Critique of Natasha by Julya

Critique – Natasha’s photo

Immediate response:

Really great reproduction of the image, great work on wardrobe selection for model, as well as the construction of props (rocket pack). Choice of model is very effective as well. The likeness to the original is remarkable.

Objective description:

This is a black and white photo, vertical orientation. There is a tall thin man in the photo wearing a rocket pack on his back – it looks like something a person would build in their basement. The man is seen in profile. The rocket pack looks like two large tubes topped with cones, and the tube closest to the viewer is dented and looks old. There is smoke coming out of the bottom of the rocket pack and the man is just taking off. The man is in a grassy field with a line of trees in the background. The man takes up much of the vertical space of the frame. The man’s clothing looks old-fashioned – he is wearing plain dark pants, a dark pea coat, and a newsboy cap.

Formal Praise/complaints:

Looking at the composition of the two images, I actually like Natasha’s version better – the square of the original image feels a bit cramped in comparison. In Natasha’s it looks like the man has more room to fly, there’s more motion, while in the original it looks like the man has nowhere to fly and might not get off the ground.

The Story it Tells:

Natasha’s title: Flying Mr. Jones To The Moon.

So the image is supposed to evoke the time before people had been to the moon, so in constructing the rocket pack the goal was to make it look homemade.

Natasha used a large cereal box for the main part of the frame, with large tubes made of paper attached to the sides and paper cones for the tops of the rockets. The pack is held on by straps made of rope. The entire pack is covered with duct tape.

Mr. Jones did not make it to the moon…

The image was shot in colour originally, then converted to black and white in Photoshop, where Natasha also added the smoke and took out the houses that were in the background so that only trees remained.

Tried shooting first with a background fabric printed with stars, but wasn’t happy with the effect – it looked too cramped. With the background removed, the shot worked better just using the natural environment.

For the model’s clothing, he was shown the original photo and also directed to think about the 40s when choosing his outfit.

The original image that Natasha chose was a different one by the same artist (Rodney Smith), but once we learned we’d have to recreate it she wasn’t sure she could do that one so she chose this one by Smith. She like this one because it’s humorous, and also because this is her favorite photographer and she thought she’d really like to try to recreate this particular shot.

Work in the world:

Compares this artist to Henri Cartier-Bresson – while Rodney Smith is actually a relatively modern photographer but his work looks like it is from an older era. The black and white, the settings and costumes, the feel, all evoke the early to mid-1900s.