Marlene Wynn - Weekly Artist Post #5

Eikoh Hosoe

1. Artist Technical Choices
1.  The first picture shows a man smelling a rose.  His eyes are very intense, his body covered in shiny sweat.  Taken in black and white, the rose becomes the brilliant focal point.  A narrow depth of field was employed here to focus so intently on the front part of his face and the rose.  The second picture shows a man laying down, but though his eyes are closed, he doesn't convey the sense of sleep to me.  Somehow, there is energy in this picture.  The third photo is a clever use of shadows allowing a man to appear to be carrying a head in the crook of his arm.  A narrow depth of field was used here as well, focusing on the lower jaw of the head and the wrist / hand of the arm.
2.  Artist Conceptual / Thematic Intents
1. Not only are these photo's black and white, but they make strong use of light (from above) and heavy shadow to help portray their overall concepts.  The man with the rose is so intense; he makes me think of a man sneaking out into the hot, humid summer night to visit his secret love.  His eyes are full of promise as he stares at her, trying to convince her with his eyes to sneak out into the night with him.  The man laying down somehow brings to me a sense of waiting, not rest.  It's like the breath before movement has been captured on film.  (Also, as a side note, I just learned about stippling in my 2-D art class, and I never knew you could make a photograph look like that.  This picture looks as thought it is a stippled drawing done in black ink.)  The third picture makes me think of horror movies or halloween with the head being casually carried around, and the grainy look of the picture.
3. My Response to Stanley's Intents
1. This is an artist who knows how to make his pictures pop.  Each and every one makes me feel or think differently regarding the image. All three pictures are full of promise, but in completely different ways.  The first one makes me want to take a chance and run off into the heat with my lover.  The second makes me want to take a hesitant step back, unsure of the intentions of the "sleeper".  The third obviously makes me want to run away or find the nearest hole to crawl into.