Photograph Analysis

The photograph I see before me, in the simplest sense, is an image of a man walking on a sidewalk/road that leads to a pier/dock and beach scenery.  The photograph was taken from behind the man.  In the picture, he is the component that is closest to the viewer, taking up a good portion of the right area of the frame.  Although his face remains unseen, I can tell that his gaze is directed subtly to the right, as if he is surveying the vast scenery that extends in front of him.  The hooded sweatshirt he is wearing, along with the presence of modern-looking street lights and a well-constructed/paved road that extends away from the viewer on the mans left side, implies that this photograph was taken within the past 20 years.  

The scenery that the male subject is surveying appears to be somewhat far into the distance (no more than half a mile).  Because of his placement on the sidewalk, which accompanies a road that is clearly headed towards this distance, I assume that he was in the process of walking toward the scenery.  Another aspect of the man that implies this is his body being angled slightly forward.  The scenery is undeniably coastal, with the horizon of the water and sand visible on the right and a very populated pier at the end of the road on the left.  The massive size of the beach implies that this photograph was taken on the west coast.  Something that also gives me this impression, however, is that the man in the photo is wearing a hooded sweatshirt.  On a beach on the east coast, one would rarely need to wear a hoodie; during the summer it would be too hot, during the winter too cold.  His donning a hooded sweatshirt, and the facts that the sun is out and that there is a lack of snow on the ground, gives me the impression that this photo was taken during the winter in California.  

Something that is also poignant in this picture is the glaring sun.  Radiating from the upper left area of the photo, the light from the sun obscures a good portion of the upper left area of the picture.  Assuming that I am correct in the impression of this as the west coast, I can figure out to some extent what time it was at the time the photo was taken.  The sun rises in the east, and because this is the west coast, it appears that the sun is heading west.  However, it is still fairly high in the sky, so I believe that the photograph was taken sometime in the early afternoon--perhaps between noon and 2 PM.

The overwhelming glare of the sun brings something else to attention.  The male subject, in his avoidance of looking left, seems bothered by the sun, but he is not wearing any sunglasses.  Because of this "lack of preparation," I have to wonder if the man is from somewhere other than the place shown in the photo.  This would make me re-estimate my earlier speculation that the man's decision to wear a sweatshirt meant that the photo was taken during winter in California.  Perhaps, instead, the photo was taken during a warmer season in California, and the man's wearing the sweatshirt is meant to further reveal his "out of place" status there.  

*Jessie

Top Five

1. Technologic
Technology--that is, technology in relation to humans or humanity--is another topic that has stuck with me for a long time now. I've worked with and dissected the concept multiple times in classes and random journal writings, but I still can't stop keeping it as one of my "readily accessible" thoughts (hopefully that makes sense). I grew up and am still growing up in the ongoing age of electronic technicians constantly working to technologically/graphically "one-up" each other, so technology and its implications had always been something that I had thought about... but my preoccupation with it faded when I fled the Los Angeles coop to come to college. It was not until about a year ago that I saw something that brought my interest in it back in full force: Four adolescent girls having lunch and a "conversation" at Panera, each with one i-pod headphone in her ear. I feel like people are becoming more and more dehumanized as they become more and more occupied with technology. We're mistaken if we think that these things are a substitute for life simply because we are using them.

2. (other word for feminism)
Something that I've never quite been able to shake off of my mind is the female condition... I suppose you could say "feminism", but that word seems to come with too many social implications these days. I don't agree with the traditional "man-hating" aspects of it, and I definitely don't agree with this new wave of "lipstick feminism". Recently, there have been a series of Burger King commercials in which they take The Whopper off the menu and secretly film their customers' reactions. One of the commercials ended with two hired actors standing in front of the camera, and one of them, in reacting to the "loss of the whopper", says "Well they might as well change their name to Burger Queen". I didn't laugh--not because I was offended, but because the joke was pretty unoriginal and, well, lame. Later, however, I wondered why I had not reeled in horror at the commercials implication that something "female" is lesser than something "male". Why are women not outraged with how we're treated? And why do we think that sexual equality = general equality? As I watch girls imitate the women on shows like "Sex and the City", then cry when they don't get treated well, then refer to women who do the same thing in a derogatory way, then repeat the process, I can't help but look around frantically to see if anyone else is raising a very confused brow.

3. Selfishness
I don't believe I've ever referred to anyone other than ridiculous characters (read: tabloid celebrities) as "selfish", but I've lost track of the amount of times I've heard various people use the word to describe their friends or acquaintances. Actually, I am baffled when I observe how liberally people use the word, and that is what has made "one person calling another person selfish" my number three. Initially, I wondered what, in other peoples' minds, made someone a "selfish person". I realize now that my confusion over the usage of the word arose from a difference in definition. Initially, however, I was stuck on the general perpetuated definition of "selfish": being concerned with ones own happiness while simultaneously disregarding that of others. This definition seemed wrong to me, specifically because such a verbalization of "selfish" in such a way holds negative connotation. When I first began to think about this idea, I defined selfishness as "living for onesself", a characteristic that I thought perfectly acceptable and, well, human. I couldn't accept that doing things to make your life better was a negative thing. The problem I had with the general definition of selfishness was that it implied that doing things that make your life better is a terrible terrible thing if anyone else disagrees or has a problem with it. Something that everyone knows, but few appreciate, is that life is short... and what I've come to realize is that the people who call other people "selfish" are the same ones who's concern with other peoples' perception of them overwhelms them to the point of rejecting who they are and what they want. However, redefining "selfish" in my mind so that it was a positive thing was a fruitless effort; "selfish", no matter how much I fought against it, would always carry negative connotations for me. I had completely given up on the matter until I stumbled upon an Oscar Wilde quote that perfectly redefined the word for me and ended my frustration: "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."

4. Regurgitation.
“It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it" (Andy Warhol). That quote captures something else that constantly stays in my mind: peoples' tendency to regurgitate dialogue that their hear in movies/television in conversations about their own personal beliefs. I am fascinated by the power that movies and television have on our actions. Why do we use these forms of media as indicators of what is "normal" behavior? Do we do so because we know that most other people are watching the same things, and thus must be forming their behavior around it? We often forget that the things we see on television and movies are only an indicator of the lives of the writers and creators of the shows/movies. I'm concerned that we're losing diversity and originality and replacing it with the comfort of "sameness".

5. Tabloids
With the rise of reality (excuse me, "unscripted") television, I can't help but take note of the parallel rise of paparazzi and tabloid magazines and blogs. In a sense, celebrities, "the celebrity community" so to speak, have themselves become a reality show. I'm wondering where things are going to go from here.

*Jessie

Observed