16

Plenty of action here, with a great feeling of emotion of angst or horror. Talk about photo drama! You can't help but wonder what the scenario is here. My only reservation is the object between the two faces which is sharper than the rest and therefore draws the eye away from those powerful expressions. It's always nice to see an image that you can spend time viewing, whilst various stories and random thoughts flit through your mind.

Interesting how different the perceptions of to people can be. Other than Geraldine I cannot detect any horror or fear in this picture. On the contrary I feel these guys are laughing and having the time of their life! The thing in the middle looks like a lollipop to me. Or a huge chewing gum....? Anyway, this picture is funny and original. If a fairy granted me a wish, I'd like to have more detail in the left man's face and a tad more sharpness in the lollipop, rubber ball, miniglobe or whatever it is. (ok these were two wishes, but fairies don't quibble.) I don't know what to think of the framing, especially as the black space is wider at the sides. As usual I would prefer a simpler one :-)

 

Interesting how different the perceptions of to people can be. Other than Geraldine I cannot detect any horror or fear in this picture. On the contrary I feel these guys are laughing and having the time of their life! The thing in the middle looks like a lollipop to me. Or a huge chewing gum....? Anyway, this picture is funny and original. If a fairy granted me a wish, I'd like to have more detail in the left man's face and a tad more sharpness in the lollipop, rubber ball, miniglobe or whatever it is. (ok these were two wishes, but fairies don't quibble.) I don't know what to think of the framing, especially as the black space is wider at the sides. As usual I would prefer a simpler one :-)

Good points Birgit. I just took a second look and now I see them laughing too! However I don't wish for more detail anywhere, I rather like the fact your eyes struggle to latch on to something. It makes the moment appear more transient. Yep, definitely laughing....

Interesting how Geraldine's and Birgit's first impression of this image was so different! My first reaction was very similar to Geraldine's, but after reading Birgit's comment I can easily see it that way too! Fascinating image, capable of being interpreted from two opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.

 

The object between these people is a flower. I confirmed this by looking at other images in this folder. These two characters seem to be rushing into the scene, whether they are rushing in happily or angrily I still can't say. But there is a great sense of energy in this image for me.

 

I wouldn't want to see any additional detail than what is offered here. While I can clearly recognize these figures as human, they are also in a way inhuman. As if they are the physical manifestation of emotion. Which one? Still not sure!

 

I would add that the frame is unnecessary in my opinion. This image may be at its best simply floating on white.

I see more horror than humour in this shot, and I think the image would be stronger without its emotional ambivalence. The flower does look like a lollipop and seems an incongruous subject for the attention of these ghoulish, cackling fiends. The blurring technique works very well, but the wraith-like appearance it gives these characters suggests to me that a darker theme would have produced a more powerful, consistent result. As it seems unlikely the living dead would spend their time chuckling over a flower... The panoramic format doesn't really support the picture, which I think would be stronger if cropped just left of the left person's ear (omitting its double image). But originality and technique are certainly very good.

After reading both points of view above, I find it horrifying and disturbing, but then, my mind is twisted anyway. My one wish for the photo fairy would be that the flower was eliminated. The leading white edge of it is really distracting for me because in an image so full of emotion and energy, my eye just locks onto it. It seems like an anchor that this image does not need. I like the panoramic crop as well. It adds quite a bit of dynamism to an already dynamic photograph.

Initially I visualize something horrific in this picture too. Quite what who knows, but I think its a primeval instinct whenever I look at a face with a wide open mouth and teeth ready to bite. Especially if theyre like these teeth; gray, gappy and untreated anything but pearly.

 

I like the double image of the right ear. It identifies the significant movement here more so than anywhere else in the picture, though I wish there wasnt the glare above. I also like the flower between the faces. To begin with it raises a query over the initial sense of violence. I think it prevents a viewer from being certain that the picture depicts violence or laughter and the uncertainty adds to the mystery. Further the flower serves as a channel of communication between the faces.

 

Framing is a matter of choice but since it is raised in a critique I would say the gold edged double matting is overly fancy. A plain white matt enclosed in a black frame would be fine. I have no objection to the unequal measurements of the matt. Lately I have seen a collection of panoramics all with matts of this sort of proportion and figured the matt was designed to maintain the panoramic appearance of the picture.

I think the foregoing comments illustrate why this is such an effective composition. The element of equivocation is very striking. Here we have two viable interpretations of its meaning: that of horror and that of laughter but one seems to arise from the other. It does seem clear that we are seeing two people sharing a laugh but the interpretation and treatment given in the image creates horror through the distortion of the elements of the image. I too wish the flower had been equally distorted, its too sharp to make the interpretation complete, in my opinion. I think of Herman Melville and Moby Dick, and the way Melville brilliantly gave topsy-turvy interpretation to traditional symbols of faith to create intense scenes of horror in Moby Dick. This is just great.

 

Call me Ishmael...