Visual Analysis Of In Weiter Ferne By Rafa Alvarez

The picture “In Weiter Ferne” from the artist Rafa Alvarez conveys the idea of technology enslaving the modern-day human through the use of setting, color, and character. The picture shows a young girl who appears to be between the ages of 18 and 22 in a room that is extremely messy but also has a part which is nice and clean. This is shown through the use of color; the messy part of the room is in a dark blue as if it is in the shadows hidden away and the clean part is in a bright pink from the computer light projecting from the laptop that the young girl is using. This picture is showing the viewer that the young girl has been enslaved into her phone.

Another of Alvarez’s photos, “The i-dealist,” gives off a similar idea of enslaving people through the means of the setting, color, and character. In this photo, the setting is a house destroyed by a war with two unaware characters because they are obsessed with their cell phone and iPad.

The two characters in the photo are a middle-aged parent near his mid-30s and his barely teenage daughter sitting next to him. The color in the photo shows the people living in a dark, purple house while the outside has a lot of light with a purple tinge to it. With the light of the electronics illuminating the main subjects’ faces, this is giving the same idea of “In Weiter Ferne,” giving the two photos a correlation.
When looking closer into the setting of the first image, “In Weiter Ferne,” it is apparent that the young girl is in her room, living in a horrible mess, but is hiding it from the people of the internet. This is expressed since the part of the room visible to the camera is neat and organized. The messy part of the room, which is her “true” room, shows that she’s more of a tomboy. She has a metal guitar and a poster for metal music, a bunch of alcohol can be seen everywhere from a keg on the ground to the bottles of alcohol on the shelf, and has a dirty mess with food and clothes lying everywhere around her room. The small, clean portion of her room is illuminated by the screen of her device. The impression she is trying to give-off is shown by the poster (likely of a popular boy band/artist), the Bible and roses about her desk, and the stuffed backpack laying behind her to offer that she is studious. This fake identity makes it seem like the subject shown is conforming to society’s expectations publicly, but has a sense of who she truly is privately. To help make the setting stronger, the artist brings in the use of color. Alvarez does a good job at this by showing the messy part of the room in a dark blue. This color is used to convey a shadowy type of feeling, like hiding something from other people, and is also commonly associated with boys. Then, he puts the clean part of the room in a bright pink, which is associated with girls.
Looking at “The i-dealist” by Rafa Alvarez, the setting, a house, has been destroyed due to a tank that busted through the wall.

When looking at the photo, it can be seen that the tanks barrel went straight through the picture of Lady Liberty. Which can symbolize that America has been destroyed presumably due to modern-day humans being addicted to their phones. The two characters in the picture are looking at their electronics intently, lacking awareness of their surrounding areas. There are only three main colors utilized in the photograph. The first color is dark purple, seen in the house of the people, which gives it a dark depressed feeling like a cave. The house is meant to be this “safe” place for the characters of the pictures. The second color is a bright, light purple color showing outside where people are scared for their lives rather than staring at a screen. The third “color” is the light from the devices shining into the characters’ faces which depicts them as unaware while people are afraid out in the

real-world.
Looking at the two photos by Rafa Alvarez, the two are similar and comparative. This is mainly because the theme behind the photos is that modern-day humans are enslaved by technology. In both “In Weiter Ferne” and “The i-dealist” the characters are in the middle of the photos making the viewer put their attention on the subject(s). This is to also put in perspective that technology is in the center of everybody lives, giving more reason to the meaning of the pictures. In both photographs the humans are looking at their phones diligently. In the first photo “In Weiter Ferne” girl is talking to somebody over the internet, while in the second picture they are just staring at their phones. Both are indulged into their electronics not looking at what is surrounding them. The characters in both pictures also have headphones on, giving them both sight and hearing to the technology, this is making the characters of the photo fully immerse into a whole new world. Then the characters surroundings they are in are dirty, showing no type of respect for their living conditions. That in the first photo it is disgusting with trash everywhere and in the second photo they have ruble from the wall all over the ground yet they are too busy in their tablets and phones to even realize that they are in horrible conditions.
Now when looking at the two photos, there is a lot that can be contrasted from each other. The obvious difference is the amount of people in the photos, in the first photo it is a young girl by herself talking to somebody. This is important because she is hiding her true identity to people, that nobody other than herself can know her true self. In the second drawing, there is two people more like a family, this is to show the modern day/family being addicted to their phone. In ““In Weiter Ferne” the girl is talking to somebody where she is only showing one part of her room. Where she is shielding the world of her natural self. Afraid to break social norms. While in the second drawing by Alvarez the main characters are on social media, this is diagnosed by the social media symbols all hovering over their head. This shows that they are obsessed with what other people are doing and not actually caring about themselves. Then there is the use of color in the two drawings. Now when they both have a purple/ pink color there is different color and the way the color is used is much different. In “In Weiter Ferne” the use of color is used heavily; the blue is used to represent a boyish feeling while giving off a shadowy type of feeling. Showing the viewer that she is ashamed of herself as she goes against the social norms of today’s society. So, in the pink in the picture it has the color pink which is representing more of girls, which is related to how girls should act which includes their living situations.
Rafa Alvarez made people remember to stop using their cell phones and laptops for people to look up and see what is surrounding them and not be afraid to open and show who they really are. As their technology has enslaved them and every other modern-day human. He drew two pictures “In Weiter Ferne” and the “The i-dealist” that showed that meaning. They have similarities from the setting, for example how both places were placed in a dark area which gave off the feeling of being depressed, or how both of the settings were in a dirty environment. However, they also had differences from the use of color how it helps portray the image and the characters and what they were doing by being on social media and being on the laptop talking to somebody. Yet both photos “In Weiter Ferne” and “The i-dealist” was all to convey the same meaning of how today’s society has been enslaved by technology which has also made guidelines to “live” life.