CCP Viewing

The photograph which most captured my attention was a photo depicting a western rodeo scene taken by photographer Kozo Miyoshi. The photograph was captured with a large format, black and white film camera, giving the photograph a large range of vivid details. This black and white photograph has a variety of textural qualities in the richness of detail from the foreground to the background of the photo. The contrast was perfectly balanced, with dark shadows balancing out the white highlights, giving the image a dynamic feel to the stillness of the photograph. The scene depicted in this photograph shows two men standing next to/holding a horse that is being hosed down with large amounts of water. There is a sort of stillness to this image, a moment caught in time which gives the photo a timeless feel, as though in the midst of a busy moment, there was a pause. What most grabbed my attention are the subjects and how they stand out from the setting. The setting/environment is a beautiful western scene, with mountains in the background and what appears to be a fall/winter cloudy sky. The subjects, two men in waterproof trenchcoats and rubber boots are standing next to a horse, one with the reigns in hand, while the horse is being washed with a hose from far off. The horse is a beautiful, short and stocky long-haired horse, seeminly untypical of rodeos.
To me, it communicates a moment of stillness in its dynamic nature. It conveys emotions of tradition and ritual through the eyes of someone who is not familiar with such actions. There is almost a whimsical hint to the two men, as they stand there being photographed during a banal ritual of washing a horse. However, all in all there is a beauty and a stillness in the dynamic action of the photograph.