Gypsy family at Diváno.

This is inside image of todays gypsy family somewhere in the Balkans. I dont remember

their names, but i do remember the potato that the women on the picture cooked for

lunch.

Any comments, suggestions, critique?

like your biographical statement and understand your goals a little better. like you, i am a professional who uses this as an effort to express myself personally, and i don't like to pose people much either. i have found that shooting candids, or shots that are close to candids, is a real challenge. for me, learning to photoshop around flaws in the images has helped alot. here, the brightness/lightness problems with the baby can be significantly adjusted, even more so if you convert to grayscale, as tone manipulation i find easier in black and white. i would also give the baby his dignity a little more by cropping a touch higher.

i think your composition and your selection of a moment is well done, with the man in the background, the girl looking right at us, the mother looking up (perhaps showing an optimism that the man lacks?).

i rarely frame my work, as i'm of the belief that it speaks for itself without a "virtual" frame. while not an absolute rule, i think your frame here detracts from the image. something this candid, with a sobering suggestion of a tough life in the intimate quarters of this family, requires either a frame that really hits the mark, or none at all. i would suggest a black frame if you use any -- the red-burgundy feels out of step with the scene to me, and its the brightest thing on the page -- you want the brightest thing to be within the pic i think, wherever the emphasis should be (faces in the foreground i would think).