VJ Day

The image is not perfectly clear, many elements are blurry. That being said, the clarity of the image is not the key for this image. The image catches the exuberance and joy of the ending of the war.  It is compositionally simple, the subject is dead center. The black and white assits the image by creating contrast between the two main subjects.  The background characters also provide to the joy of the photo. It glamorizes the ending of the war, so it provides for a romantic idealization to war. It gives a setting and an emotion to the exhuberance of the era.

Joel-Peter Witkin Portrait of Nan

The lady within the portrait is sitting in a classical portraiture position. This established cliche, emphasised with the handing fabric, provides a base for deviation in which statments can be more easily understood. Religious symbols are used throughout the piece, such as the partial cross that is superimposed over her face, possibly from a different portrait, possibly of the Virgin Mary, and the lamb she is holding in her hands. The skeleton on the right hand side of the picture symbolizes death. The scale shift makes the already large woman appear even gotesquly more so. Her hair is pinned to the wall in such a way that it looks like muscel tendons pulled taunt. Her chest and arms have odd tatoos. the backdrop appears to be a dingy studio, with odd lighting. The picture picture appears hellish, as if it is a depiction of a portrait from one of Dante's levels of hell.  It is difficult to look at because of its gruesome cliches, but it is difficult to interpret the artists intention. If the portrait utilized to super impose is of the Vergin, the artist could be making a statement on the corruption within the church, or just how people put on good fronts, but underneath they are grotesque and not what how they.

Sandy Skoglund: The Revenge of the Goldfish 1981

The picture is composed mainly of two contrasting colors, teal and orange. Both colors shift, teal from more blue to more green, orange from more red to more yellow. There are many fish, some suspended from the cealing, some lying on the floor, others interacting with other pieces of furniture within the scean, such as the bed, the night stands, the lamps, and the windows. There are two people on the bed, an older person of which the gender is nondescript, and a younger boy. The adult is lying  on the bed in a fetal position, partially covered by the bed sheets. The boy is sitting on the far side of the bed, his head is downturned. Varying textures, other than smooth, cover the goldfish and details on the dresser. The most realistic portions of the image are the people and the reflextion within the mirror.