Writing Assignment #1

I chose War’s End Kiss as my piece for this writing assignment. I have always thought it was an iconic piece. My first reaction to seeing it was that it was interesting and there is a lot of information to look at and study.

Compositionally, it has some obvious factors. It seems to have symmetrical balance, as it is equally weighted on both sides. Also, it is formatted vertically on a couple levels. First, the people are vertical, but then also the buildings in the background add to the vertical format of it. Last, and probably most obvious, it has stop motion composition. Often this picture is rumored to be a posed one, but that is rumor is always disproved. It is definitely an example of stop motion.
The fact that it is stop motion really adds to how it captures the feelings they must have felt on that day. Because it was not posed, the expressions on people faces, and the excitement in the street was all real emotion captured by the camera. That emotion translates to the viewer well.