simon_crofts

Cheers Fred! :)

The RGBY colour scheme is striking, though I also find the image a bit sterile. It has the feel of a generic travel picture rather than something personal and original. The problem is it doesn't really tell me anything about the subject except that she makes umbrellas, and it doesn't tell me much about the photographer either.

I don't think it would be better if she were larger in the frame. If anything, it might work better if she were a much smaller figure, perhaps showing more of a (hopefully interesting) interior. A small lost figure in a dark interior, perhaps surrounded by dozens of umbrellas, might have a lot of impact.

I find the idea of looking at an image of someone pretending to be troubled unsettling. Maybe it wouldn't be so unsettling for me if there weren't, I think, associations with the train marshalling yard at Auschwitz. There are so many pictures of real human suffering in the world, and genuine images of Auschwitz (both wartime and taken today), that there is no need to pretend, and I think there is a risk of devaluing genuine images of the subject.

Then again, I don't have a problem with exploring the borders between reality and fiction, just for me it's the wrong place to do it. There's also nothing inherently wrong with an image being unsettling - just not in this way. The image doesn't tell me anything beyond the fact that a girl is pretending to look sad. That doesn't tell me much about the world, doesn't tell me much about sadness, doesn't tell me much about the difference between reality and fiction.

I think a lot of the problem is that it is retro. It is not looking at itself or telling us anything new about anything, it is just a re-enactment. There are contemporary images that seem to me to reference Auschwitz that I have no problem with, so it's not the case that the subject is untouchable: Ackerman.

That said, the image is I think visually attractive (and though the burnt out bag does bother me - the bright background doesn't at all).