If you want to capture people's emotion, taking photographs is probably the best way. It is because you can depict the facial expression of people at the very moment with photographs. However it is interesting that even if the photographs are conveying the same emotion, their atmosphere can be absolutely different. 'Village School' by M. Bourke-White and 'Children's Puppet Theater' by A. Eisenstadt are good examples for it. The photographs both convey fear and strain, but their atmosphere for 'Village School' is gloomy while the atmosphere for 'Children's Puppet Theater' is joyful and excited.
In 'Village School', all the children are sitting straight in front of the desks as if someone forced them to do so, so they look very constrained. A lot of children are frowning a little bit, and none of them are smiling, so you can see they are feeling unpleasant. They look as if they are being scolded. The room is dark and most of the children are wearing dark clothes, so it gives the viewer heavy and serious impression. Unlike the dark environment, the children's faces are shining with bright light. Therefore, the facial expressions of the boys are emphasized.
In 'Children's Puppet Theater', there are rows of children who are watching something, and they are feeling scared for whatever they are seeing. You can easily figure that out because they are all wide eyed with their mouth opened. This picture is taken at outdoors, so the periphery is bright with sunlight. The colours of their clothes are also in bright tone. The photograph is almost full of the faces of different children, so their facial expressions are very much emphasized.
In 'Village School', the overall colour of the photograph is black or dark gray, and there are few bright colours. Therefore the atmosphere of the picture is gloomy and unhappy. The contrast between the light on children's face and darkness in the periphery makes the viewer feel constrained. The children are sitting very still, so the viewer can see they are under a very strict discipline, which makes him or her uncomfortable. On the other hand, 'Children's Puppet Theater' is white and bright gray, and few dark colours. Therefore the atmosphere of the picture is light and vivid. The variety of children's expressions and gestures gives the viewer energetic feelings. Therefore even if the children look scared in the picture, you can sense the feeling of positive excitement and enjoyment.
The two pictures convey the same fearful emotion to the viewers by depicting the facial expression of the children. However, due to the difference in the use of light, position and movement of the objects, and use of colours, they show the viewers very different atmosphere. One is dark, still and structured while the other is bright, lively, and vivid.
To Soyun Jeong From Hannah Bae
ReplyDelete1. What I like about this piece of writing is your point of view on the emotions. I didn't think the children in 'Children's Puppet Theater' looked fearful.
2. Your main point seems to be 'The two pictures convey the same fearful emotion to the viewers by depicting the facial expression of the children. However, due to the difference in the use of light, position and movement of the objects, and use of colours, they show the viewers very different atmosphere.'
3. These particular words or lines struck me as powerful:
If you want to capture people's emotion, taking photographs is probably the best way.
-It's a great hook, i think.
4. Some things aren’t clear to me. These lines or parts could be improved (meaning not clear, supporting points missing, order seems mixed up, writing not lively):
None
5. The one change you could make that would make the biggest improvement in this piece of writing is the order. In the 4th paragraph, you talked about the light of the first picture. However, you mentioned the light of the second picture already and i think it doesn't make sense. What you wanted to do in the 4th paragraph looks like comparing between the 1st and 2nd one. Therefore, if you wanted to talk about light, you'd better talk about the both picture in the 4th paragraph OR put the light of first picture in the 2nd paragraph and that of second one in the 3rd paragraph respectively. I think it looks more well-organized.
To Jeong So-yun From Park Sae-whan
ReplyDelete1. What I like about this piece of writing is that you approached the photos in a different point of view. I thought it was interesting.
2. Your main point seems to be that "the photographs both convey fear and strain, but their atmosphere for 'Village School' is gloomy while the atmosphere for 'Children's Puppet Theater' is joyful and excited."
3. These particular words or lines struck me as powerful:
"the photographs both convey fear and strain"
I thought it powerful because I never thought the second picture would convey fear and strain. I thought they were laughing about the puppet show.
4. Some things arent clear to me. These lines or parts could be improved (meaning not clear, supporting points missing, order seems mixed up, writing not lively):
None
5. The one change you could make that would make the biggest improvement in this piece of writing is to balance the length of each paragraph. Of course it would be hard to write the same length of each paragraph, but I think it would look much better if each paragraph looks at least similar.