Relationship - Fire - Research

I could not find which photographer took this image or where it was taken but I found it on getty images and thought it was a great example of friendship (relationship) using difficult light in an interesting way.

The only light source apparent in the image is the fire right in the centre of the frame. As in my photographs of the friends around a fire in Dorset, the fire aesthetically lights up the subjects sitting around it and fades gradually the further from the centre of the frame you go. This also helps to portray the closeness of the group and show the small area they are all within.

One of the aspects of this photo I do not like is the angle at which is shot at. I would have shot this image at an angle which would make the horizon more horizontal. Also, some of the subjects head are not completely in the frame. I think this definitely makes the image weaker because it feels as though they have been cut off and I feel that it really distracts me from the meaning of the photograph.




This photograph was taken by Ed Longdon of a group of friends around a fire at night. What I really liked about this image is the effect use of thirds. The fire is clearly the main point of focus but the silhouettes of the girl and boy in the foreground taking up the left and right thirds along with the people dropped out in the background in the left and right of the shot show the relationship in the image.

The people in the background of the image almost seem unnecessary in the image as very little of them can be seen and it looks like the shot may have not been planned well and they weren't initially supposed to be in the frame. Having said this, this changes the meaning of the image quite drastically making the relationship go from being between two people to a group of people.




This image was taken by Sam Thiara in 2012 of children jumping whilst holding hands on a beach and is titled, "A long standing relationship over a very short time". The idea behind this image was to show how friendships and relationships are grown over time and build as you get to know each other more.

The relevance to my work in this image is far less clear than the two above. Having said this, there are several similarities. First of all, this image such as the other two and mine is using low light. In this photograph, the low light (probably sunset) is used to silhouette the children jumping.

I really like this image because it shows next to no detail of each child but shows their close relationship with one another very well. The silhouettes are extremely clear and defined which is helped by the conversion to black and light and angle of the natural light.

Also, there is nothing else in the frame to distract us from the subject. This could have caused a problem due to the lack of detail in the subjects but since the backdrop is completely blank it brings out the children well.