Analysis of a Photograph

David and Goliath 

Photo taken by Octavio Aburto while diving with his friend David Castro at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico

Line, alignment, repetition

The picture follows the rule of thirds, with the fish being the dominant object as they are on the right side. It flows very well as the man is centered, so your eye is caught immediately by the wall of fish, and it then moves to the scuba-diver in the center and along the line of fish into the background. Additionally the photo also has a lot of motion, which adds to the flow. With almost all the fish in the foreground facing diagonally downward towards the man, and those in the background continuing to lie diagonally either tilted downward or upward, it gives the observer a sense of a wave-like motion or gliding movement. The uniformity of the fish also adds a stark contrast to the diver, who looks very solitary in the face of the thousands of silver fish who seems to make up a singular entity in front of him. That appears to be what the photographer, Octavio Aburto, meant by titling the photo David and Golith, a story from the old testament of the Bible. His friend, David Castro, being David from the story and the mass of fish being Goliath, the giant. He may have been making a statement on the might of man, for in the story David, though he is smaller, bests the giant using wits and a something as unassuming as a sling. Here he could be saying that although nature may appear mightier and strong, mankind ultimately has the power to destroy it all, making an allusion to the destruction of the oceans and environment. Or he might have just been using clever word play as his friend's name was also David, either way, it is a good title for the image. 

Business Card

I recently joined the Au Photo Collective team, so I made a business card for myself as one of their photographers.

(I cut out my full phone number and email for privacy reasons) 

Photoshop Exercise

Visual literacy class business card

Painting Analysis

Images Hidden within a Painting

Salvador Dali was one of the masters of placing hidden meanings, messages or images into his paintings. The combination of a troubled childhood and young adulthood as well as, in some critics opinions, an extremely inventive mind, gave him the inspiration to do something thing very different with his artwork. 

This painting, picturing his wife Gala at a window over looking the ocean, holds much more than what can be seen with a passing glance, as was Dali's intention. The main second image that is in the painting, and is easier to see at a distance, is the face and head of Abe Lincoln. Using many different elements of design, including color, negative space, alignment, repetition and patterns, that were already somewhat prevalent in the painting, Dali managed to form a perfect, very large, replication of Lincoln that is initially hidden to the observer. 

Also hidden within the painting is a much smaller image of Lincoln near the bottom middle, almost like a hint to take a step back and look at the painting again, literally. 

Finally the last thing Dali placed into this painting can be seen in the top mid section, above Galas head. Something many people don't know about Dali is that he hid a lot of religious meaning into his paintings, reasoning for this goes back to his complicated childhood and relationship with his father. If you look above Galas head in the sky you can see what looks to be the sun, but is in fact not. That is the crown of Christ's head (the top of Jesus's head), which is a symbol that can be seen in many of Dali's paintings. He uses alignment and lines here, using Gala's almost straight body structure to form a line pointing directly to the crown of Christ. 

(Here are two other views of the painting)

(Far away)                                                                                         (Close up)

Advertisement Analysis

The Show Mustn't Go On

This advertisement's purpose is to bring attention to the injustice that this Italian organization LAV, is fighting. 

The company works to combat animal cruelty, as depicted in this photo of a tiger on strings, with the statement "The show musn't go on", presenting the case that circuses be animal free. 

The elements of design that are used in this advertisement to convey this message are lines, typeface and alignment.

Lines are used here to display movement, and since none the lines in the photo, the strings and wooden handles above the tiger, are straight, it insinuates that the tiger is moving, that the strings are pulling on him. They form the metaphor of the photo, that they tiger is a puppet to be moved by his trainers and the ringmaster, and that this form of entertainment is cruel for the animals. 

The typeface is a simple script, and very small, so as to not draw away from the actual image. Although the words are just adding to the main message, the image itself is supposed to make most of the impact, so the font and size of the words were made sure to be as discrete as possible. 

The tiger is aligned in the dead center of the photo, with the wooden handles and what looks to be the stage floor off the top and bottom of the image. This goes to reinforce the main object of the advertisement. When the reader sees this they should see the tiger first, and then the eye should be drawn to his predicament, and lastly the words across the center, which explain and wrap up the image.