Connecting Essay 3

This is an image which is taken by Darren Johnson who's work is shown within my research log. I think this is very symbolic in showing an audience the stereotypes of youth. This is because Johnson has used a subject wearing the stereotypical outfit of a hoodie. The use of a silhouette figure shows youth culture through the lack of identity placed alongside this image- we as the audience are unable to tell who this subject is. This can therefore be symbolic because when conveyed in the media, youths are seen as very vulnerable and in some cases they are blurred out in cases of the news use the use of silhouette so they don't come to any harm for the coverage. Therefore I find this use of silhouette really symbolic because it's as if Johnson has accepted that youths are vulnerable yet they continue to do ac ts which can put them in trouble. I find this is relevant to this particular image because of the body language, even though this subject is standing alone, the body language shows a powerful and trouble provoking affect.

The use of colouring that Johnson has created through this location in the image is really interesting because it implies this was taken through dusk, sun set time thus giving the sky that effect, this could imply the stereotype of youth being a really busy time period, they cannot go out during the day due to being bounded by education, thus giving them the option of leaving the house when it is getting dark.

Or this use of colouring may have been Johnson's use of editing because the use of pink in the sky has highlighted the smoke in the foreground. Without this colouring the smoke wouldn't have been visible for the audience.

This is an image which I have taken within the studio at college. This is during a shoot with lots of different people in order to capture counter stereotypes and stereotypical views on youth. For this image, I used an individual who I haven't actually taken images of before this as I found his appearance could have conformed really well to the youth stereotype. This was purely to the use of his hoodie. Even though the stereotype of wearing a hoodie is to be a black hoodie, this subject actually had a coloured hoodie on which actually fights against the stereotype yet because I used this subject within a silhouette so the audience are unable to tell the colouring. I think this can be really symbolic when looking at youth because it implies that "outsiders" for example the older generation would see someones outfit and write them out purely on that, this subject is wearing a hoodie so therefore it must mean that he is a trouble maker. 

This image was taken in the process of my subject putting up his hood yet I think this image was much more successful that the one of the hood being up because the body language helps comply with the stereotype. 

The main aspect which links these two images together is mainly the use of silhouettes hidden the identity of both subjects. Even though, my image was taken within the studio and Johnson's image was taken out on location, I still find that due to the use of the hoodie, both images comply really well with the youth stereotype of being trouble makers out looking for trouble. I find that if Johnson's subject was taken within the studio as well it would connect even better with my image yet I still find they both work really well.