Eugene Smith "Tomoko Uemura in The Bath" Review (draft)

 Eugene Smith "Tomoko Uemura in The Bath" Review

Was a Documentarial photographer who was around during the Great Depression in the mid 20th Century.  Growing up during this historical period meant that his work was going to be further influenced by negative events, one of these being the great leak of Mercury that went into the ocean and caused uninhabital effects on those who surrounded the areas of the ocean.

The photograph to the left was taken in 1971 of a woman called Tomoko uemura who had extreme Mercury poisoning. Mercury poisoning can cause paralysis and death and I believe that Smith captured Tomoko's paralysis perfectly. Visual examples of my belief is the ray of light coming from the right which is illuminating her ribcage and eccentuating her fragile (paralysed) form.

The way the light has captured her face is also another visual demonstration of not only the paralysis and inibility to regain strength but also a demonstration of the pain and suffering that she is undergoing by living her life at that circumstance. Also, in comparison to the woman that is bathing her, you can see the tense and detailed outline in her neck of the strain that Tomoko is undergoing just to lie out straight in comparison to the lady who's facial structure is relaxed amd calm.

The choice of a very dark contrast has created the atmosphere which is to seem dull and eerie in some respects. Which in relation to the time period and circumstances of Tomoko's poisoning is relevant because darkness represents sadness, sorrow and sometimes the unknown.

 Tomoko's fragile and limp body could also be metaphorically exchanged in order to represent the shadowing and dark times of the mid 20th Century that Smith had been so influenced by.