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I love the beautiful little man here, fearless intelligent eyes wide open, he owns this fine portrait, a portrait someway spoiled, as I see it, by the headless dad hovering above the child, and I can’t tell why it strikes me wrong that way, but it is a detail that stands out and jars my viewing for some reason. 

The headless man (Dad?) behind the boy is what really makes this portrait outstanding to me. This speaks to time, family and generations; as if the boy will one day be that man and the man was one day that boy. I do agree with Carlos that the boy does own the portrait, his direct and fearless gaze is wonderful.

In any event, a portrait to be proud of.

Amy

the adult child metaphor is instantly gotten and an intelligent means to enrich the comp. But as you settle eyes on the frame, and take it all in slow, the headless figure becomes a visually unsettling intrusion against the wonder of the child…

(a crop below the shoulders be an instant fix, but of course how I see it matters zero beyond the sharing of views, whatever they may be worst. How Adam sees and presents the work is what matters)

Amy and Carlos, thank you very much both for the critique.

The presence of the figure (yes, dad!) in the background, and showing it only neck down, was a deliberate decision on my part. It is up to viewers to interpret, but in general the picture is about not being fully grown up yet, and about looking at the world from a different perspective than we adults do.

Thank you both again.

Adam

Great shot of the boy. Excellent lighting, black and white work, his ears seem to match his wide eyes and he's not portrayed sentimentally or particularly sweetly but rather as a complex (yet easy to look at) human being.

In a sense, this seems as strongly posed as an updated and male-only version of Grant Wood's American Gothic, though with obvious differences. Their poses are somewhat hardened which makes their posing an imposing and important element, which is a thoughtful approach to a portrait. The chopped off body may harmonious or even exaggerate the stiffness and severity of their bearing. This is no casual candid and there are no bones made about that.

The meaning of a photo, the interpretation I give to any particular element, is rivaled only by the visual effect it has on me as well. No matter what particular interpretation I want to glean from the figure behind the child, there is a jarring quality to it visually which will either work or not for each viewer, but I would say it is visually jarring (for good or bad). I would also say it comes across as intentional, direct, purposeful. There's a self consciousness to it that can, again, be either a good thing or bad depending on the viewer and the viewpoint. The neck area, what little we see above the line of the tee-shirt has a kind of grotesqueness to it. Again, this word I use descriptively rather than judgmentally, though I suppose one can't avoid judgment to some extent when choosing words to describe things. But that's how I see it. It doesn't look as if it's a human neck up there.

For me, one of the strongest and nicest aspects of the photo is the highlighting of the books to the immediate side of the boy's face. One might be tempted to tone that down so as not to distract from the boy's gaze, but his gaze is strong enough to handle it and I think it gives a sense of life beyond this boy's own realm, to a light outside him.