Blog exercise 3

This picture was taken by Arko Datta, an Indian national who has worked with Reuters as a photographer since 2001. It was taken in India after the December 2004 tsunami incident and won the World Press Photo of the Year 2004.

It comes under the category of photojournalism and depicts a woman bent over on a sandy ground, crying over the death of a friend or family member, with her palms turned to the sky. The arm of a tsunami victim can be seen on the left of the image.

This image can be viewed as a representation of realism, where the photographer wants the viewer to look at the image as a portrayal of society at a point in time, like a window. If one were to look at the formal elements of the image, the aspects that catches the eye would be light quality, focus, angle of view, colour and the composition of the image.

The main source of light in this picture would be from coming from natural sunlight as this picture was most likely taken in the outdoors, and it would be highly unlikely that any artificial lighting (except maybe a camera flashlight) would be used in capturing such a tragic moment. The light is coming from the top of the picture and this casts shadows on both visual elements (the victim's hand and the woman) in the photo. The shadows formed are rather harsh and this could be interpreted to serve as a juxtaposition to show how the tsunami was a dark and tragic moment for all those who were affected by it.

All visual elements in the picture are relatively in sharp focus and I feel that Arko Datta chose to do so in order to retain viewer attention on both the facial expression and posture of the crying woman in the picture, together with the outstretched, lifeless hand of the tsunami victim. I feel that both elements need each other in order to create meaning to the picture to tell a story. If either visual element were portrayed on their own, the picture might not evoke as strong an emotion from the viewer than if both were placed together in the same image.

The angle in which this picture was taken is from a top-down perspective. I think this serves to reinforce the isolation of the victim and the woman in the image, perhaps to show the close relationship they had prior to the disaster. Somehow I feel a sense of surreal-ness by look at this picture. The angle of view of this picture makes me feel as if I am looking at an "exhibit" from a third-person perspective. The woman's mouth is open and she was probably crying or wailing in sadness when this picture was taken, but one can only use imagination to figure out how the situation was like.

The colour of the soil dominates in this picture and the colour of the victim's hand seems to blend into the background. Only the attire of the woman provides the more obvious colour elements in the picture. I feel that the lack of colours in this picture creates a "lifeless", seemingly monochromatic mood to the image. Even the colour of the woman's attire is slightly washed out and muted.

The composition of this picture may seem slightly imbalanced at first, with the right side of the image being "heavier" than the left side. However, I feel that this can be explained from ethical and emotional/cognitive aspect of photography. I guess if Datta had included more of the victim's body in the picture, attention would have been drawn away from the emotions protrayed by the lady in the picture. I think it wouldn't be too ethical to show pictures of a deceased person on mass media as some people may find the image too disturbing.

Another explanation for the imbalance created in the image would perhaps be how just the visual image of a dead person's arm can evoke anyone to imagine the presence of a larger "entity" behind the hand to actually "balance" the picture; perhaps to show the scale of destruction of this natural disaster and represent all the victims who died in this tragedy.