Critical Research

Alec Soth

Alec Soth is an american photographer, who uses a large format camera to capture images, his work usually focus' on the 'off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America'.

Some of his better known works are landscapes. These images appeal to me because they are interesting, simple and downright beautiful. They're fantastically composed and framed, and the choice of how the colours are either black and white, muted slightly or just vibrant is gorgeous. 

This photograph is deceptive.  Small town America, at first glance looks like it might have been taken 50 years ago. The old model trucks, the old looking buildings, only on further inspection can we see that this is a modern day small town America. Something that not long ago was celebrated, but today, seems to be sneered at.

The Photograph itself is beautifully framed, with use of the power lines which lead the viewer around the image from one section of negative space to the next. Interestingly, the marks on the road drag the eyes forward towards the nothingness in the distance, as if the image is telling us that there is a limited lifespan here and time is running out.

The most prominent section of negative space is the amorphous sky, looming over the image, sucking up the road and even slowly seeming to absorb the town in the distance. 

The entire picture is in monochrome, giving a bland and boring initial demeanour, but the longer the viewer looks at the image, the more atmosphere is built, between the fog in the distance and the reflection of the sky on the wet road, the atmosphere of the entire image is very quiet.

calm, small town america, wet, big sky, reflected in the wet road, disappears into the distance, without  focus, lots of negative space, Pizza/Chinese food combo, lots of leading lines, well framed, desaturated makes it feel bland and boring; no doubt how small town america can feel after a prolonged amount of time there gives it more atmosphere. at first glance it looks like the picture was taken a few decades ago.

Alec Soth is known for his images of small town America, this however is much more rural than even a small town, with only the bus as a clue that it could be anywhere near an actual settlement. 

The fact that there is a horse and a bus in this image interests me, both being modes of transport, one rarely used, on used all the time, opting for function over anything else, the bus, obviously, being able to carry 50 or more at a time, the downside being that it uses more resources and is more environmentally unstable.

This picture, like the last has a great deal of negative space, the big sky 

quiet, empty, misplaced, open, vacant, american countryside, odd framing, two modes of transport, outdated and new; the new carry more, at more of a cost. "looks like it's been plucked from somewhere and put down" so much negative space

This image is melancholy; almost as if it is mourning the inevitable death of the planet, because of the greed of the big oil companies. The natural landscape shaped and scarred by human life. Cemeteries and gas stations placed in the middle of such beautiful landscape speaks to human nature and the way we move heaven and earth to put what we want where we want to put it. 

The colours in this image are less contrasting, mainly sticking to a blue-ish hue, so most of the contrast comes from the subject matter, the graveyard and the gas station, the light of the gas station and the dark of the mountain. 

The picture feels quiet, which is odd, because it doesn't seem like somewhere that would be quiet, gas stations are usually fairly populated and high traffic, but this image is empty of people, cars and anything else, apart from the actual landscape.

balance, dark, incongruous, life/death, blue, quiet, contrast modern/natural, historical, static, petrol station gives life to the image, rest stop, resting place

I love this picture because of the balance of light and dark/life and death. The symbolism this picture gives off is very strong to me, the entire of the composition of this picture is near perfect, as well as the vivid blue of the image.

This photograph's composition is interesting, with the mountain standing guard over the graves, and the light of the 

Irving Penn

Irving Penn's work is mostly portraits, and usually in black and white.

This is a self portrait of Irving Penn, taken with a simple lighting setup, on a camera that seems to have a broken mirror, or the image has been changed during the film processing stage.

Each portrait is usually fairly closely cropped, and highly expressive. The work in itself is very unique and very interesting to look at, I really like these images, they appeal to me because of their unique and high contrast nature.

This image is very clean, it's almost sterile, because of the black and white. The high contrast between the black on her face and the white of almost everything else is interesting, and really jarring.  

Most of his subjects are different, in various ways, but each subject helps create an amazing image.

Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen is a photographer that uses black and white, but still manages to create diverse images.

Rineke Dijkstra

Dijkstra takes sequential images, often making sure that all the images in a set are uniform, making sure that each subject is framed similarly, making sure that everything is as similar as possible, to create a narrative in the series. This series is of bullfighters after they have fought bulls in the arena. They all have some form of injury or blood on them, giving the impression that they are successful matadors as successful matadors kill the bull at the end of the fight.

I find these images disturbing, and at the same time inspiring as they have looked death in the eye, and come out the other side, unfortunately the bulls don't share the same fate. These images don't look like the subjects are victorious, they look almost sad, maybe remorseful because of what they had to do to 'win'. 

proud, tired, 

Anders Petersen

Anders Petersen creates very gritty, very dark images, unlike Irving Penn's work. Anders Petersen seems to favour the dark in his images, making sure that the dark and shadow is deeper and darker, which helps give the images a fair amount of detail but not much mid tones. Lots of his work is very graphic, showing naked subjects, or people with strong emotion on their faces.

Vocabulary for this image: fairytale, romantic, blissful

Vocabulary for this image: mother/son, unsettling, creepy, 

 prominent teeth, manic, 

This image looks to be like it belongs in the 1960's from the time of the famous film 'Cathy Come Home.' It looks to be taken at a time of celebration with what looks like Christmas decorations in the background. The three main characters in this narrative don't look like they are celebrating. They don't look happy at all and this fact makes me think of the song 'Fairytale of New York.' 

This image is very unsettling, the grain and the framing of this picture make it quite sad in a way, the woman in the front of the frame, looking into the camera has a very resigned look on her face, but her looking directly into the camera makes it feel quite uncomfortable.

Vocabulary for this image: unsettling, sinister, loud, on the edge of 'polite society', jarring, uncomfortable, sad, celebration, unhappy.