Photograph analysis; a tradition shattered.

Observation:

This is a photograph of an Asian porcelain doll being broken in to millions of tiny pieces on the ground. The head, face, shoulders, and body of the figurine are still intact while from the knees down the figurine is smashed. The doll is holding a brown basket in her left hand that is filled with what appears to be light pink or mauve flowers. In her right hand she is holding some sort of a white violin. Her “hair” is jet black and is pulled up in a traditional and conservative style. The woman has the same type of flower in her hair as the flowers that are in the brown basket in her left hand. The doll is mainly glazed plain white porcelain with very few colored details and the background of the photo is white as well. The figurine is in the very center of the photograph. The image is very well lit and it is very bright. This vivid light source causes for some pretty extreme shadows. These shadows make it possible to distinguish the various parts of the image, which otherwise would be a very difficult task when taken into consideration that the image components were made with all white. None of the skin in the image is colored other than the cheeks on the face of the woman. The eyes and lips of the doll are very thinly and finely detailed with precision, giving an intricate appearance to the figurine.

Reflection:

I believe the figurine to be a geisha, an Asian prostitute, but unlike American prostitutes, geisha’s are very upstanding and classy. Geishas are usually owned by only one man, and they must have many skills and a high level of elegance to be purchased. I believe that the photographer used the crashing geisha to show how old Asian traditions are slowly but surely disappearing, such as the geisha. I believe he used the geisha to represent Asian tradition because, like tradition the porcelain geisha is very beautiful, and fragile. I believe that old traditions in many cultures are slowly disappearing. I believe this is due to the integrating of many cultures and also due to the way in which the United States tries to “Americanize” the rest of the world. I believe that it is very cruel to do things like this and that we are assisting in loosing the diversity in the cultures of the world. The figurine is also clearly made by hand, as it would have been traditionally and is not mass produced by machine. This is clear when you look at the details in the eyes and face of the geisha. Details that intricate and precise could have only been done by hand, there is no other way to accomplish bush strokes with that level of finesse about them. The photographer clearly staged the fall of this figurine and I believe that it is a shame to destroy such a beautiful doll, however doing so did get the point across quite clearly.

Analysis:

Due to the fact that this image is mainly white the fine details in the face and hair of the doll are in great contrast to the rest of the image; these details being mainly central along with the aforementioned contrast makes the face the focal point of the image. The direction of the falling doll attracts your eye downward across the image to where the breaking is occurring, this area is also attractive to the eye because in contrast to the rest of the image in that is contains a great amount of sharp shadowing. The doll is very central in the image, and the background is plain white, making the figurine into what is basically a render. The way that the action in the image is frozen by the photographer by using a high shutter speed is something that cannot be captured in film or in print. This freeze makes for a breath taking photo in that it is such a quick activity in real life, that we never really get to see it. This attractiveness is effective in catching the viewers attention and giving them a moment to consider the message in the image. Instantly the message is clear that something fragile and elegant is being destroyed, however it takes a moment of further analysis to realize that the thing that is being destroyed is not simply the doll, but the geisha, and furthermore old Asian traditions.