W A L I W A L E A
Artist Statement
The human essence and its experience. That is what I capture.
-Wali Walea
The Power of Place
Acapulco, a place with a smell of coconut trees in the air, with a salty breeze and a welcoming warmth yet the third most dangerous city in the world. Because of the drug plantations in the area, this natural paradise of a city has not a soul to be found. It is dangerous and that is part of the charm. These series reflect just that, a place filled with magnificence at every corner, but no people to appreciate it. The black and white filtered photos translate emotions of alienation, inhabitation, and the loneliness one can feel at the place. The uniqueness of Acapulco is the unappreciated beauty, the charm of an inhabited city.
PHOTO DECONSTRUCTION
Untitled -Disasters of Shacktown Communities
Artist: Lange, Dorothea
Date: February 19, 1940
Credit Line: Gift of Katharine Taylor Loesch
This image taken by Dorothea Lange in 1940 depicts a house burning down with all of its valuables scattered around it, as if the furniture was trying to run away from the fire. Lange used documentary photography to reveal social conditions and educate the public. The photograph captures a disaster in a self-built house at a settlement just outside Sacramento in which no police or fire protection was seen.
When observing how the element was framed, we can see that the rule of thirds was perfectly applied here, we can detect a medium tonal contrast, and that the light and darks work in perfect harmony. The angle in which the photograph was taken is a front central view. The line of smoke and the car line prints on the dirt floor take our eyes straight to the house engulfed in flames. As more time was spent deconstructing this image, we could note that the large depth of the gave slightly more focus to the dresser rather than the house, but the angles and lines still take the viewer’s attention elsewhere like previously mentioned. There is a fast shutter speed and that is why we can perceive the flames without any blur. We can also depict a sensitive low ISO. There is texture, there are several silhouettes, disordered symmetry can be perceived, and it is a frozen action.
The photograph’s visual aspects give us a way to understand the social and political climate of the time. World War 2 was taking place and food was scarce, the woman whose house burnt down were more distressed by losing her canned food rather than her belongings. Americans were against joining the war, there was no great army back then and there were many impoverished people all around the country. We can perceive the despair, we can sense the horror. Even though it is not known for certain if this was a Mormon house, evidence suggests that it may be.
