Analysing photos
Carlos and Nuria
Table of contents 1. Introduction .............................................................1 2. Formal analysis .......................................................1, 2 and 3 a. Observation Skills i.
Action
ii.
Theme
iii.
Characters
iv.
The story behind the photograph
b. Technical Knowledge…………………………4 i.
Point of view
ii.
Lightning
iii.
Framing and cropping
3. Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s biography……………..4 4. The real story behind “ Cotton culture” ……....4 5. Conclusion………………………………………….5 6. Bibliography………………………………………..6
1. Introduction In this project we are going to talk about analyzing photos. In our photo there is a woman with her baby collecting cotton. We chose it because it is very interesting and we think that it is something that we all need to talk about because it is very sad that a woman has to work with her little baby.They are on a cotton farming in America. 2.Formal analysis a) Observation skills i) Action In our photo there is a woman and her little child. She is sitting on a pile of cotton and she is collecting and putting it on a white and pink bag.The little child is laying down on the cotton. ii) Theme According to the introduction the theme of this photo is a real problem, the family counselling because the mother hasn’t any that look after her baby. It is a real problem that existed and exist nowadays.
iii)
Characters
She is wearing colourfull african clothes, her t-shirt is blue and it has circles in different colors. He isn’t wearing any clothes. The boy’s expression is calm, we think that his expression is like this because he is a baby and he doesn’t know what his mother is doing and how hard that job is. We think that the woman is about 20 or 30 years old.
iv)
The story behind the photo
This woman is a slave that works in a cotton farming for a rich family. She lives on a hut on terrible conditions because the hut is small and they are a big family. They haven’t got many services, or education for their children. Her husband goes to plow the fields and she works in a cotton farming.
She has three girls and two boys, because in that time was very normal that families had a lot of children. John is the oldest son and he works with her father in the fields. He is 14 years old. The three sisters Rosanna, Nathalia and Vicky work in the rich’s house.They look after the family’s daughters, Rosanna is older than Nathalia and Vicky so she looks after the baby. Nathalia is 7 years old and Vicky is 5 so they play with Amanda who is the rich family’s oldest daughter. The youngest of the family is Arthur. He is a baby and his mother has to take him to work.
b) Technical knowledge i.
Point of view
The photographer took the photo from above them, this makes you feel that the woman and her baby are inferior, probably because they are poor and the photographer wants that we feel sad for this situation. ii.
Lightning
The light is natural and comes from the left. The light is shining. It is a bit diffused but all the photo is clear. The light centres your attention on the woman and her baby, because they are the most important part of the photo. Cotton appears but it is less important.
iii.
Framing and cropping
The photographer chose this photo framing because it is the most shocking, probably other women don’t work with babies or because this baby is the youngest. The photographer crops the photo to centre your attention in the woman and the boy and not in other people that are probably with her collecting cotton too.
3. Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s biography Yann Arthus-Bertrand (born 13 March 1946 in Paris) is a French photographer, journalist, reporter and environmentalist. Firstly, he only takes animal photos, mainly in the Masai Mara park, in Kenia. But afterwards he changes, and now he only takes photos from helicopters or aerostatic balloons. He published more than 60 books with his photos and National Geographic magazine published the many times. One of his most important photos is for the movie “Human”.
4. The real story behind “ Cotton culture” Cotton harvesting around Banfora, Burkina Faso. The photo was taken in the south of Burkina Faso, near the Ivorian border. Cotton is still picked by hand. Once they are harvested, the fibres are gathered to form "balls" to be sold.
The photo was taken to a documentary that speaks about the cotton in Burkina Faso.
5. Conclusion We think that this project was educative, because we​ ​learned more about how to analyse photos. And we can learn more about these women that work all their life collecting cotton or in another hard works. In our opinion it was a really productive project. We liked that project because the story behind the photo is very interesting and makes you think about this situation now and before.
6. Bibliography Lago, Loly “visual literacy” <https://www.edu.xunta.gal/centros/iesfene/aulavirtual2/pluginfile.p hp/10127/mod_resource/content/2/Visual%20Literacy%20-%20The ory.pdf > [ June 2, 2017] Arthus Bertrand, Yann <http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/> [ June 1 2017] Arthus Bertrand, Yann “Collecting cotton in Burkina Faso” <http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/> [ June 1 2017] Arthus Bertrand, Yann “ Human” the movie <http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/home> [ June 1 2017] Anonymous “ Burkina Faso in a map” <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burkina_Faso_in_Africa_( -mini_map_-rivers).svg> [ June 5 2017]