Dualityby
LeeDComment by patrinus: Palmetto, you asked me to clarify my dislike for your photo, I will try to do it now:
1- I think this is extremely creative a great interpretation of the challenge an sends lots of messages that I myself wanted to include in one picture. It is so true that a mother is lots of things at the same time as your photo says. Great message, we all got it.
2- On the photographic side of it, I think that bodypainting, and lighting was well done ( I might have tried to improve lighting by having more shades on the body, showing more volume, perhaps placing lights more at the side), but I didn't like the writing on the words because they seem too explicit for my taste and because they look as if you had done it with your finger... I get a feeling of too direct message along with poorly 'drawn' words. Also on the photographic side I think that there should be a completely black hand that crosses over to the white side (at least the line crossing through the wrist might have been better if angled to have visual continuity on the vertial line). Hand placement seems a bit uneasy and I would have loved to see a bit more detail on the skin.
3- On the emotive side I didn't like your choice of colors because they all seem too harsh for me, my mental interpetation of mother has all the words in your photo but they are all blended in a soft mixture, a delicate balance of emotions, a natural shift in roles... your photo seems too unnatural and hard for my taste, like a forced mother, more than a loving mother.
This is just an idea, please take it as constructive criticism, and of course I make lots of assumptions that are entirely personal. I am telling you why 'I' didn't like your photo, not implying respectfuly that it is a bad photo, and as I could see on the comments lots of people loved it and I can see why.
Perhaps you can feel that I had lots of preconceptions about this challenge, truth is I was inclined towards something really softer than your concept... and I looked and voted for softer tender images (as you can see my own photo).
Anyway congratulations for the effort (I can see you invested lots of time here) and thank you for your creativity, please keep it up.
Photographer found comment helpful.