Adopted

Love it, the totaly empty room with only a TV as a child-care. How is watching who and why?

Well conceived and nicely done in monochrome, this is a pic we could use to launch a thousand discussions about the merits of television and young impressionable minds!

Who is raising the children.

well done 6/7

love this.

Nice clean shot Dennis .... nice tones and composition ... !

Well I guess this comes down to whatever rocks your boat, but personally I think this shot says nothing to me about my life, why pamper lifes complexities?

I would also like to add, how can people judge your work off one photograph? Thats all you've got in your file, I need to see a bit more before I can make a fair comment.

Glad to have discovered this picture. I think it's really great in it's message.

 

I'm just wondering "what if" the tv had been on, with the glare going a little bit on the child.

 

Anyhow, nothing that lessens the merit of this picture.

Sadly Dennis, this image speaks volumes Regards, Todd

Conceptually and compositionally very strong Dennis. Is that the receiving tower right outside the window?I DO love the simplicity of this.

Hey that was a good idea. I'm not sure why I never followed up on that suggestion. The backlighting here was horrendous. I should have just done the whole thing over but it was originally an unplanned grab shot. The potential outweighed the execution on my part.

Indeed. A very difficult lighting situation but an enviable shot that I would have taken in a second if I were as clever to see what you saw.

 

I also cannot overlook the strength of that lone outlet the TV is plugged into.

Dennis, I see that unfortunately you have deleted most of the pictures in your portfolio since my last visit. I like this picture very much. I'm not gonna add any more thoughts to what has already perfectly been said by other posters. This is a great, classic one. I wish you a very Peaceful and Happy New Year.

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Photographed under very difficult conditions, you did well to dim what must have been a bright, bright light from the windows. I still wish I could see the childs face a little more clearly. The pose is about as natural as it could be, and whether moving in or out, the situation is clear. I don't understand the title however. You follow one of the rule of thirds--that having the action occur in the lower third. The child's gazing across the open space brings the two, the child and the TV, together. If this went through post production through photoshop or some such thing, I personally, would have removed the TV antenna. As far as I can see, it detracts by attracting my attention. The photo is guinely great, stirs a sympathy in the viewer, and requires none of my non-expert cropping.

 

Willie the Cropper

This is one of my favorite photos on this site because every detail in the frame contributes to a story, whether it's Dennis' story, your own interpretation, or the actual facts of the moment.

 

I know from experience that a lot of people look at PN uploads with an old or uncalibrated monitor. There's plenty of detail in this kid's face, but having said that, I would apply a dose of "shadows/highlights" (which probably wasn'even part of PS when this capture was processed.)

This is a strong idea and - at least in my mind a less than perfect execution.

 

What is missing first of all is the feeling of wide open space - I iamginge that a child watching TV in an empty room must feel lonely, that is what I would try to express with more room - a wider angle lens may help.

Second the photo seems a tad too contrasty or simply too dark in the areas of that child.

Third, minor biut still valid: The antenna or whatever it is behind that window draws too much attention away frem the main scene - clone it out.

I believe the transmitting tower in the background is a fundamental part of what Dennis was trying to convey in this image. Who is raising our children....parents or television? Be it inside or outside, everywhere you look there is television.

Its a strong yet simple shot , well done ! A world of isolation seen here , people can miss out on the real world via the Tube. Really not great for the kids .

First, great shot, Dennis. Second, ditto what Carl said, both about the shadow detail and monitors and calibration. Third, I thought the same thing about the antenna, but Scott C. makes an interesting point about it. Last, if I'm using the correct term, interesting that the vanishing point is behind the TV.

This photograph is a good example of how a person?s ambition and enthusiasm often exceed their abilities and wisdom (especially mine). There are a lot of things I could have done differently at the time I was taking this photograph but two things I knew that I wanted to avoid were using a flash and influencing the scene at hand. I would love to do a studio style shoot like this with proper strobes and gels on the window but this is essentially a grab shot that I took because of the huge potential of the scene in front of me.

 

A lot has happened since I took this photograph. The relationships of the people who were directly or indirectly involved in the circumstances that led up to this moment have changed. There are also troubling questions at the present time about the wisdom of photographing other people?s children at all.

 

The little girl is from China. She was adopted by a great young couple here in St. Louis. The photograph is a bit editorial in the sense that I am implying something about the situation and how it might apply to children in general. At the same time this is a ?found? scene in the sense that I did not set it up beforehand. It was there and I photographed it.

 

The transmitter tower (who knows if it actually transmits television signals) is an important element to me conceptually. It may or may not work for the viewer but to me it shows how omnipresent television and the media are. Television has been around for as long as I can remember so from my perspective it has always existed.

 

My thoughts were that adoption is really about the influence of a society and culture that at times appears to supplant the guidance of parents as individuals and in some cases is even fostered by their lack of time and attention to devote to the family.

Fantastic, very powerful social commentary. A very worthy photograph of the week.

Nicely done in it's minimalist simplicity. Good work on a trick exposure also

Nice catch! I like this photo. As my understanding, this photo has delivered a few messages. First of all, the relationship between parents and child is realy lack of affection as people seems getting so busy with the development and progress of the society though morder communication has provides various system for people getting in touch with each other. That is the situation for everywhere. The second message is as the author has indicated that how a person's ambition and enthusiasm often exceed their abilities and wisdom. Apparently the parent adopts the child but they do not have much time to take care of her. Likewize,we have dream in our mind but we may lost it due to lack of care and nutrition. So many things in this world need to be take care of and we forget the most important thing! I guess this is what the pic want to say.