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David Erlanson Gallery
March 12
Diane Arbus, Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City, 1962
Beth Stanley - Art 125-01
To me the boy seems angry, but he could also be showing off for the camera. Instead of capturing a moment, she captured a pose. It is predetermined and there is nothing artistic in it. I felt like she took life and bottled it away, making perfect the imperfect. I think people should be captured moment by moment and not posed as if they are figures in an art class.
I can not say that I am indeed happy with the way everything is so gray except that that is up close, the boy is in great detail, but the focus is lost the farther back your eyes search in the photograph. I love detail, so I can not be very nice when everything is out of focus and you lose the complete meaning of a photograph that way. In one part of the picture you lose the border, everything is just too bright. I hate to be so biased, but I like darker photography, they
tend to set an interesting mood.
I photo can make or break the opinion of others of a certain photographer. This photo unfortunately broke my opinion of Arbus before I even knew who she was. I’m sure she is a fantastic photographer, but I can not see that in this photo. I see someone with a little flaw in focus and lighting. She is not too sure of herself; she is making her subjects pose. As opposed to capturing the moment. That is what life is moment after moment set down in our minds forever more.
Rich Tague - Art 125-02
I’m not too fond of the photograph of the child with toy hand grenade by Diane Arbus. There are a few distractions that seem to pull your eye away from the main subject in the photo. The people walking in the upper right corner and the person that is directly behind the child’s head is very distracting to me. I do, however, like the sweeping curve of the walkway the child is standing on. With it curving downward and in to the child, it is the only thing that keeps drawing my eye back to the child. I would like to have seen a composition with the
photographer moved slightly to her left. This would separate the child from the tree behind him. Also, I like the pattern of the child’s shirt and the contrast it has against his shorts and suspenders. The expression on the child’s face is stating, to me, he has had “just about enough of this crazy woman taking pictures.” And the hand grenade reinforces that statement. But what about the other hand…where’s the grenade for that hand!?
I know this is by far the full page requirement for this assignment, but it is hard to critique a photo that you just plain don’t like.
Tristan Claflin - Art 125-02
When I look at this picture the first thing I notice is the grenade in the little boy's hand. This makes me wonder if the photo is supposed to have some type of deep meaning. I like how the background is blurred and you can see faint shapes of other people in the distance. It looks as if Diane Arbus took this shot of the child in his natural environment. The picture has a soft tone that reminds me of a warm spring day. The shadows from the trees add more detail to the background and the ground, making the picture more interesting. It looks as if it is early spring and leaves are still forming on the trees, which adds a nice effect with the lighting. The trees block out most of the light but it is still clearly day light outside.The child looks as if he is frustrated and scared, using the grenade as his protection against whatever or whoever is scaring him. The child also seems lost, maybe he lost his parents in Central Park and is out looking for them. He could also be homeless for he has dirt on his face and is poorly dressed with dirty, scraped knees. The boy is also very skinny, also supporting my idea that he is homeless. I enjoy this photo because it makes you wonder what is going through this little boys head and why he is dressed the way that he is.
Chris Hoult - Art 125-01
This picture of Diane Arbus, Child with toy grenade in hand, is kind of strange to me. The first thing I notice is the little boys face and his funny expression, you find yourself wondering what is going on in his mind and kind of feeling sorry for him. Is he poor, lost just what is the circumstance that has him looking this way. The boy is somewhat shadowed and this gives the picture a “dark” or “sad” kind of mood. As your eyes travel down his body you then see the toy grenade in his hand, the dirt on his knees and you realize that he is “playing” for the camera and you “see” the picture in a completely different way. It makes you smile and happy to see a child playing and acting silly in the park.
The lighting would be the second thing that grabs my attention. The picture has a lot of different tones with one side being shadowy and dark then going really light almost washed out on the opposite side. I like the way the sunlight is coming through the leaves giving the picture different areas of patterns and tones. The composition of the photo in my eyes is not real good. I notice the person behind the boy and it looks as if it is coming out the back of his head. I realize she was in the park and there are people everywhere but perhaps a different angle would have been better.Zach Pierceall - Art 125-01
I do not like the picture of the Child with Toy Hand Grenade in hand. One of the reasons that I do not like the picture is because that is not something that is ordinary that was made dramatic. A possibility that the photographer should have thought of was having the boy do something ordinary but not have him looking directly in the camera. I do not like the contact sheet for this shoot is because the boy is always looking directly in the camera.
Out of the contact sheet of the shoot the best picture I personally like is the one of the boy next to the water fountain. One thing I would suggest for the one of the boy next to the water fountain would be getting a close up of the boy about to get a drink and take a shot of the water starting to come out.
The original picture has great texture it is just that the boy is really distracting. Another thing that do not like is the way the boy has his hand looking completely deformed that really creeps me out. The picture of the boy is a little gray and if a filter was used it would probably look better and if the photographer had used dodging and burning it could look even better. I like that there were no shadows on the boy because just like one of the others it would be too distracting.
And those are the main points that I think of the photograph.Shakera Powell - Art 125-01
I kind of have mixed feelings on this photo. There's certain elements of it that I like, and others that bother me. I really love the lighting in this and the shadows cast on the ground by the trees. I also like a lot of the scenery and people walking and standing around in the background, even though it's not the main focus.The main thing that bothers me about this is that the boy is almost standing directly in the middle of the photo, but at the same time there's enough space to the right of him that I kind of tend to lose focus on the boy and start paying more attention to the woman and child walking down the path in the background.
After looking at Diane Arbus' contact sheet, I think that the second photo in the third row or the third to last photo might have worked out better. In the second in the third row, the boy isn't standing directly in the middle of the photo. He's a little more off the the left side and there's nothing in the background or close by him that will draw your attention away from the main focus. He's also in a more visually pleasing pose than in the first photo-he looks happier instead of gloomy.
The third to last photo was also pretty nice. The boy and the fountain take up most of the photo, and is, once again, not directly in the middle and has nothing around him that will draw your attention away from him. There's also a pretty good range of tones and more really nice tree-shadows.
Emily Richardson - Art 125-02
This photography is scary. First off, there’s a young boy holding grenades with an odd look on his face. Without reading the title, you wouldn’t know they were pretend grenades. This photo sends off a lot of questions. For example, why is this boy alone? Why is he holding grenades? Why does he have that look on his face?
This photograph reminds me a lot of Richard Avedon’s photography. Just like Avedon, Diane Arbus selected the most unlikely picture to finalize. Making some people go out of their comfort zones or making them feel right at home, depending on the type of person. This boy seems unnatural because the strap on his overalls is falling down, he’s standing very stiff, and his face is stuck.
Aside from the boy, I really like the background. I love the trees and the shadows that cast down onto the pavement. There’s a very nice range of tones. The darkness of the trees and the light sunrays, there’s a very good balance between the two. Another thing that balances out is the roughness of the boy and the softness in the background.
I wonder why Diane picked this composition out of all the others. He almost looks too posed or set up. Although some of the other photographs look too posed, he just strikes me as being too stiff. Usually when you think about a young child, you think of smiling, having fun, and running around. You most definitely don’t think of a little boy being threatening and holding weapons in the middle of a park. That’s what makes this photograph out of the ordinary and visually interesting.
Garrett Sayles - Art 125-02
This photograph almost strikes me as silly. The boy looks at the camera with an odd expression, one that reminds me of an adult telling a child to 'smile for the camera' and gets a silly expression, such as this. Also, the boy looks like he was just pulled from play with his friends (or his imaginary friend), as one of the suspenders he is wearing has fallen off of his shoulder and hangs around his arm and his knees and legs look dirty. Clutched in his right hand is a toy grenade; his left is clenched around air, as if expressing frustration that he's been brought aside to take this silly picture when he could be off playing Army with his friends.
Aside from the boy himself, the background seems to have a few other park patrons walking in the top right, and perhaps a parental figure of the boy's behind the boy's head. The trees cast a spotted shadow through their leaves, yet the boy stands in a large spot of shadow. The shadow fades in the middle right of the photograph, casting the walkers in a bright light and putting them out of focus with the lighting change. The bright light of the right of the photograph is balanced by the very dark black of the tree trunks behind the boy's right shoulder.
I think the idea behind this photograph was to capture a child in his environment, which in this case was playing in the park. However, I do not think that the boy had control of the photograph, like his expression may lead viewers to believe; I think that Arbus was the one in control, as the expression on the boy doesn't say 'I'm messing up your photograph' as much as it says 'Is this over yet?'.
