Substance:

Due to the time the photographer existed; we can assume that this image was originally in a digital format since it is printed in high resolution

The image of the bible seems to be taken in a studio since it is professionally digitalised with a white background. The images in the bible however, “are recorded extensively within The Archive of Modern Conflict, the largest photographic collection of its kind in the world.”

It was taken for personal work. This is evident because om lenscultre it says, “Broomberg and Chanarin mined this archive with philosopher Adi Ophir’s central tenet in mind: that God reveals himself predominantly through catastrophe and that power structures within the Bible correlate with those within modern systems of governance…it must be viewed in multifaceted contexts: violence, catastrophe, global and regional politics, religion, power, corruption, greed, propaganda, consumer advertising, human conflict, nature, sex, life, death…and photography as a powerful visual language that can used and abused for multiple purposes.”

Composition:

The main focal point of this image is obviously the catastrophic images of a kid acting as police pretending to hit a man with a small batting stick, and of a child holding a snake. The other main focus of the image is the Bible, which is opened in Ecclesiastes chapters 3-8 with the following quotes underlined in red: “on the side of their oppressors [there was] power, but they had no comforter”, “better is the ending of a thing than the beginning” and “for who can make [that] straight.”

Author has powerfully used the rule of thirds to compose this image as the archival images and the bible are positioned in the centre.

The main colours of this image are black and white tones. They purposely used the black and white technique to create this image to create a sense of light vs dark and may also have used it to show Divine (light) vs Violence (dark).

Lighting:

The light in this image seems to be coming from the top and from the sides as every aspect of the image is lit perfectly. Evidently, the light seems to be quite artificial as everything is well lit, there is a white background allowing for a better exposure of colours.

In the image of a child holding a snake however, the image is quite underexposed as it seems the camera is facing away from the sun. I know this because the camera was able to focus on the subject, otherwise, the image would be pure white. The light is natural.

In the image of a child pretending to be a policeman pretending to hit another child, the l

Techniques and editing: (evidently black and white filter or camera were used)

The artist may have purposely naturally underexposed the image to keep it in focus and so it isn’t too bright or too dark just natural.

The camera is still as this is a portrait and all the details are in focus suggesting that the camera was stationary; a tripod was likely used.

Atmosphere:

This image makes me feel quite uneasy because the Bible is a book of hope and light but when you present the viewer with a set of unpleasant images like this one, it kind of serves as a way to help the viewer think that life is not a sea of roses, there’s more we can do to make the world a better place to live in.

Response:

In my own project I will use a similar approach having text messages that I get from same-sex love interests and contrast them against the bible texts against homosexuality to cause a sense of shock to the viewer.