Don McCullin - Photography Analysis

Photography Analysis

Student name: Rebecca Challis   

Name of Photograph, Photographer and year: Shell Shock, Don McCullin

Content

Subject: what is subject matter of the photograph and what is trying to say, Representation – How is the subject matter represented does it show realism? Abstraction: Is the photo about ideas, concepts and emotion rather than reality? Distortion – Has the photo been manipulated digitally or in camera? Is the subject matter incidental / less important or it is a social commentary on religious, moral, political and social concerns? Observation: Was the photograph observed directly and a true representation or was it a re-enactment of truth or simply imagined? Denotatton – Is the photograph’s meaning surface deep, does the photograph represent reality? Connotation: Is there something deeper? Are there hidden meanings and is there an emotional and imaginative meaning?

• This image shows the horrendous effect on the soldiers that were made to fight in the Vietnam War.
• The photo shows the soldier looking afraid and scared of either what his seen or what his about to see and be apart of.
• The camera shot used is a eye level shot this is to show the emotions and fear in the soldiers face.

Process

How has the photo been taken? Location: Inside / outside? Time: Day/night? What time of year? Lighting: artificial lighting or natural lighting? What materials and tools? Has the image been manipulated digitally or physically? Has the image been scratched and what type of film stock does the photographer use? Three point lighting: Back light, key light, fill light.

·      This photo has been taken outside as you can see buildings in the background.

·      Natural Lighting

Form (Composition / Mis-en-scene)

Angles – the various positions of the camera with respect to the subject (high, eye-level, or low); Canted frame – creates an image that is not level; Composite - an image that combines two or more original images; Contrast - the difference in brightness between the lightest and darkest parts of an image, the contrast can be high or low; Eye-line - the direction of the subject’s sight; Foreground / mid-ground / background – the front, middle, or back fields of an image; Framing - there are five basic frame types: extreme long shot, long shot, medium shot, close up, extreme close up; Lighting ratio - the ratio between the key (main), fill (the light that takes out shadows) and back light (that separates the subject and background); Shallow / deep focus – refers to the number of fields in focus, the focus can be selective if it concentrates on one part of an image; Soft / hard focus – refers to the sharpness of an image. Colour – What does the colour represent and why have they used these colours?

·      Eye-Level shot (Show the emotion in his face)

·      Low Contrast

·      Close up framing

·      Objective

Mood:  

How does the photographer use mood to communicate feeling in the photograph? Atmosphere – Does it contain a happy/sad quiet/noisy, soothing/disturbing, happy/sad, relaxed/jarring type of atmosphere. Subjective: Does it reflect a subjective viewpoint, does it affect you personally? Objective: Does it reflect an overall mood which would affect the moment or on a larger scale IE If if is relevant to current topics and what you would see on the news. Does it capture a mood, a feeling or emotion?

·      Atmosphere (jarring, disturbing)

·      Captures the mood of fear

Representation:

Positive/negative; stereotypes; realistic/fantastic  

 Positive – it makes you think about what they went through and how brave they are to do such a fearful thing