Facial Expressions.
I have chosen Joe McNally's photography due to his wide range of variety in his photography. As well as this McNally manages to show true and raw emotion throughout his portrait photography. I believe that facial expressions are a good way of communicating. They show what the person is thinking/feeling. Communication is a major part of life for everyone in today's world seeing as it conveys s many different emotions. As well as this by using emotive themes such as facial expressions it also begins to explore what the character is like, for example we from this photo we begin to learn certain things about him due to his expressions. Here I learn hes not impressed, something is disturbing him and he is clearly thinking about these problems.
Within this photo McNally has used the light (flaming stick) to highlight the fire dancer. This allows him to highlight the fire dancer and focus the viewers attention to the fire dancers facial expressions. As well as this McNally has used a really strong side light beaming onto the face of the model this captures him in the moment really capturing the core emotions of what the dancer is feeling and conveys them excellently to the viewer. Along side the McNally uses an element of juxtaposition , dark backgrounds to underline the real key emotions that the model is giving off. McNallys use of these angles, lights etc really impact the photograph in my opinion and I would be happy to use these in my work.
Similarly McNally aims to express the firefighters feelings. The link is that McNally has done this in multiple photos, here we can see the grief, determination and willpower it takes to be a firefighter. As well as this its clear he has a sense of bravery due to the stance he takes (wide with feet pointing outwards.) Also its key to look at the way the firefighter looks right at the camera, this adds an element of focus to what hes thinking. Aside from what the facial expressions show McNally uses a range of techniques to add effectiveness to the image. Firstly the lights from the truck either side of him act as a spotlight which highlights the fireman. This draws the attention of the viewer and as a spotlight does it shows the importance of a firefighter, its clear they are important because of the harsh job they endure. Secondly the upper half of his body is lighter this is a common theme within the majority of McNally's portrait photography (look at the photo above.) The image above has the same effect where it slowly fades in to colour. This is largely down to Joe McNally wanting to express the feelings and emotions of the firefighter it is also a good way of communicating with the viewers and showing the importance of a firefighter.