Pablo Picasso Analysis, 'Light Drawing'.

Life photographer Gjon Mili visited Picasso in 1949. Mili showed the artist some of his photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights affixed to their skates jumping in the dark–and Picasso’s mind began to race. The series of photographs–Picasso’s light drawings–were made with a small flashlight in a dark room; the images vanished almost as soon as they were created. So this shows 2 peoples art work, Picasso's drawing with the pen and Mili's as a photographer, a slow shuter speed must have been used to capture the image very slowly as Picasso drew it as quickly as he could. Although the overlapping of Picasso himsel fin various positions doing the drawing suggests it took him longer to draw it and Mili captured it all in 3 different photographs and then overlapped them in the negative carrier when developing them. The photograph is also completly in focus so a small aperture must have also been used. it links to other forms of art seen as Picasso belonged to the abstract art movement, his drawing here works well with his other works such as the 'Weeping Woman' because of the shapes he has created, we can tell this is a man but it is abstract because of the distorted and out of scale shapes he has created with the pen, as if the man is warped and floppy. I think the circumstances and focus of Picasso's previous work has influenced him with the way he drew this man. He decided to create this from his own imagination, not as something for anyone else e.g a magazine.

Drawing and accuracy skills were needed when Picasso did this, also speed, speed also apllied for Mili as he would have to set up the camera in time for each image to be taken. I think Picasso chose to work from just this pen because it shows something different to his painting and also the light in a darkroom works well to produce a man made from lines, instead of a 2D approach like his line drawings, it is much more practical and 3D which is a change for him. Shape and line are the most important elements of this because it is a line drawing itself and the shape of it will determine what people think it is and how it looks overall. The composition works well because it shows Picasso in action on his own work and the work itself, it creates movement because of the coice to overlap him at different stages, it shows his drawing process and how he did it along with Mili's constant focus on him and his ability to keep the camera in the exact same spot. It also shows the scale of the actual drawing - larger than Picasso himself. The background being kept simple also helps us to focus on the main elements of the photograph - Picasso and the drawing. The illusion is that something odd and strange looking (the mans shape) is in the normal world of normal men.
 
As a genre i would associate this with art, movements such as surrealism and abstract because. I think Picasso is trying to show the practical side of his art, also his capability to do it under pressure (the camera time). I think he is exploring something new and visually showing normal things with the light rather than trying to symbolise something. 
 
When I first saw it I didn't notice the photography skills side to it because I was drawn straight to the light which is the most important part of the process visually, but could not have been captured without a technically advanced photographer. It doesn't remind me of anything I've seen before, it is new to me and I find it quite fascinating. it inspired me to try it out for myself. I like it because it looks like fun to do but also very complicated and different. If there is a narrative to it it is definately the process, this is recorded by Mili and done by Picasso, it shows different stages of the production of the man in one photograph.