Feeding the Ducks in the Late Afternoon is a photograph taken by Andre Kertesz in Tisza Szalka, a village in eastern Hungary, in 1924. What really struck me about this photo is the effect that black and white color can have. I don’t think it would be as powerful if the painting were in color. There is a strong contrast between the bright roof of what looks like a barn and the rest of the painting. The roof, the ducks, the woman’s dress, the bowl, are light, while the rest of the painting is dark. I really like Kertesz’ attention to shadows and light. The shadow of the tree, especially the leaves, almost create a pattern on the building.
At first glance, one may think there’s only a woman feeding ducks, hence the name of this photo. The woman is sitting on the sidewalk ledge holding a bowl of duck food, facing forward, but it’s hard to tell if she’s looking at the camera. The ducks are in the standing in the dirt and although they are looking in various directions, their backs are faced to the camera. However, if one looks in the upper right hand corner we see a woman almost hidden by the tree shadow and the darkness. She seems like she’s going into the building. Even further back, we see a hut with a thatched roof. There are many “layers”, which give depth to this photo. Kertesz did a good job of capturing many aspects of a rural lifestyle, giving the photo a slow-paced, peaceful feel.
As well as being appealing, the photo is compositionally strong according to the “seeing photographs” handouts we received and the links on the website. The handouts mentioned the use of contrast, shadows, light, and depth, which I wrote about above. Although Kertesz chooses to place his subject at the center of his photo, the Rule of Thirds is still evident. If we imagine the grid on top of this photo, we would see that the ducks are on the intersection on the lower third, which explains why our eyes are attracted to them. The trunk of the tree and the side of the building seem to form the two vertical lines of the grid, while the edge of the roof and sidewalk form the horizontal lines of the grid.
Another point made was giving space for a moving object into. The ducks are faced slightly inwards so they don’t look like they would waddle out of the painting and they point our attention to the woman. I also noticed that Kertesz made sure the roof didn’t cut through the head of the woman, which would have been distracting. Instead, the roof forms a line just above the woman’s head.
By analyzing this photo, I realize how much goes into framing just a single photograph. When I take my photo for snapshot day, I will try to focus not just on the particular object but also the big picture, no pun intended. I will pay attention to the background and the placement of the surrounding objects. Taking a good photograph, like many other skills, needs practice and cannot be learned in a few days. However, with the background knowledge I have attained, I hope to be able to incorporate at least a few of the many techniques into my photo.
~Erica Kwong (Blog B)
