Lys •

Thank you to billisdead for allowing me to do my first critique on his wonderful photograph, Saint-Malo

This has always been a personal favourite of mine, being that I’m a sucker for shots produced with toy cameras :)

The thing that strikes me most about this image is how dirty it is. It’s almost like I’m looking through a forgotten window to view the real world. In my opinion, this is the finishing touch on any photograph taken with a toy camera, what tweaks it to that certain degree of uniqueness. Another key to a great photograph is the feelings and emotions that can be pulled out of the audience.

One glance isn’t enough to see everything that composes this shot, it’s one that you have to enlarge and really look at. There are so many neat little things hidden in the grimy shadows of the concrete and the exposed light of the sun. I really like how the only light is natural and contained mostly on the right hand side, drawing the eye in and down to the reflection on the plastic-looking water with its ever so slight rays off in the distance.

The eye’s natural tendency to start at the left and read to the right is thrown off here with the horizon line. Having the sun as the starting point, the “beginning” of the horizon is noticed first on the right, being composed of what appears to be a strip of far-off buildings and trees. It gradually rises as the foreground overtakes the background and the buildings curve around to continue behind the photographer. Using this composition, I can’t help but be curious about what may be lurking in the shadows where the concrete meets the sand.

This picture really evokes my love and appreciation of the unnoticed things taken for granted. Seeing the initial darkness and feeling the rough concrete of the confining society washes me in a wave of lonliness and hopelessness, so I search for a way to escape, digging through the shadows, smelling the smokey air, tasting the salt, being scratched by the sand until I reach the light. It’s like an escape to a dream world, only you know it’s more than real when you swear you can hear the waves through the sun-streaked vignetting.