Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #15

3/1/2017

To celebrate Black History Month, today you will be writing about this image made by artist and photojournalist Gordon Parks. This image is from a series Parks completed for Life Magazine. Life sent Parks to Alabama in 1956 to document 3 black families during one of the most turbulent times in American history. The project was meant to show how ordinary black families truly lived in the Deep South during 1956, and the images would serve to counter the misinformation spread that a racially segregated society was good for everyone.

From the Gordon Parks Foundation:

"Gordon Parks was one of the seminal figures of twentieth century photography. A humanitarian with a deep commitment to social justice, he left behind a body of work that documents many of the most important aspects of American culture from the early 1940s up until his death in 2006, with a focus on race relations, poverty, civil rights, and urban life. In addition, Parks was also a celebrated composer, author, and filmmaker who interacted with many of the most prominent people of his era - from politicians and artists to celebrities and athletes."

Complete in class. FIVE paragraphs minimum; five sentences per paragraph.

Remember, refer to your "How to See" handout for analyzing a photograph--

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

Your analysis will be graded on:

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

Good luck!

Nick Perez

3/1/2017 09:35:54 am

This is a interesting image of an African American family. The key component of the image is the man reading the mail to the family. The man just so happens to be a mailman, and the fact that he is reading the mail to the family shows that the family is unable to read. The family is living in a very dilapidated and poor area, as shown by the poor housing conditions. This image is meant to depict the difference between what is perceived and what is real.

The form used in the image is exquisite. The photographer uses vertical lines in order to make an emphatic statement that is very strong. The colors are dull so that nothing is able to take away from the main point of the photo. The space around the image serves to further the point that it is a poor area. Shape is also used in the image in the form of the house in the background and the the house in the foreground.

The composition of the image is also very interesting. The rule of thirds is used, and the action of the image is occurring in the rightmost third. Color is used, and the image is not black and white. The leading lines in the image lead the eyes of the viewer right to the action in the image. Furthermore, the action in the image is framed by the porch of the house. This image also conveys complex and thought provoking themes.

The image shows themes that are distinctly modern despite being taken many, many years ago. The image depicts the racial inequalities in the world of 1956. Despite the civil rights movement, these inequities seem to still persist today. This is a prevalent problem in our society as is shown by the prominence of things like the black lives matter movement. We can all learn things from this image as it conveys thought provoking and interesting themes.

I enjoy this image. The image conveys ideas and themes that are necessary. It is also powerful. The notion of the mailman having to read the mail to people is exceptionally striking. The inequality in distribution of wealth that is depicted here is also done very well. Finally, the composition and form of the image is very well done. All in all, I enjoy this image and the themes that it conveys.

Roman Ruiz

3/1/2017 09:43:16 am

This striking image shows a man that looks like a mailman reading the mail to a couple on top of a porch. this image has a very striking message to the audience, and shows that us as a nation have each others backs. This image is very striking because it shows that we are all one. This image has very good lighting, and the colors are correct.

This image is not underexposed, and it is colored perfectly. This image is in focus, and can be seen clearly. the colors of this image are correct, because the whites look white. Because of the focus, this image has no pixelation.

This astonishing image is very pleasing to look at, and may be one of my favorite photographs. The rule of thirds is not being used, because it is perfectly centered. the focal point of this image the the family and the mailman. This image is not framed but the people kind of are because of the porch. This image is balanced.

The themes of this image can be that the world is a small place and that we should help others and not take it for granted. The story behind this image is a mailman that is well known around the town, and that he helps other people need help reading the mail by the mailman reading. My opinion is that the artist made this image because he wants to show the love of the world. This image in my opinion is beautiful.

I really like this image, i really like the color and the message it gives out. This image is really beautiful and pleasing to look at. I really think this image is successful, and deserves to be rewarded. I really love this image and its complexity.

Peyton Nebens

3/1/2017 09:45:50 am

This image is of an african american couple and their mail man reading them their mail. This photo was taken in 1956. So, back then not many african american people could read. So I really like this image. The lighting is natural lighting so it's very nice and pleasing to look at.

The lighting in this image is just right. Yes the image is in focus, it is focusing on the 3 people on the porch. Yes this image is pleasing to look at because the lighting to me is very soft and calming. No the subject don't fill the image. The image in the back is a shed in the back so this image is using the rule of thirds.

The positive space is the 3 people and the porch and the house. The negative spaces are the shed and the buckets on the floor and the sky and trees in the back. Yes I think there is a story being told. About what people wore back in the 50's and how a lot of people couldn't read. I really like this image I think it is really pleasing and beautiful to look at.

The frame crops off some of the house which is nice. Yes this image is balanced. I think the artist made this image to show how people live and what they wear. Also how they act what is their body language. Also what their houses looked like. Are they all the same? Are they all the same size?

Yes I really like this image. Because people still appreciate today still even though it was from the mid 50's. I definitely this image is successful because it really portrays what they looked like. I also think this is one of my favorite images. Its one of my fav, because it feels so real and I really like it.

Kyle Nevitt link

3/1/2017 09:48:16 am

This image is of an African American family opening their mail. It is using all the normal colors and not distorting any. The lighting is natural sunlight. The objects in the image are a house with a porch and another house in the background. In the picture the family is sitting on the front porch and opening their mail.

Th image is correctly exposed. The picture looks to be in focus. The colors look tone the correct way and look like they should. There is no apparent pixelation. The picture looks to have an adequate resolution.

The run of thirds is partially in use because the house is in the right side of the picture. The porch is also in the center and the other house is in the right. The point of view is from directly in front of the family. The picture is focused on the family and it is partially blurred in the background. The picture is not symmetrical.

The picture fills the frame completely. The lines are on the roof and side of the building. They lead to the family. The edge of the image is the edge of the house. This photo is pleasing to look at.

The obvious theme has to do with racist views causing African Americans to live in poor societies. I like this photo because it makes me think about my busy life. The theme is to take time from your busy life to retreat to nature. The family is so invested in their daily lives that they all gather around to open the mail. This photo inspires me to not be so attached to my daily life and to instead take time to retreat into nature and not be so involved in minor aspects of life,

Harrison Fentress

3/1/2017 09:52:11 am

This is an image of the porch of a, in need of repair, house with the owners and mailman sitting there. It is of a house in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. It is using warm colors to show the heat of where they live. The lighting is bright sunlight but they people are sitting in the shadow of their porch roof. The mailman is reading the mail to the residents because they can't read.

The image is perfectly exposed. The whole image is also in focus with a deep depth of field. The colors look warmer than they should be but still natural. There is adequate resolution. There is no pixelation.

The composition is pleasing to look at because the hot sum and cool shade make you feel like you are there. The rule of thirds is being used because the porch is completely contained within the middle third. The point of view is from eye level of somebody standing below the porch. The subject does not fill the frame; the rest of the frame is the sky and trees behind their broken shed. The edge of the frame crops off the rest of the house on the right, and the rest of the forest on the left.

There is a theme of the effects of segregation in 1956 and poverty. There is a story being told, that these residents cannot read so they need the mailman to do it for them on the doorstep of their home in bad condition. The artist's intention was he was hired by Life magazine to raise awareness that segregation does not mean equal. This is an interesting image because it is important part of our history. This is a part of history that must be learned from and never repeated.

I like this photo, because it is very significant to our country. It was to show the whole country that segregation was unacceptable. This photo was successful because eventually it's goal was achieved. Black history month helps remind us to not do this. Nobody should ever live like this in America again.

Will Thompson

3/1/2017 09:55:39 am

This image uses color to highlight certain parts of the picture. It uses the color of the clothes to draw the eyes out of the center of the image. The white clouds go very well with the color of the house. The dark under the house contrasts the sky. The green of the grass in the background compliments the blue sky.
The shapes add layers to the image. The porch which the people are sitting on is squared. This almost makes it look like a frame within a frame. The telephone lines are hard to see but add a layer of their own. This allows for distance to be shown.
The people are centered. This makes them the focus of the image. the mail man is reading their mail to them. This is because they don't know how to read. The person looking at the camera add the layer of perception to the image.
This image is very bright. This shows a lighter mood to the picture. This allows you to feel at ease when you see this. But it also make you think home. The other felling you may feel are based on the person.
The atmosphere is bright and sunny. The image was shot on a beautiful day. The shade is greatly contrasted by the blue sky. This is not as contrasted as the shade under the house though. The image over all gives a sense of calm and is very well shot.

Bo Yin

3/1/2017 09:57:44 am

The image is about a black family. The man is sitting and the woman is standing. There is also a mailman on the side. The picture uses white, which is the house, and green, which is the forest in the background. Although the picture has some really bright colors, the image looks a little dark because of the shadow. It uses natural light.

The image is a little bit underexposed. The image is focusing on the family. The white color does not look white. But this is because the house is old and dirty.There is pixelation in the image, so it might looks not so clearly.

The image is pleasing to look like. The rule of third is not being used in the photo. There is a frame in the image. The roof, wall, floor and the pillar circled the three persons so that we can focus on them. There is lots of empty space front of and behind the house. It shows that the house is in the middle of nowhere.

Although the image is supposed to shoe hoe ordinary the family live, we can see that their lives are hard. There are lots of stains on the wall and the house is almost breaking down. If we look at it carefully, we can see that the mailman is actually reading the letter to the couples. This shows that they have really low level of education.The clothes that they are wearing are also very old.

I like the image because it's very good to look at. The photographer uses lots of technique in this image. It also shows the turbulent lives that black people are living. The image revels their strong characters that support them through the hard time. It is a great image.

Sarah Marshall

This image is of 3 african americans. They are sitting on the porch and there is a man reading to them. The man is a mailman and he is reading the peoples mail to them. He’s reading their mail because in the time that this was taken, many african americans couldn’t read. The artist uses dull colors to display sadness.
The artist includes people and buildings in this photograph. The artist uses dark shadows around the people and natural sunlight around the building. The image is correctly exposed. The image is in focus and the colors are correct. The image is a bit grainy but only because it was taken in the 1900’s.
This photo is pleasing to look at because i like the colors. I like the way that the artist uses both warm and cool colors. The rule of thirds is being used because the people are closer to the right. This photo was taken at eye level with the focal point. The focal point is the group of people on the porch.
The people are framed by the building. The porch and the bars that hold the porch up are the lines. The lines lead your eye to the focal point. The image is balanced and there is extra space besides the subjects. The negative space is where the people are and the building that they are on, and the negative space is the other buildings in the photo.
There are many themes happening in this image, one of them being race. The photo shows how black people back then were not treated equally and most were illiterate. The story is that a mailman delivers mail to a house but the people cannot read so the mailman helps them. This image reminds me of the movie “The Help” which is a movie about inequality between the races. I find this image beautiful and it celebrates the freedom that people have today.

Karina Samuel

3/1/2017 09:59:13 am

This politically driven image depicts the society of African Americans in the rural deep south during the 1950s. Gordon Parks is the photographer that took this image in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. The importance of this image is to visually show the conditions of African Americans during these turbulent times. Seeing the image makes the issue more real and personal for the public reading the magazines. This is the main objective for renowned photojournalists such as Gordan for Life magazine.

This correctly exposed image is in focus. Adequate resolution is also noticeable. The rule of thirds are applied to depict the surroundings of the neighborhood in poverty. This causes the subject to be not quite center of the image but it takes up most of the space. The lines of the tin porch roof and lines of the house lead our eyes to the people on the porch.

This picture shows 3 black Americans on a porch of a wood and tin shack. In the background, another hut is visible with a wooden ladder leaning against it. Many clothes hanging on clotheslines can also be seen. It is a clear bright day with the sun out(interpreted by the shadows) and fluffy clouds in the blue sky. One of the black people on the porch is a mailman indicated by his house. He is reading the mail to the elderly couple.

This displays the low literacy rate among African Americans especially in the south. Since the mailman and the couple are the subject of the image, it shows us that Gordon wanted to highlight this issue. When the American public sees this image (mostly white Americans) it lets them sympathize with this family. The fact that the couple is elderly, you perceive them as being vulnerable and you feel bad that they can’t complete a simple task as just reading a newspaper. Politically sensitive images like this can change people’s perspective and eventually change the world.

I really do enjoy looking at this image. This is successful because it is an example of how Gordon fulfills the purpose of being a photojournalist. It features an unpopular subject and tells the world about it. Images makes political issue very personal, something that often words fail to do. This image makes me sad, seeing the poverty but hopefully and even happy at the same time knowning that it this problem is not unheard.

Daniel Herrera

3/5/2017 01:21:27 pm

In this image the man that send out the letters is reading to notes to the owners of the land (because they cannot read), the colors on this image stand out a lot, almost as if it was a LUT kind of style. This image is just a little over exposed so that the main characters in the photo can show up (due to light).
This image is in focus, the image is using a high f-stop so that a lot can be shown in the photo. This image is color corrected, especial in the saturation purposes. No, in this image there is no pixelation. I find the image pleasing to look at, due to the colors that are really standing out and the landscape. The rule of thirds is not being used in this image, the photograph is centered. Point of view purposes though, the image seems to have been shot centered with the characters in the photo (kind of bird's eye)
Your eyes instantly go towards the characters because they are in the center and because the background is hardly out of focus. This image crops off the rest of the landscape, and the rest of the house that would appear. The negative space in the image would be under the house where the shadow is, the positive space would be on the roof of the house, because of how bright it is.
In this image the idea is that the mailman is reading the letter/ mail to the owners because of their lack of education. Not sure if there is a story, but, if there was it could be related to the idea that the mailman and the owners of that house have known each other, or have had connections before. This image reminds me of a book i had to read this summer, the book was based on a story of an african village that lacked a lot of education, so one of the students left because he couldn't afford to go and decided to educate himself (my thought is kind of to the contrary but still).
This image reminds me of when i was younger and didn't know how to read so my parents read to me, I find the image noteworthy because of the colors used and the possible meaning to the photograph. I like the image, it reminds me that there is a whole other side of the world that isn't as lucky as some of us are, that some of them don't have the privileges we do but still continue to live and enjoy their life. Therefore, i would consider the photograph successful.

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Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #15

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