Media & Documentary Workbook Task_003: Analyzing the
editorial portrait
Workbook task_003
Names: Amy Woodward Group___________________
Brief: As discussed in class, a successful editorial portrait
requires a strong idea and an understanding of the audiences’
social/cultural background and political views.
Working in pairs, choose two editorial portraits that you think
successfully exploit their audience’s shared social/cultural
experiences - or political views - to create meaning and open
debate.
Complete the worksheet for inclusion in your workbook/blog and
present your findings to your class. Place your chosen images on
the server (catc_photography – student dropbox – Richard Whitfield
- Analysing the editorial portrait).
Consider:
What do you think the photographer wants us to feel about their
subject?
I believe that within this photograph the photographer has made
us feel sorry about the person within this photograph and have
sympathy for them. I believe that this is shown through the look on
the mans face and how his arms are wrapped around the metal bars. I
believe that the photographer has purposely posed him in this way
to make it look like he is just desperate to get out of this place
and is looking straight into the camera, to make us feel as though
we have sympathy for him, and wish to help him with whatever
problems he may have. If you look further into the image you can
see that he is not just standing up against one wall of metal bars,
he is actually in a cell, which means that he is possibly in a
prison cell and it looks to be someone to the right of him. I feel
like it would be crowed in this cell and there must be a lot of
people in there.
Who do you think is the audience for the portrait? Consider
their age, education, social/cultural background and political
views.
I believe that this images targeted audience would be young
adults/ teenagers. This is because of the tattoos on his arms,
seeing as a lot of young people are getting tattoos these days, and
also the age of the man whom is in the cell. This could be an eye
opener to those young people out there that there is a punishment
if you decide to make bad decisions. I think that cultural
background is quite relevant in this image, as it isn’t what we
usually see on either television or movies, on Australian
television, it looks to be somewhere like Bali, where things are A
LOT tougher in prisons. When we look at this image we presume that
he has done something wrong and that he is paying for it, I believe
that the photographer has played a very large part in the viewers
seeing this because if he had been smiling or just standing there,
the impact would have been no where near as large.
What techniques has the photographer used to engage the
viewer?
Consider the editorial context, location, lighting, posing,
framing etc.
The photographer has clearly thought a lot about this image
before actually taking it. The photographer has used up practically
the entire frame to make sure that the man was our main focus and
that there was no distractions in the background. By having the
mans arms in the center of the frame it is what we see first. We
immediately judge him by the tattoos on his arms and what they
read. Our eyes are then lead upwards to see the facial expressions
on the man, which is when we begin to feel sorry for him. If the
photographer had placed the man in the background of the image and
had more people standing in front, it wouldn’t make the image as
dominate and the man wouldn’t look that important to that he really
is in the image. Also the lighting in this image was used
strategically to make his face in a lot more shadow then his arms
and the bars in the front of the image. By having his face in the
dark area it makes him look a lot sadder and more desperate. I
believe that the location was irrelevant, as in the photographer
didn’t choose to place this man in the cell, I believe that the man
would have already been there, and the photographer has just asked
him to move around a little bit more, to make the image a lot more
relevant. All in all, I think that the photographers positioning of
the male in this photograph was extremely important and has made
the image exactly what it is.