Connecting Essay 5

Connecting Essay 

Barbara Kruger

In this photo we can see a little boy flexing his muscles and a girl pointing to his arm. This photo has a old fashioned black and white effect which gives it a WW2 effect. The caption says "we don't need another hero", this shows that this little boy is inspiring to be like the powerful men in the world. I think the caption is showing sarcasm because there are hardy any powerful women that have status in the world at that time and the powerful men in the world aren't really heroes at all. Barbara Kruger has a feministic theme throughout her photographs and this one adds to this theme because she is showing us that little boys are inspiring to be like the arrogant and selfish male leaders throughout the world. I like this image because I think it has a deep meaning and it opens peoples eyes to things happening in the world.

In this photo we can see a boy holding up his hands with boxing gloves, he looks very intimidating. The black and white effect is similar to Barbara Kruger's image but I made it slightly bolder to represent modern times. The caption on this image says "equality, if they can we can", this also, like Barbara Kruger's image, represents feminism. The meaning I tried to get across was that if men and boys can be strong and powerful then so can women because there is no difference between women and men. Similar to Barbara Kruger's images this photo also has a deep meaning to it and can spread feminist views. 

My image is similar to Barbara Kruger's because they both spread feminist views and both show how boys are inspiring to be powerful and strong but we don't see girls inspiring to be like this. The composition of this image is also similar because the images are both black and white with a red caption. 

Connecting Essay 4

Connecting Essay

Thomas Ruff

In this picture we can see a portrait picture of a woman on a white background. The woman has no expression on her face and her clothes are dull and boring. This photographer has a series of photographs like this, I think he is expressing different people, how different people look or dress. I like how he expresses each person but I think he could add more colour and brightness to these photos because it will draw people's attention in more to his work. Personally, this isn't one of my favourite photographers because I find it very boring as I struggle to find a real meaning behind the images, I understand why he has taken them but there isn't a real deep meaning. I think his images are significant in the photography world because everyone else's portrait images are bright and stand out where as his do not really grab our attention.

In this picture we can see a portrait picture of a girl on a pink background. The girl doesn't really have an expression but she seems happier than the woman we can see before in Thomas Ruff's image. Her clothes also stand out because of the colour difference from the background. I think this portrait image stands out better against Thomas Ruff's image because it has a brighter background and she is wearing a brighter coloured jumper whereas the other woman is wearing very dull colours. However, the two images are similar because they are just normal portraiture images with no real expression and nothing else going on in the images.

Connecting Essay 3

Connecting Essay 4

Henri Cartier-Bresson

In this image we are looking at a street, we can see a staircase, at the bottom of the staircase we see a slightly blurry person on a bike. We know that Cartier-Bresson wanted to capture real life which relates to this image because he has taken photos of the action that happens on this street. I think he wanted to capture the real shadows and patterns that are present in real life that we can see in this image. He has incorporated the staircase to add a zigzag effect to them, the stairs shows the difference in height between the cyclist and the photographer. Henri Cartier-Bresson uses the decisive moment in his pictures, this is shown because he had to pick the right moment to be able to get the person on the bike in the shot at the right time. He was able to take the picture at the right time because if the biker moves forward or backward he with be out of shot or blocked by the staircase railings. 

In this image we can see a busker and in the background a bus going past. This image shows main aspects of London by showing a red bus and a busker which you see a lot around London. It links to Henri Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment because I had to take this at the right moment to get the bus in the background. If I had taken it at a different time the bus would've been in a different position and wouldn't have filled the whole background. I wanted a motion blur because I felt like this would have a bigger impact on the image. Similar to Cartier-Bresson's image everything that is moving quickly in our images are blurred which gives a better effect to the image. 

Connecting Essay 2

Connecting Essay

Annie Leibovitz

In this image we can see Meryl Streep with extravagant makeup and she is pulling the skin on her face. Meryl Streep is a famous actress and singer, she is looked on by the public eye constantly and is looked up to by people inspiring to be her. Actresses have to play different roles constantly, this could relate to the fact that she is pulling her face around, she is imitating how she feels going from role to role. Another meaning that can be linked to this image is that make-up is just a mask and it doesn't always make us look good. The fact that she has a pale face can show that she feels drained as she is forced to look a certain way just because she is a celebrity.

I think Annie Leibovitz was trying to display a different side to Meryl Streep that we don't normally see normally. She isn't wearing tons of nice make-up or nice clothes and her hair isn't styled. It tells us that what we see on the TV or in the magazines shouldn't be what we judge the person on. 

In this image we can see a girl with extravagant make-up. The outlines on her face show the stereotypical way that people apply make-up by contouring and highlighting, the outcome of these methods is to make your face look chiseled and certain areas stand out more, practically changing your whole face. I emphasised on this because in normal pictures of girls you see her with a full face of make-up instead of what they actually go through to achieve the way they look. This can relate to the pressures of wearing make-up and wearing it in the correct way or the way that everyone else does. The picture relates to Annie Leibovitz's photo because they both bring very similar meanings to the table. They both spread that there is pressure to look a certain way with make-up and without make-up. 

Connecting Essay 1

Connecting Essay 1

Lauren Greenfield

In this image we can see a line go girls in their swimming costumes/underwear waiting to be measured. The girl in the front is having her bus measured with a tape measure. Also, the girls are holding tickets, this suggests to us that they are measured regularly and they write their measurements down on this ticket. These girls are obviously aiming to be a certain measurement. I think Laura Greenfield was aiming to spread the efforts that certain teenage girls have to go through because of the pressure to be a certain size. These girls must be models or aiming to be models as models are made to be a certain size. I think that she has portrayed the fact that girls go through a lot of pressure as they look up to the faces that we see on the front of magazines and the celebrities that are in the public eye. 

Some people may not like this image because it is a candid moment and she hasn't asked them to stand in a certain way. I like the image because it displays a meaning and represents real life issues rather than showing thin and pretty girls being measured she has chosen bigger and less attractive girls which has more of an effect to the fact that they feel pressured. 

In this image I took we can see someone waist being measured using a tape measure. The fact that we cannot see who is measuring the person or who the person is makes us read into this more because we are intrigued to know who it is. By leaving the gender of the person being measured unknown the meaning of the image becomes open to both genders showing us that there is pressure in both genders. Similar to Laura Greenfield I have captured the pressure of being a certain size and wanting to look a certain way. Unlike her image which was candid this image wasn't, I specifically asked someone to pose in this way.

I edited this photo in Photoshop to further improve it. I made the image black and white which gives it more of an effect, it makes the image bold but dull at the same time which is similar to it's meaning. I also increased the clarity of this image to make it stand out more.