The lighting is coming from behind, from the overhead lighting and the windows too, this adds light to the background, allowing it to be seen. There is also light coming directly from in front, which illuminates his features and casts eerie shadows across his face.
The colours in the photo are warm tones, as they are mostly browns and oranges. This creates a sinister mood.
Visual
The tone is dark, as most of the objects are dark.
The texture of the piece is rough, as the objects are worn and craggy.
As for the composition, the character is placed directly in the center of the photo, this creates a sense of importance and authority. He is placed in front of a window, which allows us, as a viewer, to see into his life and what he does. The window also frames him too, which adds to the importance and authority he has.
Contextual and Conceptual
Contextually, the man in the photo is called Alfred Krupp. He was a German, who owned factories that made trains, railways and railway systems. The photographer, Arnold Newman, was an American Jew. The idea behind this photograph was to gain revenge and to frame the German for his input in the war, that killed millions of Jews. Years later he was found linked to the death of millions of Jews, and this is why this photograph is so famous. C
To combine photos for artistic effect, to show more subject than a single photo can do. You can make a photomontage either by hand, by cutting and sticking, or digitally, on photoshop.
Brief history of photo montage
Photomontage became popular during the Victorian era, but it was then called combination printing. The idea was created by Oscar Rejlander, who was a pioneering photographer. Photomontage was used in WW1 to capture men at war departing to war with their families seeing them off. It was also used to protest war and politics.
Photo montage is a combination of images designed to send a message to their audience. This can be done physically using magazines and newspapers by cutting, rearranging and gluing images close together, however this can also be done digitally.
Photo montage was originally called “combination printing”. In 1916 George Grosz and John Heartfield started to place pictures together this later developed in what we call “photo montage” today. This term became more publicly known after World War 1, (around 1918/1919), this was used as propaganda or a way for people to express themselves. Photo montage was also used to Protest against World War.
Later on, in 1923, a Russian constructivist called Aleksander Rodchenko started to experiment with Photomontage by creating thought-provoking and socially engaging images.
Other artists such as a German artist called John Heartfield, started to reconstruct images which he got from the media in order to protest against the German fascist regimes. Also artists such as Paul Kennard, who explored the controversy in police brutality, economic inequality and many more.
For this project I decided to follow David Hockney’s work on photo montage.
David Hockney was born on the 9th July 1937, he is known for being an English painter, stage designer, print maker and photographer.
As a young artist his paintings were mainly about literacy learning, here he also started to in cooperate his homosexuality in his art, this was present in the painting “We Two Boys Clinging Together”
He studied in Bradford College of Art from the years of 1953-1957, although at this time most men was obliged to join the army, Hockney decided to spend his 2 mandatory years helping at the hospital.
Later on in his career he started to gather Polaroid pictures that he had taken and make them into a bigger picture, this began his path into photo montage.
These are just a few examples of his work on photo montage:
Analysis one of his pieces
This image is an example of how David Hockney took the idea of photo montage and interpreted it into his own work.
Visual: The colour scheme is mainly an autumnal theme with browns, oranges and green. The shape of the image is 3D due to the overlapping of images, this shows the “photmontage” effect in the photograph, this also shows the scattered layout of the image as this disorientated set up allows the audience to see multiple “scenes” in one image. Here due to the distance of which the photo was taken, I suspect that many of these photos were cropped in order to create this scattered arrangement. This also allows the image not to be over crowded as although there are alot of images these have been cropped to make this effective. Their is no certain viewpoint in the image for the eye as the audiences eye will continuously be moving in order to comprehend the photograph which is what David Hockney wanted. Their is definitely a surface illusion as although this is one image, there are many facial reactions and as the images purposely dont match it brings the audiences’ attention upon the various scenarios. And again due to the disorientated layout their is no clear foreground, midground and background; however it is clear that the main focus of the image are on these two men
Conceptual: I believe that the main idea of this image made by David hockney is to share a small story though the multiple photos in photograph. The two men, although unclear, seem to be having a good time due to their smiles in facial expression. This photo can have various meanings, it could symbolise the support of homosexuality, friendship, memories being made or even just two people enjoying each others company. In my opinion I think this image represents the 1980s due to the “warm tone memory” effect and the displeasing jumpers.
Technical: Here, Hockney had used natural lighting in his images, this helps give a natural look to the image, this technique is also effective as when it’s more sunny the photos would have more brightness in the image which makes the images stand out. The focal point are the two men however due to the amount of photos taken the focal point varies. The images are clear and dont seem to have any motion blur. The image seems to be in higher sensitivity with a coarser grain, I think this gives the image an older feel. Texture is present on the pavement which helps to add to add a more detailed image. The temperature is warm which helps to again evokes an old memory effect. There also seems to be a slight orange autumnal color cast.
Emotional response: This photograph taken by Arnold Newman makes me feel intimidated as the portrait shot in this photo is glaring straight into the lens of the camera. When I first glanced at this photograph I noticed that there was an opposition of man vs nature as the deteriorated walls around the man possibly show an internal conflict with the man as he had to battle through the war by being a jew.
Technical aspects: At first glance of looking at this photograph bI can notice that in the foreground studio lighting is used to target light areas on certain parts of the man creating dramatic shadows underneath the eyes which increases the level of intimidation as this is a straight on shot. However in the background natural ambient lighting is used to light up the setting in this image. An average sized aperture would have been used in this photograph to capture different levels of lighting on the focal point and the scenery around. The camera used to take this photograph has captured a wide range of depth of field as seen in the foreground the image remains in sharp detail and moving towards the background it becomes increasingly blurry. This photograph would have been shot with a fast shutter speed as limited light was allowed into the lens as seen in the foreground as it remains relatively dark.
Visual aspects: A slight element of chiaroscuro can be seen in the foreground as the difference between the dark’s and lights can be spotted clearly throughout the image. Also the texture in the foreground is maintained sharp as noticed on the decayed walls surrounding the central portrait. In this photograph there’s also a pattern of leading lines that draw my eyes through the different depth of fields beginning with the foreground where the portrait which is the main focal point stands as it’s the closest thing to the lens therefore the focus used on the camera has picked up the most detail in this area. This photograph does not follow the Rule of Thirds as the focal point consisting of the portrait is remained in the central area of the image therefore when glancing at the image my eyes are drawn to this area and aren’t led elsewhere.
Contextual/Conceptual: This image was taken by a photographer called Arnold Newman in 1963 of a portrait of a jew named Alfred Krupp. This photographer has included a dark mysterious background which emphasizes the past of Krupp. The photographer has put him closely to the camera in the foreground with a decayed background which indicates the past he’s had behind him with heavily includes World War 2. If you look closely you can see railway tracks and trains which suggests that the Nazi’s would have used these trains to send the Jews to concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
Technical – Low light at the bottom of the photo and majority of the natural light coming in from the top and in the background. Visual – Symmetry between the pillars on the left and right, framing the subject. Also there is a contrast in colour between the foreground and background where the foreground has minimal colour and its mainly dark and grey but the background has blue, orange, light and dark Contextual – Subject was heavily afflicted with the Nazi party during WW2 and the photographer was a Jewish American. The conflict between Jews and Nazis adds great meaning to this photo and increases its impact. Krupp was arrested soon after this photo for his war crimes. Conceptual – Newman was a political photographer and in this photo he was trying to expose Krupp and show everyone that this man is evil (through the expression on his face).
