“Burkas in Kabul” by Ton Koene

“LIFE INCONGRUENCES”

Ton Koene “Burkas in Kabul”

By Noa Fresco, Ainoa Vilar and Andrea Corral

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction……………………………………………....…3 2. Formal analysis of the photograph “Burkas in Kabul”.....3 a. Observation Skills………………………………….…3 i.

Action…………………………………………....3

ii.

Theme……………………………………….…..4

iii.

Characters……………………………………....4

iv.

The story behind this photo….……………....4

b. Technical Knowledge………………………………...5 i.

Photographer's point of view……………..….5

ii.

Ligthning…………………………...…………...5

iii.

Framing & Cropping…………………………...5

3. The real story behind this photo……………………...…..6 4. Ton Koene’s biography ………………………….....……...6 5. Conclusion………………………………………………......7 6. Bibliography…………………………………………………8

1. Introduction

This project ​is about photography, we think our teacher chose this theme because she wants to teach us to read, analyze and get to know the importance and meaning of photography.

We chose this photo because we think that it transmits a lot of feelings. We can imagine a lot of stories and with this photo we can talk about a theme that is happening in our world and we want to debate it.

2. Formal analysis of the photography

a. Observation skills

i.

Action

In the foreground there is a woman that is selling fashion magazines, she has two magazines in her right hand and a lot of them​e in her other arm. We can’t see her face because she is covered with a blue burqa.

In the background we can see a big city with a lot of buildings, streets, cars and some trees. We don’t see any people.

ii.

Theme

We think the photo theme is the inequality between people, economic differences ​and it stands out the inequality among women.

iii.

Characters

There is an old woman with a blue burqa. As the woman is wearing ​these clothes we think she is a Muslim. She is standing selling some magazines.

We can’t see her face.

iv.

The story behind it

We think the story behind this photo is the harsh reality. The photographer wants to reflect the incongruences of women’s stereotypes. In a “modern” society we can see how a covered woman must ​sell ​her opposite image. On the other hand, we think it is surreal that a woman “without” a face is selling magazines with women’s faces in their covers.

b. Technical Knowledge

i.

Photographer's point of view

The photographer is standing and the camera is in front of her.

ii.

Ligthning

The light is natural because the woman is in the street and there isn’t much light because the sky is cloudy. The light comes from above and from the background, it expresses sadness, seriousness, solitude and the idea of a woman’s hard life.

iii.

Framing & Cropping

We think that this is cropped and framed in this way for different reasons. One of them is to fix our eyes on the Muslim woman and the beautiful women that there are in the magazines. ​We also think that the photographer defocused the background protagonism.

to

emphasize

the

women's

3. The real story behind it

We didn’t find the real story of this photo, but we searched for some information about other photos.

The most important and impressive photos are called “The angels of death”, are some photos about

the african

prostitutes with AIDS, these girls collect 2 dollars for each customer, these customers know that these girls have AIDS, but even so they don’t use a condom.

The inhabitants of Nigeria, where they live, call them “The angels of death” because they can transmit AIDS to them

4. Ton Koene’s biography

Ton Koene is ​graduated in humanitarian practice from Oxford University. After graduating in 1989, he worked for sixteen years for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Koene found himself in the world of photography and missed creativity in the humanitarian world. In 2006, he left MSF and ​after that he worked as a freelance photojournalist. His photo documentaries have topics as prostitution in Nigeria, coal mining in Bulgaria, malnutrition in Somalia, genocide in Darfur, and the Inuits of the North Pole.

5. Conclusion

With this project we learned the importance and the different significances of the photos . We think that this project is interesting but more boring than other projects. Although this project was our worse, we think this photo helped us because it transmits a lot of things without knowing anything about it. We chose this photo because we think ​it reflects a real problem among people.

6. Bibliography

● Infobae, “El drama de los "Ángeles de la Muerte", las prostitutas con sida que venden sus cuerpos por dos dólares”, Infobae, <https://goo.gl/DhOcWc>, [03/06/17]

● Infobae, “La triste realidad de los ángeles de la muerte nigerianas”, Infobae <​http://cort.as/xLxX​> [03/06/17]

● Lago Loly, ‘Working as a photojournalist’, Virtual Classroom , ​<​https://goo.gl/UXfjlB​>​, [30/06/17].

● World

Press

Photo,

<​https://goo.gl/dcHVjt​>, [03/06/17].

“Ton

Koene”,