For the first time looking at the picture, one might wonder; who are those children? Why they are crying? Whey they are alone? Where is their family? Where is this picture taken? What caused all of the mass around them? what is going on? Most of these questions I have started with when looked at the picture first time. I have found this picture online, and I was thinking if those children are orphans whose adoption center wants to attract us for an ad or it might be a picture taken from the news that I stopped watching. While I was trying to analyze the picture by myself, it was so simple and easy analysis, yet I found it more professional to analyze any picture I find after reading the chapter in my book related to image analysis. In this paper, I will be trying to use the techniques the book provides to analyze and understand the photo using three perspectives; clients who can be editors, photographers, and receiver who in this case is myself.
I will start the analysis by the client perspective that deals with the goal of taking this picture, the message the client want to deliver, and the context. Goal is the first element in the client perspective, and it deals mostly with the want or the purpose of taking and publishing this picture. As I said previously, the picture is published on a personal blog that the owner of the blog is adding this photo to his poet about orphans and children who are war victims. So, the blogger wanted to show and express the pain of being without mother or father who take care after you, being at the middle of the city watching or running away from the soldiers who invaded their city, and being the child and at the same time the parents for your younger brothers and sister. By these three descriptions, the blogger introduced himself, he is also trying to convey a powerful emotions not toward him, he already lived that life and grew up, but about those children who have lost everything and the most valuable persons in their life thanks to the war and bomb attack are taking place in their country. The way the girl sets and holding her brother who is laying on her lab shows and evokes our sentiments and let us immediately change our facial expression to feel how painful and sad she is which reflects the blogger intention to present it. Also, the blogger might target specific audience, who would be other bloggers to share with him this feeling and comment on it, or those who have the potential resources to offer help for such children in such situations and countries. In fact, the first time I looked at the blogger post and saw the picture, I thought that while I am reading my eyes would read a line in which the blogger asks us as viewers to donate and help those children. He wanted those who do care about their children to think about the orphans, he wanted us as youth to think how our life would be without having our parents around us, and by that I appreciated his goal behind this post and picture. Apart of the purpose of publishing this picture and targeting a group of receivers, the way the blogger reached us the viewers was through the internet and through the blog which can be accessed by
everyone, and I think it is an easy and smart way to get to different people from different ages, different social background, different economic and educational level, and different way of being emotionally triggered. Since the blogger chose the internet as medium to convey these emotions, surely he would reach more people than if he used other medium as the magazine or a newspaper since they will be viewed by specific people in specific area.
After getting the client goal and intention of publishing this picture, it would be interesting to move to the message he is sending to us. The message can serve as an informative, explicative, directive, and expressive function; nevertheless, the message in this case is more related to be an expressive message which can be indicated by the closer look (shoot) that create a dramatic story and let the viewer be more curious about the content of the picture. Looking at the picture would let you ask and look for the reason of having these two children in this way and position, it will also let you look for the whole story and why it could be one of your concerns. The picture in here expresses itself in a problem solving way, why the boy is with the sister not the mother? Why the girl is crying? Why they are setting alone? Why they are not clean? What is behind them? Seems like dead bodies are behind? Many questions that will create the story (or report) and be developed to easy understand the problem and may energize you to have an action over it. In addition to be expressive message, this picture can be an informative picture as well that can be presented in the news or a TV program that inform us about the event, location, time, and consequences. An example can be the same picture but different children are reported to lose their parents in a bombed attack in Iraq. The picture speaks, the girl is crying over her parents and she with her brother need our help in such ways. Add to that, if I have seen the picture without reading the post, I would have certainly thought about watching an advertising for the Red Cross association that tell us “donate with little to save these children,” and that would be by thinking how pictures nowadays are rhetorically presented. In fact, it would be a synecdoche proves that is a technique to prove to the receiver that this children do need the help by having the picture in the place and in their poor looking that illustrates that the picture doesn’t say the opposite.
The third element after the goal and the message in the client perspective is the context which determines where this picture should be belonged to. In this picture, I cannot say that it is about the internal context which can include a lot of elements in the picture that do not fit with each other. This picture has been taken in the immediate environment; I cannot see any conflict or contrast surrounding the image. The messy area that is full of dead bodies, big plastic bag that can be a trash or a bag full of rice or wheat or rice that is brought by any helping association, the cut cloth of the boy whose feet are bare, his sister hair that is as well not combed, and the dust that is covering almost their body and face are all in one domain and they all indicate to a dramatic action has been occurred either war or a natural disaster; Therefore, I can see clearly that the context in this picture if external.
If to analysis the picture form the client perspective, photographer perspective also should be mentioned since it plays great role in understanding the picture. The way this picture is taken indicates that the photography used the square format tool, and that is obvious because there is nothing more to focus on or to exhibit more than the children. In fact, if someone looks at the picture rapidly he or she would say that the picture has only three elements; the girl, the boy, and the white plastic bag they are sitting on. This format (square format) main purpose is to focus on fewer objects than other formats, it also represents that there is no change is happening in the scene which reflects the truth: if we have not helps those children, nothing will change they will stay poor, sad, and no support. Another element regarding the photographer perspective is where to place the object? In this picture the main object is centralize, it is the first thing attracts the eyes and creates an idea about what is the photographer aiming for, and these all gather to form what is called symmetry composition. There is no contrast used in this picture in term of the color, the size, the distance, and the light. The space can be divided into two levels the foreground which is the children and the background which is the waste or the dead bodies behind them, and I think that the picture can be flat rather than deep. Furthermore, the element in the background are hidden and difficult to identify what is behind them is it really dead bodies or waste, scrap results of buildings deconstruction? The background is less important than the foreground that is why the colors are darker and faded and blurred.
Another element related to the photographer perspective is the usage of the light in the photo; it helps to build our understanding about the message and the story in the picture. The light in this picture enable us to know that the picture was taken in the day not noon or night, it was outdoor, and the dark light has created the dramatic atmosphere. Also, no shadows were used in here which won’t add anything to the picture or the message. I think the photo was bigger than this, but as I said since the focus should be on the main object the photographer cropped the picture to be closer and to get rid of the senseless elements around them (to reduce).
In addition to the client and photographer perspective, receiver perspective is the third element in analysis this picture. The receiver analyzes the picture he or she looks at based on three methods; perception, experience, and interpretation. Perception implies on the image components, since this picture is taken by digital camera it would be a result of colored dots. Clearly, it wasn’t written on the picture that those children could be war victims, natural disaster refugees but we assume that it would be similar if not exact to that because we are having experience. Our experiences have shaped our perceptions, so the sadness and the loneness that is accompanied these children would be a result of the war, loss of parents, loss of home, and so. Finally, Something else the receiver may get from the picture which is the point of pain, this picture is painful when the sister as we can see cry over her family whom are dead or lost and it is also painful when she holding her brother who has no idea why is the sister crying and what would happen to them after.
To conclude, image analysis is much more than just looking at a photo or painting, it is a message sent to you and as a receiver, you should have the methods and techniques to illustrate the photo and receive the message clearly. The picture in this paper as a client would publish shows his intention to express and convey orphans children who lost their parents (not mentioned how or why) and the medium the client used is the internet as a blogger. He wanted to inform and express how those children would live after the loss of their parents, the way the client chose the internet to send his or her message is interesting since the message would reach different people from different areas. After the client we moved to how photographer would take this picture to be with the client in the same track, photographer here chose the object to be centralized, being in a square format, being flat, having two grounds, having no shadows, and cropping to succeed in creating the dramatic atmosphere and emphasize only on the children. Then, the receiver who is the viewer of the picture tries to understand the picture by visualization which is the process of seeing and creating a perception, associates the picture with his or her experiences that results in evoking the feelings and create the impression, and finally tires to interpret and express the meanings the picture has which is in this case the need of help and the feeling of being alone with no parents and no safety.
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