Connecting Essay. - 1

Connecting Essay. - 1

Robert Mapplethorp:

In Robert Mapplethorp's Isabella Rosellini photograph, the audience can see a women who's head, arms and the flesh of her chest showing against a black background. She also seems to show emotion as she holds the sides of her face while she looks down. The positive point of this photo is that she has such a simple facial expression and position against the black background, this is a positive factor because the simplicity of the photo really creates the audience to think and relate to the emotion she displays. There is also no distraction to draw away the focus point. The negative point of this photo is that the model wore a black top against the black background, this is a negative factor because it cuts fine lines across the women's shoulder blades and elbows creating an unrealistic look to the photograph. An improvement I would make this photo is to feather the edges, to make it less defined. 

In my self portrait, the audience can see myself holding the sides of my face with my clenched hands. They are also able to see me with my head down and my eyes closed while the bottoms of my arms seem to become closer. The audience can also see that i'm modelling against a black background while the shadows appear on my body. The positive point of this photo is that my body position draws in the attention of the audience, this is a positive factor because when the audience look at this photo they are only able to see what they interpret and relate too instead of what I am actually displaying. The negative point of this photo is that my hair covers most of one of my eyes, this is a negative factor because it becomes a distraction and a focus point for the audience. An improvement I would make to this photo, would be too try and clone the hair away from the eye.

These two photo's connect because of the positioning of myself and Robert Mapplethorpe model's positioning but also the choice of keeping the body alight against a black background. The fact I kept the same position of the hands against the face like the other model creates both photos to become extremely similiar. If I was to take this photo again to connect them together, I would use a closer shot but also unclench my hands.