Thursday, September 10, 2020

Uta Barth

 





    Uta Barth was born in Berlin, Germany on January 29th, 1958. She addresses themes such as perception, optical illusion and non-place. She has won the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada. She went to a couple different universities in California, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Davis. 
    
    I think that this is a powerful image. The use of depth of field makes this image strong. The way that only a few close leaves are in focus when most of the image is a blurred out background gives this image a sense of significance. I personally like this image because it makes me feel that although the leaves in the front don't take up much of the screen, they are still important. I also like that the focus could easily have been on the background because the background has scenery, but Barth made the stylistic choice of un-focusing the background. I think that she made this choice in order to draw attention to the details of the few leaves nearer to the camera, they seem to hold some sort of importance. I also like the contrast in the yellow-ish leaves and the mellow green leaves because the rest of the background seems to follow the same calm, natural color scheme. 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Steve McCurry

 


Steve McCurry was born on April 23rd, 1950 in Darby PA. He is an american photographer/freelancer and photojournalist. He is known to capture the essence of human struggles and joy. 

I like this photo because I think that it portrays the boy's emotion very well. I feel as though I can see the hardship that this boy has faced in the details that McCurry captures. There appears to be dirt on his face and wrinkles in this forehead. Since he is only a child, these things symbolize growth and maturity beyond his years, and hardships that he has not gotten to wipe away (in reference to the dirtiness) yet. The boy is holding a straight face in this image. This is consistent with the theme of unhealthiness as a child of his age should be insistently happy, or temporarily sad. His expression is neither. He seems knowledgeable and lacking contentedness. He seems to have experienced more than a child should have to. This is all shown through the immense detailing seen in McCurry's photo, which draws out the potentially unnoticeable features in this boy's face.