Looking and seeing

Describe what you saw in the first image

In this image you can see a female black woman breast feeding a white baby, you can’t see either of their faces so you cant connect with the subjects. The photographer has placed them in the centre of the image with nothing else, so you are not distracted and focus on the two humans.

Now describe it again.

This image of a black woman breast feeding a white baby with neither of their faces being shown, shows equality between two cultures, not just these two people but standing for all cultures around the world. The way the woman is holding the baby is very loving and makes the viewer believe there in a strong connection here. The red cardigan also backs up this emotion and red is a very emotional intense colour standing for love.  The soft lighting makes the mood relaxed and there is no tension in this image. This image has also been taken at a straight on angle, as though facing the issue straight on and there is no holding back.

What do you think he meant by this? (Hint: think about objectivity and subjectivity)

Robert Doisneau say’s ‘We must always remember that a picture is also made up of the person who looks at it’. What he is saying here is that we can all describe the image in the same way objectively but subjectively we all cast different opinions on it. This due to our personal opinions on the image and what it stands for. Take the first image some people would think this I a good image show love between cultures where there would be people who would be offended by image and strongly disagree on the way the to cultures are shown.

How does knowing the context change our understanding or appreciation of an image or other artwork?

At first I believed the image to show a group of school kids and their teacher all having fun in the playground, in the 1930’s/40’s but since I read this description my views completely changed and made me realize this image showed a lot more than just a bunch of school kids, it show the mixed reaction of a shooting. It made me think how could these people being enjoying this shooting, as thought loving at death in the face. I didn’t understand the mixed reactions at first and with reading the description I still don’t understand how they are smiling but understand why there are different emotions going on in this image.