Freya

Task 1

Timeline of narrative art

How has the piece been created?  Painting

Describe the image: 

What are the main colours? Dark - Red, Black and Blue

How big do you think it is? A3+

Is there a central subject? Man being murdered on a bed by two women

Would you say it is a busy, detailed piece or a more simple composition? Simple Composition 

Are there any people depicted? Yes, 3

What are they doing? 2 women are killing and bloke

How old are they? late 30s

What sort of mood does the piece have, how does it make you feel? depressed/sad/upsetting

Interpret the image:

What is the subject of the artwork? the subject of artwork is 2 women and a bloke

Does it seem to be depicting a story? Yes

What do you think the story is? I think that the story is that the gent has being cheating on his wife but his mistress doesn't know he's married and they both find out and kill him.

After we has guessed about the images we needed to go on the internet and find out about the image. 

What is the title of the piece?

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Who created it? 

Artemisia Gentileschi

When was it created?

C. 1611-12

How big is it?

158.8cm x 125.5 cm

where is it displayed? 

Naples

What is the story behind the piece?

Judith slaying Holofernes, old testament book of Judith

What sort of story is this? 

Historical, Biblical

Does the piece show the story as a detailed series or events or as a single scene?

Single Scene

How close were you in your interpretation of the piece?

Close

To finish this task we each had to tell the rest of the group about the narrative image or images that we had been given and then we had to produce a timeline of the images. 

Task 2

Phillip Toledano - 2010 - Day with my Farther

James Mollison - 2009 - The Diciples

Richard Billingham - 1995 - Ray's a laugh

Phillip Lorca Dicorcia - 2001 - Heads

Stephen Shore - 2010 - American Surfaces

Ed Burtynsky - 2003 - Oli Bloom

Elliott Erwitt - 1928 - Paris

Bayeux tapestry - 1066

Artemisia Gentileschi - 1611-12 - Judith Slaying Holofernes

Robert Polidori - 2005 - After The Flood

1890 - Holy Grail 

Task 3

This is a series by James Mollison and is called “The Disciples” and is a single image narrative showing some of the extreme fans that attended a Marilyn Manson concert. This story was taken in one night but there are other images in the series. Mollison creates studio looking shots on location with the use of a portable studio. 

This is a different type of narrative that tells the story over a series of images rather than just one image. This set was created by Phillip Toledano and the series is called “Day with my Father”. The story that is being told in this series is how the gentleman in the picture spends his day. This story was taken in one day. In the images that I have chosen you can't  see a full images of his face a part from the image on the top left but this is still a reflection. This may be a reflection on how the father does't want people to see him or that they don't know his full story. 

In Freya’s lesson today we were split into groups and given a series of images that we had to try and put into the right order. For the first set of images we got Sophie Calle’s “Talking to Strangers” after we had chosen the order that we thought was right we had to stick them up on the board with everyone else’s.  After we had done that we had a sheet that we had to fill in.

Freya then gave us another set of images that didn’t have a sequence they were just a set of images that were from the same series. This narrative was by Stephan Shore and called “American Surfaces”.

Task 4

Describe

The image is of a house in New Orleans that has been hit by Hurricane Katrina and abandoned by the owner. The image is mainly made up of the colours red and cream. The image is split into thirds, they aren’t equal but Robert Polidori has used lines to create a strong image. The top three sections are the ceiling that has black mould growing on it possibly from water damage. The middle section of the ceiling looks like it has collapsed showing off the beams and insulation. Moving down to the middle section, on the left is what is left of a door as the frame and net curtain (now grey in colour) is all that is left, these things are also covered in mould. The two sections to the right are of the wall. Over these two sections the wallpaper has discoloured and has started to peel off of the wall and the mould has started to grow down the wall. On the right hand side of the middle section there is a lamp that is still standing and the shade is also still there and looks untouched by the mould. Moving on down to the last section, this is the area that has the most going on. To the left of the image you can see the side of a chair that looks to have had things put on it like the owners have left in a hurry and thought that higher ground would save their belongings, although the chair is in a bad condition. The chair looks like dirty water has gotten to it and the once pink and green fabric has soaked it up and being left for an extended time with a high temperature. With the chair in this condition you would expect the object on the chair to be in the same condition but the vacuum looks in good condition. In the middle of the images there is a large two-seated sofa that is red in colour and the main focal point of the image. The sofa looks to have had things put on it to stop them from been destroyed. Just like the chair the sofas fabric looks to have soaked dirty water up. At the very bottom of this image there are floorboards that looked to have not been cleaned in years. In the left of the image all the can see is a mess that is on the floor, the mess is mainly wood that could have possibly been a cabinet. 

Analyse
One of the main colours that are in this image is a primary colour and that colour is red, the other main colour that is used is cream. The image is split into thirds with the use of lines from the furniture and doorframes. The image is lit very well using natural lighting and a long exposure. The main bit of the image that grabs your attention is the sofa in the middle of the image. I have noticed that a lot of what I said during the describing section I have also listed during my analysis. 

Interpret
I think that this image is about the social and cultural effects on the community of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This is because the images in this series show the town after the Hurricane and the damage and destruction that the community went back home to. The image is a very well lit and bright image that should portray a happy emotion until you notice the damage that is in the image. I believe that the artist created this piece of work as a documentary so that the rest of the world could know what had happened to New Orleans. 

Evaluate
To sum up my emotions on this piece of work, I would have to say that I do like this image and the rest of the images in this series. I also like the camera that has been used to get the shots, as it is a large format camera that documentary photographers wouldn’t normally use. I have learnt that you don’t have to stick to the normal and fit into the box of photography that you do and experimenting with different techniques can really improve your images. 

Task 5

Today in Freya’s lesson we presented our presentations to half the class. During the session we had to fill out critique sheets for our peers so that they knew what we thought that they had to work on whilst preparing and presenting a presentation, we also had to complete a self-evaluation sheet after we had finished our power point. These are the critique sheets that I got back from everyone.

Overall I received a 3/5 for my presentation, which is an adequate score as I have a few areas that I need to work on. The three main targets that I gained from my peers on how to improve are:
o Talk Louder
o Improve eye contact
o Be more confident

These 3 points are things that I had noticed myself and will be working on for my next presentation. Something that every person put down as a strong point was my knowledge and research that went into my presentation; this is a shock to me as I thought that the depth of my research could have been greater. Other strong points include:
o Good posture
o Clearly spoken throughout
o Good structure of power point 

All in all I think that the presentation went better that I thought as people had put certain aspects down as strong point where I thought that I hadn’t done so well. No one mentioned the ratio of pictures to the amount of text; I think that the power point could have done with more images.