Recreation 2

Alexander Rodchenko: Portrait of my Mother

Aaron Young: Self Portrait

Alexander Rodchenko:

Born: December 5th 1891 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Education: Kazan School of Art & Stroganov Institute in Moscow

Portraitof my Mother Created 1924

(Wikipedia) Rodchenko was an artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. He took photos from odd angles to shock the viewer. Rodchenko was quoted saying "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."

Rodchenko self portrait of his mother is slightly different than his other work. It's a little more straight forward for the angle and it looks more natural. For being an older photo the contrast is quite high and the lighting is seems more natural. 

For this particular photo I am not sure what Rodchenko was attempting. I'm not sure he was trying to shock the viewer. I believe he was merely taking a self portrait of his mother from a slightly above angle. He did capture what many older Russian women of that time period looked like.

Honestly, it is a very simple photo and I like it. It's of his own mother and he captured her in a simple way. I'm sure it spoke to her personality. It feels honest and I like honesty.

Recreation:

I was attempting to mimic much of what Rodchenko did in his photo. I was attempting to get similar lighting, contrast and balance. I wanted to change the perspective a little to be slightly more straight on so as not to copy his work exactly. I was attempting to bring out the shapes of my face a little more than his photo. I wear glasses/contacts myself and wanted to show I did. However, I wanted the viewer to look for it and make it unclear if I really did or not. His photo is simple and I wanted to keep mine simple as well. So, I borrowed his elements and applied it to my photo. Simple as that.