Sophie Calle – Suite Vénitienne 

Technical:

The lighting used for this photograph is natural daylight as the photo does not seem to be staged despite the unusual occurrences within the image. The image was most likely taken in the aside of it being midday as the light is not overpowering, and the exposure used for the image seems to be fairly balanced as the lighter tones such as the edges of the steps are balanced and contrast with the darker tones in the image such as the door and the coated man by the camera.

Visual:

The photograph has various visual aspects starting with the composition; the viewer is immediately drawn to the dark figure in the forefront of the frame as the figure takes up a considerable bit of space and catches your eye straight away. The eye of the viewer is likely to go from their backwards through the image passing from the stairs to the two other people, to the door and then to the background of the image where the buildings overlook the Venice canals.  As you can see the image is in black and white, most likely due to the date of the project despite colour photography being around at the time. However this may have been done as a means of creating a mysterious or eerie feel to the photographs as the idea of following a stranger around reflects this.

Contextual:

This image was part of a book by Calle called Suite Vénitienne, in which she met a man, at a party who said he was moving to Venice, so she moved to Venice and there, she began to follow him. Calle documented her attempts at following the man. She phoned hundreds of hotels, even visited the police station, to find out where it was that he was staying, and persuaded a woman who lived opposite to let her photograph him from her window. The photographs which she took for this project show the back of a coated man as he walks around Venice, the city making for a beautiful aesthetic backdrop to her internalized mission.

Conceptual:

The concept behind this photograph, as a part of project consisting of similar images, is that it is documenting the process of Calle stalking the man (subject) around Venice. This photograph however focuses on multiple human subjects despite the main body of the project consisting of the man in question being the main subject within the images.