Norman Rockwell Exhibit

This past Saturday I went to the Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Norman Rockwell, who for over 40 years, created the cover artwork for The Saturday Evening Post and is known for his other art collections of Willie Gillis and the Four Freedoms. What he is really known for his Santa Claus collection which what many art enthuses argue is that it epitomizes an era. What many people view use or wishfully believe that his artwork is an accurate depicting of what life was like back than (1920’s and 30’s). Of course, this is very bias and different from the reality of the situation but people still want to believe this is true. 

As a counterarguement people can only gather what they known about the post-"Roaring '20s" through either history books or through art. This is where Norman Rockwell comes into the picture. Norman Rockwell presented life back as carefree, were young kids didn’t have to deal with competition for getting perfect grades and getting into the best college, there was no TVs and so as a result there was no projected stereotypes of what kids should be and how they should act. All kids were suppose to do back than was have a good time being kids. This can be seen in his artwork when there was still a magical component to Christmas. The picture of Santa and the Elves has a nostalgic theme that is present not only the in '20s but also when a kid’s imagination ran wild with excitement before technology crushed all of it.

Contact Sheet

Contact Sheet:

This photo was taken from a birds eye view with the light source behind the camera. The key lighting is only used to highlight the apple and is very specific as we can see the edges of the photo are in darkness. With the lighting so direct it leaves the audience with nothing to distract us and clearly hightlights what we are suppose to be looking at.

This photo was taken on the same plane as the subject and from far away. The photo was taken in the direction towards the light explaining the silhouette. There is an uneaseiness to the photo which can be explained by not only the black and white, the silhouette of the subject but also the canted camera angle as the camera does not run parallel with the ground that the subject is on.

This picture was shot from a far distance but zoomed in. The picture was taken on the same plane, same level as the apple. The way the photo was taken is that the background is interesting and in some ways contrasts the subject but doesn't grab the audiences attention first. Another point, the background isn't lit which doesn't distract the audience while there is key lighting directed at the subject. We can figure this out by the white glare being reflected off the apple and the shadow that the apple casts on the right side.

This photo was taken on the same plane as the apple and into the light source which explains the silhouette of the apple. I placed tissue paper over the lamp to act as a filter so the light doesn't distract the viewer from the apple. It also casts a yellow tint which could be the reflection off the golden lamp stand or from the tissue.

 

This photo was taken close to the subject facing in the direction toward the light source which explains the silhouette. The black and white feature was created by focusing the camera on the light which resulted in the lose of color.