Jardins de Luxembourg, Paris, autour de 1990 - scan from print

You've captured a great moment here. The concentration of the man carefully carrying the yacht. He carries it with the care of a man who perhaps built it himself and is about to send it on its maiden voyage across "le petit lac du Luxembourg"... or am I reading too much into this? The child looks at the yacht with pure excitement about the impending launch (i.e., does not share the man's fears about whether the maiden voyage will be successful).

There's a very powerful area in this photo -- the imaginary line between the two people's heads, with the boat right between them, and I like how that imaginary line is perpendicular to the (real) diagonal line made by the man's leg and the sail of the yacht. I also like the contrast in the photo, from the white of the sail to the black of the subjects' clothes. And, by presenting (or perhaps shooting) this in black and white, you have given their clothes a uniformity (medium-tone trousers, dark jacket) that reflects their unity of purpose.

Do you know these people? Did they get a copy of the print? I imagine they would both want to keep this photo forever. I will certainly come back to it.

thank you very much for such an in-depth comment! I reckon I was very lucky in catching the "decisive moment", as a famous colleague of ours would have said. Paris gardens are wonderful places to shoot people,as they provide beautiful views and hiding places. as you rightly said it's the interplay between father and daughter (maybe) that gives feeling to the picture. To answer fully, non, I did not get to know these persons, so I could not give them a copy of the shot. I still think of photography as a personal hobby, back then I would have been far too shy to offer a picture of mine to anyone, let alone two passers-by! Thanks again, Gerry, and hope to exchange other views very soon!

marco