Cody Duncan
Cody Duncan is a photographer from California. He mainly focuses on landscapes and mountains in his photos.
A photograph by Cody Duncan that interests me and catches my eye is “Highway to Arthur’s path – New Zealand”. Cody Duncan took this picture on his travels in New Zealand and from his online blog he quotes “not long after dawn this morning, the van and I alone again, on the road to nowhere” I like this quote that he put with a selection of images from this road because the word alone is proven in the pictures that he took, in a place that looks deserted and peaceful. Also he refers to it as ‘the road to nowhere’ which is what crossed my mind when I first looked at the photo; the road runs off into the horizon. I like this particular image of his because of how much is included in it. I think that it looks like a quiet, empty place and the use of cool blues and greys on the mountains helps to show this.
The way that the road begins at the bottom quarter of the photo and then gets narrower as the road continues into the horizon and faintly disappears in the distance, brings a good effect to the photo because it can make you feel as if you are standing where Cody Duncan was stood. The use of the yellow and white lines going down the centre of the road in the picture give off a symmetrical effect because they are right through the centre of the picture and the scenery on each side is very similar. The road seems flat and smooth which I think also makes the photograph seem calming and deserted. I like the way that the road takes up most of the photo but then disappears into the mountains, which then seem like the main part of the photo.
I like the colours that are shown in the mountains, they are cold colours such as blues dusty purples and murky greys and where the sun is shining onto it, it shows pale pinks and yellows. The mountains look silent and eerie standing at the end of the road with the sky filling them with pale greys and pinks. They look peaceful and mysterious from far away and I think that they take the human eye away from the road being the main part in the picture.
I also like how the photo shows the hard edges along the top of the mountains as straight lines with sharp pointy edges.
Looking at the picture closely I like how the curve at the bottom of the mountains is symmetrical to the width of the road, I think that this helps the picture look full and busy even though it also seems silent and deserted.
I think that the yellow fields either sides of the road brighten the photo and bring it more to life, the photo brings out all of the different shades of yellow and the hint of greens across the fields, which I think give a happy, jolly effect on the picture.
There are a lot of lines in this picture and I think that it is clearly separated into different sections. For example the road has three main lines two of which separate it from the rest of the picture; the horizon is another line which separates the mountains from the rest of the picture. Also the yellow fields are separated by the lines of the road and the horizon.