Photo essay?

https://spark.adobe.com/sp/design/page/7df6f4fb-7c70-4416-8dd9-37dea7d34552         (my photo essay)

A photo story or a photo essay, is just an assortment of images that tell a story and thrust an account, over numerous images that could be either a diptych or a triptych, (Diptych and triptych originate from the Greek connotation two, dip, or three, trip fold, tych. This typically referred to a graft of art that was alienated into sections and put together but has come to be something that is extensively used in photography and the art. Many up-to-date artists have produced pieces that were designed to be displayed together and the diptych and triptych have become very popular story telling devices, as we see in an art exhibit at a gallery, it’s more than one image that can elucidate to us something, through the characters that are offered.

Stacey Kranitz

Kranitz was born in Kentucky and received a BFA (bachelor of fine arts degree, which is considered to be the upmost prestigious bachelor’s degree that you can receive in the visual arts) from New York University and an MFA (this is a creative degree which is typically awarded as a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, filmmaking, photography, etc.) from the University of California, in Irvine. Stacey’s work has been featured in journals including Elle, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, etc.

Her work discovers history, representation and uniqueness within the documentary institution. She uses photography to expose a narrative that confronts human understanding of culture. Kranitz states that, ‘one poised between notions of what is right and what is wrong’.

Here, Stacey has captured an image of a guy who is wearing a vest top, symbolising the American flag, with the quote, ‘Give Me Freedom’. This image is clearly confronting human understanding of certain American cults, this is because this guy is symbolizing that he wants freedom from what he expresses to be , and we can evidently seen that not everyone typically  looks like him due to his crazy, spiky, punk hair. This guy is clearly following a specific cult of his choice, and his objective is clearly to be given the right to follow what he believes is right for him.

 

Here, Stacey is once again portraying uniqueness, this is because she has captured an image of an middle age looking man hanging out with a girl who looks young enough to be his daughter. This is unique because its not often that you see old men hanging out with young girls. She has exposed a narrative which basically shows the audience that there are different cultures out there which accept the idea of old men and young girls hanging out. In addition, this image is displaying the uniqueness of certain cultures allowing the use of drugs and alcohol, because this girl looks as though she has been drugged, which relates to the mature man smoking.

This image is expressing the idea of human understanding of culture, history and uniqueness. We clearly see 2 young ladies casually sitting with bikinis on. This is expressing the idea of females being forced by the media to supposedly wear minimal clothing, as it is seen as, ‘normal’. However, history shows us that, this wasn’t the case back then, as, now days it has become more so of a forced trend. If young girls like these 2 were seen in history dressed like this, it would have be seen as being derogatory whereas no girls can casually walk around anywhere dressed like this. Overall, this image expresses an understanding of culture of woman being mentally forced into becoming, what is believed to be, ‘perfect’, in todays society.

Stacey is expressing the understanding of the drugs and alcohol culture. This is because the lady to the right, wearing a red jacket, is seen with a drunk which may be seen as an alcoholic beverage. Also, the lady to the left is seen with a cigarette sandwiched between her fingers. This whole of drugs and alcohol, has highly affected the person in the middle, as they have turned to do something which isn’t normal, which is displaying themselves in a nude manor. We evidently see that this is the result of alcohol and drugs, because they tend to make you do things in which you wouldn’t really do.

Jon sochor

Sochor is a well-known photographer who was born in the Czech Republic. Jan has been working and active in many Latin America countries, e.g. Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba, etc. This is due to Latin America becoming an up and arising stimulation for his photography work.

With Sochor living in many Latin American countries, this made him relax his attention on photojournalism with the pure objective to straightforwardly represent Latin America today.

Predominantly its social, cultural and everyday phenomenon’s in all their involvedness. Jon’s photo essays and photographs repeatedly appear in huge global magazines, newspapers, websites and broadcasting, as well as, The Guardian, ABC news, NBC Sports, etc.

This image is straightforwardly representing Latin America today as its portraying a typical scene in a slightly lower standard of living in parts of South America. Jon Sochor is bringing out the truth of what life is actually like for some. This picture expresses a young average looking  Latin American girl who looks like she isn’t pleased about something which could be her standard of living. The mature looking guy in the back also links to the young girl because he also seems unpleased about something, this could be because he has aged in an unwanted way of living.

Here, Jon has captured an extremely powerful image. As soon as we set our eyes on this image, our eyes avert to the hand which is forcing itself out of the barbed wire, this body part is missing the end of the middle finger. This may reflect onto the fact that, people in Latin America, don’t have it that easy and they have to force they’re way out in order for them to achieve what they want. We can also see a mature looking person in the background who seems to be upset and in pain. This is generally mirroring some families emotions when it comes to their way of living.

One of Jon Sochors images conveys an image of a mature looking man who evidently has no legs so he is disabled, This is portraying todays Latin America as being open minded. This is because, no one is really bothered by his overall image. Whereas, certain people would be taken back by his image, as it may be seen as not being, ‘normal’, but in this image, it evidently is.

Richard Billingham

Billingham was born in the 70’s and is an English photographer and an artist who is most famous for his photobook, ‘Rays A Laugh’ which documents the lifetime of his alcoholic father Ray, and, overweight, seriously tattooed mother, Liz.  Billingham was born in Birmingham and studied as a painter at Bourneville College Of Art.

Richard rose to fame through his open photography of his family members in England, Cradley Heath, in, additional to and published in the acclaimed book Ray’s A Laugh. Ray’s a Laugh expresses the poverty and sadness which shows his circumstances as he grew up.

The photographs, were taken on the cheapest film he could find, and delivered dark colors and bad focus which adds to the legitimacy and forthrightness of the series. Rays father, and his mother Liz, seem to be preposterous figures, with the alcoholic father drunk on his home beverage, and the mother, and chunky chain smoker with an obvious captivation for nicknacks and jigsaw puzzles.

This image clearly expresses how Ray’s childhood was, which was full of poverty and sadness. The 2 people in the image, of his parents shows that they do not care about how they are living and that they are just living with no understanding of hygiene, appearance or a decent lifestyle. The food his mother is appearing to be eating, looks extremely unappetizing and looks as if there may be fungus growing on the food, however, she seems to be enjoying it. Also, their overall appearance resembles how Ray was raised, which is evidently seen, in a derogatory way. No child should be raised in that type of living, as it just seems totally unhealthy.

 

 This image is of his mother, and is seen as being, ‘disgusting’, to the audience. It can make someone feel sick, due to her mouth being full of dirt, and her nails embedded with dirt. This reflects onto Rays mother not  being responsible, as shes clearly unable to clean up after herself.  It just seems really unusual for someone to have such an unappealing overall appearance.

 

 This is another one of Ray’s images. This portrays a really weird lifestyle for anyone, this is because there is a flying cat, which mirrors the understanding that Ray’s lifestyle had no normality. Having a cat flying across a room, shows that there must be some sort of violence going on, as many know that cats can definitely not fly. The males action in the image also shows that he may have inflicted the idea of the cat flying in the air.