Photo Evaluation

Arnold Newman.

Formerly Condemned Political Prisoners, by British, in Gallows Room.

Likud soldiers prior to Israel's establishment.

Israel, 1967

Technically, this photo is phenomenal. As a photo that conveys a meaning it is amazing.

The first glance at the photo and you know those men are going to die and they are going to be hung. It looks like death row all standing in one row. It makes me a little sick to my stomach thinking that people actually died by hanging, and it's probably a practice that still goes on in many places across the world. Everything in the foreground is pretty well a silhouette and eerily frames the men.

The monochromatic coloring of the photo is fantastic. The men are dressed in a heavy orange while the rest of the room is all in shades of less vivid and saturated orange. It really holds the attention on the men with the silhouette noose hanging just above their heads. There are lines everywhere in the photo that constantly direct your attention to the men.

What He Likes About My Photo

Tyler Ellis. Summer 2011.

This is my boyfriend, Tyler. We both have a thing (and by thing I mean BIIIG THIIING) for cameras. I shoot stills and he mostly does video. Anyway, he had this photo as his profile picture on facebook for awhile. The main thing he liked about it was that it made his lens look BIG. As, it's actually a small lens. It's a 50mm f/1.4 USM. He's a guy. He likes big things...

There's a short story that goes along with this photo. It begins with, he was taking a picture of something and just before he was done I told him to hang on where he was 'cause I wanted to take a photo. So he did, but I couldn't get the reflection in the lens to look the way I wanted to (in real life it was reflecting some really awesome colors from the other side of the river). However, after I took my test shots he thought I was done and then kept walking. He didn't think I was taking a photo of any importance and didn't want to keep standing there. The photo above is the test photo that I took, which I showed him later on in our walk that day. He saw and said it was awesome! He really liked it. To which my reply was, "It was going to be better, but you wouldn't let me take it." I made him kind of embarrassed that he didn't wait.

So, overall he liked the photo as it was. He said my framming was fantastic, the colors looked good together, the exposure was good, and again, it made his lens look really big. To which I also say, it's a completely unedited photo (except for the fact that it was shot in jpeg and processed by the camera.)

What I Like About Me

This photo describes me. I love color and the colors in my shirt are reflected in the background. The horizon line is tilted. Which I really like, because things don't always have to be perfect and dead on in life.  I enjoy bokeh. Especially, in the way with this photo the background is blurred, but it is still possible to tell what is in the background. A little at least. Essentially, visually I love the photo. To add to that, there is very minute editing done with this photo.

However, what I really truly love about this photo is me. This was taken on the day I decided I'm going to forget about caring what other people think of me. I'm tired of making decisions in my life based off of what I think other people with think of me. I stopped caring about that and started doing things my way. beginning with my hair. I have always loved braids and crimped looking hair and minimal makeup, but enough to see I'm wearing some.

This was a day that I was happy. Happy to finally start being myself and doing things that I have always wanted to do. What I found really effective with this photo is that my boyfriend could also see a bit of how I felt in this photo. One of my friends commented on it on Facebook with, "Your eyes are so beautifully piercing <3." This is the comment that this photo is named after. I chose this name because my eyes have always been something I have loved about myself, for a number of different reasons.

"Beautifully Piercing." Jessi Roy. January 9th, 2012.