Whats in the frame? And how does that direct the story an image conveys?
We ask that you to share your thoughts about these two nearly identical artworks, and invite you to post two different versions of one of your images, where the way you present the image changes the story.
Diego Velazquez was a 17th century Spanish court painter. He is considered one of the great masters of Western art. These two paintings are the same but very different.
The Mulata, which hangs in the Chicago Art Institute, is a portrait of a kitchen worker absorbed in her chores. The second,
Kitchen Maid at Emmaus, which hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, tells an entirely different story: while the kitchen worker takes up almost the same amount of space in the same area of the canvas, and has the same contextual setting, there is another subject: the seated figures in the back room, shown in the upper left corner, change everything. No longer a painting of an unknown servant in an unknown kitchen, this becomes a painting of Jesus having dinner at Emmaus with his companions. We know this story, and that changes even what we think about the kitchen maid.
KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
*Do you like one painting more than the other?
*Why?
*Why do you think the artist may have created these two?
*Do you deliberately change the story in your photographs by what you include/exclude?
*Is it right or wrong to add or delete subject matter in a photograph by cropping/framing?
*Is it right or wrong to add or delete subject matter in a photography using software?
*How much control should the image-maker exert on the story he/she is telling?
*Is that control different when considering different kinds of art? (photography vs painting for example)
OTHER QUESTIONS FOR DEEPER PARTICIPATION:
*When shooting, how do we decide what to keep in the frame and what to leave out?
*When editing, how to we decide whether to remove an object, or when to add an element from another source?
*You are invited to post two versions of one of your images, and show us how the addition or deletion of an element, either by cropping or by Photoshop, changes the story of your image. Explain your work as much or as little as you like. Please follow along and respond to the submissions of others, whether you join in the submissions or not!
OTHER RESOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kitchen_Maidhttp://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20140428JJ.shtmlhttp://www.nationalgallery.ie/en/Collection/Irelands_Favourite_Painting/Vermeer_Final/Final_Velazquez.aspxhttp://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/21934?search_no=1&index=0