Visual Literacy - Analysing Photographs

THE GIRL & THE ELEPHANT

Nuria, María, Silvia and Uxía

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction………………...p.1 2. Biography of the photographer ………………………………….p.1 3. Formal analysis of the photograph ………………....p.2­4

a. Observation Skills ……………..p.2­3 b. Technical Knowledge ………....p.4 c. Context ………………………….p.4 d. Meaning ………………………...p.4 e. Symbol ………………………….p.4

4. Conclusion ……………….p.5 5. Bibliography …………….p.6

1.I​ ntroduction

In this project we are going to talk about a photo and his photographer.

We are going to analyze the photo and explain it.

2. Biography of the photographer

Gregory Colbert is a Canadian film­maker and photographer. He was born in 1960.

His career began in Paris 1983.

Some of Gregory's photos are about the interaction between man and animals, and he makes a lot of documentaries. This man travels around the world to photograph the relationships between animals and humans.

p.1

3.Formal analysis of the photograph

Observation Skills:

This photo is recently and it was taken in India.

In this picture we see an elephant and a girl inside a lake. Bushes are the background and the foreground is a natural landscape.

We all think that something bad happened to the animal and she is trying to encourage him, because of their sad faces.

In this photo the two characters are the subject, because if some of them is missing it doesn't make sense.

About the characters we think that the elephant is a baby and the girl is about 11 years old. We think that the girl is in India but she isn’t from there. We say this because in this zone there are lots of elephants.

The girl is wearing something that looks like a white tunic.

About her social group we think she is from a medium social group.

She is squatting.

She is sad and miserable, and she looks lost and tired.

The story behind

Silvia I think that the elephant’s mother was hunted to get her fangs, and the baby elephant which is in the photograph is an “orphan”, and the girl knows the story and is trying to encourage and look after the elephant, and she is also sad for the story of the baby elephant.

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María I think that the elephant was in danger, because hunters wanted to kill it, maybe they wanted Its skin or Its tusk. The girl tried to help it but she couldn’t do it, and now she is saying goodbye to it

Uxía The woman loves elephants and people kill elephants and cut their tusks and she is against it. When the people went to kill the elephant, she save it, and they escape​ d​ .

Nuria I think the girl travels to India and meets the elephant. They are always together. She leaves this country because she doesn’t live there. I think in the photo she is saying goodbye because she will not see the elephant again. For that reason she is sad.

Technical Knowledge:

The photographer took the photo at the same level of the subject and he took the photo in the edge, near the two characters.

The lighting is bright.

The frame of the photo is the girl, the elephant and the landscape a lake with bushes. Outside the frame there is a natural landscape.

We think that this photo is a beautiful composition and the two characters draw our attention because they are in the middle of the photo.

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Context:

We think that the photographer’s purpose is to show the photo in an art exhibition. The photographer wants to take the relationship of friends that exists between the animal and the girl. This photo was taken in a short time period.

Meaning: The photograph is telling a friend relationship between the elephant and the girl and it represents sadness and love.

Symbol: We think that the elephant is a symbol because it represents all the animal world.

4. Conclusion We think that this project was very interesting and we love this photo because it is very beautiful and special.

We like this photographer and his photos, because he is a very good photographer.

The real reason of the photo is similar to our opinion, but in our photo there isn’t a real situation, because the photographer wanted to create a photomontage.

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5. Bibliography

Colbert, Gregory “Gregory Colbert” https://gregorycolbert.com/​ [Last consult: 04/06/2016]

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