5th Period - Practice Critical Analysis

9/4/2019

McLean, Virginia, December 1978 © Joel Sternfeld

Each week in class, you will write a critical analysis on a work of photographic art. An image will be published weekly on our class blog. Spend time studying the image and then write a detailed analysis of the photograph. Publish your analysis as a comment to the blog post; this comment should show the student’s name and time posted. Your analysis must be posted to the original blog post in order to be graded.

All analyses must be 4 paragraphs minimum, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph unless otherwise noted.

Students will write eleven critical analyses per semester, and the lowest grade per semester will be dropped.

On the class blog, if you look to the right you will see the word Analyze. There is a link to a handout you may download or print called your "How to See" handout. This will help you learn to write about art. Refer to your "How to See" handout for analyzing a photograph--

Describe specifics.
Describe form.
Describe the content.
Evaluate the image

Your analyses will be graded on:

meeting minimum length requirements
depth of organization
evaluation of the content
grammar/punctuation

Tomas

9/4/2019 09:13:27 am

Tomas Espejo

The image is made up of a farmers market and a house in the background that is on fire. The is a fireman in the farmers market buying or shopping for a pumpkin. On the house that is on fire the are fireman trying to put it out on the roof. There is also a firetruck in the middle of the right hand side of the photo. There are a lot of smashed pumpkins laying on the ground in front of the market. I think the photographer took this photo at eye level.

In the photograph orange, yellow and red is being used by the firetruck, yellow for the fire on the roof on the house in the background, and orange for the pumpkins at the farmers market. Green is being used for he sign on top of the farmers market. And it is also being used on the side of the house, and the grass and trees. Brown is also being used by the dead grass and trees in the photo. Finally gray and white is being used for the roof of the farmers market.

One of the things that the frame of the photo cuts of is the other half of the fire truck. Another thing that the edge of the photo cuts of is the remaining smoke from the fire. The rest of the farmers market is also being cut of on the left side of the photo. About 2 or 3 trees are being cut off of the photo. And some of the smashed pumpkins at the market are being cut off at the bottom of the photo.

For me I have a lot of questions about this photograph that was taken, one of which is, is the fire in the background a real fire, and if it is why is a fireman shopping for a pumpkin when he should be trying to put it out? Another question I have is why are all the pumpkins smashed at the farmers market and is there anyone working there. Is there anyone inside the house that is burning? Why was this photo even that interesting for the photographer to take pictures of? Is that even a real image.

I am in the middle of both questions, do you like or hate it? Some examples that I like it is that it gets the point across and is easy so talk about the photo. Another reason why I enjoy looking at this photo is just keep wondering is there really a fire going on in the background, if so why is a fireman shopping for a pumpkin. I don’t like this picture mainly because the photographer cuts off the firetruck and a lot of the trees. I think if you take a picture of something that you should be able to fit all of the objects into the photo.

Andy Cubriel

9/4/2019 09:13:40 am

This photo depicts a house that is ablaze, with a farmers market in front of it. If you look closely, you will notice a firefighter that is at the farmers market about to buy a pumpkin instead of helping put out the fire. There are many pumpkins smashed on the ground in front of the farmers market. If you look closely, you will notice there are two firefighters in the bucket of the firetruck. There also happens to be a second fire truck you can just barely see through the trees. The colors that are being used are orange, gray, and other dark colors. This is because the season is most likely fall. The lighting is natural, and it is overcast because the clouds are covering the sun just enough.

This image is very pleasing to look at because it entices you with all that is going on. The photographer also took the photo from an eye level point of view. The lines in the image are the green fence poles, and they direct your vision towards the farmers market, and the house that is burning. Even though this is a great image, the photographer left a little extra space in the top right corner. The rest of the image depicts the entire scene.

The first theme that I notice when I look at this image is that the dark colors in it make it seem like the time of year is fall. Another theme is that your not always on task, because it appears that the firefighter is not doing his job. The story seems to be that the firefighter is off task, and left his buddies to put out the fire on their own. The real story is that this was a controlled burn, and the firefighter was on break which he used to go to the farmers market and buy pumpkins. The artist took this photo to be part of his collection, American Prospects. He wanted to capture the real America while driving around the country.

I really like this image. I like this image because it is very entertaining to look at it. When you look back at it, you just keep noticing new things about it. I also like this image because the real story is very different from the one you get from just looking at the photo. I think this Photograph is successful because it is a good quality photo. Also, this photo depicts a great story, and the backstory is an even greater one.

Jacob Perez

9/4/2019 09:14:15 am

The first prominent thing I see is the scorching fire in the background. I then see many, many punkinks in the stands and also some that are crushed on the ground below. But I then see a fireman looking to buy some pumpkins while there is a heated fire burning a house down. The lighting in the image is bright but its overwhelmed by the pitch black smog. Next I see the fire trucks in the back with their cranes in the background trying to put out the fire.

The area of all the pumpkins, the fireman, and the dead grass in necessarily pleasing to look at, but that dark smoke and fire is definitely not pleasing at all. He took an eye level shot picture. The focal point is the burning fire in the back because its showing all the action and where the conflict is originating from by why the fireman isn't there helping. The image is not symmetrical at all, on the left side there seems nothing to be going on, while on the right side there is all the action happening. There is some extra space in the top right.

The theme is, what you see isn't always the case. This is the theme because the fireman we see isn't helping the fire happening in the background, but we now know that its a controlled fire , which means it is just practice. I don't think there is a story being told here. I think he made the image to let people see that they shouldn't make assumptions until they know the whole story. At first it challenged my ethical beliefs by seeing a fireman not doing his job of saving people and putting out ongoing fires, but now that I know the story behind this image nothing is wrong.

I like this photo due to the reason it gets the theme through and obvious to the viewer. I also love the way the fire and the smoke is moving with the wind. I think this photo is successful because like i said before it gets people to not judge anyone or anything without having context. I also love the crushed pumpkins in the background. Its overall a well put image.

Kate McDaniel link

9/4/2019 09:23:33 am

In this image, there is a house on fire in the background and a farmers stand selling pumpkins and apple cider with crushed pumpkins in the foreground. I also see two fire trucks attempting to put out the house fire and a fireman shopping for pumpkins. The farmers stand and the burning house look sort of run down and old, and the farmers stand seems to be selling apples and oranges as well as pumpkins and apple cider. In this image, the colors aren’t very bright. The colors consists of browns, greys, yellows, reds, oranges, greens, and blues. I think the image consists of these colors because it was taken in the middle of fall. There are some dark shadows in the farmers stand and there isn’t really a lot of sunlight. Everything is cloudy and dry.
It looks like the picture was taken a little above eye level and it also seems to look like the photographer had to stand far away to get everything he wanted into the photo. The focal point of the photo looks like it is the farmers stand because the stand is in front of the house. The first line could be the three fence poles directing you to the center of the image where the second line, the dirt road is. Next, the road is directing you out of the frame and onto the fire truck ladder. It then leads you out of the frame again and down to the farmers stand. For the most part, the image fills the frame, except for a little bit of the top right corner.
One theme that could be present in this image could be misleading because the image looks like the firefighter in the foreground is not doing his job and he is shopping for pumpkins. The story of this image is pretty much the same as the theme. The image seems misleading because we can’t tell what’s really going on. The image reminds me of my backyard where I used to live. The image reminds me of this because my backyard kind of looked like this in the fall.
I like this image because it makes you question yourself. I think it makes you question yourself because you can’t really tell what the truth of this image is. You can’t tell if the fireman is doing his job or not. I think this photo is successful because it makes you question the truth. I think it is also successful because it makes you study the image so you can understand what is going on.

Alissa Welsh

9/4/2019 09:34:32 am

In this picture there is a farm market closer to the front, pumpkins smashed on the ground closer to the front, dead grass, a house burning in the background, the two fire trucks, a fireman buying a pumpkin, and trees without leaves. It looks like the fireman that's buying the pumpkin is not doing his job. The color that picture is using are more autumn colors they are; brown, yellow, orange, red, white, grey, green, and black. The light is natural since it is outside and is overcast, the sun is covered by clouds so we can’t see it. There's a fireman buying pumpkins instead of putting out the fire but when I looked closely, there are also two other firemen at the crane to put out the fire.
I find this picture pleasing to look at because of all the things that are going on it makes it different and stands out. The photographer took this image from an eye angle. The photographer also used a film camera 4x5 to take this picture. The focal point is the Farm Market, it is framed by pumpkins and other fruits. The poles direct my eyes from the right corner to the center to the left to the fire truck to the fire and around. There is a little extra on the top right but everything else is good. It crops a table, trees, fire truck, and pumpkin.
The theme of this picture is not everything you see is true and irony. The story behind this image is that the photographer was on a trip around America to take pictures and had a police radio, so when he heard strange stuff happening he would drive there to take a photo. This photo the fire that is happening is actually a practice fire so there are no people inside and the fireman that is buy a pumpkin is on his break. The artist's intention is to take pictures of things that look ironic that make you question your beliefs. This image reminds me of the supernatural show since there is not much light and the colors that pop out are more dark and negative. I find this image interesting because of how the photographer made it seemed that the fireman is not doing his job.
I like it because it gives a new humorous perspective of places in America. In my opinion, the photographer was successful since the photo that he presents is clear to make a story, has humor, an ironic twist. This picture also just shows a photo that doest have a setup or was in the studio so it shows some of the countryside. The way the photographer took the picture make it interesting for me and engaging. By the looks and color, when I first saw the picture I came quickly to a negative conclusion about the fireman who is buying a pumpkin instead of doing his work.

Suly Welsh

9/4/2019 10:08:39 am

McLean Virginia, December 1978 by Joel Sternfeld Blog

This is an image taken by Joel Sternfeld from an event outside in McLean, Virginia. This is a shot of a small shack-like building used for a farmers market. We can see two signs at the top of this structure: one in front saying 'McLean Farm Market', and another from the right side saying 'sweet cider'. We see that pumpkins are being sold because of the multiple pumpkins organized at the front of the market, and the various ones lying around the rest of the area. Behind the building, there's a line of trees. There's one big one which has many leaves right behind the market, there are other trees with no trees at all, and there are about four trees to the right of the image with red leaves and they are all pretty short compared to the other trees. Behind the trees, there's a yellow two-storied house whose roof has caught on fire. There's fire coming out of the top window and there's smoke flying in the left direction. We can observe two fire trucks in front of the house with one of the ladders extended with firefighters at the crane trying to put up the fire (even though we can't actually see any water putting out the fire, maybe they've just reached the top and are still working on getting the water on. It's not very clear). There is one firefighter at, what seems like, an empty farmer's market holding a single pumpkin. There are very vivid warm colors. Using mostly yellow for the house and market signs, orange for the many pumpkins, the bright white in the sky, and some browns with hints of green for the trees and farmland. The light is a bright overcast light which is emphasized by the cloudy sky.

I think this image is aesthetically pleasing because of how even and organized all the objects are in the image. There's the market at the front left of the image, then a nice row of trees adorning the back, and then the burning house to the right side making it all imperfectly symmetrical to some extent. The colors all fit perfectly in the sense that there's no random bright pink or purple somewhere in the picture. It's all monotone and sticks with those warm colors which only makes the fire seem more exaggerated. The image was probably taken from a distance at eye level to include the market and the house with the emitted fire. There are three dark green poles lined to the right of the market which direct our attention over to the trees in the middle. The trees lead us into the farmer's market which then directs us to that one big tree at the back of the market. This tree goes up to the sky where there is smoke coming from the yellow house with firefighters and fire trucks next to it. The whole image is pretty filled up with only one small extra space on the right corner where you can see the bright sky. The image does a great job of framing all of the important objects, but it still has a few things cropped off. The table where some apple cider has been left, for example, is cut off by half. The fire truck on the right side is also cut off, even though it's still sufficiently visible.

The most evident theme in this image is irony. A firefighter is checking out pumpkins in the middle of a house fire. What the heck! His colleagues are trying to put out the fire all together at the house while this sole firefighter is up in the front at a market. It is ironic because as the firefighters are trying to save this house which is assumed to have people inside, this one firefighter is down looking at pumpkins. This challenges some ethical beliefs in how one would assume that the firefighter wouldn't be frolicking through the market when there is a house on fire. It would also challenge some political beliefs in a sense because one would expect that a person working for the safety of pedestrians would be right there trying everything in his power to put out the fire because it's their duty. This image is very interesting because it is like a double surprise. If you just see the image with no prior knowledge of its history you see the profound irony of this firefighter not doing his job. If you know the backstory of how this photographer takes images to see the true American way by emphasizing ironies, then it's still as surprising.

I like the picture very much because it just straight up gives you this image about some sort of distress (the house on fire), but there's also just a farmer's market casually in front. You'd think there'd be more people out and about, but there's just this one guy looking at pumpkins. It's kind of funny when you put it in words. I think it's very successful in the whole irony aspect to it, but it's also just a dramatic visual. All the alarm in the back right with the deadly fire contrasted by an uneventful little market at the front.

Gabby Beck

9/4/2019 07:22:02 pm

The image shows a farm market with a fireman looking at pumpkins. In the background, there is a house on fire with other firefighters putting it out. There are smashed pumpkins in front of the photo. The colors look a little dim because it is overcast. There is a lot of orange, yellow, and brown, signaling the middle or end of fall. There aren’t that many shadows because the sun is covered by clouds and makes the lighting in between light and dark. You can see around three firefighters (one in the pumpkin field and the others in the basket in the background), an old farm market, a burning house in the background, smashed pumpkins, a firetruck, and dead trees and grass.

The image looks a little dull because of the dead trees and grass and the overcast sky, but colors like orange stand out and bring your focus to that. The photographer took this photo from eye level. You can look for the closest object in the picture (the posts) and follow those all the way up to the burning building and then it leads you back down to the farm stand. The photo seems pretty balanced with a building on either side, trees that cover the upper half, and pumpkins that cover the lower half. The only space not really filled in is in the top right corner. The image cuts off some of the trees, the smoke, the firetruck, and some pumpkins.

Some themes the image tells us is that it was taken around the end of fall and that it's ironic that the fireman is picking out pumpkins while there is a fire right in the background. This image is supposed to be part of a collection of images taken all over America. The fire in the background was just a practice fire and the fireman at the farm market was on his time off. This brings up another theme sort of like don't judge a book by its cover. Joel Sternfeld took this photo to put things into perspective. It might look like the firefighter is slacking off but you really can't know for sure without the real story behind it. This photo reminds me of a time I went to a pumpkin patch and got to play all sorts of games and, of course, buy pumpkins. It challenges the way we think about things. What we may infer from one thing may have a different meaning than we thought. The image is interesting in a way that it purposefully shows us the firefighter in the farm market and the fire in the background to make us think.

I like this photo because it is creative and funny in the way he placed things to make an ironic situation. I think this photograph is successful because it has its way of attracting an audience with the factors of the firefighter and the fire.

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5th Period - Practice Critical Analysis

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