Andre Kertesz
The White Horse, New York
1962
I chose the photograph “The White Horse” by Andre Kertesz taken in 1962. I chose this photograph because I found it to very intriguing. The first time I glanced at it, I just saw horse on the bottom left corner and a person walking a dog on the top right corner. As I looked at it again, I noticed the shadow present and to me it seems like this shadow looks like a person sitting on top of a horse. I don’t know if this was the intention of the photographer but it is something very interesting that I noticed. I also liked this picture because there were two different elements to it. I liked how there was both a white horse and a person walking with a dog at the same time, separated by what seems to be a gate.
Compositionally, this photograph is strong because it uses counterpoint, the rules of third and positions the subjects correctly. The counterpoint can be seen in the different places that the two subjects are placed. The subjects on the top right corner are in the top third of the picture and then diagonally from those subjects, the white horse is placed in the bottom third on the left. This causes two focal points that are both equally important and placed at a proper distance from each other. The photographer also uses the rules of thirds when he places the tree on the top third of the photograph. This allows us to see some of the tree but not all of it which is better than having the tree seen for most of the picture. The photographer also positions the subjects correctly. The white horse is still and is not going to be moving anywhere in the picture. This is why there is not much space in front of the horse or on the back of it. The person and the dog are both moving subjects and because of that they have more space in front of them. This means that we can see that they will be walking towards something and not out of the frame.
Overall, this is a very interesting picture and I think that the difference in the subjects used contributes to that. The fact there is a horse, a human, and a dog present creates a very intriguing view of this photograph. I also thought that the use of black and white, makes this photograph more dramatic. I found this to be a very unique photograph since I have never seen anything like it before.
– Karla Collaguazo 🙂
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