CONTEXT AND ANALYSIS
DAN MOUNTFORD CONTEXT
Dan Mountford is a
multidisciplinary designer who was born in the 1990s in Bedfordshire but he now
currently lives in Brighton. Mr Mountford has worked with agencies like; Urban
Outfitters and NBC Universal. He has enhanced his art and graphic design
knowledge by attending the University of Brighton he also attended Milton
Keynes College. At this young age of 23, Dan had taken part in an Exhibition
called the ‘Solo Show’ in Gallery Florence on his own in Paris. Dan has worked
with more than 11 companies and agencies, that isn’t surprising as he has been
partnered with different people around the world. Dan’s work is that popular
that his portfolio has been viewed over 807 thousand times and he has over 3
thousand followers!
DAN MOUNTFORD ANALYSIS
This particular piece is a natural world portrait of a lady
from the shoulders up, looking down towards the floor. This woman is diagonally
portrayed from the bottom left corner stretching towards the top right corner.
On this particular photo you can only see the silhouette as the face of the
woman has been covered by a layer which is a photo of branches that seem to be in
a dark forest type of setting, as nothing has told me that it’s some sort of
woodland I had to assume because of the large amount of black branches
accompanied by a grey sky background. This portrait photo is basically of an
emotionless woman, facing down, who has had her skin and facial features
replaced by an opaque, greyscale of branches. The stance of the woman and the
spooky photo replacing her facial features gives the whole piece a dark,
sinister look.
The photo makes me feel pretty depressed. The photo is quite dark as the colour scheme is quite dull and lifeless. However, once I look at the photo for a long period of time I grow to be more and more intrigued with the meaning of the photo. It leaves me to ask questions like; who is this lady? Where was the branches photo taken? What emotion is she experiencing? Is she upset? What is looking at? Also is the creator of this photo trying to portray a message behind this photo? My opinion on this photo is that it carries and brings a negative, sad vibe to the viewer. I think this is because of the grey and black colour scheme and lack of excitement in the photo as well as the moody stance of the female model. This is one of my favourite photos by Dan Mountford as it seems like there is more to the photo than a greyscale silhouette, like there is a message behind it.
The main focal point of this photo is the pattern on the woman’s face, there are black, bold branches that are in the centre of the models face, diagonally stretching down her body. This is because of the dark, dominant tone that the branch possess, not only that, the majority of the background is light grey, however, the colour darkens as it reaches the corners meaning that the dark pattern which fills the silhouette outshines the background making it the focal point of the piece. Since the branch is what I look at when I first look at the photo, the stance of the woman is what I focus on second this is because my eyes travel from inside the silhouette to the actual silhouette itself. With that being said my eyes are thirdly drawn to the outline of the models facial features since my focus travels from the females stance to her face, lastly I focus and analyse the whole photo to then see what image and message the photo gives off. The main shape of the photo is the shape of the lady’s face and shoulders as that’s what basically makes the photo then, it becomes a bit of a more rough shape as it reaches the branches.
The colour scheme of the photo is strictly black and light grey which is called greyscale. However, the colour scheme is a bit darker than greyscale meaning it may have been enhanced by some sort of auto tone tool. The colour that is very close to the models face could be perceived as a dirty white but then is very clear that it’s a high coloured grey. The colours of the photo give it a dark, moody and scary tone as there is no vibrancy, since colour and brightness usually gives off a theme of happiness, if a photo lacks colour like this piece does it instantly sets a negative mood. The background colour darkens as it reaches the corners and edges of the photo which could be perceived as some sort of shadow.
The lighting in this photo is portrayed to come from the viewer’s bird’s eye view, like straight onto the photo because of the darken edges creating a shadow look. However, a shadow is formed by an object and the main object in this photo doesn’t seem to be creating any shadow, so the dark edges do deceive, because the look like shadows but aren’t. The depth of the photo comes from the image that fills the silhouette, the fact that it only gives off a little bit of imagery which is the branches makes people want to look deeper into the woman, hence adding depth.
The texture of this photo is quite diverse as the photo filling the silhouette is quite edgy because of the unfurnished branches and the unsymmetrical positioning of the nature, but then the rest of the photo is pretty much smooth and clean cut because of the portrait of the woman, hence why I say the texture of the photo is diverse and contradictory.
Overall, I have picked up the art of dark exposure (when you replace skin and facial features for a different and very unusual theme, leaving a silhouette) and I know the basics of how to use this in my work. The photo is of a woman’s silhouette which is filled with a dark grey forest, mainly branches. The photo brings a dark and depressing mood because of the colour scheme and negative stance given by the model, not only that the picture that fills the silhouette is of a dark nature.
The photo makes me feel pretty depressed. The photo is quite dark as the colour scheme is quite dull and lifeless. However, once I look at the photo for a long period of time I grow to be more and more intrigued with the meaning of the photo. It leaves me to ask questions like; who is this lady? Where was the branches photo taken? What emotion is she experiencing? Is she upset? What is looking at? Also is the creator of this photo trying to portray a message behind this photo? My opinion on this photo is that it carries and brings a negative, sad vibe to the viewer. I think this is because of the grey and black colour scheme and lack of excitement in the photo as well as the moody stance of the female model. This is one of my favourite photos by Dan Mountford as it seems like there is more to the photo than a greyscale silhouette, like there is a message behind it.
The main focal point of this photo is the pattern on the woman’s face, there are black, bold branches that are in the centre of the models face, diagonally stretching down her body. This is because of the dark, dominant tone that the branch possess, not only that, the majority of the background is light grey, however, the colour darkens as it reaches the corners meaning that the dark pattern which fills the silhouette outshines the background making it the focal point of the piece. Since the branch is what I look at when I first look at the photo, the stance of the woman is what I focus on second this is because my eyes travel from inside the silhouette to the actual silhouette itself. With that being said my eyes are thirdly drawn to the outline of the models facial features since my focus travels from the females stance to her face, lastly I focus and analyse the whole photo to then see what image and message the photo gives off. The main shape of the photo is the shape of the lady’s face and shoulders as that’s what basically makes the photo then, it becomes a bit of a more rough shape as it reaches the branches.
The colour scheme of the photo is strictly black and light grey which is called greyscale. However, the colour scheme is a bit darker than greyscale meaning it may have been enhanced by some sort of auto tone tool. The colour that is very close to the models face could be perceived as a dirty white but then is very clear that it’s a high coloured grey. The colours of the photo give it a dark, moody and scary tone as there is no vibrancy, since colour and brightness usually gives off a theme of happiness, if a photo lacks colour like this piece does it instantly sets a negative mood. The background colour darkens as it reaches the corners and edges of the photo which could be perceived as some sort of shadow.
The lighting in this photo is portrayed to come from the viewer’s bird’s eye view, like straight onto the photo because of the darken edges creating a shadow look. However, a shadow is formed by an object and the main object in this photo doesn’t seem to be creating any shadow, so the dark edges do deceive, because the look like shadows but aren’t. The depth of the photo comes from the image that fills the silhouette, the fact that it only gives off a little bit of imagery which is the branches makes people want to look deeper into the woman, hence adding depth.
The texture of this photo is quite diverse as the photo filling the silhouette is quite edgy because of the unfurnished branches and the unsymmetrical positioning of the nature, but then the rest of the photo is pretty much smooth and clean cut because of the portrait of the woman, hence why I say the texture of the photo is diverse and contradictory.
Overall, I have picked up the art of dark exposure (when you replace skin and facial features for a different and very unusual theme, leaving a silhouette) and I know the basics of how to use this in my work. The photo is of a woman’s silhouette which is filled with a dark grey forest, mainly branches. The photo brings a dark and depressing mood because of the colour scheme and negative stance given by the model, not only that the picture that fills the silhouette is of a dark nature.