Connecting Essay One

 Robert Mapplethorpe

When Robert was photographing people his images were very simple. The models were not posed, they looked very natural. In the image to the left you can see that there is only half of the body involved in the shot. This shows contrast within the image between what is in the picture and what is not. Robert has used a white, plain background, this makes the outline of the body the main focus of the image. In all of robert photographs he tends to focus on one object and there are mainly no props used at all. The angle of the model coming in from the side of the shot makes the photograph different to normal portraits because they are normally centred. When looking at this image it makes the audience think about what the meaning of the photo could be.

This next image also shows the same type of contrast between what it captured in the photo and what is not. A white background has been used because then it is clear to see the outline of the body shape. This is because the clothing of the model is black, therefore if a darker background was used the body shape wouldn't be clear. Also this image then shows contrast between the black clothing and the white background. When taking this image only half the middle section of the body was included. This was to make the audience wonder why only half the body is used and what the image would look like if the other half of the body was included.

Overall these two photos compare because there both only included parts of the body in the image. Therefore they both show the contrast between whats in the photo and what is not. Also a plain, white background has been used in both to capture the outline of the body shape. Both of these images also include the models arm and their hand with part of their side. The two images use neutral lighting where there is no shadow shown. Both images position the model in the right hand corner instead of it being a centre focus.