Recreation 1

  The picture I chose to recreate was Fenced In Child (1967) by Peter Magubane.  Magubane was a South African photographer who pushed limits to capture an image and received many awards for his work.  Growing up in an apartheid enveloped nation, Magubane got his start in photography from the magazine Drum.  He eventually moved on to become a freelance photographer, but in 1969 he was imprisoned and banned from photography for five years.  He was released in 1970, but arrested again in 1971, serving under a year in jail.  Over time he was assigned to several projects, and would eventually end up photographing for Time magazine and Sports Illustrated.  Today Magubane continues fulfilling his passion for photography, but with a focus on the artistic side of photography.
  His work is considered significant because of the historic moments that he captured on film.  He was witness to many important events in recent African history and managed to photograph these instances when noone else could.  Since the historical happenings and revolts in South Africa had such an impact on the world, his work has become an illustration of what people there were going through at these harsh times.

As for the more technical aspect of this individual picture, Magubane framed this picture so that it would look like the hand was trying to reach out of the frame itself.  The perspective shows unique shadows and the dark side of the hand.  This shows a lot of contrast and depth because of the dark lines and areas of light.  The emphasis being on the hand, shadows and other lines play a secondary role in this photograph.  It is well balanced in my opinion, and I like how the light is coming from the back, making the facing hand seem very dark.
  The concept in this image was to show the struggle of people, in particular, children, in Africa and the pain they were going through.  This concept also could show how they might be reaching for help or for hope.  One of the techniques he used was taking the shot straight-on.  He was slightly under the focal point, but this brought emphasis because of the shadow effect.  I believe his goal for this picture was to show viewers how people in South Africa (and all over Africa) struggled in their lives to find some normality but experienced pain along the way.
  I enjoy this because it has many aspects of pictures that I like.  One of these is the fact that is black and white.  I enjoy looking at black and white pictures because it can give any picture a more simplistic feel, even if it may be very complex.  I also like that he used shadow to emphasize the photo.  The shadow from the arm seems to stretch along the entire center of the picture and moves your eye throughout the scene.