analyse of a presspicture

27/08/10 - underground images of Chilean coalers

The chilian autorothies released at the end of august some videos and pictures of the 33 chilian mineworkers who are stuck 700 meters deep. This picture was linked on the website of the belgian newspaper 'de morgen' and caught my attention right away.

First i will talk about the denotative composition of this picture, and later on about the conotative meaning.

Denotative composition

In this picture we can distinguish two horizontal zones. if we draw an imaginary line right behind the television we can see the two big compositional parts of the picture. First, and in front, we have a empty area with a paper and a television. On the screen we see the nose, eyes and hair of a man, looking in front of him. Behind the imaginary line, in the second zone of the picture we see some shelters, lights, a car, stones... The colours are all a bit sober: grey, black, a bit red. The sky is white, we don't see any sun but its a picture that has been taking during the day. On the right side we see a little hill made of stone.

Conotative meaning.

The colours of the picture seem very depressed: like a rainyday right before it will start to rain. And then we're not talking about some short rainshowers but really about a day where its raining quisi all the time. All the materials in the picture are cold, we don't see no soft textiles or peoples bodies but grey rocks, hard plastic and the bodywork of a van. The whole picture bathes in a pressant atmosphere. In the centre we see the television with the man on it. If we don't know the context of the picture we wouldn't have an idea what happened. This is a picture in a picture: the picture of the man is focussed on the eyes, he seems to tell something with them. You can only see the upper part of his head (no body). In the total picture it looks that he is coming out of the ground, and that his head just appeared. He seems a bit desperate (like the total picture). The zone with the shelters is empty, as if there is nobody who can help him. He is alone and waiting for help. The little hill on the right side also finishes this image: the television, and so the man, are centred lower (and so are the mineworkers in comparision to the civile world). 

Conclusion

We can conclude that this picture has a double meaning, in fact it are two pictures. But both project the same atmosphere: a cold, grey, hopeless situation. 


source: http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/990/Buitenland/photoalbum/detail/1/1150071/870047/0/Ondergrondse-beelden-van-Chileense-mijnwerkers.dhtml