I have decided to select Simon Norfolk and three of his images to deconstruct.
The images have been taken in Afghanistan where Norfolk has done a vast amount of work documenting the scenes in context of the ongoing conflict.
A home, made of shipping containers outside of Kabul.
A Government building close to the former Presidential palace at Darulaman, destroyed in the early 1990's.
A former teahouse in the Shah Shahid district of Kabul.
So the first image being of the containers has either been shot early in the morning or at dusk as there are no shadows and the image feels awfully cold due to the colours. The composition of this piece leads you from the containers on the right down 'the street' of other potential homes. Obviously all of these shots are set up as a documentation but they are also an outsiders observation, what I mean is that the camera isn't too involved into the subjects, it has taken a step back to view what is going on around it.
The abandoned ravaged Government building has a deadpan look to it because it has been shot straight on with nothing really around it and a blank sky, the vignetting does give it a sinister and uneasy look. The focus is solely on this building because Norfolk wants you to delve into it and evoke some emotions. I think this would have been shot quite late afternoon because looking at the shadows they are quite long and the sun is still very bright and hot.
The last image is rather dramatic due to the cloudy sky and almost desolate area apart from these ruins of a teahouse and balloon salesman. The fact that this man is in the shot kind of signifies a gain of hope within the country, under the Taliban balloons were illegal. But now there are many balloon sellers that sell there balloons to the kids which hopefully brings some joy in to there lives.
We watched a video on Norfolk in a lecture earlier today where he said that he wanted to show the areas of Afghanistan as a disappointment because billions of U.S dollars have been spent on it but it still looks like squalor. He has, I think, achieved this within the first and last photo above due to the the cold colours in the first and the way he has captured the armageddon look of the sky and lone wandering balloon man. Both of these images make me feel pretty sympathetic towards the people that have to live in these places, which again is what Norfolk wants the viewers to feel. He is making a statement through his camera, which is similar to what Burke was doing in the late 19th Century but Norfolk is able to take a free rein and put across his own feelings and beliefs on the subject.
The middle image to me, is the one that stands out the most, this is because it doesn't have that same cold feeling to it or the sense of armageddon that the others do. Instead it almost looks as if it is a tourist attraction, shot to look like an appealing place to go (for a brochure) and then you look a bit closer and see all the bullet holes and destruction. It makes you think of the terror and hurt that most likely took place there.
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