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Under The Dark Cloth Analysis

Good Essays

Mark Klett’s “Under the Dark Cloth” is a black and white photo which reveals a hand holding an exposed plate of an antique camera which is surrounded by a black cloth. The image on the camera screen is an upside-down view of Monument Valley, Arizona. Klett chooses to go through the process of developing the film on-site which creates the rough edges around the image margins. The process marks are deliberately included as part of the full negative to really allow the audience to see the full picture. This image speaks for itself. The photograph alone says a lot about the artist, time period, medium, and his personal style- all without words. In No Caption Needed, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites provide an analysis of the iconic photograph of Iwo Jima. It is a powerful image which stands alone, with no caption. One could make the argument that Klett’s piece is one in the same. Although these are two extremely different photographs, they are both able to stand alone. Alone, without a caption, yet, still compelling. If one were to interpret Mark Klett’s work through the lens of Campbell, one would start by analyzing her three …show more content…

Klett’s style is very unique. The medium he uses allows us to interpret the piece as antique while also allowing the audience to see that no edits were made- like discussed earlier. He makes the decision to keep the negative boarders in his print to highlight his work and show the world how “good” he really is. His purpose is to show his audience that he does not need to edit his frames- they are perfect just the way they are- and in just one click he is able to capture something so powerful. Klett would argue that editing takes skill, but only a true good photographer doesn’t have to crop the image. “Sometimes editing is smooth and seamless- other times editing is disruptive and jarring” (Campbell, pg. 290), but in Klett’s case, he doesn’t need to worry about

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