Emotional:

• Intimidating
• Uneasy
• Creepy
• I like the photo because it makes me think about the backstory and meaning behind it.

Visual:

• Looks like a train factory
• Dull
• Dark lighting, lots of shadows
• Looks a bit abandoned and dirty/rusty
• Artificial lighting
• Shallow depth of field
• Old white man-main focus point, subject of the image-staring into the camera, makes viewer feel uncomfortable
• Dark surroundings
• Symmetry

Technical:

• Balanced composition from the 2 pillars either side making the main subject centered
• Line of symmetry
• Losing focus and detail the further back you go behind the subject so the main subject is focused and the rest is blurry
• Lighting is from either side of his face so the middle of his face is dark shadowy.

Conceptual

Taken from Los Angeles Times:

“In 1963 Jewish photographer Arnold Newman was commissioned by Newsweek to take a portrait of Alfred Krupp, a convicted Nazi war criminal. At first, Newman declined the offer. The Jewish American photographer saw the convicted war criminal as the devil and wanted to put a knife in his back. But Newman did proceed with the job. A sinister-looking man, Krupp was seated on a platform with his factory in the background. Newman asked him to lean forward. Krupp clasped his hands together under his chin. “My hair stood on end,” Newman would later say. It was considered one of the most important photos by the man who became known as the father of the environmental portrait.”https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-arnold-newman-photographer-20190613-story.html

Contextual

• 1963

Examples of Arnold Newman’s photography: