The streets of London consist of various personalities and characters. Whether it is a mass of bustling high-end shops on Oxford Street, eclectic collection of music, art and food in Camden or simply hidden pathways consisting of independent coffee shops, book stores and boutiques in Soho, London is composed of multiple characters. Midnight In London was created to reflect these dynamic personalities, while demonstrating it doesn’t take much just a simple walk or turn of the corner to experience these atmospheres. However, midnight was selected for this project because time contains a powerful hold on not only how the environment changes, but also the ways in which a person experiences them. Midnight is a time I find quite enticing. It is constructed …show more content…
Each photograph was positioned to emphasize the photo next to it and articulate the narration of midnight and London. Striking midnight, Bryanston Square clock begins the series. Placing this image as the starter of the series I felt help provide the illusion midnight in London is occurring, therefore setting up the story for the images to come. Also, being the most different in composition, lighting, and framing, I felt the Bryanston Square stood out as unique from the rest. A powerful, yet ambiguous mood is given off. I wanted the clock at midnight to act as a way of providing viewers with the sensation of not knowing what is coming up next, almost as if to foreshadow the unknown sights and sensations at midnight in London. One does not know what the night will bring once the clock chimes twelve. I then proceeded to alternate tranquil atmospheres and bustling to highlight the contrast in space at midnight. The juxtaposition among the photographs certifies the different atmospheres of spaces. The quietness and softness of Marylebone High Street Square is amplified more with the activeness of a Soho beside. By alternating between the contrasts of the photos, more stress is placed on the individual atmospheric sensations being transcribed in each photograph. And in the process, establishing the illusion one does not need to venture far to experience these varying personalities. These dynamic atmospheres of midnight in London can be experienced simply by turning the corner, or in shifting to the next photograph. The photographs, despite representing and embodying different characteristics build upon one another to tell the spaces of London’s story at
In the first chapter of his book “The Midnight Hour: American Studies in a Moment of Danger” American Studies author George Lipsitz offers a critique of nationalistic political nature from a Marxist perspective . In this essay, I will offer my own critique of the arguments raised by him throughout the chapter. Furthermore, I will also offer insight regarding my thoughts of how the ideas of Lipsitz are pertinent to the practice of American Studies. Lipsitz's central argument in the first chapter of his book asserts that the globalization of various economic aspects (transportation, distribution, consumption etc.) transform the political nature and culture of the nations involved. The transformation in question here is from a nationalistic
“Thursday”, a 1991 short film by Leighton Pierce, is described by the filmmaker as “something to do with the sensory pleasure of momentary solitude in a domestic setting” (Pierce). Through viewing the piece, it can be observed by the viewer that Pierce desired to capture this essence through the mere use of two naturally generated elements; visuals and sounds. These elements are primarily created by the “domestic setting”, which is Pierce’s own household. Through “Thursday”, Pierce uses a combination of sounds and visuals to emphasize the otherwise unnoticed “sensory pleasure of momentary solitude in a domestic setting”.
In Paul Austers graphic novel, City of Glass, NYC is presented in a realistic way. The city is drawn mundanely, but for a good reason. The main character’s mind can distort his own perception throughout the story, conjuring fantastical and irrational images. By drawing the city realistically, the contrast between what is happening and what the main character thinks is happening, is more distinctive. This aids readers by giving them insight into the mental instability of the main character, which is not directly stated. The tone of it is similar to a film noir and brings elements of detective and mystery novels to its pages. Written strictly in black and white, it depicts normal sights in New York. The narrator sees the city as a maze, a labyrinth of endless steps in which to lose yourself. (4) The streets themselves have street signs, traffic, and ...
...and framing, Hitchcock expresses the horror of wrongful imprisonment through visual devices. Hitchcock allows Hannay to escape the snare of the police into the open world, as Hannay finds himself outside in a parade. Hannay, now free from the confines of the sheriff’s office and walking amidst the people, is now vindicated, living momentarily in the comfort of anonymity. But Hitchcock re-plays his fears, so of course Hannay will soon be back in the binding spotlight in the next sequence. Yet it is more than the fear of police and confinement that is a mark of the Hitchcock film - it is the visual expression of these psychological states that are examples of the artistry of Hitchcock as an auteur. And as seen through the first shot of the chosen sequence in which the sheriff’s laugh is merged with the crofter’s wife’s screams, Hitchcock went beyond the German Expressionists that he admired, manipulating sound to express ideas in their purest, most subtle forms.
Jonathon Levine’s The Night Before is a raunchy holiday comedy headed by Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie. The film opens with the funeral of the parents of Gordon-Levitt’s Ethan, where he’s surrounded by his two best friends: Rogen’s Isaac and Mackie’s Chris. The grief over losing both his parents gives way to a new holiday tradition: for the next fourteen years, the three go out every Christmas Eve and party it up by performing karaoke, playing a Kanye song on a giant piano in the floor (a la Tom Hanks in Big) and search for an invite to the holy grail of holiday parties: the Nutcracker Ball. On what is supposed to be their last night out (considering that Chris is now a famous football player and Isaac is about to welcome a baby with his wife, hilariously portrayed by Jillian Bell), Ethan finds himself in possession of three tickets to the Ball. What ensues is hilarious, vulgar, and
The riots of 1992 in Los Angeles was a devastating situation which affected the community. Anna Deavere Smith was determined to tell the story about the LA Riots, in her book Twilight: Los Angeles, from the point of view of individuals who were affected. Anna Deavere Smith interviewed many individuals asking about how they experienced the 1992 LA Riots.
What comes almost as a fascinating insight in Sally’s world of songs, lovers, cigarettes and lonesomeness is a magnified view of the city, where destitution predominates and one never fails to turn a deaf ear, to the midnight calls from the street corners. Isherwood ponders in the opening lines of Goodbye to Berlin, this idea of being a disjointed wanderer upon a sensitive landscape. In the section, ‘Sally Bowles’, Isherwood traces acutely the problematic disposition of a woman, who also breathes the foreign air of the city and decides to live. If that is all it takes to be herself. In this paper I intend to look into the changing dialectics of hedonism and melancholia that traces the structure of Sally’s mind and experience. Her fragility, desperation, neuroses and her ingenious art to conceal them all, provides a fitting prelude to the reigning socio-cultural structure of Berlin under the Nazi regime.
In Office in a Small city, the viewer is looking through a side window of a plain utilitarian building of a solitary man in a corner office. The highrise the man currently occupies is unassuming. Its color a soft white. The only decorative feature of this highrise is the front. Two other buildings can be seen. Another highrise, with apparently no windows, is similar to the one that the man occupies. The other building that occupies the rest of the space, is reminiscent of a time before the rise of skyscrapers. It stands out as unique and more human when compared with the other structures in this painting. The office that man sits in is bare, nothing hangs on the walls and the interior is the same drab color of the outside building. The windows of this office aren't framed. The few things that occupy this corner office is a couple dull brown colored desks and chairs and the solitary man. The man, dressed in a white shirt and black vest, sits at one of the desks and looks across the way to another building, with o...
Roald Dahl’s short story “The Landlady” takes place in Bath, United Kingdom on a wide dark street. The main character Billy Weaver has to find lodging in Bath for the night. He arrives at a Bed and Breakfast just a little farther down the street where he meets “The Landlady”. By using foreshadowing and point of view the author shows that the theme is to always be aware of your surroundings.
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
Nature is an essential part of life. From the start of Before Night Falls, nature is definitely essential to Reinaldo Arenas’ life. Nature centers around different parts of Arenas’ life and is intertwined in many facets of his life. From early childhood, with a cradle carved out of the earth’s dirt, to the end of his life, when Arenas hides from authorities amongst nature and finds solace in the moon. He even compares his love of Lazaro to nature. Nature supports Arenas through his life in a great variety of ways. It provides him solace through his life, is his means of sexual exploration and in the end prompts the title of his memoir. In Before Night Falls, Arenas shows his readers how essential nature is to his
During the 1940’s, the world found itself dealing with World War II and in the United States ,a huge African culture movement swept throughout the north-eastern states. One specific artist that captivated the “Nightlife” of African Americans during that era was Archibald Motley Jr. He painted a series of paintings that involved African Americans and their culture. In the painting, “Nightlife” we see a group of African Americans dancing at a club/bar, enjoying life, and swaying their hips to the music. Perhaps, in this painting, Motley wanted his public to notice the breakthrough, blacks had during the 1940’s and wanted to show how music took their mind on a different stroll apart from the troubling issues the world was dealing with. Archibald wanted the world to notice the dynamic and exciting Negro culture.
It takes a while to process everything that is going on, but once you see the whole picture, the smaller details come out and are noticeable, even within the visually assaulting Square. The tall buildings are the first things you recognize; just the sheer size of them makes you feel like a tiny, unremarkable speck of dust. Each has its own character and was created with a unique design. A uniting factor of the buildings is the windows. The glass surface reflects the afternoon sun’s light, making a giant mirror from the buildings’ sides. The mirrors create an enormous hall of other building’s distorted reflections. Hanging from the buildings are advertisements for everything under the sun. Many billboards are for the different musicals that are going to be shown at Broadway soon; the classics, like West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Annie, and Wicked, are always there. Others are announcing the release of a new HP laptop, or Samsung HDTV. Some unveil a high fashion store’s new fall line of sweaters and jeans. Of course, there is the obligatory Coke commercial, telling you to enjoy a refreshing bottle of ice cold Coke.
Müller’s shots range from vast and spacious Texas deserts, to the quiet suburbs of Los Angles, and then to the southern state highways, eateries, motels and petrol stations, cool and smothered in neon lighting (Figure1.6)- (Figure 1.7). It is these locations that will make up the lonely and spacious American backdrops that
Through the telling of stories, this film is able to emphasize the individuality that exists in non-Western cultures. In addition, through certain elements, it is effective at acknowledging the audience’s awareness of witnessing a story, and raises the question of whether stories can ever truly be an accurate representation of reality. Through a criticism of British perceptions of the people of India, Midnight’s Children addresses the confusion in regards to an accurate sense of personal and national identity, and related issues experienced by previously colonized people. Things Fall Apart; Green Grass, Running Water; and Fronteras Americanas all show examples of this through different contexts. Through all of these works, we, the audience, are reminded that everything ever written is a story that that can be told differently by different people. All raise the same question: if we had started out with different stories, would we have a different