Period 5 -- Critical Analysis #9

1/23/2020

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 and post it by midnight!

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

Jacob Perez

1/23/2020 11:44:51 am

This is an image of a mother and her son eating dinner together. One detail I see are that the kid in the picture is sad and doesnt seem that happy. I also see that there are two seats that are empty. This image is ralitvlily dark, but in the kitchen it is well lit thus bringing the viewer's attention to them. The thing that is happening in the image is really nothing, they both are just sitting there.

This image is not that pleasing to look at for the reason of how lonely it looks and makes you feel. Also it isn't that pleasing because of how dark the back and foreground is. The rule of thirds is somewhat being used because some of the focal point protrudes outward into that left and right side. This image shows a first person viewpoint. The angle he took this image from was a relatively straight and leveled angle.

The depth of field used in this image was deep, i know this because the background and foreground are not blurred. The focal point of this image is definitely the kitchen table and people sitting next to the table. The image is balanced but it is not symmetrical. This image is doubled framed with the kitchen shape and the door frame. There is usually little to no extra space in this image.

I think the theme of this image is your actions have consequences on others that you may not know. I think the story behind this image is their father and brother may have died or just not shown up and the other family members are extremely sad with their absence. I think the artist made this image to show that your absence or actions can negatively affect others. This reminds of the movie UP, when the husband was extremely sad after his wife died. I think this image is interesting because it makes you think about your consequences.

I don't like this image that much because of just how it makes you feel. But I do love the lighting in this image. I think this image is successful due to the fact that the message to this image goes perfect with the image. The only way this image could have been better is replace some of the images with a portrait of the missing family members. Overall I think this image gives a touchy feeling but is very interesting.

Andy Cubriel

1/23/2020 12:28:26 pm

This image is of two people sitting at the dinner table. There are two extra seats that are pulled open. Those seats have cutlery and plates on them as well, which might mean that other people might be coming. There is what looks like a ham, and some salad at the settings. There is a window at the back, through which you can see another house in the background. The people also have a robotic look on their face, which makes the photo seem posed.

The photo is not pleasing to look at. The people have robotic looks on their faces, and most of the photo is black, which strains your eyes to look at. The rule of thirds is used by having the one man in the chair sit to the right side of the table. The photo uses a deep depth of field, because you can see all the way through the image to the back of the image. The lines in the image are the frame from the hallway showing the table, the doorway to the kitchen, and the window that displays your view to the house in the background. This directs your view to the table.

The theme that I notice in this photo is disappointment. The people are sitting at a table with a lot of food and table sets for two other people, but they don’t have anyone sitting there. The story being told to me is that the two people are waiting for their kids to come and have dinner, but the kids decide to skip and not tell their parents. This is what explains their sad looks to me. This image reminds me of the time that my uncle stood up my grandfather at dinner, and was unable to contact him to tell him that he could not go. This image is noteworthy to me, because it displays what I would call disappointment to the American Citizen.

Overall, I like this image. It captured a great focus of the people and the background, and the exposure is pretty good. I think this photo is successful. It displays a lot of information to us. It also leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

From this image, I infer that these people are a couple. They are waiting for their kids to get home and have dinner with them, but they have yet to arrive. The man looks slightly younger than the woman, and they both seem to be tired. The real thing with this image is that is a set. The photographer is Gregory Crewdson, who pays a lot of money while working on his photos, to get props, and a crew and actors, and then sells his photos for even more money. This explains why the people look so forced.

Suly Welsh

1/23/2020 01:06:41 pm

BLOG #9 | 1/23/2020

A piece by Gregory Crewdson.

At first glance, you see a mother sitting at a dinner table with her son. One who seems like her son. The table is set up for four people, and the other two empty places on the table also have plates but have empty chairs. The image seems to be at night as if they were about to have dinner. The table is adorned with a yellow cloth and there's like two salad dishes and a meat dish out on the table. There seem to be three different rooms from where we stand: the outer most room, the middle room (where the mom and son are sitting at the table), and the room at the far back (which is the kitchen).

The front two rooms look fairly dim with very low lighting. The front room only has light from the windows (which aren't seen, but you can make out the shape in the wall). The middle room is pretty dim but is barely lit by a small chandelier hanging on the ceiling. This middle room is mostly illuminated by the intense light in the back room. The backroom, the kitchen, is brightly lit by some lamps or ceiling lights since you can observe a very dark night through the windows. There aren't many colors, except for the audaciously vivid colors from the table cloth and the kitchen wall (yellow and green).

This image is pleasing to look at because it uses analogous colors: green and yellow. This gives the image a sense of aesthetic since it's not two complementary colors that conflict with one another. They are two colors that work well together and have a nice contrast to the blue and red that is in the clothes of the mother and the son. The angle of the picture is from a standing point of view. It's as if the viewer is looking at the dinner table. It's very symmetrical because the rooms have a square frame and the two family members who are sitting at the dinner table are right in the middle of the frame.

The woman and the boy have a distant look on their face. They seem to be almost numb. It appears that there should be two others in the table (maybe a father and a sister/ brother), but there is no one there. The chair across the mother is slightly pushed out which suggests that there might have been someone sitting there. The plates are clean and empty, so I don't think they even began eating. This seems like an example of a dysfunctional family or a broken family. I like how the kitchen is so bright and is this one vivid color because it's where all the food is prepared and all the life is going on. In contrast, the dining room is dimly lit which contrasts that very zealous vibe from the kitchen. I like how the middle room is in between a very lit and a very dark set of rooms. It's like the middle ground of the two. The mother and son are alive (which ties into the kitchen) but seems distant and even down (which ties into the gloomy dimly lit room).

Gabby Beck

1/23/2020 06:18:42 pm

The image shows a woman and what looks to be her son sitting at a dining table. There is another room in the background that looks like the kitchen. There is one light that seems to be illuminating the dining table and the rest is surrounded in shadows. There are darker colors that surround the brighter colors that are highlighted in the light. The photograph looks to be some scene from a movie.

I like how the image has two different frames that kind of separate the image into themes. The photo is taken from eye level looking straight forward. The image seems pretty balanced because the larger opening and smaller opening line up with each other. The photo cuts off the rest of the foreground wall. There is some extra space like the foreground wall, but other than that, the image is filled with objects on the inside.

The image was made by Gregory Crewdson who’s main theme for his images is to make them look like they were staged in a movie. This picture is probably to catch a perfect moment in which causes a person looking at it to really think about it. This photo just reminds me of watching a movie because it looks very theatrical. The photograph almost questions the difference between fiction and reality. I think this image is very beautiful because he uses a good amount of shadow to make the other colors pop and stand out.

I really like this image. It has wonderful colors mixed with a darkened suspense and really does look like it was taken from a movie. The expressions on the peoples’ faces made you wonder what was happening in that scene and what was to happen next. I think this photograph is successful because it relates to many of us. Most people have seen a movie so when they see this, it is a whole new perspective because most photographs don’t really have it staged in this kind of way.

To make a sort of photo like this, Crewdson would first need a set so he can construct something that would fit with what he wants to photograph. Then, he would need some actors or other people so it can really look like a movie scene. After that, he would need a good amount of lighting so he can highlight the main parts of the photo. Finally, he would use a tripod and set it with a small aperture and shoot his photo.

Alissa Welsh

1/26/2020 09:17:22 pm

This image was taken by Gregory Crewdson who is best known for staging cinematic scenes of suburbia to dramatic effect. There is a woman sitting in the middle of the table which looks like the mother of the young guy. The table is set with plates with four places, but only two were being used. The window behind the woman shows the house behind or beside them with one of their window lights on. This image seems to be taken at night time using I’m not sure if an extra light or edited exposure on the table, the women, and the young boy.

This image is interesting to look at since you see the woman and the young guy don’t seem to have a connection, instead they are staring straight at the meat all shock and kind of numb. Crewdson took this picture from the point of view of a person standing. The focal point is the woman since she is in the middle and has more light on her face. The lines that guide this image around are the outlines of the “square” room wall. There is a blank space on the wall on the left side. This image crops off the rest of the wall, roof, floor, door, window, kitchen table, and the drawer on the left.

The theme of this picture is dark or upset. I think it is dark or upset because the image is all dark on the outside and there is only light focusing on the mom which their faces look shock like when someone hears a loved one passed away and they can’t believe it. Crewdson made this image thinking that this is the perfect surreal cinematic image. This picture reminds me of a scene to a move which I can’t remember the name and the family is shock due to some news that they received. This image at first questioned my belief if by the way their faces are, if makes me wonder if they’re depressed or sad.

I like this image since looking at it I can see their pain. What mostly stood out for me is the way Crewdson played with the lighting. I’m curious to know why they were staring straight at the meat with a frown vibe. I wonder who were the other two spots for. This shows how people come and go. That just how life works.

I think Crewdson did a successful job connecting with the audience emotionally. I found the walls and the way it was set up interesting since it is a square inside a square. The negative vibe space is on the darker areas that are the outer edges of the image and the light that is in the center kinda gives it that light to not give up. Just like some people say after every tunnel there’s light. This also seems to be an example to a family that has problems.

Ahmad

2/20/2020 07:22:33 pm

The image by Gregory Crewdson is showing two people sitting on the dining table and having dinner. They are using some dark yellow and bright yellow along with shallow colors and a bright blue background. The background lighting is a mix of studio set up and some dark shadows. Some objects included in the image are a table, some chairs, food and basically the walls. In total, the image appears to look like a family having an evening dinner.

The image is a little confusing to look at because of how the background and setting looks like. The main focus point or focal point is the main dining table. The image does not use the rule of thirds. There are a few lines, like the carpet and the frames to get into the dining room, that guide you to the main focus point. The image looks pretty symmetrical because of the different entry frames that when you cut between them, the two sides won’t look different. The image‘s subject does not fill the frame.

The main concept or idea of the image is that it’s a family dinner. It is unclear that a story is to be told in the image but people may have some idea of what the artist is trying to show. His main goal is to be mysterious with his art. This image reminds me of a part of the movie ,Indiana Jones, where they walk into a manikin city. I do think this image is quite interesting because it can make you think about many possibilities on what it means.

I do believe that I quite like this photo because of how it was taken. The idea of mystery intrigues me to believe let’s anything it’s possible. I think the image was a success. The quality of the image is outstanding compared to the countless amounts of photos I take. ‏In total, I think the image is great and I like it.

From what it looks like, the image makes the family look sad to eat. It seems as though it’s a mother and a child waiting for the husband to come for dinner but has not returned. The point of the artist Way of art is that he likes to split fiction and reality. It really intrigues me the way he does it and why. The artist does a great way of mystery when it comes to his art.

colin

2/21/2020 11:34:07 am

In this image there are 2 people sitting at what looks like to be a dining table, they are both looking down at the ground, there is also food sitting on the table. There are dark colors being used in this, and then there is the bright vibrant colored kitchn in the back. The lighting in the main room is very dim and ark, but in the kitchen in the back there is a light on showing all of the colors in the kitchen. They look like they are about to eat dinner.

This image is nice to look at because it almost looks like it's fake, the people look super edited but not like badly edited. The rule of thirds is being used by having the people in the middle. The photographer took this at a landscape POV to get all of the details in the room in the picture. A deep depth of field is being used. It's framed by the walls of the room. The lines in the image are to the people and maybe the kitchen in the back because of all of the colors in the image. The image is symmetrical. The positive space is the people at the dining table in the middle of the room.

I think the theme of this is mystery, there is definitely a story told but its not giving us a lot of information, like why are they looking down like something bad has or is happening. Maybe the artist wanted to show what family fighting is like?? This kinda reminds me when you have a fight with a parent but you have to come down and eat dinner and it's really occurred. This image is interesting because of the story it is trying to tell.

I do like this image, it has a good play on dark and bright colors, and even mix of the two, it also has a really good quality to it and also i love how its able to tell a story without really telling a story if that makes sense.

This image was made by a photographer who spends the same amount of money as a small film costs to make, and they use sounds stages to build vary real life sets to take pictures of, this is one of many pictures he has done.

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Period 5 -- Critical Analysis #9

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