Gallery Critique

     My photo is about the sad depressing truths of reality. Yes, we all die eventually, but what is the before that? Gray skies and sea water blurring past you, waves sneaking up the shore like hope just to be ripped back into the black ocean again, children staring out into the nothingness that lies ahead who wonder… Is this all?

     That child is what draws you eye to the picture at all. Without him looking off into the distance it would just be an open bland photo of the sea. The waves create a solid white line between the skies and the sand that helps divide your attention into halves. Look up and see the soft rolling waves in the distance; look down and see the small crevasses of the beach sand below. Although the boy stands up tall against the horizon, his shirt keeps this picture flowing the same way with him being the only interruption.

     When put into black and white the fog in the afternoon makes it so you can hardly make out where the sea stops and the sky starts, creating a very simple smoothly lit background.

     There is nearly no expression or body language in this shot. The little amount that does show up displays the small boy as both lost and transfixed, whether it’s the view or the future that crawling forward. The message is greatly overlooked without the title. It means nothing without the words to describe it because it shows no emotion nor does it provoke any. To some, at first glance, it says “Oooh, look, a happy little boy at the beach!”  This, by the way, happens to NOT be the message.

     There are many things I would change in this picture. The contrast first off. It needs to be darker and more distinct so that you can tell where something ends and the next begins. I would also make it so that the sky isn’t so vast and on going. If I had had more time I would have taken at least three or four more shots so that if the first one didn’t turn out so well, the second or the third might. Since this was a completely candid photo I didn’t have more then a second to take it. As far as the time it took to finish, the only thing that took time was the deciding which picture to choose and keep. This one was originally not even one of my choices.