Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #3

9/28/2017

Today you will be writing about this image by artist Zora Murff. It is from a project titled Corrections. Your analysis must be 4 paragraphs, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph. Remember to post your analysis as a comment to the blog post that corresponds to your class. If you post your analysis to the wrong class's post, it will not be graded.

Below is a project statement written by Murff about his body of work, Corrections:
From 2012 to 2015, I worked as a Tracker for Linn County Juvenile Detention and Diversion Services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As a Tracker, I provided services to youths who were convicted of crimes, adjudicated, and subsequently ordered to complete probation. Juveniles in my charge were asked to comply with services which may include: electronic monitoring, therapies, drug screening, and community service; it was my responsibility to have continual contact with them to ensure these expectations are met.

Tracking and other similar community-based services are being increasingly used as an alternative to detention facilities. These services, which allow juveniles to stay in their homes, show a higher rate of success than strict incarceration. Although community-based services are built to foster a collaborative relationship between juveniles and service providers, attaining the actualization of teamwork becomes problematic when juveniles feel that they have done nothing wrong, are victims of circumstance, or do not fully understand why they have committed a crime. The system has been put in place to provide rehabilitation, but it is far from being a straightforward process. Many influences outside of the youths' control such as education, socioeconomic status, and race all play a role in whether or not a youth reoffends - all of these factors possessing the propensity to lead them to extended periods of incarceration in the juvenile system or to involvement with the criminal justice system as an adult.

By reconsidering the role that I played in the lives of the kids I worked with, I began to acknowledge the burden that comes with tasking young men and women with continued complicity. My stance as a consequence kept our relationships in a state of flux ranging from stable to tenuous – a constant motion mirroring the discord that develops between the system's intentions and outcomes. Through employing ideas of anonymity, voyeurism, and introspection, Corrections is an examination of youth experience in the system, the role images play in defining someone who is deemed a criminal, and how the concepts of privacy and control may affect their future.

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

Catherine Clausewitz

9/28/2017 09:40:35 am

This image is of a boy on a track. Everything is in a blur except for the boy and the area of the track he is standing on. He looks to be about 15 or 16. The photo has a very washed out look to it, but the boy doesn’t look washed out at all. The boy looks very muscular and athletic. He is wearing a black shirt that looks like he rolled up the sleeves and has some kind of image or logo on it, black basketball shorts that hit right above his knee, white ankle socks, black sandals, and ankle tracker and a bright neon yellow bracelet.
The lighting in this photo make it seem like when it was taken it was cloudy, but still bright outside. In the image there is a football goal which makes me assume that he was on a track that goes around the football field. There look to be buildings in the background, but you can’t tell exactly what they are because they are blurry and blocked by trees. Part of the grass seems like it’s dying or was just mowed because the trees still look to be a very dark shade of green. The boy seems to just be standing on the track and it angles so that his face is turned sideways away from the camera.
The picture looks very calming in a way because is isn’t very vibrant. The photographer took this photo at an angle where the track is diagonal, but the boy is facing head straight ahead on the track with the upper part of his body turned away. The focus point of the image is the boy. He is the only thing in the image that is in focus. The first thing my eye is drawn to is the boy because he is in all black and the background is sort of washed out so it almost looks like it’s pastel except for the dark green trees. The artist made this image because the kids that are accused of crimes are just everyday day kids. I like this image and after looking at it awhile it made me what to know the story behind it.

Andi Feik

9/28/2017 09:41:04 am

This is an image of a teenager standing on what looks to be a track and a football field in the background. The colors are mostly green and dark red. The lighting seems to be like it’s dark outside and it’s about to rain. In the image there is a person and the background a football field. In this image the person’s body is facing us but he is looking back at the football field.
I think it is pleasing to look at because you wonder what’s going on and it makes you questions it. The photographer is standing right in front of the person in image but the person’s head is turned so you can’t see his face. The depth of field is pretty shallow because the person in the image is perfectly visible but the background is blurred out so you can’t see. In the image the person is in the middle of the image but the field in the background is at a angle. When you first look at this image you just see the person but then you see all the background. I think the line where the red dirt ends and the grass begins helps direct your eye to the background of this image. In this image the frame is cutting off the field and the dirt.
There is a story in this image because Zora Murff in this series is taking photos of teenagers in Juvenile detention. I think Murff made this image to show you teenager that are in juvenile detention but to also keep their face hidden. This image makes me think that he used to play football and maybe since he’s juvenile detention he can’t play anymore and it’s something he loved to do. I think this image is interesting. I think it’s interesting because it makes you wonder what he did to get to this place. I also like this image though because it makes him look like an average teenager.
I like this photograph. I think it is successful. I think it’s successful because it makes you think for a minute like who he is and what he did. When you first see this image he looks kind of like just a normal kid. In the end I think this is a successful photo.

Leon Toursarkissian link

9/28/2017 09:41:21 am

This image is of a teenage juvenile delinquent wearing a tracker on his ankle (as well as socks and sandals, a terrible mistake), walking on a track next to a football field. The image is using very cool and gloomy colors such as brown, dark green, gray, and black to symbolize the hardship the boy is going through. The lighting in the image is very dull and semi-dark due to the cloudy skies. The objects in the image include a teenager, an ankle tracker, a field goal post, a track, trees, some houses in the background, and a field. In this image, a juvenile is looking out towards the field while walking on the track, perhaps to someone or something.
The composition of the image is very well composed and pleasing to look at because the colors are very cool and crisp and the contrast between the boy and the background makes him seem vibrant. The rule of thirds is being used because the subject, the boy, is right where the center vertical line would be. The angle at which the image was taken was rather close to the subject at an equal or close to equal height and looking straight at the subject. A shallow depth of field is being used because the background of the picture is blurry while the subject appears sharp. The focal point of the picture is the boy, and it is not framed by anything. The lines in this image appear to occur spontaneously and without specific order, and they don’t lead your eyes in any specific direction. The image is not very balanced or symmetrical because each side of the picture has a slightly different background. There is a lot of extra space because the subject only takes up a small portion of the picture. At the edge of the image there are trees, a track, and a field goal post, and the picture crops off spontaneously. The foreground and subject make up the positive space while the trees in the back create negative space.
The theme of the image is showing what the life of a young juvenile delinquent is like and give a picture of it. The story being told is of a boy who got charged with a crime and is now having to be punished for it. The artist made this image because they were working with such young people and wanted to show what they were going through. The image reminds me of the movie The Blind Side because it looks like one of the scenes from that movie. It does not challenge any beliefs. The image is interesting because there is an actual story behind it.
I like this image because the colors and composition of the image have a certain calming flow to them. As well as that, the image has a very interesting story to it which gives you a basis on what the image is of. I think that the image is successful because it is very calming but very powerful at the same time. It also shows the lives of some people so that we can see what they go through.

Dylan Pegg link

9/28/2017 09:42:54 am

This picture shows a teenager standing on a track looking back towards a football field. Brown and green are the most plentiful colors, but other dark colors detail the scene. The lighting looks natural, with a lack of studio lights. On the football field there’s a goal post and a line of houses and trees behind it, and the boy is wearing a tracker above his socks and sandals. He is at a standstill with the top half of his body turned around, gazing towards the goalpost.
The image is taken at the subject's chest level so we can see his entire body, but not much higher or lower. The depth of field is low, only allowing for the boy to be in focus, with everything else visible, but blurred. It is asymmetrical, with the teenager standing in the middle and the goal post on the right of him, with a blank slate of trees and houses on the left. The subject takes up most of the image, with only a few feet under his shoes and over his head not being filled with his height. The image doesn’t cut much off, only the other half of the football field, the track, and the background comprised of houses and trees.
The person seems to be reflecting on their past, maybe because they can longer play football due to a crime. This implies the message that you should think before you act, and meditate on the effects of an action beforehand. Zora Murff most likely made this picture as a tribute to the kids she worked with as a Tracker. In a sense, it reminds me of a football movie or show when the main character was walking away from the field after a long day of practice (not a specific movie). The image challenges the idea that you can always fall back on a sport or old life.
I like the picture since it has a cool story, lighting and angle. It is quite simplistic, but that isn’t a bad thing. The photo becomes more interesting when told the actual story behind it and get to see the other pictures from the project. I believe the picture is effective because it conveys a story, even if you haven’t done any previous research. It is pleasing to look at and can be interpreted many different ways, which is undoubtedly a very good sign.

Chase Blackwell link

9/28/2017 09:43:42 am

The image is a portrait a young man, alone, standing on a dirt path on the edge of a football field. The teen is wearing a tracking anklet, and staring wistfully at the football field, his face turned away from the camera to look at the field, hiding his identity. The scene colors are the main contributing factor to the message of the image. The image lacks any bright colors whatsoever. Everything from the sky to the cloths that he is wearing is muted and not vibrant. The man looks at an out of focus field goal in the background.
The image has a shallow depth of field, with only the young man and the road he walks in focus. The photo was taken to match the height of the young man, likely to make it seem as if we are watching this through someone else’s eyes. The photo itself is very pleasing to look at due to the high levels of contrast the image has, despite being created with only muted colors. The teen’s black shirt and skin serve to contrast the rest of the picture, making him the subject of the photo. He fills the frame most of the way vertically, but there is more space around him horizontally to enable you to see the field goal.
The image does a strong job on conveying a story. The young man, who is now in the rehabilitation program, is wistfully staring at the field goal. The most likely indicates that he regrets not being able to play the sport anymore due to his crime. Another factor in the story telling is that he stands alone in the image, hinting at how he likely feels in his time of trial. The last subtle factor of the story telling is how the road behind him falls out of focus, while the road ahead remains in focus. This likely tells us that everything that he used to be, has been forgotten and abandoned, and now only the version of himself with a criminal record and a anklet on his leg remains.
The image itself is very successful, as you are able to get a strong feeling of how being in the rehabilitation system affects these kid’s lives, which is the composer's purpose for the series. Another thing it does is humanize these kids that go through this. Often you see these kid’s portrayed as stone cold, hard as nails people, but the image serves to defy that perception by showing the pain in the subjects life. It does a strong connection of showing the inner turmoil the kids are going through by using the colors and by being alone in the photo. I personally enjoyed the photo a great deal, as the image serves as an interesting thought piece. The photo makes me question what I would regret losing the most in life should I ever fall into a situation like this.

Estefan Zorrilla link

9/28/2017 09:45:51 am

This image is a picture of a boy in a worn down track next to a football field. The colors that are being used are green, dark green, red and a bit of white. It is day so lighting is good because of natural light. There is a football touchdown pole and a body of a man but he turning away so his face doesn't show. There are also some white houses in the background. I think what is happening is that he is looking at the touchdown pole and remembering all the touchdowns he has made.
The composition is good to look at because of how the picture is aligned, the man is in the middle. The rule of thirds is being used here because of how everything is aligned. The photographer took this photo from his own point of view. Shallow depth of field is being used here because only the man is very detailed and everything else is kinds blurry. There are some lines, the lines in the track make me look through all of the picture. The image is balanced because it is symmetrically aligned. The subject does not fill the frame because there is a lot of extra space. The picture cuts out some of the house, trees, and track. The negative space is everything around the man and the positive space is the man.
Some of the themes and ideas are nostalgia, regret, and remembrance. I think the story being told is that the man once played football and was really good and he had his life ahead of him because of football but then messed up his life because of something illegal he did and now he looks at the football field and feels regret for messing up his life. This reminds me of the last scene from breakfast club.
I do not like this photo. I don't like it because of the feeling it gives out, the feeling it gives out is that something went wrong. The photo is successful because i think the theme that it gave out was the theme it was hoping to set.

melody umsted

9/28/2017 09:46:07 am

This image is of a teenage boy standing on a track. He is facing the camera but has turned his head and torso in such a way that he is looking backwards and you cannot see his face. There is a tracker on his ankle. He is wearing a black shirt with the sleeves pushed up, black gym shorts, and black slides. In the background there is a field goal, some trees, and some houses. The image is cold because it is cloudy outside.
The photographer took this image straight on, standing on the ground. There is a shallow depth of field for only the boy and and a small area of the track on which he is standing is in focus. The boy is the focal point because he is standing smack dab in the middle of the picture, but he is not framed. Around him, there is a lot of negative space because there aren’t a lot of objects in this picture. The rule of thirds is being used because the kid is standing in the middle of the image.
The idea of this image is to give the kids in the corrections facility an identity. The photographer wanted people to know that the kids in the system are real people and not just statistics. This can question social ideas because some people do not realize that kids in the system are real teenagers, just like any other teenager, and they can do things that anyone else can do because they are humans. The photographer is making social statement with not only this image, but with the rest in his Corrections series. The tracker on the boy’s ankle reminds me of a TV show that I watched on netflix because one of the main characters was a CI for the FBI and wore a similar tracker.
I like this image because I like the story and the reason for taking this picture. I am all for equality and I like that the photographer wants people to know that the kids in the system are just kids, and that people who are not in the system are not higher than these kids because we are all humans beings. This picture is successful. The photographer was obviously trying to make a point that was very clear. It makes the observer think about the situations that these kids are in and give them a new perspective.

Kaitlyn Evans

9/28/2017 09:46:24 am

Critical Analysis #3

In this image there is a young boy on a football field or track, he looks like he’s at a school or a park. The boy is wearing a muscle tank top and gym shorts with socks and sandals. The boy has an ankle monitor so it means he has to stay close to home. The colors in this picture are green, red, black and white. The colors in this picture are gray because of the light coming from the sky. The sky is cloudy so the picture won’t have a bright light reflecting on the subject. The objects in this image is a boy but he isn’t showing his face. It looks like he is at a park or a school. There are trees in the background along with a football field goal and some houses or buildings. In this image the boy is walking around the track or playing football, he has to stay close to home because of his ankle monitor so one of is houses might be in the background.
Yes this picture is pleasing to look at because it’s focused on the subject and then it slowly fades as it approaches the background. The point of view is in front because the photographer took the picture while standing in front of the boy. The photographer took this picture in a deep depth of field so she could capture the whole image of the boy and the background. The lines in this image are from the field goal the boy is looking at it so it kinda directed my eyes towards it. Yes this image is balanced it is symmetrical. The subject does not fill the space there is still extra room in the background that includes nature and buildings or houses. At the edge of this image that isn’t shown is more of the track that the boy is walking on.
In this image the photographer is showing us another lifestyle. The story that this image is showing is that the boy is going through a hard time. He was arrested and put on house arrest. We tend to think differently about people who have done something bad and we don’t ever change our perspective on people we see that are like this. I think the artist was trying to show us how different our lives can be from another person’s life. I thought this image was interesting because i've never seen anyone before that had an ankle monitor. It’s crazy how many lifestyles everyone is living in this everyday world.
I really liked this image, it’s puts a whole new perspective on life. I liked how even tho he got in trouble he was still able to have some freedom in his life. It’s nice that he gets to go outside and walk or play football. This photograph was successful because reading the artist story about how she felt and the backside of this picture was really nice because it made me feel like i was there. It must’ve been hard for her to take this photo and knowing that she had enough courage to do it and look past the boy’s problems he did in the past was wonderful.

Pedro Mejido

9/28/2017 09:47:47 am

The picture is of a young muscular man with socks,sandals,shorts,sleeveless shirt, and an ankle bracelet standing on the track next to footbfallield. The image has a dark and gloomy lighting the picture was probably taken early in the morning. The photographer used a shallow depth of field and the picture is mostly concentrated on the young man. The image is interesting because the young man looks like he’s staring off into the distance, is he staring at people playing football, is he staring at the houses, or is he is just daydreaming or remembering past events who knows. The context of the image is that this photograph was taken in a juvenile detention center, that is why the young man is wearing an ankle bracelet. The photographer made the young man stare off into the distance to mostly cover his face but also to make you feel a bit of empathy for the young man for going through the process of a juvenile detention center and not having fun. I do like the image because I like the dark gloomy atmosphere and the young man looking off into the distance. In my opinion the image was successful in catching my attention to the young man and making me think about what was the young man looking at.

Adriana Vazquez link

9/28/2017 09:48:17 am

The image is of a guy with gym clothes, flip flops and a muscle tank on that is looking at a football that is next to him.The main object in the image is the guy standing, the background are the trees, houses behind the trees and the football field. The colors are the image are not a little dark, the trees that are at the background are very dark, the grass of the football field is very bright and the darkest object in the image are the clothes that the guy is wearing. I think that what is happening in the image is that the guy was arrested and can't go outside of his house, one day he escaped from his house because he was tired of it, and ran to the football field to remember when he used to play football. What he is doing in the image is remembering the football games and how much fun he had while playing football.
THe image is interesting to look at, so we can know what the guy is thinking and why he has a muscle tank. It’s not pleasant to look at because it doesn't bring any joy or happiness, it just makes us think about what the guy is doing.Th photographer took the picture while standing, the guy in the picture doesn't look tall or short, he looks in a normal weight.There is a big sall depth of field being used, the trees in the background are not being focused nor the football field, the only thing that is being focused is the guy standing. The focal point in the picture is the guy, when you first see this picture the first thing your eyes go to is the guy, because he's standing in the middle, the darker object in the image and he's the only thing that is being focused. The image might is very balanced by the trees in the background. The subject does not fill the image, the guy is only standing in the middle and it's not covering the whole image, the rest of the image is being balanced by the trees, the houses behind the trees and the football field.

Julieta Vazquez Martinez

9/28/2017 08:34:04 pm

This image is portrait. There is a tall black boy in the center with short hair. He is wearing a black t-shirt and has his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, he is also wearing black basketball shorts and black slides with white socks. He has two visible bracelets, a yellow on in his right hand, and a black ankle-tracker-bracelet in his right ankle. You can tell that he does some workout because he has muscle and you can see the veins popping out in his right hand. Looking at the opposite way of the camera, his head is tilted backwards a little bit, and he is standing as already said in the center of the image in a (what it looks like a) track of a field. This track is not very “nice” as some people would say, it isn’t really taken care of, the grass is kind of dry. In the back, you can see how the wind moves the trees, in the back there is also an unfocused football goal post. The image uses cold colors because of the season at which the image was taken, it seems to have been taken sometime during late fall/early winter, or maybe late winter.

The image has a fair composition, it is not very elaborated but at the same time is not extremely simple, it is fairly simply composed. The rule of three does apply, you could divide this picture in a three by three grid and would get some good parts, and some other abstract parts. The point of view is of about the same size of the person, it is not from a lower or higher level. The image is only focused on the boy, everything else is unfocused. It is because of the focus that your eyes are imediately directed to the subject (the boy) and there are no existing lines to direct your eye somewhere else. This subject fills the image enough that leaves space for more and this is why the image is symetrical.

Like all of the other pictures of this collection, the theme is about teenagers in the juvenile. The collection talks about these kids and how they live their life with a bit of freedom and how they strugle. I believe the image tells the story of this boy that has a tracker in his anckle, God knows what he did but because of that, he is missing out a lot of things a normal kid would do, like participate in a school´s sport. This image reminds me of the field trip we did at the beggining of the year, when we went to Heaven for hope even though the image is about a juvinile and Heaven for Hope was a place where homeless people get helped.

Honestly, I do not like this image. I believe that with a topic so deep this this he/she could have done a better job. The image itself is very plane, it has a bit of background story but it does not really make you think about things. The photograph is unsuccessful because it does not make you reflect about the theme.

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Period 4 -- Critical Analysis #3

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