Visual Literacy Assignment #5

Assassination of Asanuma, 1961

I don't think this image could have been taken any other way to get across the same message that is trying to be displayed.  Even without any colors being shown in this image, it still does a great job of catching your attention with its dynamic posing and framing.  First of all, the shot is taken in a medium long shot, so both Asanuma and his assassin are in the frame head to toe, but the shot is still focuses in on them.  Their bodies need to be seen to display the fully message of the photograph, since the assassin on the left is shown in what is clearly an agressive pose, while Asanuma's pose is passive.  Also, the shot is close enough to see the sword in the assassin's hand, as well as the fear on Asanuma's face, any further away an you really wouldn't be able to tell what either of them were doing.  The two are the only people that are fully in the shot, everyone else is either out of frame, or obscured behind the two, so your attention is solely on them, just assassin an target.  The background also frames them near perfectly, without distracting from the action of the shot.  The vertical white sections frame both the assassin and Asunuma, and not really anything else, and the pure blackness of the background makes you focus more on what's going on in the foreground.  It's overall an effective picture.

What really drew me to the photograph was it's composition, it had a very engaging action going on in the foreground, with very little distracting from the two men who the photo is focusing on.  This combined with the contrast between the grey's of the foreground and the black and white backdrop, really made the image stand out, even without any color.

Eyjafjallajokull, Lucas Jackson, Reuters

This shot does a great job of showing both the scope, and the danger of the volcano eruption over Iceland.  The red and orange contrast very nicely with the black of the ash spewing from Eyjafjallajokull, and really gives off a sense of danger, making it look like a fiery, dark, yet somehow empty void.  The lightning itself seems even more menacing that usual, with it's somewhat uncommon orange color, instead of the usually blue or white you usually see, which make it seems harsher and vern more uncontrollable.  Also, this is done in a long shot, and the fact that even with that distance the smoke is still blanketing the sky, you can tell just just how massive this eruption truly was.  It's hard to tell though exactly what point of view this is being shot from, it kind of seems like the photographer is either flying nearby, or on a point above the ground about the same height as the volcanoes mouth, but really far away and zoomed it.  But despite that, the image is still very interesting to look at, and gets it's meassage across well.

What's most interesting about the shot is that it seems like a digitally rendered effect that you might see on a SyFy (SciFi) channel original movie.  So the fact this took place in real life is nothing short of amazing.