Wrong
In our first lesson we had looked at a photo called 'Wrong' painted by John Baldessari. We talked about our thoughts on this photo and what could possibly be wrong. Here are some comments from the perspective of others on this photo:
"There is nothing wrong with it. It makes you criticise the picture. The title is wrong because we can’t see anything wrong with the image. It’s ironic - to confuse people. The image is questioning what’s ‘Wrong’."
"There is no colour. The proportions. The car."
"You can’t see much detail. The shadows don’t look right. The bush is too dark and the road too light."
"The man isn't in the exact centre of the image. He is in an awkward position. The man is fake. He’s on the wrong side of the pavement. He’s too far away. The man has a tree behind his head."
"The picture is boring." "I don’t know."
John Baldessari
I enjoyed reading all of their responses but my favorite answer came in the form of a complete sentence:
"Maybe it’s just a normal photo however you have made us think what possible things could be wrong with the image even though there isn't anything."
"There’s some impressive critical thinking going on here. There’s also a good deal of evidence that the students already have a good sense of photographic conventions and some idea of how images are organised by artists using formal elements."
The class task following this analysis was to go outside with the iPads and, in pairs, take as many pictures as they could that were ‘Wrong’. I've included a couple of examples.
"There is nothing wrong with it. It makes you criticise the picture. The title is wrong because we can’t see anything wrong with the image. It’s ironic - to confuse people. The image is questioning what’s ‘Wrong’."
"There is no colour. The proportions. The car."
"You can’t see much detail. The shadows don’t look right. The bush is too dark and the road too light."
"The man isn't in the exact centre of the image. He is in an awkward position. The man is fake. He’s on the wrong side of the pavement. He’s too far away. The man has a tree behind his head."
"The picture is boring." "I don’t know."
John Baldessari
I enjoyed reading all of their responses but my favorite answer came in the form of a complete sentence:
"Maybe it’s just a normal photo however you have made us think what possible things could be wrong with the image even though there isn't anything."
"There’s some impressive critical thinking going on here. There’s also a good deal of evidence that the students already have a good sense of photographic conventions and some idea of how images are organised by artists using formal elements."
The class task following this analysis was to go outside with the iPads and, in pairs, take as many pictures as they could that were ‘Wrong’. I've included a couple of examples.
Why do you think this image is wrong?
I think that this photo is wrong because, this is just a ramdom pole. There is no pattern to it and it doesn't look like an image that would catch your eye, apart from the black striped line going around the pole with a couple of scratches. I think that if there was a drawing of some kind on the pole, it would have kept my focus.
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