Afghan Girl Analysis
The portrait has always been a key point of the arts, whether it be the refined face of ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci or ‘L’image fantôme’ by Hervé Guibert. The common features of all photographic portraits combine the genre in content and means of expression, therefore the atmosphere and mood in an image play a significant part in photography.
Photography denotes a fraction of a second in life; a second which if missed will be gone forever, never can it occur again. The gesture and movement of a person, the wind blowing a girl’s hair into the air, the look in the person’s eyes or the light reflecting into a someone’s face are all life elements of which are in continuous change.
There are plural meanings behind the word ‘photograph’, it …show more content…
could be a photo that border on sculpture, a photo that looks like something went terribly wrong, or it could also be a photo that looks very simple but has a elaborated back-story behind it. Photographs are mainly a way to preserve history, for most people, or as David Bate suggests ‘there is no doubt that the rise and consolidation of the communications media industries, including advertising, television, fashion, marketing and cinema, all become major agents of culture in industrial societies.’ (Bate and David, 2009). In other terms, they could also be a reflection of society where in this case in this essay the photographs will be analysed under the themes of class and fear. Firstly, the photographs will first be introduced within their concept related to the theme and then follow up with the description and interpretations of the two photographs below.
The first photograph, ‘Afghan Girl’ by Steve Mccurry, first appeared on the cover of Nation Geographic magazine in 1985 to characterise the plight of refugees displaced by Solviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Since that time, the image has been republished frequently in diverse contexts, it’s meaning altered and augmented with reincarnation. The photograph and the photographer gained fame, even as the girl survived seventeen years of repatriation, unaware of the use of her image.
The second photograph ‘Migrant Mother’ of Florence Owens Thompson a 32-year old mother of seven. This photography of Thompson and her children became a key symbol of the Great Depression and one of America’s most famous photos. The photograph was taken at a pea pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California in 1936. The photograph was reproduced in the media, encouraging the federal authorities to send in food to the thousands of starving employees stuck where the photograph was taken. However, the relief arrived too late for the mother and her young family; they had already moved on, although she remained anonymous at the time, in 1976 Florence Owens Thompson revealed herself as the face of the photo that had defined an …show more content…
era.
Steve Mccury is well known among photographers for his singular use of colours and vivid contrasts that are able to talk through the photographic paper. The colours emerging from his photograph captures the Gula’s soul, speaks for her and speaks to us all as world citizens sitting back and looking at the carnages of politics taking place in places around the world, most of the time places which are abandoned by the press and do not make headline news.
The most fundamental characteristic of Steve Mccurry’s photography is what Henri Cartier-Bresson, called as the ‘decisive moment’ (cartier-Bresson, 2014), which refers back to the secret behind great photography.
‘Afghan Girl’ is a captivating portrait of a female looking over her right shoulder.
The girl is positioned right in the centre of the frame, her positioning emphasises her eyes and there is no rule of thirds present in this photo. The background of this photograph is well-lit as well as the girl herself. The only part that is dull and dark is her hair, this causes a contrast between the light eyes and her facial features. The contrasting colours of red and green draw the viewer’s attention to all of the colours. Red is a bold hot pigment, which causes the viewer to think about the personality of the subject in the photograph. Such as; is the girl strong, angry or powerful? While the subtle greenness of her eyes is complemented by the background and undershirt, one must look into the green but simultaneously look into her soul. As if the coolness of the green give away her deepest fears. Both of the colours, red and green, bring all of these emotions together, effectively telling a story about the girl.
Like many conventional portrait photos, the background is out of focus to increase the attention on the girl in foreground. The focus point in this photograph is her eyes, as they are well in focus and every little detail of them can be seen. Apart from a few ragged holes in the scarf covering her hair, there are no indications of her status or identity. She is mute and even froze, but the protective hunch of her shoulder and the slight obduracy of her mouth suggest toughness, or perhaps resistance. As mentioned above, it is the eyes that are mesmerizing and that confront the viewer. Their colour is not inconsequential they are neither commonplace brown nor crystalline blue, nor does anyone think to dismiss them as simply hazel. They are enhanced by the scarf's contrasting hue and the colour of the garment underneath, they are vivid, and an unexpected green.
When analysing the picture, ‘Gula’ does not seem like a typical twelve-year-old teenager; the fright and terror in her eyes offsets the youth of her face and appearance. However, the fear demonstrated in her eyes is still laced with rebelliousness and defiance. Gula is part of the Pashtun tribe known as one of the most fierce, warlike tribes. According to National Geographic magazine ‘the Pashtun are only at peace when they are at war’ (Newman, 2002). This explains why the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl, so wrought with fear and anger, they also express inner strength. However, one can only handle so much war and conflict as proven by subsequent photograph of Gula.
When looking into the picture, we do not look up to her or down to her but rather directly at her, and that face off is important to the impact of the image.
Whilst looking at the picture, it is noticeable that curved lines and circular shapes dominate the photograph. It is said, “curved lines express fluid movement. They can be calm or dynamic depending on how much they curve. The less active the curve the calmer the feeling” (Bradley, 2010). But there is no peace to be found within this image, which therefore can be argued that it is ineffective in this case. However her nose and brow are structured with horizontal lines to create the sense of stability. The collaboration of horizontal lines describes her inner strength and will to survive.
The meaning behind the close up portrait is to capture the people of Afghanistan as they are.
The facial expression of the girl, her clothes and the colour scheme give a strong narrative in this photograph. Gula wasn’t prepared for the picture, which shows just how fearful she was of Mccurry taking the photograph. This also demonstrates how these people are always fearful of danger and war.
The photograph of Dorothea Lange, photographer of the “ Migrant mother”, was taken within context of the Great Depression; the viewer can easily see how the photograph captures simultaneously a sense of individual worth and class difference. The photograph implies reality, rather than reflecting it or representing it. The emphasis is upon what the view as ‘reader’ of the image takes as the principal cues and clues for use as the basis interpretation.
In Migrant Mother, Lange builds a narrative around a woman and her three children, cantered on the single gesture of an upraised arm.
The photograph is created around certain notions of the female body, including the idea of the nurturing mother. It leads the viewer to assume that the woman is a single mother left to raise her children on her own. The image portrays a clear distinction of social issues in the USA; the viewer can tell that the family is struggling for survival. The two children are standing close to their mother depicting a sense of security received from
her.
The close portraiture and the black and white filter creates a moment of personal anxiety as this precise mother, without a name, silently harbours her fears for her young children. Though the dirty, scruffy clothes and miserable setting signify the hard work and limited prospects of the workers working in that same location.
The disposition of her body and the spontaneous gesture of her right arm reaching up to touch her chin, defines the related tensions.
On the photograph we see both physical labour and a daydreaming motion that implies the uselessness of any action in such disadvantaged circumstances.
The rest of the photograph communicates both a reflexive defensiveness, as the bodies of the two standing children are turned inward and away from the photograph, it expresses a sense of incapable vulnerability. Within the viewers’ perception, the reason why the mother hides her children’s faces is to emphasis the importance of a mother caring for her children.
On the photograph, we also notice that her body and head are tilted slightly forward to allow each of the three children the comfort they need, her shirt is also unbuttoned and the sleeping baby is in a partially exposed position. Moreover, even though Migrant Mother was made in public space, the close cropping of the image creates within the frame itself a protected interior, of feminised space. Dorothea Lange successfully sends a feminist message of what women go through on daily basis through this picture. The photograph shows that women are just as equally capable to survive through the great depression as men.
As a closing remark, the two photographs evoke the power of images, a power that includes their ability to exceed the original impulse of their creation. The strength of the photographs lies in the uncomforting feel that the viewer gets when they look at them. They can be seen as a combination of good photography with a lot of luck and even more politics behind it. The point of interest of the two images is the face expressing troubled emotion, as mentioned previously. It was used very effectively and brough automatic attention to the viewer’s eyes. However, the photographs are both expressed through different technics. Mccurry focuses in the use of colour to define and express the girl’s emotions. However Lange emphasises the use of black and white in order to define the Great Depression as well as the mother’s emotions and feelings.
Photography denotes a fraction of a second in life; a second which if missed will be gone forever, never can it occur again. The gesture and movement of a person, the wind blowing a girl’s hair into the air, the look in the person’s eyes or the light reflecting into a someone’s face are all life elements of which are in continuous change.
There are plural meanings behind the word ‘photograph’, it …show more content…
could be a photo that border on sculpture, a photo that looks like something went terribly wrong, or it could also be a photo that looks very simple but has a elaborated back-story behind it. Photographs are mainly a way to preserve history, for most people, or as David Bate suggests ‘there is no doubt that the rise and consolidation of the communications media industries, including advertising, television, fashion, marketing and cinema, all become major agents of culture in industrial societies.’ (Bate and David, 2009). In other terms, they could also be a reflection of society where in this case in this essay the photographs will be analysed under the themes of class and fear. Firstly, the photographs will first be introduced within their concept related to the theme and then follow up with the description and interpretations of the two photographs below.
The first photograph, ‘Afghan Girl’ by Steve Mccurry, first appeared on the cover of Nation Geographic magazine in 1985 to characterise the plight of refugees displaced by Solviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Since that time, the image has been republished frequently in diverse contexts, it’s meaning altered and augmented with reincarnation. The photograph and the photographer gained fame, even as the girl survived seventeen years of repatriation, unaware of the use of her image.
The second photograph ‘Migrant Mother’ of Florence Owens Thompson a 32-year old mother of seven. This photography of Thompson and her children became a key symbol of the Great Depression and one of America’s most famous photos. The photograph was taken at a pea pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California in 1936. The photograph was reproduced in the media, encouraging the federal authorities to send in food to the thousands of starving employees stuck where the photograph was taken. However, the relief arrived too late for the mother and her young family; they had already moved on, although she remained anonymous at the time, in 1976 Florence Owens Thompson revealed herself as the face of the photo that had defined an …show more content…
era.
Steve Mccury is well known among photographers for his singular use of colours and vivid contrasts that are able to talk through the photographic paper. The colours emerging from his photograph captures the Gula’s soul, speaks for her and speaks to us all as world citizens sitting back and looking at the carnages of politics taking place in places around the world, most of the time places which are abandoned by the press and do not make headline news.
The most fundamental characteristic of Steve Mccurry’s photography is what Henri Cartier-Bresson, called as the ‘decisive moment’ (cartier-Bresson, 2014), which refers back to the secret behind great photography.
‘Afghan Girl’ is a captivating portrait of a female looking over her right shoulder.
The girl is positioned right in the centre of the frame, her positioning emphasises her eyes and there is no rule of thirds present in this photo. The background of this photograph is well-lit as well as the girl herself. The only part that is dull and dark is her hair, this causes a contrast between the light eyes and her facial features. The contrasting colours of red and green draw the viewer’s attention to all of the colours. Red is a bold hot pigment, which causes the viewer to think about the personality of the subject in the photograph. Such as; is the girl strong, angry or powerful? While the subtle greenness of her eyes is complemented by the background and undershirt, one must look into the green but simultaneously look into her soul. As if the coolness of the green give away her deepest fears. Both of the colours, red and green, bring all of these emotions together, effectively telling a story about the girl.
Like many conventional portrait photos, the background is out of focus to increase the attention on the girl in foreground. The focus point in this photograph is her eyes, as they are well in focus and every little detail of them can be seen. Apart from a few ragged holes in the scarf covering her hair, there are no indications of her status or identity. She is mute and even froze, but the protective hunch of her shoulder and the slight obduracy of her mouth suggest toughness, or perhaps resistance. As mentioned above, it is the eyes that are mesmerizing and that confront the viewer. Their colour is not inconsequential they are neither commonplace brown nor crystalline blue, nor does anyone think to dismiss them as simply hazel. They are enhanced by the scarf's contrasting hue and the colour of the garment underneath, they are vivid, and an unexpected green.
When analysing the picture, ‘Gula’ does not seem like a typical twelve-year-old teenager; the fright and terror in her eyes offsets the youth of her face and appearance. However, the fear demonstrated in her eyes is still laced with rebelliousness and defiance. Gula is part of the Pashtun tribe known as one of the most fierce, warlike tribes. According to National Geographic magazine ‘the Pashtun are only at peace when they are at war’ (Newman, 2002). This explains why the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl, so wrought with fear and anger, they also express inner strength. However, one can only handle so much war and conflict as proven by subsequent photograph of Gula.
When looking into the picture, we do not look up to her or down to her but rather directly at her, and that face off is important to the impact of the image.
Whilst looking at the picture, it is noticeable that curved lines and circular shapes dominate the photograph. It is said, “curved lines express fluid movement. They can be calm or dynamic depending on how much they curve. The less active the curve the calmer the feeling” (Bradley, 2010). But there is no peace to be found within this image, which therefore can be argued that it is ineffective in this case. However her nose and brow are structured with horizontal lines to create the sense of stability. The collaboration of horizontal lines describes her inner strength and will to survive.
The meaning behind the close up portrait is to capture the people of Afghanistan as they are.
The facial expression of the girl, her clothes and the colour scheme give a strong narrative in this photograph. Gula wasn’t prepared for the picture, which shows just how fearful she was of Mccurry taking the photograph. This also demonstrates how these people are always fearful of danger and war.
The photograph of Dorothea Lange, photographer of the “ Migrant mother”, was taken within context of the Great Depression; the viewer can easily see how the photograph captures simultaneously a sense of individual worth and class difference. The photograph implies reality, rather than reflecting it or representing it. The emphasis is upon what the view as ‘reader’ of the image takes as the principal cues and clues for use as the basis interpretation.
In Migrant Mother, Lange builds a narrative around a woman and her three children, cantered on the single gesture of an upraised arm.
The photograph is created around certain notions of the female body, including the idea of the nurturing mother. It leads the viewer to assume that the woman is a single mother left to raise her children on her own. The image portrays a clear distinction of social issues in the USA; the viewer can tell that the family is struggling for survival. The two children are standing close to their mother depicting a sense of security received from
her.
The close portraiture and the black and white filter creates a moment of personal anxiety as this precise mother, without a name, silently harbours her fears for her young children. Though the dirty, scruffy clothes and miserable setting signify the hard work and limited prospects of the workers working in that same location.
The disposition of her body and the spontaneous gesture of her right arm reaching up to touch her chin, defines the related tensions.
On the photograph we see both physical labour and a daydreaming motion that implies the uselessness of any action in such disadvantaged circumstances.
The rest of the photograph communicates both a reflexive defensiveness, as the bodies of the two standing children are turned inward and away from the photograph, it expresses a sense of incapable vulnerability. Within the viewers’ perception, the reason why the mother hides her children’s faces is to emphasis the importance of a mother caring for her children.
On the photograph, we also notice that her body and head are tilted slightly forward to allow each of the three children the comfort they need, her shirt is also unbuttoned and the sleeping baby is in a partially exposed position. Moreover, even though Migrant Mother was made in public space, the close cropping of the image creates within the frame itself a protected interior, of feminised space. Dorothea Lange successfully sends a feminist message of what women go through on daily basis through this picture. The photograph shows that women are just as equally capable to survive through the great depression as men.
As a closing remark, the two photographs evoke the power of images, a power that includes their ability to exceed the original impulse of their creation. The strength of the photographs lies in the uncomforting feel that the viewer gets when they look at them. They can be seen as a combination of good photography with a lot of luck and even more politics behind it. The point of interest of the two images is the face expressing troubled emotion, as mentioned previously. It was used very effectively and brough automatic attention to the viewer’s eyes. However, the photographs are both expressed through different technics. Mccurry focuses in the use of colour to define and express the girl’s emotions. However Lange emphasises the use of black and white in order to define the Great Depression as well as the mother’s emotions and feelings.