Essay Example on a Tale of Two Photographs: NYC in the 20th Century

Both photographs capture an image of a moment in space and time hence inspiring many meanings of the same works of art. Two different photographs from the Brooklyn Museum brings attention to two different approaches to revealing two different environments and places in the dynamics of the 20th century. The picture titled daily news building is a bird's eye view of the Daily News building with the river in the background and the surrounding parts of Manhattan dating back to the 21st day of November 1935 (Deriu, 2016). It was produced by Berenice Abbot, an American who lived from 1898 to 1991. The accession number is X858.32, and the photograph has a caption that illustrates several details relating to it. Abbot captured the city's changing features in photographs, and in this particular image, she shot the daily news building looking towards the east river.

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The location is forty-second street between second and third avenues, Manhattan. From the image, one can see that the 1930 skyscraper provides a significant and striking contrast with the nearby streets and low-rise houses. The suburban Tudor city is captured in the background shielding the industrial area in the east river. The photograph captures what was part of a booming business district in midtown. It is a still image of gelatin silver print, matte, double weight paper, 8x10 inches untrimmed contact print.

The second photograph is titled the Modern Venus of 1947, Coney Island, and dates back to 1947 with inscriptions in graphite stating "Modern 1947 Coney Island". The artist is not known, but it is a gelatin silver photograph. In the image, a woman seemingly a winner of the annual modern Venus beauty contest, is seen smiling and waving to the crowds from a parachute jump. It is a bird's view of the winner with steeplechase park in the background, and the parachute jump captured was a symbol of war that became popular as an amusement ride.

The winner of the beauty contest is captured in a celebratory ride high in the sky as other people are seen below on the ground in an open area of the amusement park. It represents a celebration of the people and places making up the Coney Island, and the photograph has an accession number of X894.18. The photograph shows people at the beach as it covers a wide area and a wide range of activities as people are trying to have fun following the beauty contest.

The two photographs are full-length photos, both black and white, showing a bird's eye view of two scenes captured in time and space. In both images, the central subject appears to be in the limelight while all other objects in both images appear to be in the background as achieved by the illusion of depth. Bothe photographs seem to have been taken from up high in the sky, and it is the reason why objects on the ground such as vehicles on the first image and people on the second image appear small.

Points on the left sides of each photograph add interest to these areas hence drawing attention when one looks at each of the photographs. Lines in both photos lead from the foreground to the background, therefore, giving each image a sense of connectedness (Rowe, 2019). In both images, the central subjects appear on the foreground, and from them, the path leads us to other objects in the picture that appear in the background making both images impactful.

Another instance of lines in both images encompasses the strands of the parachute holding the woman suspended in the air. At the same time, the architectural designs representing the edge of the daily news building show definite lines of the whole structure of the building. Both images have a lot of texture that plays out to give the central subject dimension. A number of patterns are visible in each photograph, granting objects in each image a sense of being tied together within the image.

The daily news building photograph has more obvious patterns than the image of the Modern Venus of 1947, but both of them have visible patterns. The different shapes of objects in both images, which are geometric and organic, combine to make the photographs appear two-dimensional. In addition, both photos have value, which gives each of them the illusion of form and mass hence lending each of them a sense of light and shadow.

The daily news building photograph is more focused on the architectural designs of building in a growing city. In contrast, the second photograph of modern Venus focuses on people in a more open area with very few buildings and structures. Also, the image of the woman has a radial balance to it as the central subject is centrally placed hence interacts with other objects in the image from a central place (Zhang, 2017). on the other hand, the daily news building image has asymmetrical balance because the visual weight is unequal.

Moreover, the image of the daily news building has more distinct shapes from the building as compared to the objects in the background of the woman in the second image. The texture of the background of each image is very different due to the contrasting nature of each of these environments. Even though both photographs are black and white, the balance of colour is uneven because the daily news building image has more dark parts as compared to the image of the steeplechase park represented in the image of modern Venus, Coney Island.

The tone of the daily news image, which is darker, gives the building a mysterious, intense, and refined appearance. In contrast, the brighter photograph of the modern Venus of 1947 gives it an etheric and optimistic impression. It is the most visual contrast in the two photos. The modern Venus photograph has more positive space due to the beach, and this attracts attention. In contrast, in the daily news building photograph, the areas depicted have more negative space hence allowing extra attention to stay on the building. The patterns existing in the daily news image are more evident because of the architectural scenes involved. On the other hand, the modern Venus image has less obvious patterns because it captures more of a natural view with little structures in comparison.

Conclusion

Both images share numerous formal elements of composition that bring out their similarities. Still, at the same time, these formal elements bring out the contrast that allows each photograph to be unique and different from the other. These two photographs have more physical descriptive elements that make them similar, even though they have a difference of twelve years between them. Such similarities are accounted for due to the fact that they were shot in the same period when several changes were taking place in the world. Moreover, because one image portrays a city centre while the other a beach island, they both inspire different meanings and emotions when viewed. It reveals the magic and beauty in photography, which holds the view that no two images can be completely identical; photography as a form of art is about the unique captures of time and space.

References

Deriu, D. (2016). 'Don't look down!': A short history of rooftopping photography. The Journal of Architecture, 21(7), 1033-1061.

Rowe, J., & Margolis, E. (2019). Methodological Approaches to Disclosing Historic Photographs. The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods, 434.

Zhang, B. (2017, July). Reflection and Comparison of the Eastern and Western Aesthetics of Photography Composition. In 2017 International Conference on Sports, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (SAEME 2017). Atlantis Press.