The context hidden behind the photo matters a lot in deciding the quality of a portraiture besides how much the visual is attractive and really grabs the viewer’s attention. It shapes how viewers interpret the subject, mood, and the photograph as a whole. Having a clear context can convey a clearer message with an increasing engagement. The composition, light, color, frame, background, or even some objects within the photograph can increase the specific atmosphere. For example, a photograph that captures a person’s face, expressions, or emotions leads to the idea of personality. A photograph with various matching color tones or shapes with just one contrasting feature can represent independency that stood up among contrasting elements, or an idea against unity.

 

I wanted to focus on a photographer called Yousuf Karsh, who mainly captures portraits with monotone colors. Yousuf Karsh usually intents to create a collective visual memory of 20th century’s influential figures, such as artists, musicians, actors, and celebrities, and so on. Some of the famous photograph’s he took includes Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, and others as the main subject. Most of his photograph’s are in eye-level point of view with the main subject not looking directly at the camera, which makes his photograph’s more interesting by having the viewers think, “What is the main subject looking at?” I really liked how his photograph’s look really natural but intended at the same time with the mysterious usage of lighting. Also, the monotone color usage grabbed my mind with how it deepens the overall mood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The subject of the photograph is this guy named Humphrey Bogart. We can see that he is holding cigarette with smoking going up. His eyes are towards a point out of the frame, which increases curiosity, and the smoke coming out grabs the viewers attention with its contrasting color with the background and the fading texture. The man seems kind of confused in my perspective, which also makes me question, “Where is he looking at? What is he looking at” I feel like photograph’s that questions the viewers are actually unforgettable and interesting. The time period of the photograph taken was in 1946, and the antique mood is illustrated in the photograph with the monotone colors and the bit of grainy feelings. There is no direct lighting in the photograph, however,  we can observe the light parts in the photograph, for example the smoke and some parts of Humphrey Bogart’s face as there is color contrast between black and white. However, I feel like it’s a low contrast as it naturally shows the difference in color as there is a contrast making some parts look even lighter, but overall, the monotone colors blends well with each other.

In the photograph, maybe Humphrey Bogart was smoking while Yousuf Karsh was taking multiple photographs of him as we can observe the smoke from the cigarette. I believe that the photograph fit within social or historical context with the interpretation of the cigarette. In the past, lots of people were addicted to drugs, such as tobacco, which is the main component of cigarette. This leads to both social and historical context of how in the past, when the photograph was taken, in the 1900s, there was a social issue of tobacco addiction, which is shown directly in the photograph.

The photograph has an eye-level point of view, and the viewer’s attention is drawn towards Humphrey Bogart’s face first, and then, it leads to the smoke. The usage of the cigarette really increases the interest and engagement of the photograph, especially with the lines used. The white color of the smoke showing contrast with the plain black background leads the viewers attention and the bit of movement blended in the fading lines increases the naturalistic mood. Besides the cigarette, we can also see the shadow in Humphrey Bogart’s face, especially on the left side, which we can guess that there was some light on the right side, outside of the angle, and that bit of light created shadows.

The overall mood, lighting, colors, shapes, texture, and the subject makes me think deeply on once again some historical context, and the facial expression of Humphrey makes me think of the seriousness as he is kind of frowning at something. The monotone colors and minimal lighting also leads to a low, dark mood. The intended effects of the photographer’s choices were mainly about the lighting. He wanted to convey the message of various types of lighting and how there isn’t just two simple concepts of direct and natural lighting, instead, different lightings can lead to different messages and moods, influencing how the viewers feel, think, and believe about the photograph.