How do I go about analysing this?

Ryan Greenwood

Ryan Greenwood

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Eadweard-Muybridge-006.jpg


I have been told I need to do analysis. How do I even start? It's questions like "How does the image affect you/make you feel" and other things along those lines. I just don't know how to answer anything because the images are very plain and simple...if anyone could do an example of analysis for this, that would be great!

It's by Eadweard Muybridge by the way :)
 
Ryan, not my area of expertise but in your shoes I would start to look at the variation in each of the images in the sequence and their relationship, from recollection this sequence or a very similar one was used to demonstrate that at a gallop there are points where all the horses legs are off the ground. exploring the relative movement would seem to be a good starting point. Just a thought and I hope a helpful one.
 
its hard to analyse that one really as didn't he take it/them as a purely technical exercise to prove if all the horses hooves left the ground. So not a lot of artistic merit. All you've really got to go on is the feeling of movement across the frames.
 
The sequence informs in a way that a single image couldn't. One image - a horse mid-gallop. The sequence - this is how a horse gallops (as the others say, something that was a subject of heated discussion before the first of these sequences was taken). So, how does it make me feel? Enlightened, informed, and if I'd been around at the time, wondrous.
 
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I would start by looking into Eadweard Muybridge, he was doing a lot of work on movement and showing the moving image. As was said before he also showed clearly that all 4 horse hooves are off the ground in the gallop. Interestingly it was Eadweard Muybridge's work on the chemistry of photo emulsions which help to reduce exposure times as when he started this experiment emulsions were slow and needed minutes to expose the image which was too slow for his experiments.

For analysis these are images which are meant to be viewed as a sequence and not individually. The demonstarte the advancements made by Eadweard Muybridge in reducing exposure times to allow a bank of cameras to take these images. How do they make me feel, difficult to answer without Muybridge film advancement would have been slower and this would have an impact on future developments. I think for me Muybridge was a typical Victorian explorer going into the unknow just because he could.
 
I'm not going to attempt an analysis, but rather recommend a book for you to at least look at: Graham Clarke's The Photograph in the Oxford History of Art series. You might find it helpful for your analysis project. I found it very useful in helping me to see and understand. But be warned - if you're like me, you'll hate reading it, and be tempted to give up and throw it aside. I persevered - and profited thereby.
 
Start by pointing out how brown the images are, then confirm it's several pictures of a horse, possibly named Clive. Speculate on the name of the rider and whether they all had a nice refreshing glass of lemonade after the images were taken.

Thinking about it, there's probably a good reason why I don't post many of my own pictures ... :oops: :$
 
TBH Ryan If a lecturer/teacher asked me how a series of images like that made me feel I'd be searching for another teacher.

What's the reason for analysing that particular picture? Is he asking for technical or artistic analysis? From a historical or contemporary perspective? What subject are you studying?
 
This is for AS Photography. I'm meant to be taking my own photo's but I have to get inspiration from a photographer before I do that (that's what the course says we have to do) and I want to do sequences like this :)
 
If this is your choice, then you need, as a starting point, to analyse why you choose this. It must say or mean something to you, and that's the sort of question you came in with.

From observation of other photographers and discussions (on another forum) I came to the conclusion that for many the hardest thing is to say why they like (or dislike) something. Knowing why is the big step forward to being able to do it to order :)
 
"It" in this case is not a picture it is a series of consecutive shots printed as a single contact sheet.
It was taken to investigate a long asked question" do all the feet of a galloping horse leave the ground at the same time."
And provided absolute poof that they do.

What sort of analysis have you been asked to do?
It certainly does not justify an artistic one, as it only has the artistic merit of a "found" object.
any artistry it contains is that of scientific enquiry, not artistic intent.
 
StephenM said:
If this is your choice, then you need, as a starting point, to analyse why you choose this. It must say or mean something to you, and that's the sort of question you came in with.

From observation of other photographers and discussions (on another forum) I came to the conclusion that for many the hardest thing is to say why they like (or dislike) something. Knowing why is the big step forward to being able to do it to order :)
Click to expand...

Terrywoodenpic said:
"It" in this case is not a picture it is a series of consecutive shots printed as a single contact sheet.
It was taken to investigate a long asked question" do all the feet of a galloping horse leave the ground at the same time."
And provided absolute poof that they do.

What sort of analysis have you been asked to do?
It certainly does not justify an artistic one, as it only has the artistic merit of a "found" object.
any artistry it contains is that of scientific enquiry, not artistic intent.
Click to expand...

^^^WTS^^^ Great starting point for your analysis.
 
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Terrywoodenpic said:
It certainly does not justify an artistic one, as it only has the artistic merit of a "found" object.
any artistry it contains is that of scientific enquiry, not artistic intent.
Click to expand...

Just to point out that the two lines are two independent statements. Both, either or neither could be true as they are not inter-related. That could also be addressed in your analysis.
 
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