Slippery Circlesby
cogeroxComment: greetings from the critique club!
There is a finite number of variables with a photograph, and one of the most important is POV. You've picked an exciting one here. Seeing a child from below is a reversal of our expectations, and creates a dreamlike effect, which is only enhanced by the bubbles. Since you've got my imagination engaged, I now wish the bubblemaking hole were over her eye, like a pink monocle, since the magic of photographs goes in through the eye, and the magic of bubbles comes out through that hole. Also, it would complete the reversal, since she would be looking through a viewfinder just as the photographer does. everything else about the photograph is perfect: the tones, the varying visibilities of the bubbles, some appearing only as vague circles, some disappearing into the sky, the rich colors of the tree, even the falling drop of bubblegoo(?). I love it all. Magical. Notice how the perspective kind of makes her equivalent to the tree, suggesting how natural she is, how beautiful and confident, simple and strong. Not that the picture is about her. The picture is about transformation, about the alteration of consciousness. She is acting like a tourguide.
Why didn't you score higher? Because people fear magic. People don't want their consciousness altered.
How do you score higher next time? Stay on the surface of our conventional illusion. Do not question authority. Do not color outside the lines. Do not give in to joy. Cage it. Tie strings to its wrists and ankles and make it dance for you with steps enumerated in the Lowest Common Denominator Playbook.
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