Ton Koene “Burkas in Kabul”
By Marta, Sofía and María
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………3 2. Building Observation Skills 3. Action…………………………………………………………..4 a. Setting…………………………………………………………..4 b. Theme…………………………………………………………..4 c. Characters……………………………………………………....4 4. Building Technical Knowledge a. Point of view…………………………………………………...5 b. Lighting………………………………………………………...5 c. Framing………………………………………………………...5 d. Cropping……………………………………………………….6 5. Understanding the Context a. Finding meaning………………………………………………6 b. Symbol/Metaphor……………………………………………..7 6. Biography……………………………………………………………7 7. Conclusion…………………………………………………………..8 8. Bibliography………………………………………………………...8
INTRODUCTION We chose this photo because of his meaning, we think it is the best because it is a very important theme. It talks about the stereotypes that society puts in all women. In our opinion the photographer is a girl because she understands, in a better way, women’s situation. The photographer decided to put the woman and the magazines in a way that we can see all of them. It express the differences between the women in different countries.
OBSERVATION SKILLS ACTION In the foreground, there is a woman who is covered with a burqa. The only part who is not covered is her hands who are holding some magazines with women in the cover page. She is showing two magazines in the right hand. One has a blondie girl with green eyes and the other has a woman with green eyes and brown hair. In her left hand she has the other magazines. In the background there are some shops and houses and the street with some cars.
SETTING We think that the photo was taken nowadays because it talks about nowadays problems
THEME We think that the theme is about the search for equality
CHARACTERS There is a woman who is covered by a blue burqa. We think that she is muslim because of her clothes.
TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE POINT OF VIEW She was in front of the woman in the street when she took the photo. The photographer is standing and the photo was taken very close to her because they are on the same height. The photographer chose to put the woman in front of her. LIGHTING It is a natural light because the photo was taken outside. As we can see it is not a very good day because the sky is totally cloudy. The light comes from the top, in other words, it comes from the sky. The lighting is not defined because it is a cloudy day, so it is not too much bright and not even too much dark. There is a blurry part on the background of the photo unless the woman. We put the attention in the woman because it is the most important of the photo. It is a sad mood because of the light, is not very clear and is cold.
FRAMING The picture framing includes the girl with the magazines and a part of the street. We think there is nothing special, there are more cars, more streets and more people. The photographer chose this frame to only focus on the woman with her magazines.
CROPPING What the cropping does is make us only focus on the woman and the magazines. It helps make the background blurry and the foreground clear, so this way we can just see the most important element in the photo. It only tries to show and let us focus on the meaning of the photo.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT It has to be a photo for a newspaper article. The photographer took it to show the whole world society problems. It's an actual photo, it is in colour, not coloured, and mainly because it shows nowadays problems. We know Pampliega that is a very good photojournalist who does the same as this photographer (to take society problems, war problems, and to show social differences)
FINDING MEANING She is trying to explain us the problems that the developing countries have nowadays not only muslim countries but also all over the world. The photo makes us think about the many problems that women have nowadays . This photo makes us feel bad because real life is terribly hard specially for women. It makes us think that we have to change our mind in order to live in a better world. It inspires us to be critical with the photos that media presents us and also to give importance to certain elements in those photos.
SYMBOL/ METAPHOR For example, the magazines represent differences between western people and oriental ones. This picture is amazing for us because it shows how women are in other countries, how real women are and what society wants us to be like and not to think about other things more important than our appearance.
TON KOENE’S BIOGRAPHY
Antonius Koene was born in 1963 in West Germany, Dutch. He hold a degree in humanitarian practice from Oxford University, he also worked in Médicins Sans Frontières. He gets the World Press Photo Award For People. His photos have been published in many international magazines and newspapers. He now is working as a photographer for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. The topic of his photos are prostitution on Nigeria, malnutrition in Somalia…
CONCLUSION With this photo and this project we learnt a lot of things. For example, now we know how to recognise the important things behind a photo and to be more critical when we analyse a photography. Now we know that we can’t trust all the things that media offers us and we should be more critical with this.
BIBLIOGRAPHY -Working as a photojournalist, Loly Lago VISUAL LITERACY -World Press Photo, Ton Koene https://www.worldpressphoto.org/people/tonkoene