importance to the “moment “rather than looking for the right aperture or shutter. This is, in fact, again explained in more than one interview of the artist, when  she talks of the value of the “light we glimpse within every being” which is more important than the objective “right light” to catch in the atmosphere. This attention to the soul, putting her not behind the lens, yet as a human, within all the feelings and emotions, witnessing with the lens of the camera the same moment that helpless people experienced with their real eyes, is what makes her photographs unique. Also her profound motivation to follow her artistic vacation of photography, overcoming the necessity of her family to have her to have a concrete job compared to art, strongly emerges through her images.

Carol’s concern seems to be to bring out the issue of separation between reality and media; sufferance and lack of empathy with the sufferance of people who cannot leave their reality. Her images become a place of meditation, a place to experience; a didactic-empathic-aesthetic guide toward the life most us think is helpless.  Furthermore, she seems to bring out issues that concern human behavior that she finds “horrific”, in order to pose a quest and stress how it is an individual responsibility to change things.

This picture shows Memunatu Mansaray imitatating  the Statue of Liberty, America’s symbol of freedom, during a charity boat tour. She came to the United States with a group of Sierra Leonean war amputees to receive prosthetic limbs in 2000. They had endured rebel brutality, but their vitality and spirit remained intact. [1]

This picture shows a swallow depth of field with the young girl sharp depicted in the foreground. The use of black and white for this photograph gives more importance to the feeling, since here color might have had represented a distraction from the main and only focus of the composition. As we can read in the caption, Guzy calls by name the little girl, giving importance to one over many similar stories which have been forgotten and that otherwise would not be considered. Furthermore, she shows respect toward the sensibility of the Sierra Leonean war amputees, portraying the most vulnerable victims, a young girl , imitating the Statue of Liberty at her shoulder with the unawareness and innocence that only children have. In this way she open the doors of hope even in a tragic story, being able to catch the essence of a moment of joy. If fact, it is clear in this picture as well as in the previous, that the photographer did not aimed  to sabotage nor ask for the staging  or changing of the pose or setting of the picture. Everything preserves the natural, untouched, vulnerable looking and Guzy’s subjects confirm this; the most spontaneous being in the world, victims and children.

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[1] Source :  Carol Guzy/ Alaska Quarterly Review

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[1] Carol Guzy in first person in a written essey talks of this.

Giovanna

Carol Guzy

Agim Shala, 2, is passed through barbed wire fencing at an Arab camp as members of his family are reunited after feeling Kosovo. This image is part of the portfolio that won the 2000 Pulitzer in feature photography. According to Guzy, “Family members were greeting relatives they had through were dead…It was a happy moment.” [1]

This picture is one example in which Guzy shows a preference for colors and brightness, especially in the main focus of the composition, the baby. In fact, this contributes to creates in the viewer a feeling  of empathetic emotional link, also thanks to the movement of the baby toward us which almost call us to grab him. Here, the realistic effect is strong as in all her photographs. However, this is due more to the moment captured than to the technical skills , which however is represented at best, embodying perfectly the right composition ,colors, light to represent at best the subjects and their profound feelings.

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[1] Source and credit : Carol Guzy/The Washington Post

Mateo Micucci

ABBAS (1944).

Abbas is an French/Iranian photographer who is known for his photojournalism in many southern county such as Vietnam, South Africa, Iran, Cambodia and more. Abbas has also used his photography and writing to tackle complicated topics like religion and apartheid; completing projects on Buddhism in Cambodia, Apartheid in South Africa, Islam, Christianity, and recently Judaism. 

 Colonel S.J. MALAN, 

Director of the Police School

                           SOUTH AFRICA. Hamanskraal. 1978                             for Black people, with trainees.

Description

1. My first in impression was the bare chests of the black trainees and how it contrasts with their white shoes. 

2. The work portrays the apartheid of of the time period.

3.Although the white Colonel is at the forefront of the photograph, and is made to look like the largest figure by the lens, the long vertical lines grab the viewers eye and draws them toward the black and half naked trainees behind him; making them the subject.

4. When examining the photograph one notices long rectangles or squares, as well as the smooth black texture of the trainees skin. One is also drawn by the bright whites of the shoes that contrast with the dark colors in the rest of the photograph.

5. There vertical lines organize the photograph, especially a very powerful vertical line found right in the middle that grabs the viewers focus. There is also a large depth of field probably cause by a wide angle lens, thus making closer figures (Colonel) seem larger, while figures further away (trainees) seem smaller and smaller.

Analysis

1. What stands out in the photo is the nakedness of the trainees compared to the clean well dressed military uniform of the Colonel, reflecting the apartheid of the 1970's in South Africa.

2. As mentioned before, Vertical lines organize the photograph. 

3. The white shoes and white shirt and skin of the Colonel contrast well with the darker shades and colors found in the rest of the photograph.

Interpretation

Taken in South Africa during the late 1970's, the photo is obviously portraying the apartheid of the time. Though the photograph shows a different side of apartheid, a side where Black South Africans are given the opportunity to train in order to participate in the policing of the country. However, even though they are given this opportunity, apartheid is still made present by the fact that they are not given proper clothing for training, and are simply being used to quell black and white tensions of the time. When looking at the photograph, I seem to get an unsettling and uneasy feeling, one cause by disgust and anger (though those words might be a little too strong).  For some reason, in makes me think of Hitlers Germany and the ensuing concentration/labor camps. 

Evaluation

1. My first impression did not change, in anything it was enhanced. It is a very powerful photo, considering the time period. 

2. I do think it was a successful photograph. The photographer expertly uses lines, shapes and depth of field to organize the photo and draw the viewers eyes where he wants them.

3. I do find it unique. Photojournalism, as a medium, communicates humanity, good and bad. I think this photograph leaves allot of unanswered questions as to what is really going on within it, however it captures an interesting perspective during an impactful time period in history.

4. Haha, I would love to try. Maybe I'd make Abbas proud. 

5. They do.

6. Yes, Abbas expertly set up the shot.

7. Yes. In fact, as soon as I have the money, I will buy it; along with others.

8. Allot.

9. Incredibly so. 

Jeff Wall, "Dead Troops Talk"- Caterina

“Dead Troops Talk (A Vision after an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986)” is a monumental installation made by Jeff Walls in 1992. The artist used the technique of the Cibachrome to create a massive picture of seven and a half feet high and more than thirteen feet wide, mounted on a transparent light box.

The title tells that the image documents a conversation among Soviet soldiers after an attack in Afghanistan. Groups of wounded soldiers in winter uniforms lie in a devastated landscape. A couple of soldiers on the left are grieving: one is staring with his head resting on a hand, his pale-face being stained by a gush of blood. The soldier who faces him is screaming while looking at his hand. He looks like if he is terrorized by his own actions, scared to death by what his hand just did. They both lost his helmets. In the centre, a soldier is leaning on a comrade without a leg, his remains being shown dramatically below the figures. In the right corner, slaughtered soldiers are reacting differently to the cruelty of war. They seem to have post-mortem expressions and feelings: one of them is trying to recover from the shock that opened his eyes and mouth open, while the comrade behind him seems thoughtful and tranquil. He is lying with dignity and pointing a temple with his finger, in a gesture of reflection and meditation. He might have been thinking of the horrors of war or waiting patiently to be buried. His controlled and dignified reaction contrasts with the pathetic scenes on his right. Maimed bodies of soldiers are grouped together and left unburied: one of them is kneeling with his brain in his hand, as if he has just grabbed the organ from the uncovered skull. Behind him, a legless soldier, still wearing the helmet, turns his head to the left with a disturbing smile, sneering at the group of soldiers at the very heart of the composition. The three soldiers are fooling around on high ground, surrounded by destruction and death. They are playing with their own slaughtered bodies. One of them is plunging his hand in the deep wound in his stomach while riding his comrade as a horse and dragging him by the head. The soldier beneath is sticking out his tongue with a disturbing grimace. He is waiting for his friend to feed him with a piece of flesh, presumably taken from the wound of the riding soldier. The scene is macabre and pathetic, and represents the most disturbing element of the composition. 

The Afghan presence is still visible in the soldier on the right in the middle ground. He is dressed with the typical Afghan military uniform and seems to have just laid his weapon to dedicate himself to inspecting a paper bag. In addition, the unusual cropping of the photograph reveals the presence of a group of Afghan soldiers who are presumably descending into the valley.
“Dead Troops Talk” represents a made-up event staged by the artist in his studio in Canada. The artist is reflecting on the qualities of the medium by emphasizing its artificial nature and its possibilities of manipulation. Furthermore, he is questioning the role of photojournalism and documentary photography by creating a “visionary photowork”that looks extremely real, but is actually staged and composed just as a painting. Documentary photography, photojournalism and fine arts are manipulated by the artist and mingled in a powerful, coherent, passionate statement of the horrors of the war. The final image is simultaneously fantastic and disturbingly natural.

Jeff Wall, Dead Troops Talk (A Vision after an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986), 1992.