Thursday, January 30, 2014

Assignment #2- Titian Picture

Venus of Urbino

In class we looked at two pictures that we had to observe and give our ideas and thoughts about both images. It was to show how each person views the same picture in a different way. We each spoke about different details we viewed in the image from facial features and postures to objects and the colors of the painting. We all look at things differently and it's based on how our brains work and how we see things. 

 The painting I chose is Venus of Urbino, painted by Titian. In the picture I see a naked woman that could possibly be pregnant. She has a braid in her hair and she's holding grapes. It looks like she's laying on a couch with sheets over it and there is a small dog laying or sleeping next to her. In the background of the picture there looks to be a sunset in the window and its almost as if there at a tropical place because the trees in the window look like palm trees. There is also, what looks to be a child kneeling with her head down like she is being scolded or she is crying. She also looks like she has darker skin. The lady standing next to her is all dressed up and could be a nurse, or caretaker. She is standing over the child and rolling up her sleeve as if to punish the child. Also, the room they are in looks very fancy and expensive. It seems like the naked lady is of higher class because of the way she is laying and her facial expression. 

After analyzing the painting, I felt strange and uncomfortable by it. First, because she has no clothes on and because the painting makes it look like she is the most important one there and she is the only one who should get noticed. It almost makes me feel like I have less "power" than her, like she is above me.  The painting also makes me feel bad for the girl kneeling in the background because I feel like she is getting disciplined for something. 

In the painting, three things grab my attention. First, it's the naked woman's facial expression. Her head is down and she looks relaxed like nothing in the background is happening or that she doesn't even care about it. She has a sly smile like she knows something is about to happen. The next thing that caught my attention was the dog laying on the bed. I feel like the dog looks scared, almost like it is shuddering after hearing a loud noise or being hit. The way the dog is positioned makes me think that it's afraid of something. Lastly, the girl kneeling in the background. I feel like she is of less importance than the naked woman on the bed yet, I looked at the girl kneeling first because of the way her body language is. 

In conclusion, I feel that this image shows power, strength, and validity in who is most important. It shows that the naked woman on the couch is in control of the girl in the background and she doesn't even seem to care about what is happening. 


Friday, January 24, 2014

Assignment 1

How do you use online photography? 

I use online photography through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and sometimes through Twitter. On Facebook, I mostly post pictures of friends and family, either of us on vacation or in the summer, or events such as my graduation, confirmation, prom, etc. Instagram is the one I use most often. I post pictures of everything on there from baby pictures of me to food and of family and friends. I like Instagram because it keeps all my photos together into one app and if those pictures ever got deleted from my phone, I could just log onto Instagram and they would still be there. Tumblr is a basically like a photo blog I use to post and reblog pictures that other people have posted of anything random from food, to random types of scenery, or of clothing, etc. I use these social media sites all the time and they are private but people I'm friends with can see all of my pictures that I've posted.