Still Life: Tanaka Tatsuya

This still life is very artistic and creative in miniaturizing painters. The vibrant colors against the beige background gives a great contrast.

This tableau is eye-catching as the sheer size of the acoustic guitar sets a scene for the trepidatious figurines.

This composition is one of my favorites as Tatsuya utilizes SD cards to emulate a piano. This shows creativity in its finest.

Annie Leibovitz:

This photograph of Johnny Depp is intriguing because of the way the lighting casts this dark aura around him in contrast to the white sheets he is laying on. Also, the knife, the cigarettes, and the tattoos symbolize the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll theme that this image portrays.

Presented in this composition is the young Leonardo DiCaprio holding a white swan across his black shirt. What is unique about this image is the presence of wavy and curly lines throughout the photograph; they are prominent in the grass, DiCaprio's hair, and the swan's neck.

I find this image very appealing because it is a reversal of roles composition. Tina Fey is portrayed as the child under the table, while the infant in the chair is substantially typing a thesis paper on the Colloquialisms of the Renaissance Era. The image is supported by the multitudes of office paraphernalia cluttering the background and foreground.

Sally Mann:

This image is probably one of Sally Mann's most popular ones as it sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The image is stunning because of the vignetting that centralizes the subject matter of the photo, a little girl holding a cigarette. This composition is the essence of the theme "loss of innocence." In stark contrast, a little girl besides her looks off into the distance at a figure that is too blurred to recognize his or her purpose.

Seen in this image are two little girls who seem to be doing makeup and hiding from a vicious entity. They are both wearing white to symbolize purity. The dog on the right side of the photo possibly represents the ferocity and merciless views of society on women. On the left, we see a Virginia license plate that incorrectly spells gorgeous, possibly spelling it the way a child would.

The children in this photograph seem to look much older than they are due to the way they are posed. This theme is very prominent in the rest of her photographs as a "loss of innocence." What makes this photo even more powerful is the look on the children's faces; their demeanor presents an adolescent appearance.

The little girl in this photograph seems to be catching her breath and hiding after running and throwing off her swimming gear on the road. The vignetting is powerful and it seems that the darkness is closing in on the subject.

Scanograms:

This image captures my attention because of the photorealism of the shoes and the hard edge cropping of the clouds. The depth of the composition is provided by the layering of the soles and the dispersement of the clouds in between. The man in the middle provides a focal point that also provides scaling from foreground to background.

The composition is very colorful and portrays new technology capturing old technology. The lenses at the top and the sensor at the bottom form a face that is not distinguishable at first, but when seen provides a secondary perspective that is unique. 

This image is clean and simple. The depth of the composition is provided by the third dimension and darkness at the toe boxes and soles. The shoelaces that form the heart are the focal point of the image, and I find any image of shoelace art beautiful.

Photograms:

I am attracted to this image because it provides harsh contrast from the white, soft-edged hands, to the sharp-bristled leaves and branches of the foliage in the background. The symmetry is also intriguing; it seems that the hands are coming out of the pavement to strangle the vegetation.

This composition is beautiful as it portrays a silhouette of a bird on a branch in stark contrast of the outline of a woman filled with an image of foliage. I feel that the artist is portraying the beauty of nature and Mother Nature.

The reason this picture grabs my attention is the use of objects to construct an entirely different object. The artist's approach of using watches and other accessories to form an anchor is interesting. Could he be symbolizing that no matter how hard we try, time never stops?

Practice Critiquing:

These pictures were all shot on a Nikon D5100 and are not shot by me. I am solely critiquing them to the best of my abilities at the time that I am posting to evaluate my growth in the art of photography.

This wide-angle composition captures a landscape that is vibrant in hues and saturation that is appealing to the eye. The focal point of the photo is apparent in the parallelism of the mirrored reflection cast on the surface of the water by the sun flaring through the clouds. Due to the mist coming off of the clear surface of the water, the setting of this composure is an early morning sunrise and provides viewers with a cool feeling.

 The photo provides a fisheye perspective of an aged hammock that is shown by the textures of the wood that is the focal point of the composition. The warm tone of the photograph hints at a midday setting that is supported by the contrast of the cool green hues of the grass in the background. This composition provides viewers with a warm, relaxing sensation of basking in a hammock on a bright, sunny day. The slight, globular distortion in the background provides a third-dimension that compliments the depth-of-field effect that the photographer is aiming towards.

The portrait of this mysterious man is basically a visual biography that can only be revealed by him. Viewers can only provide surface impressions such as, the probability of being homeless, a hardworking shipmate, a harbor traveling vagabond, and/or a random elderly gentleman disliking the idea of even being in a picture. The depth of field effect of the photo and the seagulls frozen in flight out of focus in the background shows that this photo was shot on a sunny day at a high shutter speed and low aperture.