Here is a link the the image I chose. I was unable to download it and reupload it here.
This photograph was taken by a girl named Bailey (who does not disclose her last name). The little girl in the black and white photograph stares off into the distance, seemingly completely unaware of the world around her or the camera snapping at her from just feet away. The day looks cold and dark. Her eyes shine with the light and contrast of wherever her mind has traveled to, but only enough to make the viewer more curious - never enough to let the viewer in.
Upon browsing Bailey's profile on this art site, one can find a journal entry about this little girl. Her name is Sasha, and she was adopted by Bailey's family at a very young age. Sasha had been abandoned by her biological parents in the middle of a field, left to die there. How Bailey's family came to adopt her is not explained, but they have, and are now taking care of a little girl with more emotional issues and trauma than most people see in a lifetime. Some of Bailey's photos of Sasha show her a little happier; however, most photos of Sasha are dark and dreary, showing that she indeed has a troubled mind.
Bailey simply may have asked Sasha to look away from the camera when she took this photograph, as she often photographs her siblings and they are probably more than used to her instructions. She may have been attempting to simply capture an aesthetically pleasing photo (which she does), but it seems that there is more to this photo than appealing to the eye. Bailey has once again succeeded at capturing Sasha in such a way that shows her pain, and allows the viewer to feel it, too.
While the clarity and composition of the photo make it interesting to look at, the feelings drawn from the eyes are what truly make this photo successful. Sasha is physically present, but her mind has traveled to a place, perhaps a place in the past that she'd rather not remember but cannot shake from memory.
More maps...
14 years ago
Interesting post. It seems you are judging this photo as successful because of the feelings one gets from it. I am wondering, do you think of it as purely expressive - about conveying emotion - or is this in service of some of the story of this child's trauma, and in that sense a political image? It is possible to mis-read the image as just a nice portrait, or do you think there is something in particular about the image that conveys the backstory and pain?
ReplyDelete(A side note: I guess I ought to have been clearer. When I said to write about a piece of work you had seen in the course of this class, I did mean things we saw at Institutions we visited, or in readings, DVDs, etc.)