When I saw her pictures, there were some that struck me as clearly successful and some that appeared clearly unsuccessful. Then I started picking out features that I thought made them work or not work. There seemed to be a tendency for her edenic pictures to fall into "naked women on campgrounds," restricting the narrative and not letting the image escape beyond this distraction. When the camera pulled back and allowed the figures to shrink within a larger surrounding background, the mothers were transformed into fantasy figures in a fantastic landscape. Props like the ruined car also helped to convey a sense of place that was more than the obvious "abandoned car in the woods" picture. Lastly, Her models found a comfortable place between an obvious gesture and an ambiguous posture, conveying their roles in poses that were not necessarily natural but felt natural.
Factors like these became more apparent and made me think about and be aware of the many variables that help or obstruct a staged photograph from becoming more than its stagey set up. Now I have a great opportunity to put some of these elements into practice for my narrative project. yay.
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