alone

There is so much to look at and so much to like in this picture, I'll just pick one thing: left-center, middle-distance, the white hat on the little girl echoes the large-near white hat of the girl looking directly at us. Then, to the immediate right of her, another white hat, turned away. I love that kind of visual bounce-transformation (which is happening in different forms all over this picture). One small criticism is the expression conveyed by the close girl's mouth. She looks bored-contemptuous. And one question: are those bullet-impacts in the upper part of the window that protects/divides 'us' from 'them'?

Julie, thanks a lot

Patrick, first and foremost, congratulations on the POTW; it is well deserved. I'll add an "admire" to sweeten it. Many photographs involving window reflections border on the mundane, but not this one. Although you posted it to the Street category, it does have at least two abstract elements: the slightly out-of-focus man with the backpack and the motion blur on the right. Although you may have intended just the girl to display loneliness, I suspect she shares that - albeit for different reasons - with the backpack man. Finally, I am quite taken by the vertical highlighted area which seems to separate two possibly dissimilar areas.

Patrick, I like the woman semi-hidden in the rectangle of light just above the central figure of the girl. I like how the girl stands out from the darker crowd . . . good sense of contrast both narratively and visually. I really wish her hat hadn't been overexposed, likewise the buildings in the background (which bother me less) and the sky. While the girl and the buildings hold my interest, shot with a good sense of street perspective, what's going on in the street does not. It's a crowd scene with no apparent storyline to go with it. I keep wishing for something to grasp in the crowd scene but am left wanting.

 

Michael, my understanding is that photos of the week are not chosen because they are admired by the elves but because the elves feel they will stimulate critique and interesting discussion. Of course, this is belied by the administration calling it an "award" which it was not originally intended to be. Though I think this photo is deserving of praise, I wish we would stop encouraging administration from turning everything into a reward or a prize or a like by offering our congratulations for something that ought sometimes to be chosen as much for its weaknesses and need for improvement as for its strengths.

thank you all for inspiring words and criticism, it helps me a lot

She is in a crowd, so she is not alone. Perhaps she feels alone? Looks like a display of Ai Weiwei's work in London in the reflection. I do not find this shot has any particular resonance to me, as, to be frank, it looks like a slightly more interesting shot of the photographer's daughter(?) taken at a street exhibition: not uninteresting, but not startling either.

thank you Robin, yes she,s my daughter feeling nervous at an overcrowded place. She tries to get immersed in herself to avoid all rush and noise around her. With the help of her hands she finally succeded to be alone in the downtown of Prague.

Thanks for the reminder, Fred. I still feel that my congratulatory message is in order, since the Elves' choosing it for POTW seems to imply that it is worthy for discussion.

Has a nice feel for time and space and depth. We get to look into the refreshing eyes of the girl while the swirl of a street scene makes a stage backdrop. She performs well and with a glow of discovery. I agree that the knit cap is over bright. But her pose with hands looking at us is irresistable. Nose not quite against the glass.

There are sections of the image which could have made a good composition however taken as a whole there is too much going on without much of anything pulling me in.

The right side of the frame as a vertical portrait of the child could have worked had the exposure not blown out a large white hole were the hat should have been.

I like the squiggly ( scratch ? ) patterns in the glass.

What a nice photograph.

wonderful documentary shoot