ARTIST STUDY: DUANE MICHALS - CHANCE MEETING
CONTEXT
Duane Michals was born the 18th of Febuary 1932, in Pennsylvania. Michal was a commerical photographer and he didn't have his own studio. Instead, he takes photos of people in their own enviroment. He manipulated the medium to communicate narratives.
CONTENT
This piece of work is called 'Chance Meeting'. It shows two men walking past eachother down, what looks, like an alley way. The man walking towards the camera keeps looking at the other guy and the other guy doesn't turn around until the last frame when the other guy is gone. The name of the work does connect with the pictures, which is why I think it's a good name for this photo.
FORM
Michals probably chose this area because the surroundings give a lot of affect to the photos. You don't get distracted from the key point of focus but the background isn't empty. He uses the formal element of line, because as you can see on the wall the lines are leading of to roughly the middle of the photo which is where the men are. He edits the photo to make it black and white which in my opinion, makes the photo better.
MOOD
I think the photo looks quite eerie and suspicious. I think the fact we cant see one of the mans facial expressions until the last frame makes us wonder how he is reacting to the other man staring at him. We also don't know if they know each other or if theyre strangers.
EVALUATE
I really like this piece of work because it is open and could have multiple meanings. Like why are they walking so close together in such a wide alley? Do they know eachother? What are they thinking? The way Duane Michals has made us think about this photo is very clever and must of took a lot of planning. Personally I think that we shouldn't see the face of the guy walking away from us at all. This will make it much more mysterious and make us wonder what he looks like.
Duane Michals was born the 18th of Febuary 1932, in Pennsylvania. Michal was a commerical photographer and he didn't have his own studio. Instead, he takes photos of people in their own enviroment. He manipulated the medium to communicate narratives.
CONTENT
This piece of work is called 'Chance Meeting'. It shows two men walking past eachother down, what looks, like an alley way. The man walking towards the camera keeps looking at the other guy and the other guy doesn't turn around until the last frame when the other guy is gone. The name of the work does connect with the pictures, which is why I think it's a good name for this photo.
FORM
Michals probably chose this area because the surroundings give a lot of affect to the photos. You don't get distracted from the key point of focus but the background isn't empty. He uses the formal element of line, because as you can see on the wall the lines are leading of to roughly the middle of the photo which is where the men are. He edits the photo to make it black and white which in my opinion, makes the photo better.
MOOD
I think the photo looks quite eerie and suspicious. I think the fact we cant see one of the mans facial expressions until the last frame makes us wonder how he is reacting to the other man staring at him. We also don't know if they know each other or if theyre strangers.
EVALUATE
I really like this piece of work because it is open and could have multiple meanings. Like why are they walking so close together in such a wide alley? Do they know eachother? What are they thinking? The way Duane Michals has made us think about this photo is very clever and must of took a lot of planning. Personally I think that we shouldn't see the face of the guy walking away from us at all. This will make it much more mysterious and make us wonder what he looks like.