Hsc Belonging Peter Skrzynecki and Ben Heine

Individuals may feel a sense of belonging to many people and places. This sense of belonging can enrich the individual, becoming a positive influence on his or her life. Ben Heine is the skilled photographer behind the photograph titled ‘Home’. This photograph uniquely explores ideas about belonging as to provoke thought in regards to the viewer’s perception of what it actually means to belong. Likewise, these ideas surrounding a connection to people and places are expressed in Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicles.
Belonging is the central theme throughout the photograph ‘Home’ which is clearly represented through the caricature of a child girl establishing herself in a fantasy world she is depicted drawing herself into. Ben Heine’s image represents reality versus fantasy which could also be viewed as not belonging and belonging. He has accomplished this through holding a pencilled sketch over a section of adjoining photograph to make something real into a distorted fantasy.
Unlike novels, poetry or songs, images cannot be expressed using a considerable amount of words. Instead images must display visual techniques to convey ideas. Heine has incorporated numerous visual techniques into his photograph to achieve such complexity in depth and meaning. As the title of the photograph suggests, this image displays images of home, which provokes emotive thoughts towards the people depicted in the image. Within the salient image is a vector where your eyes are drawn towards and then follow a path to where the artist wishes you to look. In the image ‘Home’ Heine has drawn a vector stemming from the centre of the young girl, which is then followed up the girl’s arm where she has written the simple word ‘Home’ as a logo upon the singular house. This provokes thoughts as to whether the child and her mother standing to her left actually have a place to call ‘Home’.
In ’10 Mary Street’, it is the house that provides a literal and psychological place to belong. It