timothy_swan

Well, I guess you can't please everyone, as evidenced by the "no central focus" comment by Marcello and the "creative framing" comment by Mack.

I'm biased, but I disagree pretty strongly with Marcelo -- the composition of the photograph includes the out-of-focus background image. Just because the center isn't in the center doesn't mean that one isn't there.

I just plain like the composition of this photo -- I like how flat the

horse seems when cropped tight, as well as the mottled tonality and

the contrast against the ground.

Alot of comments re: this photo are really astonishing to me. Of course there are always those who find R. Frank, Friedlander, J. Koudelka without merit (not to put this photo in that category, but rather in that school.) I expect better, more thoughtful commentary here.

I think that this photo needs to be approached on both technique and subject. As far as technique goes it looks reasonable -- nice isolation of foreground/background through focus, decent exposure, etc. However, on closer look it does look as though there has been a fairly heavy handed amount of dodging and burning. I would have preferred to see the background burned more heavily ( but more seamlessly to have the subject stand out.

Ahh, the subject. Although I find that the expression of the man's face is beautiful and moving, I fear that it is plain dumbstruck grief. In that way, I don't see any difference between this photo and any taken by a journalist who has camped out to milk the latest disaster -- except that it is more exotic than the mother of a slain high school student. The beauty of the photo is at the expense of the photographer's intrusion at a private time. Pity.

The rest of the photos in the portfolio are worse, as they're very static documents without this photos power.