Period 5 -- Critical Analysis #11

12/7/2017

Today you will be writing about this photograph made by artist Gregory Crewdson.

Read this short biography for Crewdson before you write:

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer best known for staging cinematic scenes of suburbia to dramatic effect. His surreal images are often melancholic or disturbing, offering ambiguous narrative suggestions and blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, thanks to the artist’s painstaking preparation of elaborate sets, lighting, and cast. “My pictures are about a search for a moment—a perfect moment,” Crewdson has explained. Born on September 26, 1962 in Brooklyn, NY, the artist works with large production teams to scout and shoot his images. His work has been exhibited widely, notably including solo exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery in New York, the San Diego Museum of Art, and White Cube in London, among many others. A 1988 graduate of the Yale School of Art, he has served on its faculty since 1993 and is currently the director of its graduate studies in photography. The artist lives and works in New York, NY.

Your analysis must be 5 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.

If you do not complete your analysis in class, you must finish it for homework before your next class on FRIDAY, 12/8/17.

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

Ryan Kyle

12/7/2017 11:24:26 am

This image is of a man holding a hose that is attached to a septic tank. The image uses a lot of grey, green, and brown for its color scheme. The lighting looks like it is from an overcast day. The objects in this image are the man, the septic tank, and the porta-potties. The man in the image appears to be in a stance with the hose in which it looks like he is about to fight off a monster.

This image is pleasing to look at for me because of the brightly saturated colors. The rule of thirds is not being used because the man and septic tank are on the left side of the picture. The point of view is third person because we are looking at the man. The image yields a deep depth of field in order to showcase the background and trees. The main focal point is the man but everything is in focus as well.

There doesn't really appear to be any leading lines that direct your eye to the subject. The image is asymmetrical because nothing is mirrored. The subject does not, by any means, fill the space.At the edge of the image is the septic tank and trees along with a couple of cars. The positive space is the man, porta-potties, and septic tank.

The themes in this image are kind of hidden since the image is very confusing. There are a couple of options for a story to be in this image. One such option is that the man is bracing for something to come out of the porta-potty that appears to be either steaming or spraying water. This particular image does not really remind me of anything. The image is interesting because it has emergency in the title, which means that something is going on.

I do kind of like this image because it is interesting to look at and the colors are well fit for each other. I think that the colors have an earthy feel which makes the image feel very nature-like. I think that the image is successful because it tells a well thought out narrative. The story is interesting because it makes you wonder what is inside of the porta-potty. I also think it is successful because of the composition and how it fits together. This allows for the image to seem like it wasn’t just created and looks natural instead.

Pato Wray link

12/7/2017 11:27:44 am

The image chosen is a picture of a company called Yankee Septic hosing the inside of a port-a-potty. The image has a very bright sun and if photoshopped, couldn't do much about it. There's only one person in the image and he's the only one who is handling a hose. The photo by Gregory Crewdson is a scenery photo and is very good and time taking image. This image probably took a lot of effort and also had to have a very fast shutter speed for the hose.

In my opinion, the image isn't the pleasing to look at because the construction site. There's a neighbor hood right behind this construction. Unless there is a house being built here, I don't think this is the best spot for construction. The Rule of Thirds are being used because the firetruck is in the lines and the houses. The photographer must have been on a hill because there is sand right below him. Their is no extra space I think but there may be because of the very wide image. Nothing is bad if you crop of the image except maybe the sun or the bright light. The positive space is how the port-a-potties are Christmas themed and there is a Christmas tree and the negative space is all the sand and things.

The theme would be the difference between happy and sad. I think the story is how there's gonna be bad times in life (bottom of image) and when you go on, friends and family will have your back so you can go on. The image for me personally will be for my old house going down and I know that it will be ok because everything and everyone has my back. It dos challenge the belief of animism which is the plant and animals rule over everything. The image's theme is noteworthy but the image itself isn't.

I have a 50/50 on liking and not liking the image and I think this wasn't the best spot to shoot an image for your career. I still think the image would be appealing to some people but I unfortunately don't agree. The image was successful for what he was trying to accomplish.

The image granted probably took lots of time to organize and get together for this. He might have had to get a crane or something very high. Maybe he was on the hills and was ironically just that high. Theirs many questions to be asked about this and my answer is the crane. I think he got on top of a crane for this image. This does look like a good shooting scene from a "back in the day" movie and also think he wasn't doing something too bad. One thing I wonder is how the neighbors are going to react. Sometimes, someone will get really mad but others won't really care or just not here it.

Redoing the 4th paragraph-Pato Wray link

12/7/2017 11:29:44 am

I have a 50/50 on liking and not liking the image and I think this wasn't the best spot to shoot an image for your career. I still think the image would be appealing to some people but I unfortunately don't agree. The image was successful for what he was trying to accomplish. This guy must have needed to prepare mentally for the challenges he had in store for him. Everyone got a win an I think if he likes it, I like it too.

Marissa Elizondo

12/7/2017 11:35:26 am

This image of a man holding a septic hose to a porta-potties. In the background you can see trees, cars, a house, and people. This image was taken outside with natural lighting. The colors in this image are very bright. The color scheme mainly consists of greens, browns, greys, reds.

This image probably took a lot of work to put together. The photographers, Gregory Crewdson, like to take surreal and melancholic images. He also likes to construct and stage all his images. This image must have taken a lot of money to make since he had to cast people, set up all the cars, porta-potties. He also has a team that probably helped him set everything up so he could press the shutter. The camera was probably set up on a tall hill because the image looks like it was taken from above.

This image is very pleasing to look at. The subject of this image is the guy with the hose. He is also the positive space in this image while the rest of the image is made up of the negative space. The subject does not take up the whole frame and there is a lot of other things that make up the image in the background. There aren’t really any leading lines that lead to the subject, but the guy does stand out because he is wearing a white shirt while he’s standing on the brown ground. The point of view of this image is in the photographer’s point of view.

This image is pretty interesting. The photographer likes to take surreal and disturbing pictures, but to me this image does not look surreal or disturbing. This image looks like it came straight out of a movie. This picture looks like it was trying to show a typical day in the life of a person from small town. I think this image is very beautiful and creative.

I personally liked this image and think it is successful. This image has a very good use of light and colors. I like that this image took a lot of effort and time to make because it shows how the photographer is really passionate about his work. I just wished the photographer could have made this image more melancholic. I was disappointed to not find this image disturbing at all because of his reputation. However, I did enjoy writing about this image and find it to be a very good quality image.

Mikaela Mumme

12/7/2017 11:38:59 am

This image is of a man with a hose spraying water on what looks like porta potties. There is another family in the background and it looks more nicer where they are versus the man. In the background in front of the house, there is a Christmas tree and a truck where the hose is attached. This image is very vibrant in colors with lots of red, green, and brown. The lighting is very good in this image and for outside having nice diffused light.

This image is pleasing to look at because of the many colors and the vibrancy of them. This image is taken from a bird’s eye point of view. This image has a deep depth of field. This deep depth of field gives more context to the image. There's a line made between the ground where the dirt and grass separate. Ths makes the image look like it is divided, giving it almost two themes. This photo has many subjects not really having one subject fill the frame but many subjects.

This photographer staged this image and planned everything out. Knowing that it makes you wonder why he chooses to set up this scene to photographer this moment. I think the photographer wanted to tell a story that maybe most people are oblivious to. This image feels really realistic and thinks tells a story of people from different social classes.Knowing that this is staged I think the people in this image might relate to what they're doing in this image.

The way this image is divided into almost two looks like the image tells two stories. This image uses lines to its advantage to tell its story. This is another thing the photographer had to pay close attention to when scouting the area. The man working with the septic tank looks like he is of a lower class than the family in the back enjoying the outdoors. This image talks from two different perspectives. One from a high-middle class family and a man who is of a lower class than them. The people in the back look like they have no clue this man is there and they go by not knowing each other. I think the photographer wanted us to see what may be some people are oblivious to.

I like this image and think it tell a neat story. The composition of this image is one of my favorites because I think it is cool how the lines tell a majority of the story. The quality of this image is really good with the lighting and deep depth of field. I think this image is successful because the complex story it tells. This image really makes you think and you have to find the story because this image can be interpreted in many ways.

Maria Tirado

12/7/2017 11:44:08 am

This image by Gregory Crewdson is of a landscape most recognizable as a suburb. Mr. Crewson is an American photographer and he likes taking pictures of set up areas that may look melancholic. He also like to stage suburbia images and make them as dramatic as possible. This image is an example of one of his suburb images. He scattered for a location and came across this one with mountains of dirt and old looking houses. Once he had his location in mind, he ordered 5 portable toilets, and a big truck with a hired guy to stand there with a long hose looking cable.

This image has a lot going on so it is very hard to pick out one main subject. There is a big, green pine tree set in the middle of the image, so it draws the viewer's’ attention. There is also a man that seems to be a worker from the hired company of “Yankee Septic” putting out whatever is going on in the porta-potty. That could also be considered the main subject, because our eye is drawn to the bright cloud of either gas or staged light. The colors are all christmas themed or at least very vibrant, dark colors. These are colors such as red, green, white, and orangey-brown.

This image is pleasing to look at for me, because it looks like an image that shouldn’t be still. What I mean by that is, this photograph looks like it could be part of a movie. Part of the reason why it looks like it could be from a movie is because of the angle the camera is being held at. This image was shot by a high angle and the point of view is from the photographer’s point of view. This image does not have a shallow depth of field, but instead it has a deep depth of field. You can see the foreground as clearly as you can see the background.

An idea or theme that could be told from this image is that something wack is going on inside one of the portable toilets. The company Yankee Septic is there to put out or resolve whatever is going on in the porta-potty. This image reminds of a Disney Channel movie Holes. This photograph is very interesting, because there are a lot of different things going on in one picture. This image also has a 1960’s vibe because of how the contrast on this image looks like.

I personally really like this image. It would be very nice if we looked at more of his
projects. I like how he stages shoots to capture certain images he pictures in his mind. This picture is not my favorite, just because I like portraits more than landscape images, but it is still a very high quality image. This image is composed professionally and it has a perfect quality of light and color. This image is very successful.

Troy Rollwitz

12/7/2017 11:45:57 am

In this image from Gregory Crewdson it appears to be set in some small town in New England, because that is where he lives and the trees and landscape look like they are from there. We see a man who appears to be taking the sewage out of the porta pottys, while stream comes out of the toilet. The main colors in the photo are green, brown, and red. The lighting is very diffused, and a little dark.

The truck is very small in the image, and the man is even smaller and they do not take up much of the frame. The frame doesn’t cut off anything important to the image, just the landscape. The photographer took the image from some sort of elevated position, looking down on the scene. He is using a deep depth of field. It is pleasing to look at because of the colors.

I think the idea of this image was to portray the life of someone who may clean sewage as beautiful, not dirty and gross like most would assume. Gregory Crewdson made this job look spectacular. There is beautiful colors everywhere and the setting is great. He also portrays it as very clean.

I like this image a lot. The colors used are very nice and pleasing to look at. The steam rising also looks great and mysterious. I love the setting, a small beautiful town in New England surrounded by numerous green trees. There is a mound of dirt that just adds to the image and makes it look great.

I think this image was made using a large set and crew. I believe this because everything is too perfect. Everything is very organized in the town,and the toilets look clean and appealing rather than gross as we are use too. There are some unrealistic things going on, like the steam coming out of the bathroom.

Kate Madison

12/7/2017 11:49:33 am

This is an image where a Yankee Septic truck is cleaning some portable restrooms in what seems to be a dirty area. This image is using natural colors. This image is using natural lighting because it is outside. There are many trees, cars, portable restrooms, and more in this image. In this image Gregory Crewdson has set up a film-like set.

This image is pleasing to look at because it has bright colors then darker ones kinda of like it switches areas. The rule of thirds is not being used in this image because there is not real subject it’s more like the entire image is the subject. This is in the third point of view. This image is using a deep depth of field because the image is focused throughout the whole thing. The focus point would probably be the steaming portable restroom.

The lines are in the trees’ branches and leaves, cars/trucks, and in the house. This image is not balanced because there is more interaction going on within the image more to one side than to another. The whole image is one subject by itself, really. The frame crops off any more potential house or gas stations. The entire image seems to be positive space.

A theme is that in all of Gregory Crewdson’s photographs, he tries to make them melancholic or disturbing. Some people may be angered by this because they think there should be more reliable septic tanks like actual bathrooms instead of a portable one. Gregory made this image so we could think about it, most likely. This photograph reminds me of the late 1970s/early 1980s. This image seems strange to me.

This seems like it could be a zombie movie because most of those kind of movie take place where there’s not many people and if there are it’s an old town in the country somewhere. Another story could be someone was taking a roadtrip and their car broke down in a small town. Someone could’ve also been hunting and wandered onto a precipice and looked down at what might’ve been happening in the town. It could also be like Open Season where Elliot and Boog saw a town and attacked a rv. It could also be as simple as someone set it up.

Jessica Mims

12/7/2017 04:45:22 pm

This is a photo by Gregory Crewdson. It is a staged photograph. The subject is a man holding a water hose. He is surrounded by red port-a-potties. There is smoke coming out of one of the port-a-potties. He is in an open area that looks like it could be a campground. There is a white building in the background, and several parked cars and trucks. The colors in the photo are dark; mostly green, red, and brown.

There is a lot happening in this image. I think the subject is the man with the water hose, even though he might not be the first thing you see when looking at the image. This image is not symmetrical, there are different things happening on both sides of the image. This image has a deep depth of field, we can see all of the details in the background. This was taken from a third person point of view. There is lots of extra space in the image that is not taken up by the subject.

This image has a story. Since Crewdson deliberately put everything in the image that is there, he is trying to convey a message to us. I think that he might want us to question reality when we look at this image. Most of his images ‘“blur the boundaries between fiction and reality”, and this image also does. It looks like it could be a movie scene. It kind of reminds me of a movie about a summer camp.

There was a ton of work put in to create this image. Everything from the scene, construction, costumes, and lighting were preplanned before making this image. I think it is really cool, and Crewdson must be extremely creative. This would have taken several months to develop and execute a finite plan for the photo. This image probably cost around a million dollars to create, and they must make money from it somehow. All of the people that helped create this photo also need to get paid, so Crewdson’s images must sell well and for a very high price.

I really like this photo. There is so much going on in the picture and there is lots of room for you to interpret it how you want to. I think it is cool to think about how they came up with the idea for this image and followed through with creating it. I think this image is successful, one reason being he has made many of them, so he obviously makes the money to keep creating them. Another reason they are successful is that the image is properly exposed and sharp.

Larissa Esparza

12/7/2017 06:21:11 pm

This image is of a piece of land which is covered by both dirt and grass. The background is trees and hills that are off in the distance. On the piece of land there is a septic truck that has a hose coming out of it to get the waste out of two portable toilets. The two portable toilets are red and in the dirt area of the land. There are other cars in the background and some are parked at what seems to be either a house or restaurant.

The septic truck man that is getting the waste out of the portable toilet is shocked at something that is coming out of the portable toilet. There is a bright light coming out of the portable toilet but I we can’t see what is inside. I think we are supposed to leave it to our imagination to wonder what is behind the bright light. There is a group of people at a picnic table with an umbrella in the background gathering around and talking. Two other men are distanced away from the picnic table and looking at the ground.

This images is using colors red, green, brown and a greyish in the sky. All these three colors go well together. The lighting in this image is cloudy and natural and gives it a cozy feel. This image is pleasing to look at because even though the subject is the septic tank man there is still other things going on in the background. The photographer used a birds eye of view to capture everything happening in the setting. This image is using a deep depth of field.

There is extra space in the image for the background besides the subject. The edge of the image is a dirt pile, trees and some cars. There is a story being told in the image. The septic man probably he was just going on a fast job but he didn’t know what to expect and I think that’s what the image is saying. I think the photographer made this image to make something different than most images with a different story.

This image reminds me of ghostbusters. It looks like the septic mans hose is the ghostbuster machine and the white bright light in the portable bathroom is a ghost. I find this image interesting because of what is happening in the image. Even though there is a bright light and a the septic man in shock the people in the background don’t even notice. I like this image because of how weird and interesting it is.

Zach Burgos

12/7/2017 08:12:44 pm

The image contains a small town that has a person is going to suck the sewage from the porta potty but stream comes out from it. The colors the image is using are Green, Red, and White. The lighting is bright sunlight. The image contains a people, a Christmas tree, a Yankee Septic truck, porta-potties, a house, cars, power lines, and trees. A man is going to clean the sewage from the portapotties, but when he opens it, a mysterious mist and light come from a porta potty.

The image is pleasing to look at because the image doesn’t seem real, but it is partially real at the same time. The rule of thirds is not being used. The point of view is a bird’s eye view. The image has a large depth of field. The focal point is the man and the porta-potty, and it is framed by the light from the porta potty.

The line between the grass and the red dirt brings your eye to the focal point, the man and the porta potty. The picture is asymmetrical because it is different on each side. The subject does not fill the image and there is a lot of extra space. The edge of the image is the rest of the town, and the frame cuts off the rest of the town and the forest. The negative space is the man and portapotty, and the positive space is the town and forest.

The story is told in this image is that a man found something in a porta potty that is represented by smoke and light. Gregory Crewdson made this image because he had a theme with this type of photos, which was to make a suburban area that tells a dramatic story. The image reminds me of a 60s monster movie. The image doesn’t challenge any beliefs. I think the image is interesting because of the non-realistic effect it gives off.

I like the image because of its non-realistic style of the setting. I like that it can have a story to the photo. I also like that the set takes a lot of effort to create because it looks pretty neat when it was finished. I think the photograph was successful because It was able to tell a story or set up a story to be told. The photo was also successful because it was well made.

Marynez Cantu Cardenas

12/8/2017 09:10:01 am

This photograph was captured by Gregory Crewdson. He is famous for treating pictures as if they were films and invests a lot of money just to capture these photographs. This photograph seems to have been taken in the suburbs of the city, by how he works it was more than likely staged. There is many things going on in just this picture, one of the things that I realized was that there is a portable toilet and there is a man that is going to take all of the waste out just when he realizes that there is something unusual about this toilet.

In the background there is this small humble house and there is people eating outside on a picnic table, I’m predicting that they are having a sunday brunch together like a family or it could be a church meal. What I also realized was that there is also a playground so it must have been a family event, but as far as I am seeing there is no sign of any kid. What I did see was two teenagers walking along the grass.

The lighting in this photograph is not great in my opinion because it seems as if they shot this picture after sunset when there wasn’t as much sunlight. Surprisingly enough he got it just at the right time and you can still see many details that there is in this photograph. This is also a lot of contrast in this picture but most things are still visible and you can see what they are.

What I also noticed was that the photograph is very grainy, so some of the small objects are hard to see. The colors in this picture are very dull and not bright whatsoever. I think that the colors had a lot to do with the amount of natural lighting and of the contrast that there is shown. But, I also think that Gregory Crewdson did this with a purpose so that it would go with this picture.

In conclusion, I liked this picture overall but, i do think that the ISO could have been lowered and that Gregory Crewdson should have taken this photograph with better lighting. In his defence I don’t really know the story behind this picture but, it is very hard to tell because there is many things going on and it would just depend on what the viewer sees and how he or she interprets it.

Josh Salehi

12/8/2017 10:21:34 am

This picture by gregory crewdson shows a big yankee septic tank truck. the truck is red and it looks like they are putting out a fire or sucking water out of the portapotty. This image is actually all been staged and it looks pretty planned out to me. I think this image is successful due to the bright colors and the good clarity and contrast.

I think greg did a really good job on putting all the time, effort, and money so that the image can tell a story. This image is in a deep depth of view. There is a small white house in the deep background color and i think that he didn’t put the house there and it was already there but mostly everything else. I really like the big Christmas tree in the middle of the grass and i think it brings a relaxed vibe to all the commotion

My favorite thing about this image is the color of the water coming out of the portapotty. The porta potties are red and the trucks’s are also red so it matches and it's pleasing to look at because of all the nice colors. In the background there is a bunch of green trees and it makes the makes the big christmas tree pop out more.

The house looks like a really old family house because it's a two story house and the color is white and most family houses are white.there is a bunch of dirt in the very front of the story so it looks like it's a construction site because there is also porta potties in there and that would make sense because most construction workers can go to the bathroom instead a strangers house so they need a porta potty

In conclusion i think gregory's image was very successful because there is so many little touches that brings the picture together all the way from the iso and aperture to the different colors and the hard work he put to stage all the background

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Period 5 -- Critical Analysis #11

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