Year One Ba-Hons Photography Image Analysis

Photographs are one of the media or instruments of ocular representations. It is an embodiment of ocular elements which appear as symbols and are linked together to convey several meanings. consort to McLean (1973), they are pictures which have many characteristics and attri scarcees in common with other anatomys (quoted in Noth 1995 461). They play an important role, along with film, in broadening the visual field for examination and analysis and in molding critical addresses to visual representation (Chaplin 1994 80).This paper aims to present an image analysis of Nick Uts Trang Bang (1972). It impart narrate a brief biography of the artist and so it depart reveal the takes visual elements and their corresponding meanings. It leave behind also identify the underlying symbols behind the image and demonstrate their touch on the society. Further more than, it endeavors to express and to show the implication of photographs with regards to visual culture and visual literacy. Nick Ut (b. parade 29, 1951- ) whose real name is Ut Cong Huynh is a Vietnamese photographer. His photography career begins when he has been introduced by his nonplus to the Associated Press office in Saigon he is 14 classs old then. The occurrence on the wet day of the 8th of June, 1972, the epoch when the Americans and South Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, draws attention with his career when he shoots Kim Phuca nine year old girlrunning and blaring naked in down Route 1 (Ut 2007) the photograph is entitled as Trang Bang.Trang Bang, a gelatin silver print, depicts the June 8, 1972 event when the children and their families run away and take flight the village of Trang Bang down Route 1 their bodies are being burned and seared by napalm (Faas and Fulton n. d. ). The image encompasses five children that are running and screaming and behind them are militant troops, walking afterward the terrified kids. The focus of the picture is the naked little girl who is squealing. Figure 1 C hildren Fleeing an American Napalm Strike, Trang Bang, June 8, 1972 Her stretched weapons bestow a line element in the image which illustrates balance and symmetry.The eyes of the spectator will usuall(a)y fix on the dead center receivable to the strong and powerful expression of Kim Phuc, telltale(a) an excruciating pain. Nevertheless, if the focus of the picture will be given to the screaming boy on the play up whom is give tongue to to be Kim Phucs brother Phan Thanh Tam, technically speaking, Ut demonstrates the rule of thirds in his masterpiece due to his manipulation to the placement of the subject which is off the center therefore the eyes of the spectator will definitely turn and fix with the other elements in the whole picture per se.He also displays a modify depth of field in the photograph because only the subjects of interest or focus are enhancethe shrieking and running children, the other elementthe troopsis quite out of focus due to the woolly-headed details o f the figures. The black smoke on the background gives a strong contrast in the picture. The said photograph is a historical account that records and synthesizes the incident of June 1972. It analyzes and demonstrates the notion of horror and agony during wars which can be pulled out from the facial expressions of the children especially Phan Thanh Tams.He summarizes and encapsulates the terror, fear and affliction of the people during the Vietnam War (Pyle 2000). That image can imply a lot of things if it will be based to John Bergers modal value of Seeing theory (1972) it is redeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe (Berger 1972 7-8).With that, it can be hauled that whatever the interpretation or analysis of the spectators with the image, it will still be anchored on what he or she knows regarding the event that has transpired in Vietnam during the year 1972. The photograph is a representation of the honesty that it portrays (Noth 1997 46). However, Eco (1984) disagrees because according to him, a photograph can lie (quoted in Noth 1997 461), by which Berger (1984) states that the result of the treatment and manipulation of the humans is that to a definite level, the photographer creates the reality of the photograph (quoted in Noth 461).Nevertheless, in the case of Nick Uts Trang Bang, it cannot be implied that the photographer has altered and manipulated the reality that he has documented during the occurrence in 1972 because the reproduction of the image, which have been placed in newspapers, magazines, etc. , creates a different perspective from the authentic photo that is taken by Ut. The reproduction delineates a cropped image of the original (Look at figure 1 and 2). Figure 2 Napalm Bomb Attack, VietnamIt shows that the original, which has been signed by Ut, encomp asses other elements in the picture, for instance, the official member of the press who looks like fixing his camera, the lines on the background which probably signifies the napalm. The manipulated image appears more closely to the spectators and constructs a more focused representation of the event. Because of the reproductions, Ut cannot be blamed for the cropped photo because of the treatment of the press with regards to the dissemination of the image to narrate the historical event.It is definitely the press responsibility as to how they will broadcast and transmit the information with wide, visual consumers all over the world. According to Gillian Rose in her visual Methodologies (2001), the novelty and adforefronttage of photography branch out from its most evident potential it is about edition that particular moment in time (quoted Mirzoeff 1999 67) by which Ut demonstrates in his Trang Bang. In accordance with what he said during an interview, the girl was running with h er arms out. She was crying, nong qua Nong qua (Too hot Too hot ). She had torn off all her clothes.When I saw she was burned, I dropped my camera beside the road. I knew I had a good picture. I got her into our van and took her and the family to the Cu Chi hospital. (quoted in Pyle 2000). Moreover, his magnum opus implies that photography makes achievable ways of seeing what is unimaginable then (Mirzoeff 1999 68). It does illustrate that the language and expression of the photograph is to combine naturalism and realism. The artifact then evolves to be reality (quoted Molyneaux 1997 80). Nick Uts Trang Bang may be manipulated or not, it still conveys a dodge of meanings and symbols.The implication of an image is created from an interaction of a myriad of schemes and codes. A photograph is not a down-to-earth illustration of what is real in spite of its appearances. It is a material that has been produced in an elaborate manner and approach of production and has been dispensed, ci rculated and consumed by a set of social relations (Forrester 1996 140). Burgin (1982) has argued then that a photograph presents itself as something that cannot be disagreed with in which he states as an offer you cannot refuse (quoted in Forrester 1996 142).Trang Bang being an bearing of representation communicates with its spectator about the Vietnam War that happens in mid-1972. Nick Ut, as one of the war photographers, has to repugn with the lack of viewing space for his work because he is confined and restricted to what he sees in the genus Lens compared to other artists who can demonstrate an array of symbols and emotionally-driven and affecting scenes however, war photographers are offered with revolutionizing and altering the reality into an representative and symbolic masterpieces (Marien 2006 46).