Critiquing Photography
Descriptive: This image's goal is to show the viewer what is included in the dinner dish. The image shows the various vegetables, chicken and noodles that make up the dish as a whole.
Explanatory: The image taken by Kai Pfaffenbach shows the progression of a female cross country skier, demonstrating how that skill is done.
Interpretive: This image is interpretive because the viewer can come to conclusions on why the subject is staring out the school bus window.
Aesthetically Evaluative: This image is aesthetically evaluate because it shows the beauty of the beach landscape in March during my senior sorority retreat to Rehoboth Beach.
Ethically Evaluative: This image taken by Carl Iwasaki shows the ethical dilemma of tourists in National Parks getting too close to wildlife and interacting with them just to document the animal. These interactions add to the problem of human desensitization of the wildlife and lead to food conditioning.
Theoretical: This image by Victoria Ivanova is theoretical because the pears are drawing a subject as would humans would do in art classes or in an art studio.
Synopsis:
For this presentation, I chose to evaluate Steve McCurry. McCurry’s photography has been displayed in various museums across the world and has been seen in National Geographic, Time, and other notable magazines. He is most famous for being one of the firsts to photograph conflict in the middle east. His images depicting conflict during the war between Afghanistan and Russia have become some of his most significant. Much of his work, due to the conflict, is ethically evaluative in nature. Additionally, some also have interpretive aspects to them, as seen in many of his portraits of children from around the world. He is able to story-tell through his images and convey various cultural messages through them. His photographs add extreme pops of color that allow subjects to stand out and often show a true human connection in them. The images I chose to evaluate show his storytelling abilities and give insight to the culture of the area.
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Perception of Photography:
Reviewing Steve McCurry’s work and learning about him as a photographer taught me that it isn’t always just about the product image, but also the story of what goes with the image and how it became. McCurry’s personal website gives insight to the journeys he went as a photographer and helps give background to the images he produces. McCurry’s work shows the endless boundaries, or lack thereof, of photography and the wide range of subjects. He also shows that not everything is as simple as it seems from far away, such as the outlook locals have on monsoon season or debris from wars left in towns.