Edward Ruscha and Kansuke Yamamoto, Application Essay Example

Ed Ruscha’s photograph of 1018 S. Atlantic Blvd. shows a two-story walkup apartment building where the photo has been taken head on. The apartment building is in the center of the photo and becomes the dominant item in which the eye focuses on, but he also includes a giant palm tree in the left third of the photo which becomes the secondary item of focus. The Los Angeles sun is shining from the right side and bathes the right half of the apartment building in light, while the left side of the walkup, the side which contains the balconies, is left in a deep enough shadow that the details are a little difficult to make out. Instead of dividing the photo into horizontal thirds the way he did with vertical thirds, Ruscha gives the street below only one quarter of the photograph’s space and has the sky take up half the space, making the entire picture seem not evenly distributed in balance and symmetry. His theme of photographing California buildings and scenes is present quite strongly in 1018 S. Atlantic Blvd., and comparisons can be made with this photograph to others such as 6565 Fountain Ave. In both photos, Ruscha utilizes Californian features such as sunlight and palm trees, using them to frame his photos and give them a sense of anchored balance.

In Ruscha’s other photo, Pacific Coast Highway, he splices together negatives of street and highway shots to form a collage-like mural of California roads. Each small negative features the rectangle divided roughly in top and bottom halves, where the sky takes up the top half and some variation of road occupies the bottom. Light and shading play roles as well, as Ruscha features the middle of the photo as a whole as being the lightest, with shadier textures occupying the top horizontal quarter and second-from-bottom horizontal quarter. Further, the top horizontal quarter is almost exclusively composed of only sky and roads (except for the six rightmost rectangles featuring a small amount of cityscape in them) and lends an isolated feeling to the photo. He almost mirrors this technique in the second-from-bottom horizontal quarter strip, except the cityscapes that are visible are more spread out instead of being clustered together side-by-side. Noticeably absent from both his photographs, and what seems to be a common theme in his photography in general, is a lack of people in the photos as Ruscha seems to focus more on California landscape than of capturing the people in them who make California “California”.

Kansuke Yamamoto’s photograph Reminiscence features what looks like a giant and warped birdcage sitting atop a semi-destroyed suburb of houses. While the birdcage dominates the framing of the shot, Yamamoto has divided the photo neatly into horizontal thirds where the ground occupies one third and the sky the top two-thirds. A common theme in his photographs is the use of dominant curvature broken up by sharp lines and square or rectangular shapes, such as Stapled Flesh, a photo where the most striking feature is the bell-shaped body with rectangular staples forming a ladder-like line down the back. In Reminiscence, Yamamoto combines the two to a degree where the lines are even further blurred in two ways: the should-be straight lines of the birdcage are bent and warped, acquiring a curvature to them that is not normally seen; and he also interrupts the straight-lined orderliness of the suburban houses by ensnaring them in the round bottom of the birdcage.

The interpretation of each photographer’s works varies. Ruscha makes a statement about city living in that a busy city such as Los Angeles can be open to emptiness and loneliness. He features no people in his photographs, and the result is an empty feeling from seeing what appears to be a ghost town. Although there are indications of cars, items which imply human existence and use, the way he has incorporated them into his art makes it seem as though the cars are merely remnants of what used to be. As well, the way he plays with light and shade presents a dichotomy and gives the viewer a sense of being able to see a transitional point frozen in time.

In contrast, Yamamoto’s photograph gives a sense of seeing the future about to unfold. He has captured what the past was right up until the point where something will change it drastically, and allows the viewer to speculate as to how events will occur in the future without giving much hint about what it will be. He also presents a startling juncture regarding the past and present: the suburban houses’ future seems to go in one direction, while the warped birdcage implies greater catastrophe and consequences due to its sheer size and placement over the houses.

Ruscha and Yamamoto’s photos are similar in that they both utilize light and shading to give perspective, and that in Reminiscence and 1018 S. Atlantic Blvd. the sun’s light is coming from the right side of the photo. However, they differ more than they have in common. Ruscha presents a hidden sense of unbalance upon closer inspection, as the horizontal and vertical divisions don’t add up, while Yamamoto is more symmetrical and balanced with his photograph. Reminiscence adheres to the thirds rule by allowing the sky to take up the top two-thirds with the ground covering the bottom third, and the birdcage’s bottom third placed in the lower third of the picture and its top two thirds are synchronous with the sky. Further, Ruscha’s building in 1018 S. Atlantic Blvd. is more proportional and pleasing to look at, while Yamamoto’s buildings seem scattered about as though they were strewn around by heavy wind or force.

My emotional response to Ruscha’s photos is more restrained and measured than when looking at Yamamoto’s because the former places very careful consideration into presenting his buildings neatly and orderly. Yamamoto’s photo gives me a slight sense of unease both because of how the houses in the bottom third are arranged in disarray, and how the warped birdcage dominates the frame. His photo gives off a strong air of destruction that transcends the particular city in which he shot the photo, and because of this, it’s not hard at all to extrapolate it to my own city.

I feel that all three photos are subjective presentations of the outside world. With Yamamoto’s Reminiscence, it is a subjective representation because it shows his insight into what a world affected by destruction, chaos and disarray looks like. His interpretation can- and does- vary from other artists’ and cannot be at all an objective representation of the outside world.

Ruscha’s photos are also not objective representations of the outside world, but for slightly different reasons. While he deflects the idea of destruction and interruption that Yamamoto uses in his work, Ruscha places the focus on city life in a more introspective tunnel. He, for the most part, eliminates signs of human life and activity from his photos and creates a sense of abandonment and isolation, almost forcing the viewer to take their own experiences and subjugate them outwards into the world.