5.3(c) Illustration - Juxtaposition

Requirement

1 image

Purpose

• To explore the use of juxtaposition to convey a message visually

Learning

• Juxtaposition is the placement of elements within a frame which creates unusual, if not humorous, if not thought provoking relationship between them.
• It draws on the human urge to compare and contrast
• At its best it reveals hard hitting truth or great insight
• It often asks the viewer to accept a combination of real and unreal, knowing that the relationship has been forced by the photographer
• Still life makes juxtaposition relatively easy to achieve, which is why it is used for advertising, book covers, etc, where the choice of viewpoint and lens plays an important part
• However, you must walk the line between avoiding cliche (i.e. using imagery used many times before) and being obscure (i.e. most viewers will fail to make the connection)
• Juxtaposition appeals to lovers of the surreal, where posing questions is sometimes more intriguing than knowing the answers

Example - Melting ice cream on the red velvet bedspread of a luxurious hotel

• Ordinary elements usually seen in different contexts are brought together in the same scene
• This prompts a series of questions: How did the ice cream get there? Was it put there deliberately? If so, why? Does it belong to a child? How long has it been there? Is this a staged scenario?

Examples - 

Children at play on an anti aircraft gun
Beirut, 1982
Steve McCurry

Real girl, manufactured girl starting
from the poster at the bus shelter
Constructed Childhoods
Charley Murrell

Exercise

• Choose either a still life or a larger scale shot 
• If  still life, pick a favourite book and design a cover using 2 to 3 relevant elements
• If a larger scale image, shoot a portrait with a relevant possession or the results of their work or hobby

Image and Review

God and Mammon

Tesco Express, Westbourne is housed in a
church building with a restaurant, Rock.
If shopping is now a religion in England, then
this is very apt.
(Taken just before sunset with an iPhone 5)

Walk on by

Waterloo Station

The passer-by sends her message
about How Much Can You Trust Religion

 

Canary Wharf 

sitting on top of a jetty

 

Image was shot from Greenwich.
It juxtaposes the dilapidated structure of the
jetty, overgrown with grass and trees, with the slick
high-rise buildings of Canary Wharf.
In fact, the perspective, which shows the skyscrapers sitting on
top of the jetty, gives the impression of
the Wharf as a Toy Town.

Age and Youth

Mid afternoon in a Bournemouth cinema when
the sedentary elderly watch the images of active youth
(shot with an iPhone and de-saturated)