VISUAL ANALYSIS: CECIL BEATON

This week as part of our concepts brief we were given a fashion photo by a popular artist for us to practice our visual analysis of an image, I was given this photograph taken by Cecil Beaton in 1936. I began off by writing down the initial words which came to mind when I looked at the image, followed by the deeper analysis, looking more at meaning and messages behind the image.

This photograph is all in black and white and the shades are used to highlight and hide features of the image such as the lighter shades on the face and hands to make them stand out from the dark background. The image is focused on the face as that is at the centre on the frame and this your attention is immediately drawn to at first glance. The hands are the second thing you notice as they connect to the face and are also highlighted by the bright lighting. The hands connect on either side as they grab onto the mans face, they create a focus point across the whole image rather than just the centre. As you look deeper into the photo you notice the use of reflection through out, the mans face is reflected below and to the side of him as well as the hands. The reflection gives you a better understanding of what happening in the scene as you can see it from the different angles. The hand to the left looks like a females hand with smooth skin and clean nails, where as the hand to the right looks a lot more masculine with a long sleeve shirt and his veins are very prominent showing strength within his hand. The mans face in the middle looks very innocent and scared, with his eyes looking down he appears to be avoiding looking at whoever is around him, this could be a sign of fear or disapproval. His face is quite skinny with he cheek bones being quite prominent and chiseled, whilst his skin is a very pale from the bright lights he looks quite lifeless and starved as though he has been in capitation. This is backed up by the fact that we can only see his head and the rest of his body looks to be trapped in the reflective box. It’s not clear where the photo is set as there is very minimal details of the background within the image, you can only see small bits of cabinets and decoration, giving the sense of either a kitchen or bathroom but its not clear as the focus is on the man and the hands. The hands look to be abusing him and controlling him and it was them who trapped him in the box, the left hand appears to be tickling his ear, teasing him and trying to seduce him. Where as the hand on the right looks a lot more aggressive with his veins being very prominent and bones appearing through the skin he looks very strong and angry with the man. I feel there are strong connotations of sexual abuse, that the man is trapped and the two people are using him, also him looking away from those surrounding him gives the sense that he doesn’t want to look the violent people in the eye and there may be more than just two people surrounding him, but these were the only two touching him in this image. The bright light coming from the one direction above him gives the feeling of an interrogation and victimising, it also gives the visual that the photo was taken at night or in a dark spaces as anything that isn’t in the direct light is lost into the darkness. The mirrors within the image give it a lot more depth and detail, it allows the viewer to see more of what’s happening from all the different angles. The mirror below him shows a very ghostly face, with a lot of darkness throughout his face and shading around eyes and lower face, it contrasts with the brightness on his actual face. The ghostly image below him looks full of anger and the way it is positioned below him looks as though it is coming from within him, as though they are his inner feelings and his anger is building up and his plans his escape or revenge to those who have trapped him. The reflection to the side of him shows a different story to what the front does, the hand to the right looks to be stroking his cheek or as though he his resting his head on the hand, whereas the reflection shows his fingers being dug into the mans skin and appears to be a lot more controlling, showing the perception is important and can tell different stories.

Overall I feel this image has quite a few different stories, but the main thing I feel it’s trying to display is all about perception, with the different reflections telling different stories, but also with the whole scene, it’s up to you to decide who the man is, who the hands are, he may not be trapped or they could be his own hands but it’s all down to your personal experiences and perceptions of the situation. It’s a very powerful image with a lot of mixed messages and I feel each person would find a different story behind the image.