1. Who took the photograph, when was it taken and where ?

The name of the photographer is Ekaterina Chebootareva, known as Katya Hovak. This
photograph was taken between 2015 and recent time, as she started her career in this year.
By the look of the image it is most likely taken in a studio, as there was used artificial light
and monochrome backgrounds.

2. Why did the photographer take the photograph? – What is the story? What does it mean? Is
there a message?
The photographer’s style is contemporary pop-art and also collage making, which is found in
other photographs of her but not so much in this one. As it also is her job to take
photographs and sell them, this photograph was probably taken for a project of hers.

3. How does the photograph relate to your project? –

Story.Technique.Composition.Style.Subject.Lightning.Intention
This photograph and her style of photographing objects is quite similiar to my project. The
technique is almost the same as the one I used as she uses monochrome backgrounds and
places a object in front of them. What I think is really successful in this image is the way she
displays the shadows which make the image more interesting. In my project I wanted to
minimalize the shadows to keep the focus on the books which I used in my project.

4. Explain the composition. – Rule of Thirds. Leading Lines.Lightning.Depth of field.Viewpoint.

The photographer used the rule of thirds by placing the objects, in this case two glasses filled
with a liquid parallel to the background, which leads the viewers eye from the bottom right
of the image to the top left. She also placed the three different background colours on
purpose, so they give the image a depth that makes it look more three dimensional but also
flat as there aren’t any disturbing shadows.
The Lightning, which is most likely artificial, was placed really successful as it creates strong
shadows in the right places but also lights out the whole image evenly.

5. Describe the strongest feature of the photograph. -What is effective?

In my opinion, the shadows behind the glasses are the most effective feature in this
photograph. The way the photographer placed the objects and the camera viewpoint so the
shadows on the background are in one line is really successful and gives the image a certain
tidiness which helps the purpose of the photograph. It is also really successful putting some
kind of liquid in the glass so the light breaks more and produces those interesting light points
onto the ground and background. They also reflect the colour of the backgrounds which
bringst hem together in a way.

6. Describe the weakest feature of the photograph?

Something that catched my eye quite early while examine the image is the small shadow at
the top of the image which was created by the two coloured background sheets placed next
to eachother. It seems like there aren’t fitted next to each other properly so there is a small
space between them making it darker. This could have been avoided by edit the image
afterwards in this place and remove the darker shadow.

7. How does the photograph inspire you?

This photograph and the photographer’s different images inspired me to be more
experimental with images created. For example using more than one background and placing
them in an order that might seem unconventional at first. An idea that came into my head
while looking at this image in particular might be to play with different shadows more and
placing the lights in different angles to see the effect it has on the final image.