Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #12

2/13/2020

Today you will be writing about an image from artist McNair Evans' series Confessions For A Son.

Write 4 paragraphs, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph. Remember, refer to your "How to See" handout for analyzing a photograph--Your analyses will be graded on:

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

Read the Project Statement before you write:

Summary
Confessions for a Son juxtaposes photographs I made in 2010 and 2011 concerning the lasting psychological landscape of my fathers legacy with images taken by him roughly 40 years ago to explore a complex relationship between father and son and the disappearance of an American, agrarian way of life.

Statement
There was no man that my father admired more than his father, and no one his father admired more than the man who raised him. With tenderness of heart and warm humor my father met everyone as his equal.

Upon his death in November 2000, I was exposed to our family businesses insolvency. Dad faced a series of devastating fires, bad crops, perpetual over-extension and high-interest loans. Five generations of familial and financial stability fractured. While the economic effects were immediately obvious, the emotional implications lingered beneath the surface for nine years.

In 2010 I returned home to photograph the lasting psychological landscape of Dad’s legacy. Retracing my father’s life, I used photography to comprehend its events. Visiting the farms where we hunted, his college dorm rooms, and his oldest friends, I photographed his family members and businesses while researching his character and actions. I could not equate these.

These photographs narrate my journey between isolation and acceptance. Initially confused and angry, I grew to know him as a teenager, college student, co-worker, life-long friend, and father who lovingly withheld business realities. I witnessed shortcomings and successes and found empathy with a man who faced so much in his life. His sacrifices cost the ultimate price, and accepting that some questions may never be answered, I grew to love him again.

These works share my emotions after his death, my search to learn more abut him in recent years, and a journey of acceptance and forgiveness. These pictures are my way of saying its OK. Everything that happened is done and it’s OK. They are my way of taking ownership of everything that I felt, and all the anger and all the shame, and saying, “Yes, I felt that, and it’s OK to feel that, and I still love you.”

Kurt Bliss

2/13/2020 09:29:55 am

The closed blinds, the dark and shadowy room that casts natural light and darkness all over the bookshelves and bed. It all represents the emptiness and darkness that the artist feels inside. IT represents the struggle, pain, tears that he goes through on a daily basis and how it all connects to his journey to get better.

It thinks the artist is trying to tell us about his own personal struggles as well as the darkness that occasionally consumes us all. The darkness that consumes me as well and sometimes that ruins my life and my mood in the classroom, at home, and when interacting with friends. It’s this darkness that affects every part of people's daily life and on some occasions my life as well> At Some form or another it affects us all and touches our emotions because it represents a part of us that we either ignore or choose to pay attention to. This image therefore is very personal to me as it is relatable to me and all of us.

The image achieves this because it has dark overtones and uses an empty room and an ominous mood to reflect on the darkness that's inside us. I think the author really paid attention to how he set up his room as in my mind it represents his life and his emotional state. It is a photo that allows the reader to peek into his soul and figure out what he feels on a daily basis.

I would say that this image was hard to make as he had to set it up a certain way with all the objects in the room and the way the light interacted with these objects. Overall I would say he did a fantastic job representing what he wanted to with this image and representing more importantly his battle with darkness and his personality. I loved this image as it spoke to me and it spoke to a lot of other people in this world.

Diego Saucedo

2/13/2020 09:31:26 am

Critical analysis

In this photograph we can see a room with old stuff in it, it is probably his parents room or something, but we can see old books and pictures of little boys, with a map that is being hanged on the wall next to the window, that window is shining the reflection of the night, but it appears to still be daylight outside, the artist’s dad might have died or an accident happened to make this sad type of picture.

I think he used masking to make the effect of the night light, he changed the color of the blinds and the light to make it a little more orange to simulate that effect of the night reflection through the blinds, he also made the room darker and make the blind area more brighter to make an effect on the image as like if it was bright outside and dark inside like night time, darkness also can affect the images and the spectator's point of view in how they see the image and how bright or dark it is, it reminds me of a sad movie.

In this picture the artist darkened the room and lightened the blinds and the windows to make a weird effect in the image, like if it was a sad moment in the artist’s life to make and spread that feeling of sadness to the viewer so they can be inspired by it and all of their work that they have done, It seems like someone died of had a rough time and the artist is just trying to explain his feelings to the world .

I like this image because it doesn’t have too many things going on in the picture, it's just straight forward and emits the message it tries to explain, like sadness or boredom, many people have different ways to express themselves to the world like people who express themselves through songs, well this artist express himself through pictures.

George Welch

2/13/2020 09:33:32 am

This image is of inside a room with the light coming in from the window. It uses a lot of dark and blue colors in the image. Through the window you see a lot of light coming in. The light that is coming in looks like it was probably taken during a sunrise/sunset. There are no people in the image, just the empty room.

The rule of thirds does not seem to be used. There is a very wide depth of field and the entirety of the image is clear. The image doesn’t seem to cut anything off at the corners. For me the focal point is the light coming in from the window because it is where my eyes go first. I think the point of view the image is being taken at is from someone walking in from the door.

I think the story of the image is reflecting back on a time or memory. This also gives me a really dreamy vibe to it. It also has a nostalgic feel to it. I think the image is also kinda mysterious because there isn’t a lot going on. This also kinda reminds me of a grandparents house.

I like this image. The artist was clearly trying to tell a story about their deceased dad. I think it also is very successful in paying tribute to their loved one. It shows how they lived. I like this image.

dana s

2/13/2020 09:34:08 am

The photograph by McNair Evans seems to be of a bedroom. The room looks like a bedroom because there is a working space and a mirror near a vanity/ desk. The desk however, is very small, which would not be put in a bigger room such as a study or living room. The whole room seems gloomy and alone. There doesn’t seem a lot of activity within the room because the lights aren’t on and the only source of light is the one that is coming in from the window. The artist is using darker colors except for the reflection of the window on the wall.
I think that this image is pleasing to look at because I like pictures with dark, cool colors instead of ones with bright lighting. The focal point of this image seems to be the yellowish reflection of light. The frame looks full even though some objects are cut. The drawers on the left and the lamp on the right of the image are both cut off. So what we first see is the window and the reflection that it produces. I believe that this image is balanced because of the different contrasting colors that are being used, as well as the lines that direct the eyes into different objects each time.
I think that the theme of this image has something to do with Evans’ father. Evans is reminiscing about time with his father and remembers him with a great attitude. I think that the reflection of the window because in a room full of darkness, the artist can come in and feel a presence. I think that this image represents Evans always been looked upon by his father and even his ancestors. I think that it represents him being accompanied by his father because of how the reflection is presented in the image. There are no rays of light or particles that come off the window. There is only the colored image on the wall.
I really like this image because of the colors and I also like the feeling it brings me when I look at it. I feel like the image has something to do with always been looked upon or not being alone whenever you feel like you are. I believe that the author was successful in creating this image because of the colors and the different objects included in the image. It gives off meaning, especially after reading his statement.

Zac Isaac

2/13/2020 09:40:12 am

The image is in a room when its day but the window glare looks like it’s in the night. There is a picture of what looks like a baseball or a football team. There are a few lamps in the room. There is a mirror on the wall but you can’t see the camera. There is a picture of a map on the wall.

The rule of thirds are being used with the mirror on the wall. It is a small depth of field. The point of view is straight to the wall. There's not that much positive space. It’s mostly negative.

The photo was probably photoshop to make it look like it was night and day at the same time. This is a very confusing photo. I don’t really know how to describe the image. It’s a very interesting photo. I think it’s cool how the window glare looks like it’s night.

I like it, it's a very confusing yet interesting photo. I think it’s a successful photo. If you were in a museum strolling through all the photos. This is one of the photos that would make you stop dead in your tracks. It’s one of the photos that you like because it makes you think, what, how and wow.

Garrett Greiner

2/13/2020 09:41:31 am

This is an image of a small room that might possibly have served as a small office room at a house. There is a small desk on the right hand side of the picture, and there is a lamp, some papers, a jar that holds writing utensils. There is a small bookshelf to the left of the desk, and there are a few books stacked on top of the book case. Above the bookshelf is what appears to be a framed map. There is a picture of a bunch of guys together on the desk. There is a window on the left side of the room, and the curtain has been pulled up, and the shades have been opened, and the light is shining through. The silhouette of the window appears on the wall, covering part of the mirror and the map. It uses dark colors, as the room is dark, and the only source of light is the natural light/sunlight coming through the window. In terms of colors, it uses shades of blue and orange. In the reflection of the mirror, we can see the door to this room, and we can determine that the room is small.

I think that the image is pleasing to look at. The rule of thirds is not being used, unless the subject is supposed to be the silhouette of the window. The photographer took this from eye-level. This picture was taken with a deep-depth of field, because everything in the frame is in focus. I think the focal point is the silhouette of the window, as it stands out from everything else and when I look at the photo that is the first thing that I look at. I think that the lines from the silhouette of the window bring your attention to the other parts of the image. The image is asymmetrical, in terms of colors and objects. The image crops off some of the wooden furniture that is on the left side of the frame, and it crops off some of the desk and the lamp that are on the right hand side of the frame.

I think that the theme of this image is secrecy, as it feels like you only get to see part of the room. It feels like you are only looking through the window, just seeing a part of what is going on, since the orange color on the wall from the sunlight is the only part of the room that is lit up. It makes me feel like I can’t see everything that is going on, and that there is more to discover. After reading the statement from the artist, I think that this is his intention. He felt like his father hid things from him and didn’t tell him everything that was going on. The image reminds me of waking up on a weekend morning, when the light is creeping in through the windows, and you can see the silhouette on the wall, and the rest is somewhat dark. It doesn’t really raise any questions. It is a very interesting image.

I like this image, mainly because of the window silhouette and how they set that up. I think that if the image did not have that aspect to it, it wouldn’t have been as interesting. I think that it is quite successful at showing how you are only able to see a fraction of what is going on, which is conveyed through the whole window part of this image. I believe that this is the artist’s intention based on the information that we gathered before we started writing about this image. If this was his true intention behind this picture, I think that he conveyed it successfully and in a pretty interesting way.

Ryan S.

2/13/2020 09:42:37 am

The image is of a room, most likely the artist's father’s room because you can see a group photo of guys in black and white on the desk in the bottom right. Some details are that there’s a window on the right with cloudy sunlight coming in, but it looks like the light is shining onto the back wall in a much more yellow hue. The image is using lots of greys and because it’s cloudy outside and the room is dark. Also there’s yellow-oraish colors. The lighting is dark and the light that is coming in from the window is grey and subdued most likely because it’s cloudy outside. Some objects included in the image are a desk, a black and white group photo on the desk, a book stand, a mirror, and lamp and a dresser. There's nothing happening in the image, it is more of a symbolic image than an action image.

The image is pleasing to look at because the yellow light on the back wall is kind of cool. The rule of thirds is being used, and the point of view is first person. The angle is at eye level staring towards the back wall of this room. The depth of field is more medium because the focus is on the yellow light from the back wall. The focal point is the yellow light on the back wall and the image is not framed. The image is balanced and asymmetrical, and the subject does not fill the frame. At the edges of the image there's parts of the desk and dresser as well as the ceiling of the room. The negative space in the image is concentrated towards the bottom right because it’s farthest from the window. The positive space is mostly on the left by the window.

The theme in the image is something not being quite what you expected them to be. For instance the light from the window is “shining” on the back wall in yellow-orangish light instead of where you'd expect it to be. There's a story being told in the image. The story is of the artist's father and how he wasn’t quite what he thought he was. The artist made this image to help tell his story, I think. The image doesn't remind me of anything and doesn’t question any of my beliefs. I think the image isn't very interesting because it's just a room.

I don’t like the image too much because it’s pretty boring. It's one of those things where you can see it once and not really need to see it again. It just isn't that interesting. I think the image is successful because it does a good job of showing what the artist is trying to show.

anaya zachery

2/13/2020 09:44:49 am

This image portrays what looks to be a bedroom. We see a desk, a bookshelf, and a window. The window casts a shadow on the adjacent wall. The colors are all cool tones except for the orange-ish shadow from the window. There is quite a bit of shadow, and it looks like most of the light in the photo is natural. It is most likely late in the evening or cloudy weather.

Most of this photo is in focus, but i think Evans intended the subject to be the wall that we are facing. From this we can tell that a fairly wide depth of field was used. The frame is mostly filled up, without much negative space. Outside the frame, there’s most likely the rest of the furniture in the room. The photographer most likely took this photo from across the room.

I think that part of this story shows the complexity of the life of whoever’s room this was. We see photos, books, and other objects that probably help to characterize the person. From the artist’s statement on this project, we know that his intention with this photo was to reveal parts of his father in order to come to terms with his passing and the parts of his life that he discovered. I think that the window may represent something to do with vision, the way Evans was finally able to properly see how complex his father’s life was. I think it is a very interesting photo, as the details allow us to see specific parts of his life.

i do like this image, i think, first of all, the colors in it are very appealing. The varied shades of blue give it an interesting feel, which i enjoy. i also like that we are able to get a glimpse of the details of whoever’s room this belongs to, which i assume is Evan’s father. I think this is a really beautiful photo, and almost poetic in a way. I would love to see more of Evan’s work.

MJ Ervin

2/13/2020 09:47:14 am

This image is of a room and a window with a sunset light shining through. It's used like some cool colors and then that sunsets warm colors. The lighting is kinda dark but has the lighting from the outside sunset. The objects included are a bed, some lamps, a painting and a shelf. Nothing is really happening in the image because there is nobody in the image.

It is pleasing to look at because it's calm and I guess smooth. The image is not using the rule of thirds. I can't tell what the point of view is because there isn't really a subject. Depth of field is not being used in this image almost all of the image is in focus. There aren't really any lines. It's mainly just the sunset being shined on the wall which the eye is directed to. This image seems to be balanced. I guess the subject fills the frame. It doesn't really leave anything out except the rest of the dresser and the desk. The negative space is mainly everywhere and the positive space is where the window is and the where the sunlight hit the wall.

I don't know the theme of this image. I'm not sure if there's a story being told about this image but it seems like you are supposed to feel emptiness. I don't know the intention of this image but maybe because he is trying to show blankness and emptiness. This kinda reminds me of a shot they would use in a movie if somebody moved away or passed away and they wanted to do like a flashback kinda thing. This image is pretty interesting and kind of relaxing to me.

I like this image because of how it seems to be a calfish. The way the sunset light hits the wall is nice and makes it so much better then if it was daylight light. The photograph is successful and seems like it could be printed and put for sale because it could really mean anything. Like it's up to you for what you think it means but it's a really good picture.

Nathan Bond

2/13/2020 09:49:51 am

This is a picture of a room. There is a dresser to the left with a lamp and pictures of people. to the left of that is a window and next to the window is a frame of a map and the light of the window is shining on it. To the right of the map is a mirror that is above a stand. The stand has pictures of a sports team, a cup of pencils, a vase, newspapers, and a lamp. To the left of the stand and under the map there is a bookshelf completely filled with books.

The room is almost completely dark but there is light from the window shining in. There are curtains rolled up above the window The color of the room looks white but because of the light from the window, it looks dark blue. This isn’t pleasing to look at because it’s just a normal room. In this image, you’ll first look at the window and then the light that window produces shines on a map that you’ll look at next and those are the lines. This image is asymmetrical because it takes to the left of the room.

There is no subject and there is a lot of extra space to look around and analyze. Almost the whole room is filled with negative space and the only positive space is by the window. There is no story in this image and I don’t think there are themes. I also don’t know why the artist took a picture of this. It doesn’t question or challenge beliefs.

This image isn’t interesting or noteworthy to me because it’s just a normal room. I don’t like or dislike this image, I just don’t care for it. This photo is unsuccessful for me because it doesn’t tell a story and doesn’t hook my interest.

Elise Miles

2/13/2020 09:50:26 am

This photo is of a room like a study. The colors in the image are blue, white, and yellow to show how empty it is. The lighting is bright but not at the same time. The window is light but the room itself is dark. The objects in the image are some lamps, books, and a desk. There is nothing happening in the image unless it is day.

The image is not using the rule of thirds. The point of view is coming from the back part of the room from a high angle. It is a deep depth of field because there is nothing completely focused on. The lines in the image are the outline of the window shallow on the wall leading you nowhere. The focal point of the image is the bright outline of the window on the wall. Assuming the subject of the image is the outline of the window on the wall it does not fill the image and there is extra space. At the edge of the image is the top of the wall, the desks, and the lamp.

The theme of the picture is an abandoned study room in a house that is empty. The story behind the image is that the person who usually works in it probably left for work or hasn’t gone in the room in a long time. The artist made the image in order to celebrate his dad’s legacy in the work of photographing important landscapes of his dad’s life. The image reminds me of my grandma’s study and how crazy it is there with papers. It does not question any beliefs. The image is noteworthy in how simple it is but has some aspects in it that are unique.

I like the image because it reminds me of my grandma’s house. My grandma’s house is always a fun place to go so it gives me good feelings. The photo is successful in that the lighting is great and sets the mood. The mood of emptiness yet homely. Overall it is very good.

Max

2/22/2020 02:34:20 pm

This image is of a dark room, the only light is that of a window, but the light coming from the window is for some reason orange when the light outside is a bright white. The entire room is almost a blue color. The decorations in the room are all older decorations. As I mentioned before, the lighting is extremely dark, which fits in with the theme of the photograph; “Finding who my father was after his death.”

The image is really pleasing to look at, mostly because the colors aren’t bright, and are very dark and easy on the eye. The light of the window is the main focal point, which is framed by the room around it. The image is very asymmetrical, mostly because the light from the window is very wavy, and not straight at all. There is no subject in this photo, and it is literally just empty space with a few decorations at the bottom and on the walls. The negative space is all around the light on the wall, and the light is the positive space.

The themes in this image are that the taker of the photo is trying to connect with his deceased father. He took these photos to try to get to know him better as a person, which ultimately led to him discovering something about the family business. This image actually reminds me of a dream I had where I was locked in a dark house, and the only light was the light coming from this lone lamp in the living room. It was bolted to the table, and I couldn’t move it, so I had to try to find my way out without any light.

Overall, I found this image really fun to look at. It was a very successful image, and I enjoyed taking a closer look at it. It was an incredibly well-done image, and I admire that.

Max (again)

2/22/2020 02:36:44 pm

(I accidentally cut it short, here's the rest) I loved this image because it reminds me of my aunt's house. She lives in Austin, and for some reason it just reminds me of that.

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Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #12

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