Carrie Mae Weems is a photographer based out of Brooklyn, New York. While she works with many artistic mediums, her photography is renown for it's themes of issue that black, and specifically black women, face in daily life. The following image is from her book "Kitchen Table Series" published in 1996.

The photographs in the book all had a similar framing that showed what was happening at this specific table. This one features two subjects, a mother and daughter, with the mother reading a large book, pen in hand, while the daughter looks over her shoulder. what i liked about this one is that there is a lot of emotion here, even with minimal props and expressions. The subjects aren't doing anything strange. in fact, it's a pretty mundane premise. What is likely a mother helping her daughter with something.

What really works here is the lighting. By having the image lit by the lamp above, it gives the impression of it being late in the day. With no visible source of sunlight, I'm left to assume that this is in the evening. The tired expressions on both of their faces further pushed me towards that assumption.

The image also has pretty good symmetry. It's shifted towards the left, but nonetheless the table and lamp divide the image in tow. The right side has the door frame, the left side has the daughter.

The theme of this photograph seem to be feelings of responsibility and exhaustion. How motherhood requires sacrifices. How ordinary scenes of helping children with their work is a type of labor that is underappreciated and undervalued.

Lee Friedlander is an American photographer who focused on social landscapes in the 1960s and 70s. He is from the Pacific Northwest and worked primarily with black and white film.

This photograph is "Kansas City, Missouri" (1965). The photo is a good example of Friedlander's style. It's a glimpse of a street in Kansas City, where the most prominent subjects are the road and store signs and two subjects in the far back. There is a motel sign, a cleaners sign, and a no parking sign. The two figures are a plane and a cow. The cow is on top of a building. The place looks as though it's leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

There is so much going on in this picture, and that's why I like it. At first it looks mundane. Oh a street and lamp post? But as I paid attention to the details I found it more funny. "No parking," the sign reads, but there is almost no one. One car. No people. No animals. The lamppost divides the storefronts from the street. And then that cow? Why is that on top of a building? Reminds me of the humor in that bass pro shop pyramid in Memphis and the hat on the mini Eiffel tower in Paris, Texas. The plane, why is it leaving that trail? Is it falling? Why does it look like it's still climbing up? It's all interesting once you start to pay attention.