Who Watches the Watchers?by
GeneralEComment by Lydia: Greetings from the Critique Club, Paul!
What a fun image! I love the stripes of the clothing and the stripes of the building and the stripes of the blinds pulling the viewer in. Such a clever find!
I love the clash and merge of all of the colors. So intriguing.
What I'm not fond of is the blown whites of the window frame taking our attention away from your charming subject. The eye is automatically drawn to the brightest part of an image after finding the face. Since the face is not engaging us in anyway (the child is looking away), the viewer's gaze then goes to the window frame and is then lost... floundering for where to land next.
If the child were looking at the camera, engaging the viewer immediately, then the blown whites would have lesser negative impact.
As it is, the child has put up a "barrier" against us. His/her hand (the most in-focus part) is there on the window... as if to block us... and he is looking away. It almost makes me feel unwanted even though he/she is smiling at something we cannot see. If the hand weren't there to fend us off... I think we'd feel more free to explore whatever is drawing the child's attention away from us. More... "story".
As it is, I feel unwanted and uncomfortable viewing the image... Like I shouldn't be there.
So, my "diagnosis" of the image is that... you've found a wonderful scene... the colors, the striped everywhere, the human element of interest... but the "second in time" that you chose could have been chosen a second earlier or later... to engage the viewer more.
Photographer found comment helpful.
