Period 4 -- Practice Critical Analysis

8/24/2017

Each week, we 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, time posted, and word count. The 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.

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

Andi Feik link

8/26/2017 09:43:30 am

This is image is of a pumpkin patch with smashed pumpkins and house on fire in the background with firetrucks. The image is using warmers colors because it during fall time. The lighting is sort of cloudy and kind of dark. In the pumpkin patch there are a bunch of smashed pumpkins. In the pumpkins patch there’s also a building that says Mclean Farm Market. Near the building there is a man who is a firefighter who is shopping. All of this is taking place in the foreground. In the background there is an old yellow and green house. The house is on fire, there are firetrucks trying to put out the huge flames.
I don’t think this picture is that pleasing to look at. The rule of thirds is being used by having the three fence posts. The fence posts kind of guide your eye to the subject of the picture. I think the artist was standing on something higher than the ground while taking this picture. I think the focal point in the pumpkin patch. The lines are the fence post that direct your eye to the middle of the image to make you see the whole image. The image is not symmetrical I think that things are all over the place making your eye look everywhere. I think the image fills the frame because the pumpkins take up two side, the fire has the top side and the trees are on the other side of the image. The frame is cropping off some of the pumpkins and some smoke.
The theme of this picture is a fireman shopping while there’s a fire in the background. I think his intention of making this picture was kind of to confuse people and make them really take their time looking at his image. This image reminds me just of fall time and all the pumpkins and trees. I think this image is very interesting because when you first look at it you just see fire and pumpkins and then the longer you look at it the more you see and the more interesting it gets.
I really like this picture because it gets you to think about it. I think this photo is successful. He captures just a really interesting place and time. I think that this image overall is interesting and unique to look at and I like it.

Leon Toursarkissian link

8/26/2017 10:53:42 am

Leon Toursarkissian
Saturday, August 26, 2017
12:53 PM
This image is of a farmers market and pumpkin patch that had smashed pumpkins, and a burning house in the background. The picture is using colors that would generally be associated with autumn, such as orange, red,and brown, all of which are considered warm colors. The lighting of the picture is moderate because there are clouds in the sky that give it a slightly dimmer appearance. The objects in this image are pumpkins, a farmers market stand, a fireman, a fence, a firetruck, a burning house, and a few trees. In the image, it appears that there is a fireman buying things from the farm market with the smashed pumpkins while there is a fire raging in the house in the background.
The image is really pleasing to look at because of all the warm colors give it an a cozy and very real feeling, and all of the colors seem to work perfectly together. The rule of thirds is being used by having the farm market on the left side and the house being on the right side. The picture is being taken from the third person view. The depth of field being used isn’t used too extremely because the whole picture is sharply taken. The focal point of the picture is the farm market and smashed pumpkins. The lines are close to the side of the picture and they direct your eyes to the fire. The image is not very balanced or symmetrical because each side of the picture is very different from the other. The subject is much smaller than the frame and most of the picture is extra space. The negative space is all of the grass, smashed pumpkins, and the sky.
The theme for the image is that there is a fire raging in the background while the farmers market is just living peacefully in the front. The story being told is that there is a controlled fire taking place in the background, and meanwhile there is just a fireman shopping around the farmers market. The artist probably made this image to show that calm things and rowdy things are always close. The image reminds me of my favorite time of year, when the weather is nice and cool. The image is interesting because it seems to have a lot going on in it, however it doesn’t seem overwhelming.
I like this picture because it has a very warm and cozy feeling that gives me the feeling that I’m actually there. I also like that it balances colors very well. I think that the photograph is successful because it is very pleasing to look at.

Catherine Clausewitz

8/26/2017 01:26:04 pm

The image is of a pumpkin patch with a burning house behind it. At first glance my eye immediately goes to all of the bright oranges in the screen or the fire and pumpkins. They have very bright oranges, pastel blues and grays, forest greens and dark reds. You can’t really tell what time of day it is in the photo but, if I had to guess I would probably say sometime in the morning. It’s very cloudy so you can’t really tell what time of day it is just that it’s sometime in autumn and the weather looks kind of muggy.
In the back of the photo you see firefighters fighting a pretty big house fire with multiple firemen and a firetruck. They fire isn’t just inside the house its spread to the roof as well. When you look at the pumpkin patch you see a firefighter shopping for a pumpkin with smashed pumpkins all around. It made me wondering why is he not helping with the burning house but instead picking pumpkins. Does the fireman see the fire from the pumpkin patch and just ignoring it or does he just don’t see it at all.
In class we learned that it was firemen being trained for a house fire and the fireman in the pumpkin patch is just most likely on break. The house fire reminds me of a scene from Safe Haven. The house/store was set on fire and it was destroyed in the end. It also reminds me of all the fires that you see on the news that get out of control and destroy the structure that caught on fire.
I think if I was just to take a glance at this photo I would think okay that’s cool, I don’t really understand it but it’s cool. Now looking at it more in depth and asking questions about the photo and really studying it you see more details. The photo is very interesting and catches your eye. The pops of bright colors catch my eye right away but I also think it made me question the photo about what was going on.

Pedro Mejido

8/27/2017 10:50:32 am

This picture shows a small farm market selling pumpkins while a house is on fire in the background. There is one firefighter in the picture, the firefighter is buying a pumpkin in the farm market. The picture uses warm colors like orange because theres a fire is in the background. The lighting of the photo is a light gray and there are some smashed pumpkins and some undamaged pumpkins. There is a fire in a house in the background and a firefighter buying a pumpkin. The picture looks good because of the warm colors it is using and giving the sense of the autumn season.
It seems the photo was taken on top of a rock The photographer wasn't that farm away from the farm market nor the burning house. The image still has a small detail which is kind of out of frame which is the fire truck. The story behind this image is that the house is on fire for training purposes for firemen. This would also explain why the firefighter is buying pumpkins instead of putting out the fire since it is a controlled fire.
In conclusion I like the photo because it gives me the sense of autumn and I also like the warm colors in the fire mixed in with the light gray sky.

Melody Umsted

8/27/2017 12:20:22 pm

This photo is of a little market and a burning house. There are smashed pumpkins and dead trees. The market and pumpkins are in the foreground and the burning house is in the background. There is a firefighter browsing a stack of pumpkins in front of the market. It is cloudy. The picture is cold, with touches of warm colors like the fire, pumpkins, and the fireman’s jacket.
The picture has a deep depth of field. There are fence posts that lead your eye to the market, and then to the burning house. There is a lot of extra space in the photo. The fire truck and smashed pumpkins are at the edge of the picture and partly cut off. Trees and the smoke are also cut off.
A theme of this picture is irony. We see a burning house, and since the firefighter is at the market, it looks like he is just letting the house burn. This also shows that the artist makes you think and ask questions. Why is the fireman not doing his job? This leads to challenge prior beliefs of first responders. They are supposed to be the good guys keeping people safe, not browsing a pumpkin patch. The image is very interesting because there is a lot going on, you can just look at it for a long time.
I like this photo. I like that you can interpret it many different ways. Without knowing the story behind it, you just get confused when you look at it. This photo is successful. The artist was successful by making people want to look at this picture and think about it.

Estefan Zorrilla

8/27/2017 03:21:16 pm

This photograph is of a somewhat destroyed pumpkin market with a building on fire in the background. Immediately, this photograph demands attention because of the bright colors in the picture.The picture has bright orange because of the pumpkins and fire. Apart from the bright colors, it also has dark colors like grey because of the smoke. Some more dark colors are a light brown of the trees and some grass. It is also feels gloomy because of the lighting. The sky is cloudy so its all one mushy grey color. There are some people in this image, there is a firefighter tending to the fire and a man with a yellow coat in the market holding a pumpkin. I think what is happening in the image is that the firefighter is trying to get rid of the fire while the man is trying to save the remaining pumpkins.
I think the image is very pleasing to look at because of the colors and where they are in the image. The rule of thirds is being used. It looks aligned and aesthetically pleasing. The photographer took a picture from behind all the pumpkins. The depth of field is that the pumpkin market is is more in the picture and captures your attention first. The focal point is the the pumpkin market. It is not framed. There are lines in the image, the green poles to the right of the image kinda lead you to the pumpkins and the fire. The image is very balanced, the floor is straight. The subject fills most of the image in but there is still the sky, trees and a bit of land. In the edge of the image there is a tree and part of the firetruck that is cropped out.The negative space is mostly in the upper part of the photo.
Some of the themes and ideas is destruction and havoc because of the smashed pumpkins and fire. I think the story in this picture is that both the people that own the market and live in the house where very unlucky. I think the artist made this picture so we can see the importance of bright colors and the unlucky people. This reminds me of a old timey road trip movie. I think this image is very interesting
I like this picture because of the colors and the story its trying to tell. This picture is more of a you make up the story kind of deal. The image is interesting and good to look at.

Julieta Vazquez Martinez

8/27/2017 08:40:32 pm

In this photo by Joel Sternfeld, we see an autumn scene. In a first plane we see on the left middle center of the photo a farm market called McLean (you could say that it was a sign not done by a professional), they sell pumpkins and some smashed ones are scattered through the bottom right side of the photo. A firefighter is buying some pumpkins, which is very ironic since in the back we have a house in fire, with a fire crane and more firefighters trying to stop the fire. We only see calid colours because of the season.

I would say that the image is indeed pleasing to look at because the composition is well arranged, and the colours are congruent with each other, in other words, they match. The photograph is taken from a third person view. As we discussed in class, the photographer was probably on top of something, maybe his car. It is not focused in just one thing, but rather everything is focused. There are present lines in the photograph in a shape of “Z” a little bit tilted to the right. From the fire crane, to the path of the trees, and then the line follows the green poles on the right side. There's some space missing like the fire crane is not complete in the photograph, and the trees on the top are cut on the tip.

The ideas presented in this picture are irony, since the firefighter is not doing his job. And as Catherine said in the class discussion, there is this one tree on the left side that is different from all the others. There's definitely a story told in this image, from what started the fire, to the smashed pumpkins, and the firefighter. This picture reminds me of different movies, like Disney halloween movies type.

I do like this Photograph because of all the “big picture” that it has, it is very interesting since you can come up with a variety of very different stories that explain what is happening in this picture. It is a successful picture because in catches the viewer’s interest on what is going on.

Dylan Pegg

8/28/2017 09:19:13 am

In the picture, we see a fireman shopping at a local farmer's market while a house is burning behind him. Warm colors such as orange and brown are present in the barren trees and crushed pumpkins. It creates an ominous look when combined with the cloudy grey sky and natural lighting.
The photograph is taken from an elevated position and shows depth, as the burning house is across the road. Broken fence post draw the eyes to the farmers market, while a fire truck's ladder points towards the building. The rest of the truck is cut off, as are numerous trees, pumpkins, and a table.
The photographer may intend to show that we sometimes ignore problems that may not affect us, especially when we could do something else for our own betterment. In reality this is a controlled training burn, and the fireman is on a break, yet the artist does a wonderful job of covering this up and making the viewer come up with their own explanation. The lack of many colors makes the photo look a bit grim, and only adds to the feeling.
I like it, as I enjoy bleak looking photos and interesting ideas. However, when I first saw it, the fireman was hard to see, and I didn’t understand. If the viewer sees him, it is amazingly successful, but if it's merely glanced over, fails to create a real story.

Adriana Vazquez link

8/28/2017 04:22:30 pm

In the image, there’s a house on fire with threes on the side as a background. There is a farm market with pumpkins and a man looking at the pumpkins and not doing anything about the house on fire. The colors that they’re using are orange, grey, green and a little of red, this are warm because it's fall. There is a man outside the market who doesn't seem to care about the house on fire. There are firefighters outside the house trying to blow out the fire. At the corner of the image there’s some smashed pumpkins. The photograph was taken from a high point, because you are able to see the tall trees and the fire of the house. The photograph has asymmetry, the threes, the pumpkins, the house and the threes have different sizes. The object does not fill the image, the market is on one side of the photograph while the pumpkins fill the other side, the house, the fire truck and the threes cover the background. The negative place is the house on fire and the smashed pumpkins, the positive space is the man looking at the pumpkins.The story of the image is the house being on fire and the man not really caring about the house.
For me, it is not pleasing to look at the image because the colors are warm and because of the house on fire. The image it's interesting because of the story, of how the fire started and because of the man not caring about it. The photographer is successful, he captures the image on time and it shows everything for us to be able to understand the image.

Chase Blackwell link

8/28/2017 06:26:36 pm

John Steinfeld's image depicts a field of broken pumpkins with a firefighter at a pumpkin stand and a burning house in the background. The picture uses muted versions of orange, gray, and dark green in it’s depiction of the pumpkin patch. The colors that exist are uniform every time they appear: for example the same shade of dark green is used for almost all the greens in the photo with very little variations. This holds true across the oranges and grays as well. The image appears to be of a firefighter leaving the scene of the fire to go shop for pumpkins.
The picture has a very deep field of view, with the house fire at the very back and even the pumpkin patch being a short distance away. The fence at the front right of the image acts as a guiding line that draws your eyes to the house fire. The image itself is very asymmetrical. The left side is very orderly with the peaceful shack and the one living tree in the painting. The right side is is stark contrast as the smashed pumpkins, house fire, and dead trees all fill that side. The image itself grows more chaotic as you travel it from left to right.
The themes for the picture are chaos and irony. The theme of chaos is fitting as the picture descends into chaos the farther right you look at it. The theme of irony is accurate because the Fireman appears to be abandoning his duty to go look at the pumpkins for sale at the shack. The picture itself reminds me of the pumpkin patch that my family visits every year at halloween time to go pick out pumpkins to carve! The picture is most likely an attempt by the artist to challenge the belief that our system is unflawed and focused.
The picture is not my favorite. Personally I enjoy bright colors, order, and symmetry. The picture has the exact opposites of this. It’s filled with muted colors, disorder, and chaos. However, as unpleasing as it is to look at, the image is still successful in my opinion, as it forces the viewer to think about the image and contemplate what the image is challenging. In fact, the disorder and chaos lends itself to the challenge the picture brings to it’s viewers.

kaitlyn evans

9/11/2017 05:33:47 pm

Critical Analysis

This image is of farmers market that is selling pumpkins and a house if on fire in the back, that fireman are trying to put out. Some pumpkins are smashed and spread out across the grass. It seems to be around fall time. The colors in this image are green, orange, yellow, and grayish-white. The lighting in this is dark and bright, the trees and bushes are dark while the sky, grass, and pumpkins are bright. The objects in this picture are pumpkins, fireman, a fire, a farmer's market, a house, and a firetruck. In this image there is a gigantic fire going on in the back and a few firemen are trying to put it out while one fireman is looking at pumpkins. A few pumpkins have been smashed maybe from falling or being thrown.
This image is very pleasing to look at because so many things are going on in this picture so it keeps the viewer distracted. This point of view is that the photographer is standing on a hill or higher ground and took the photo where the viewer is looking down when they look at this picture. The depth of field is shallow so we can see the whole picture including the house and the trees in the back. The lines in this pic are from the fence or poles that direct the viewer to the burning house in the back. The subject does not fill the whole picture there is still a background that has trees, houses and bushes. At the edge of the image it looks like there could be a hill and some more supplies belonging to the farmers market and also more trees.
The idea in this image is that the fireman looking at pumpkins really gets us to think that he should be helping with the fire but instead he's at the farmers market. I think the story in this picture is that we can be so distracted by something that’s not important and we don't pay attention to the important things going on in the world. The artist was showing us a very complicated picture that makes our eyes look at every single detail going on in this picture. I think this picture is interesting because some colors stick out and others just fade into the background. This picture is also interesting because it's very distracting and it's funny and tragic at the same time.
This image I really liked because I like the season it was taken in, and the colors come out quite nicely. I think it’s funny how the fireman is standing around doing nothing but staring at pumpkins and not doing anything to help the fire going on in the back. This photo was successful because it was distracting and many events were going on in the picture. It made me think about how distracted we are from the world. It was really cool of the artist to make us think like that.

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Period 4 -- Practice Critical Analysis

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