Media & Documentary Workbook Task_003: Analyzing the editorial portrait

Workbook task_003

Names: Amy Woodward Group___________________

Brief: As discussed in class, a successful editorial portrait requires a strong idea and an understanding of the audiences’ social/cultural background and political views.

Working in pairs, choose two editorial portraits that you think successfully exploit their audience’s shared social/cultural experiences - or political views - to create meaning and open debate.

Complete the worksheet for inclusion in your workbook/blog and present your findings to your class. Place your chosen images on the server (catc_photography – student dropbox – Richard Whitfield - Analysing the editorial portrait).

Consider:

What do you think the photographer wants us to feel about their subject?

I believe that within this photograph the photographer has made us feel sorry about the person within this photograph and have sympathy for them. I believe that this is shown through the look on the mans face and how his arms are wrapped around the metal bars. I believe that the photographer has purposely posed him in this way to make it look like he is just desperate to get out of this place and is looking straight into the camera, to make us feel as though we have sympathy for him, and wish to help him with whatever problems he may have. If you look further into the image you can see that he is not just standing up against one wall of metal bars, he is actually in a cell, which means that he is possibly in a prison cell and it looks to be someone to the right of him. I feel like it would be crowed in this cell and there must be a lot of people in there.

Who do you think is the audience for the portrait? Consider their age, education, social/cultural background and political views.

I believe that this images targeted audience would be young adults/ teenagers. This is because of the tattoos on his arms, seeing as a lot of young people are getting tattoos these days, and also the age of the man whom is in the cell. This could be an eye opener to those young people out there that there is a punishment if you decide to make bad decisions. I think that cultural background is quite relevant in this image, as it isn’t what we usually see on either television or movies, on Australian television, it looks to be somewhere like Bali, where things are A LOT tougher in prisons. When we look at this image we presume that he has done something wrong and that he is paying for it, I believe that the photographer has played a very large part in the viewers seeing this because if he had been smiling or just standing there, the impact would have been no where near as large.

What techniques has the photographer used to engage the viewer?

Consider the editorial context, location, lighting, posing, framing etc.

The photographer has clearly thought a lot about this image before actually taking it. The photographer has used up practically the entire frame to make sure that the man was our main focus and that there was no distractions in the background. By having the mans arms in the center of the frame it is what we see first. We immediately judge him by the tattoos on his arms and what they read. Our eyes are then lead upwards to see the facial expressions on the man, which is when we begin to feel sorry for him. If the photographer had placed the man in the background of the image and had more people standing in front, it wouldn’t make the image as dominate and the man wouldn’t look that important to that he really is in the image. Also the lighting in this image was used strategically to make his face in a lot more shadow then his arms and the bars in the front of the image. By having his face in the dark area it makes him look a lot sadder and more desperate. I believe that the location was irrelevant, as in the photographer didn’t choose to place this man in the cell, I believe that the man would have already been there, and the photographer has just asked him to move around a little bit more, to make the image a lot more relevant. All in all, I think that the photographers positioning of the male in this photograph was extremely important and has made the image exactly what it is.