Project 3 Research

Dave Hill

This photo by Dave Hill does a great job of utilizing light to tell a story. The subject is in a dark, messy room with dirty shoes on the bed. The subject is looking out the window, perhaps suggesting that she wants to be out of this room. I think the lighting makes this message even clearer. The only light in the room appears to be coming from the window, which makes the photo fairly light in areas that are close to this window. Conversely, the other areas which are away from the window are very dark. This makes the room look even worse, but highlights the window a lot. Highlighting the window makes the world outside the room seem very appealing, which gives me the feeling that the subject wants to get out. 


This photo (also by Dave Hill) uses a fire as the main light source other than the small amount of light provided by being outside at night. This creates a nice contrast where the background has the cool blue colors of the ocean, and the fire brings a lot of warm orange colors at the center of the photograph. The subject's face is mostly dark, but the orange highlights on the edge of her face create a nice effect. The overall blue light of the photo provides a peaceful effect, but the bright fire brings a lot of energy to an otherwise uninteresting photo.

"There is an inextricable link between the domination and exploitation of women, and the domination and exploitation of animals. 
Animals and women are objectified in similar ways: from the mass media fantasy images of impossibly proportioned women and happy cartoon cows and chickens, to the animal names and insults directed toward women. 
Women are called foxes, bitches, birds, lambs — domestic and game animals. If men are compared to animals at all they are wolves, bears, stallions — symbols of strength and power." - Rachel Graves

This diptych by Rachel Graves does a very good job of using two images to effectively tell a story. In the first of the two self-portraits she has face paint and a mask on in order to look like a dog. In the second one she has washed off most of the paint, leaving her looking like she's been beaten up. She uses these two pictures together to show the disturbing link between the ways that women and animals are objectified and mistreated. Her point that men are compared to animals that are a symbol of strength, and that women are usually compared to animals that are prey is very interesting to me because I never made that connection on my own.  That being said, even without her statement it is hard to miss her message with this diptych. The second self-portrait in particular really makes the viewer feel her pain, and see that she has been hurt by the world. 

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