Ivan Padovani

Ivan Padovani is all over the place. His work goes from commercial, to sports to documentary. One would think that he would be atronger in one area, but that doesn't seem to be the case for him. The quality of his work is equally strong in all directions. It has this sence of clairity. My interest though lye in the documentary field. Wile reaserchimg I had trouble uploading the images, especially the documentarys. And those were the ones I wanted to talk about, but insted I managed to get these. It's a shame that these images don't show the clairity as much that I wanted to show.

For that rason these are the only one pictures with a person in it. And I'm prity shore that I saw another one like the first one, but cropped tighter around the person that included the house number and  not the window. I think I liked that one better, because the shadow of the lamp and cable post wasn't in there. Still I like the geometric composition and the persons hand gestures touching the hat casting a shadow on his face and the door. The color of his hat matches the wall perfectly and the red of his shirt just pops out of the noutrals. In the second one I like that he decided to make the kid blurry leting ous know some of the motion. Now the kid is swinging rather then just hanging.

The sports pictures were more assesible. Here is my favorite sports image. I love all the blue, the vanishing point and the perspective Padovani chose. Even though I can't see the athlete's face I can very much imagine his smieling face, heavy breathing and sence of acomplishment. His gesture also sais: "I'm free."

This is one of his commercial photographs. I like that he chose to make it symetrycal (well, aproximate symetry), because I see lots of base. The fixture on the wall represents the sound waves and to me it looks really loud, which I like. That the model has his eyes closed adds to the feeling of him being engulfed in the music and drifting off in to another world where time stands still.



Joel Sternfeld

This image is from the Stranger Passing series that was published in 2001. It is compiled of portraits that Joel Sternfeld took over the past 15 years while traveling. The images are united by the person being photographed at full body length, always having eye contact and generally outdoors at the same distance to the camera. Although most of his shots look like candid shots, that is not exactly what happened. Sternfeld does rearrange items and directs his subjects, but he possesses a finesse to still keep it from looking staged.

Of course the first thing that popped out to me was the color red since most other colors are muted. I now also believe that the red t-shirt was arranged by Sternfield. It helps to connect the carts with him as if they are a visual example of how chaotic his brain is rite now. I like the graphic repetition of shapes and their varying sizes as they go into the distance. Looks like a perfect overcast day.

 

On the other hand this photograph looks like he didn't direct her at all, although it is possible that he told her to angle her "power chair" that way to make a better composition. I think he cropped this image perfectly with the pattern of the floor going directly in to the right bottom corner and the cart touching the base as if it is resting. The top left corner ends with the roof and the right top corner with the top of the door. Repetition plays a big role here as well. Just like the carts in the image above the columns retreat in to the distance changing their size. I love the smile on her face, the wind in her hair and how her dress appears to have similar patterns as the food in her cart.

 

Now this picture not only has the repetition and variety of shape, but it also ads the element of juxtaposition. The newly wed young girl next to the old and obviesly used seats speak of virginity. Even the truck in the background is old.  I'm not sure if this image that I found is just a bad print or if the blown out sky and floor are supposed to give her the look of an angel on a cloud. The uncertenty of the whiteness is what makes it the least succssessfull of the tree.