Analysis of my photograph in the style of Tina Modotti

This image was taken in the style of the well known photographer Tina Modotti. It is a black and white image which is typical of the photographer and it has definite lines which is another key aspect of her photos. Below is an image taken by Tina Modotti showing the style which I based my photo on:

I am going to analyse the first photograph, which I took.

The most striking thing about the image is the distinctive corner which leads up to the light. This allows the viewer to follow the line until it gets interupted by the light. This makes it stand out because it keeps the viewers focus very central. I think that this image stood out amongst the others because it is not obvious what the image is from a first glance. You have to study the image.

In the frame of the picture i ensure that the camera was in the frame, along with some sky and I would have preferred to not have the rest of the building to the left of the image in the frame, but this could not be helped. The viewers eye is drawn towards the light by many different things, including the sky. The sky is not very exciting so the eyes are pushed away from the top of the image. Also, because the building to the left of the image is darker than the corner of the building in focus this draws the eyes away from that side of the picture. On the right of the picture there is a bland wall, this is not very exciting therefore, the eyes are not attracted to this part of the image.

In the foreground of the image there is the starting corner of the wall. This appears very large in the foreground of the image. Because of the low angle of the image the lamp is also in the foreground although this does not look obvious and it could be interpreted in different ways. In the mid ground of the picture is the rest f the building. The side of the wall is in the mid-ground of the image although it is easily disregarded, and the part of building on the right is also in the mid-ground of the image. In the background of the image is the sky. This looks as though it is simply there to put more emphasis on the corner. The sky adds confinement to the image and somehow shrinks the size of the image around the building. The corner starts large, at the bottom of the image, and then decreases in size as in near the top of the building. This adds depth to the image and allows the depth of field to be more defined.

Due to the amount of the image which is in focus, the depth of field is very large because a lot of the image is in focus. If the focus was on the lamp and the rest of the image was not in focus there would be a smaller depth of field, but Tina Modotti did not represent this in her photography. Another factor increasing the depth of field is the amount of light in the image. In the image I took there is a lot of light. Shadowing is shown on the part of the building on the left hand side but as the picture was taken pointing towards the sky it contains a lot of light.

The lighting is not very high contrast, in fact is is quite low contrast for most of the image but the part of the image on the left, with the rest of the building in, contains quite high contrast lighting because the dark bricks contrast with the bright light in the sky. Also the ledge at the top of the building contains dark shadowing because, obviously, the light is coming from above the building, leaving the underside of the ledge almost completely dark. Because the image is black and white it is difficult to create warmth in the image, although the  bright sky makes you feel quite open, as though you are being released as you reach the top of them image. You do not feel enclose or comfortable looking at the image.

The photograph is to a high quality. This is due to the amount of light that was available, making the photograph very crisp. The lines between shadowing are very clear  and the greyscale is more saturated.

The low angle of the shot allows the image to look very large. I would class the image as a long shot as the main thing in the image (the lamp) is at a long shot distance. By doing this I have allowed the image to feel quite overpowering and as though the person taking the image felt very small whilst looking at the corner of the building. The image makes the building look very high up and it make make the viewer seem powerless.