Second Photomontage Critique

Marina Ratnasingham

 

 

Peter Kennard, untitled, 1982

My first impressions was this was about poverty and how the money we earn are the food that we eat and some people don’t earn a lot of money so they don’t get enough food to eat. Looking at the photo you see a white plate with small coins spread around and a person trying to cut into a coin for food. The person isn’t just a random person chosen, instead the artist chose an elder person struggling finically. The texture is rough, I know this because of the aged look of the person’s hands plus the plate itself is chipped with age. Space is used when the person distanced their hands lower to give the viewer a closer look to the persons’ “meal”. Value in light and dark is used mainly because this photo is in black and white and that the clothing and cloth is black with the white plate and the dark coins. The choice of the light and darkness contrast the single white plate to brighten and emphasis the dark coins. Form is used when the hands’ shadow is overlapped over the plate to help show distance. Emphasis is used when the white plate is placed higher up the center to lead the viewer into the contents of the plate. I noticed that the artist chose the photo to be in a 1^st person view so that we could look at this and think of ourselves in that situation. What grabbed my attention in this artwork were the white plate and the dark coins inside. The theme of this artwork is poverty; the mood this photo gives is sort of a sad feeling because despite the “food” being less the person’s hands look eager to eat. So it feels like the person is despite for survival which is most likely true. I think the work is created to be a reminder to us all because poverty is everywhere and  some people forget the struggles o surviving when it’s very hard to earn money to support yourself and your family. I think the artists view of the world is a sad place that needs help to be reminded of the sad truth of the world’s struggles, large or small. The artist had a very similar intention as I had suspected the photo was to show/represent poverty and the struggle of it. When I found out that my thoughts were not so far from the artist’s intent, my feelings had not changed any differently of the artwork. I learned from this artwork that there are easier and simpler ways to express our messages in order for people to understand.