Mary Beth Meehan
Reflection:
For my social documentary photography I decided to do it on Mary Beth Meehan. I think her photos do show social justice because they show city scenes and people that look like they live in the city. Three of the images I choose deal with a family that are immigrants from the Dominican Republic that waited seven years to do it, and also had to leave two of her children behind. I think these photos do show the lives of disadvantaged people, like these people did not have the same opportunities that most of us that live in America do. The photos do shed light on a subject that isn’t very familiar to everyone, not everyone has to deal with the same things that this family did, trying to immigrate to America for so long.
Technical Aspects:
I decided to do the second image of this set to do the in depth analysis.
Description:
The lighting is coming from above, probably from a ceiling lamp. The lighting creates shadows that fall on the wall. I think she did use shutter speed to get this image the way it is, because these people look like they are in motion so she must have had a slow shutter speed to get them perfectly in motion.
Composition:
The point of view used to take this picture was from the front and a little bit more elevated than the people in this picture. The picture is more asymmetrical than anything else, because of the people in it making it that way. This image does follow the rule of thirds, because there is nothing straight in the middle of the image, two of the people are even more of to the side of the image.
Interpretation:
When I look at the photo I feel happy. I think the mood of the work is cheerful and the people in it look overjoyed. Another mood of this image could be bittersweet because while the family will be able to move to America, the mother will have to leave five of her children in the Dominican Republic because they are now over the age of 18. These photos do look like they tell a story, these people are from the Dominican Republic and are trying to immigrant to the United States, so maybe in this image they could of just found out that they were able to go or something in their lives just turned out right and made them happy. I think the artist’s purpose for creating the piece was to show people the struggles of people trying to move away from their home country, but to also show the joys of it.
For my social documentary photography I decided to do it on Mary Beth Meehan. I think her photos do show social justice because they show city scenes and people that look like they live in the city. Three of the images I choose deal with a family that are immigrants from the Dominican Republic that waited seven years to do it, and also had to leave two of her children behind. I think these photos do show the lives of disadvantaged people, like these people did not have the same opportunities that most of us that live in America do. The photos do shed light on a subject that isn’t very familiar to everyone, not everyone has to deal with the same things that this family did, trying to immigrate to America for so long.
Technical Aspects:
I decided to do the second image of this set to do the in depth analysis.
Description:
The lighting is coming from above, probably from a ceiling lamp. The lighting creates shadows that fall on the wall. I think she did use shutter speed to get this image the way it is, because these people look like they are in motion so she must have had a slow shutter speed to get them perfectly in motion.
Composition:
The point of view used to take this picture was from the front and a little bit more elevated than the people in this picture. The picture is more asymmetrical than anything else, because of the people in it making it that way. This image does follow the rule of thirds, because there is nothing straight in the middle of the image, two of the people are even more of to the side of the image.
Interpretation:
When I look at the photo I feel happy. I think the mood of the work is cheerful and the people in it look overjoyed. Another mood of this image could be bittersweet because while the family will be able to move to America, the mother will have to leave five of her children in the Dominican Republic because they are now over the age of 18. These photos do look like they tell a story, these people are from the Dominican Republic and are trying to immigrant to the United States, so maybe in this image they could of just found out that they were able to go or something in their lives just turned out right and made them happy. I think the artist’s purpose for creating the piece was to show people the struggles of people trying to move away from their home country, but to also show the joys of it.