Reviews

REVIEW 1

Paul Strand (1890 - 1976)



The following is a review about an article written by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This article mainly portrays the life of Paul Strand by chronologically introducing and discussing each stage of his extremely successful photographic career.

In this rather detailed and lengthy article (approximately nine hundred words), the Metropolitan Museum of Art begin to explain the series of events that led Paul Strand to becoming one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. Since the article has been tackled in this manner, one can say that it is informative as a body of text. The text itself can easily be understood by most readers since the vocabulary used is not very complex. 

One interesting thing about the article is that the museum has made use of some of Paul Strand's most famous photographic works, by adding them onto the article just above the beginning of the text itself. This can actually be quite appealing to the reader/viewer in the sense that whilst he/she is reading, there is the possibility of examining or admiring the photographer's works. This is quite a positive and although the images themselves are not very large, they do however contain information about where and when they were taken, the type of print that was used, as well as what the title of each work is. 

On the other hand, one downside of the article is that the text itself is in quite a small font, thus this might ward off the impatient type of individual or one whose eye sight is not the best.
Regarding the source of information (Museum itself), it is safe to say that it is a reliable source due to the fact that, as an establishment, it is known of world-wide.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, 2004, "Paul Strand (1890 - 1976)" (online) Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm#thumbnails 
[Accessed - 18th January, 2014] 

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REVIEW 2

Picasso's Blue Period - 1901 - 1904

 The following is a review about an article written by AJ MILES (Contemporary British Artist) that depicts Picasso's "Blue Period" in great detail. This period of time was one that saw Picasso head into a great depression after a dear friend of his passed away. Miles seems to have gathered a lot of information regarding this certain topic and although it is explained in depth, there is just simply way too much text all together. It seems to be: "never ending" and in fact even the spacing between each paragraph is just too miniscule. Thus it looks quite crammed and this definitely dulls the presentation of the article itself and could also bore the reader.

On a positive note, since the article is part of Miles' personal website, it is noticeable that he has added his own personal flair to the body of text.  He has done so by mainly adding quotes which are in a different font style as well as added splatters of paint around the "stuck on" pieces of paper. This helps boost (what was lost due to line spacing and space in general) the presentation and layout of the article.

One thing that is completely unacceptable is the lack, or rather, no usage of references or/and sources. It is obvious that Miles did not invent the content of the text, thus he must have researched the data, but did not add it to the bottom of his article.

All in all the content of the article itself is definitely informative even though quite lengthy. Also, by having added some of Picasso's paintings to his article, although he could have added more to help balance the article out (text versus images), Miles does manage to keep the layout interesting to a certain extent.




Source: AJ MILES (Contemporary British Artist), 2012, "Picasso's Blue Period" (online) Available at: http://www.ajmiles.net/artists/picasso-blue-period.asp
[Accessed - 18th January, 2014]