Response to Work by Gottfried Helnwein

Describe the image as closely as you can.  Write your description on your Blog. What do you think is going on here?  Is this an artistic image or a documentary image (or both)? Is the image Photoshopped? Try to assign meaning to the image. What do you think the photographer's intent was? What does the image say to you? How does the difference in scale between the man and the girl's face add to your interpretation of the photograph.

This image features a young girl with a small man that appears to be repelling on her face. The young girl's face is zoomed in on and her right eye and eyebrow, her nose, and a small part of her upper lip are the only visible features. The small man is roughly the size of her iris and pupil combined. The small man is about one third of the way down what appears to be a strand of her hair that extends from the top of the photo to the bottom of the photo. I think that the man is making his way down her face and using her face for stability. It is an artistic image because it depicts an unrealistic idea. It is clearly Photoshopped because there is no man that small or girl that large that could be placed together in the real world. If his "rope" is a strand of her hair, then that would have just been sitting on her face normally. The only thing that would have been added in is the small man. This photograph could be saying something along the lines of the fact that the man is "walking all over her" except in this case he is repelling all over her. She shows no emotion as if she is not enjoying what is taking place. She is being used and the man also does not seem like it is a new thing for him. He is used to taking advantage of her. The photographer was trying to show this use of the girl through a less obvious layout. Right away, I didn't interpret the photo as anything special, but the more I look at it and evaluate it, I can tell there could be several meanings to it. The difference in scale between the man and the girl's face show many things. It could depict how the girl sees the man, she has little respect for him or she doesn't want him visible in her mind. He has such a small importance in her life. It could also show that she plays such a large role in the mans life and he relies on her for stability. The different meanings made me see the photo from different viewpoints.