When I Grow Up

Thank You!

A great composition with excellent light and tonal balance. Above all, it conveys a feeling of pathos for this young child who, apart from retireving his lost teddy bear, is perhaps opening the door to embark to new adventures in life. Very well done. 7/7 Regards, NH.

 

Well thought out and executed. Beautiful and original portrait.

Love the point of view of this! The color and texture is great too.

Very curious photo! It certainly caught my attention. Well done! Greetings from Canada, iren

Briliant!

Very well done !

FINE!

excellent shot. its angle is very good and boy's looking and his doll make it effective.b&w tone and light are very good.Best Regards HSP

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An interesting POV, with the subject standing between too worlds. The teddy bear of childhood but clearly big enough to open doors for himself and begin making choices.

I really like the angle and the way of looking.The composition and details are very great.Actually,the title is one of the important things,here.I think if anouther title choosed for this shot,the impressiveness and effectiveness of the shot reduced as sure!Excellent choosing the caption and title!It means that he`ll want to take alook to the future and he`ll have many decision for his life!Sometimes,we take a picture but we can not show it as good as possible and we can not find any good caption for it...At first sight,the visitors like to communicate with the shot and title and after that,a deep viewing is necessary.I really admire this shot and think this is a strong one according to the title,composition and nice point of view and angle and thnx for sharing and processing method too.
Regards(Bobby).

According to the teddy bear and opening doors,I agree with John Hallberg but still a good shot.
Regards(Bobby).

What a GREAT piece of art, how accurate the title fits, the teddy bear gives the finishing touch, I don't know what could be better....
Els, Netherlands

I can't critique this. It is simply superb.

What a treat!.A POW thats really interesting,somtimes the elves find a gem.Superb work.

I can't decide if the pattern on the object in the top right is distracting or not. I'd love to know if the use of a fish-eye wide angle was an artistic choice or merely the lens on hand. The slight distortion it lends, with the floor falling away slightly from the child and the lines in the tile being distorted from being parallel give the image a surreal feel, which I like along with the post processing effects which have been added. Congrats on POW!

Beautifully done! Documentary & a story turned into art. Congrats on POW

The angle, the placement of the floor tiles, and the small size of the teddy bear relative to the boy, coupled with the lack of other depth cues, give me the fleeting impression that the boy has opened the door to a precipice over which the bear has already fallen. The boy is looking up--at me, apparently--with a rather blank, fatalistic expression, and I can't help wondering what I am meant to be, and what the fallen bear forebodes. Is this a picture of a child who will grow up, or one who won't?

I think the "background" - which actually is an "underground" is a bit too undefined, the door and the floor melt into one another.
But the take of the child and the perspective are marvellous!

Yes, the perspective is severe: I see essentially a head and an arm, and the rest of the body is somewhat indistinguishable below that. The perspective alone is sufficiently different that it may become the the primary attraction of the photo. I wonder if a less severe angle, one which still conveys the smallness of the child but which portrays the child more fully (i.e., more body) would still carry the message embodied in the title without the unusual angle stealing the show. Or is the message largely dependent on the severe angle?

The combination of the wide angle and high perspective works really well here. It accentuates the feeling of the child as being small in a really big world that he just can't wait to grow into. I like the choice of B&W too. Perhaps one might associate vivid colors with the joys of childhood. Most kids, however, are keenly aware of how scary the world around them can be for various reasons inlcuding that it's not always easy to understand the adults in it! But they look to those very same adults that make no sense at all to give them assurance that everything will be ok. To me, this young boy's expression says "I trust you."

I also like the perspective this photo was taken from, and think that it really enhances the idea behind the title. The child's expression conveys trust in the person he is looking up to, and also the feeling that he understands, or is beginning to understand what being older (an adult) means. I love the fact that the child is opening the door, which for me is very symbolic with opening new horizons associated with growing up. The fact that the teddy bear is not in the child's hand(s) and still on the floor could also suggest growing away from being a child, and looking forward to growing up. The tonality of this shot is great as well, and B&W works very well as it focuses the viewer more on the child, the child's expression, and the symbolism in the image. I find that the image being B&W tends to leave the image more open to interpretation as well, which is what I was reading in other people's comments, although there seems to be a general feeling on the theme etc. I agree that there could be better separation between the door and floor with a little dodging and burning, and this could have created a stronger leading line into the shot, but that is my bias, and this does not detract from the image. Nice shot! I especially like the use of a vignette, which i am usually not big on.

"I wonder if a less severe angle, one which still conveys the smallness of the child but which portrays the child more fully (i.e., more body) would still carry the message embodied in the title without the unusual angle stealing the show."

In reading this comment I started to wonder what was going on and if I had crossed into some other universe--sorry for picking on you Stephen. But isn't it the photo that is supposed to carry the message in the first place? I generally find titles to be distracting and too controlling--but may violate that myself from time to time.

As to the unusual angle stealing the show, I think that is just a construct used here to effect the message (and informs the image rather than steals the show) and tone of the image. I do admit that my first take on the image was one of feeling it has a little bit of an off-balance feeling to it, but maybe that makes some sense. This image is also a good example of where a full tonal range doesn't have to exist for an image to be successful. In fact, it is the softer treatment that lets the message come through and resonate.

Personally, I have very mixed feelings about added textures, something that appears a lot in Rossen's work. But in this image I believe it has been applied in a more subtle way which seems to isolate the boy and add to a sense of mystery and discovery.

We hear a lot of "oh, this image is great, wonderful" and the like, but rarely does an image appear here that I feel is one I would care to look at regularly or hang on my wall. I think this one might be an exception.

What a great image. The encounter of two worlds: The lack of color of the world of control and domination created by the adults positioned above the word of fantasy and creativity of the young. Very well done!