people Untitled

Arup, it is, in my impression, a three out of four composition. The boy on the girls’ right is a space cadet, is aesthetically distracting, (in brief, no match in either the eyes or the innocence departments). If you crop him out, the image will be far more potent. Neither 'innocence' nor 'killer eyes' seem to be quite fitting to the capture. The expression is far too dire to convey innocence per se, while the undeniable intensity of stunning, somewhat alarmed, perhaps questioning gazes conveys more than merely fetching eyes (the English metaphorical-ism's connotation), on the one hand, and is without any literally killing effect, on the other. If you intended to implicit a killing by guilt, a bit more context might be needed to make that effective. Flood victims? I see high potential here...

Great shot, Arup.  Tones are excellent.  Igor, it is what it is.  No need to over analyze.  It's 4 kids living in poverty.  Probably don't see a camera all that much.  Innocence, yes indeed.

This is very original and of very emotional atmosphere, the expressions on these children faces are priceless and the place hey are in is adding a great impact to the composition of this image while the black&white format is a great choice.

Thank you for sharing it and wishing you all of the best.

Regarding: “ it is what it is…” Jerry, it always is what it is to the one who interprets what it is. If the fattish boy with the double chin, and cheeky girls with bracelets, hair pins and disheveled hair signify to you these Indian children are necessarily living in poverty – swell. If, although in the country where girls that age are oft up for marriage arrangements, most people are used to walking barefoot… and these (through the roughness of the terrain) are implicitly familiar with the harsher side of life, innocence is nonetheless perceived as singularly definitive, that is also just fine. As we find in Russell Hoban “After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?” The photograph Is an excellent catch. I usually do not bother otherwise. The vectoring intended appertained to my perceived dissonance with the two titles. And while the forefront girls (to me) appear as old souls and the ‘killing eyes’ vignette rings linguistically incongruent, we are entitled to our differences. This has little to do with ‘overanalyzing’ anything. If language is not important to you and every capture perceived as intense (no matter how many kinds and shades of intensity loom in the ocean) is a ‘killer shot’ no matter how titled, swell.

They strive to speak the language of all guilt,

Invent they coinage to augment the mold,

They’ll stitch a nation – if of trash a quilt,

If by appearance an agenda ‘s sold.

(A fragment from one of my poems…)

Silver Rajah of Sophiastan.

Arup, please do not take this exacting digression on significance of congruent annotations for more than intended – a well meaning attempt and a perspective. I love India, and find your portfolio full of its natural splendors. I fear many critics would reflexively side with Jerry, over-simplicity, and (from my vintage point) inflexibility of  ‘their’ obviousness . I am not one of them.    

Thanks Igor, Jerry and Rashed for your valuable comments. As mentioned by Igor, I too in a second thought found that the title "Killing Eyes"  is not appropriate for this shot and hence removed it and preferred to go without any caption for this image. However, any appropriate caption is welcome. I would rather request Igor to suggest one. I am also pretty happy that atleast the photograph could set up some hot discussions.  Thanks again.

I think that this picture is more about emotions than composition and as such it is truly remarkable. "A moment in time perfectly captured"

My pick for Photo of the Week. I have been looking at this photograph for the past ten minutes. Theres an eerie ghoulish look in the eyes (particularly the girl in the extreme FG) which is mesmerising. Outstanding pic.

i'd prefer the darker region at top left cropped out. however, the composition capturing three pairs of bright eyes is indeed stunning. i see "অভিমান" in these eyes rather than a killer instinct. wonderful. compliments -koushik

Arup,

This is fantastic. Like Nabarun, I’m also with this photograph for the last 10 minutes. The eyes of the girls are really fascinating. I’m with Dr. Igor. It’s a composition with really high potentiality. The expression of the boy is different and after cropping the boy out, the composition may be more striking. After cropping the boy out the distracting effect of the background (as Koushik noted) would also be reduced. There is no question of ‘overanalyzing’ the shot – it demands analysis.

Dr. Igor,

You’re very much right in analyzing this striking photograph. I appreciate your emotionality and love for India. But…

This is not totally true in present India.

Arup,

This is really an outstanding capture.  Best regards.