Edward Yom/Final: My Reaction to Village School and Children’s Puppet Theatre/Tues 5,6

            Two monochromatic pictures that portray a similar situation can be conceived very differently. The two pictures on page 152, "Village School" by Margaret Bourke-White and "Children's Puppet Theatre" by Alfred Eisenstaedt are both pictures of children who are horrified but the two pictures approach the audience differently because of their altered facial expressions and lighting. 

             In "Village School," everyone has a similar facial expression with only a few exceptions. There are some children, like the child in the front row and last row, who have a bitter smile, and others, like the child in white clothes, looking somewhere else. Aside from that, the children have a same facial expression with their eyes open wide and their mouths shut setting a gloomy mood. It almost seems like the children only have heads floating around. In contrast, "Children's Puppet Theatre" have a variety of facial expressions with children looking at different places and doing different things. There are some children, like the second girl on the first row in black and the boy behind her, who are pointing, others who look like they are screaming, yet others who are covering their faces like the boy on the first row covering his ears, and the girl on the second row covering her face. The children are looking in different directions, and the varied gestures and facial expressions give a brighter image.

             The lighting is different in both pictures. In the "Village School" the general picture is dark showing only the faces of the children with a little spec of light in the back of the bottom right corner. With dim light, it is harder to distinguish one child from another. I had to look at the photo longer to catch some of the details. For the "Children's Puppet Theatre" the general lighting of the photo was brighter allowing me to see more details in less time. The bright light almost makes it seem like the children are excited instead of scared though their gestures like covering their ears and opening their mouths wide indicates that they are frightened.

             The lighting and facial expressions are different but the two pictures portray fear. Both pictures give an image that they are being under pressure, and they are in a confined room. However, the "Children's Puppet Theatre" has less impact because the children are compacted in a relatively brighter place. In the "Village School" the children's same dull faces with minimal differences in clothing along with the distant seating, and pictures cut from the waist down have a gloomier image.

             The two photos "Village School" and "Children's Puppet Theatre" are monochromatic pictures that portray the same idea of children that are scared. Children are confined and looks scared in both pictures. However, depending on the lighting, facial expressions, gestures, and the location of the children, the two images give a different impression. Personally, when I saw "Children's Puppet Theatre" I just saw it as a picture of children that were scared. However, when I saw "Village School," I felt that I was sitting among the children and could almost share what they were feeling.