I’m drawn to this photograph partially because I love the intensity of the blacks and whites and the sharpness of the contrast between them, and partially because I admire work that can focus intensely on a single subject and still suggest the presence of an enormous world beyond that subject. Even though the background is nothing but a dark blank, my attention is still drawn to it by the fact that the man is facing towards it rather than towards us, suggesting that there is something to be seen or known or felt hidden in what would otherwise have seemed like so much emptiness. Just by turning the man in a certain direction, the photographer makes the dead space feel like a subject in its own right, and I find that fascinating. I also think this is a case when violating the rule of thirds actually helps, since placing the man dead center makes it easier for my eyes to slide past him and onto the background, although the bright, curved line of the snow on his hat brim eventually does loop my attention back to him.
-- Kate Morley
I agree with what you have written about this photo. I also find interesting how this photo uses just enough light and contrast to bring out the subject rather than flooding the subject with light. What I mean by that is that, although the subject is wearing a black coat and hat against a black background, there is just enough light (a single spotlight, maybe?) and just the right amount of snow to bring them out of the blackness. Another photographer might have tried adding more light to make the subject "pop" more effectively, but I believe that the lighting here is just right. It also makes me curious about the subject itself, because although we may assume or be told that it is a man in an overcoat and hat, the picture itself leaves an ambiguity - we must wait for the subject to turn around before we can be sure if it is a man or a woman, and we will be waiting forever, posed on the edge of that moment.
ReplyDelete~Jessica Mazur