Fairytale comes to lifeby
marvinComment by srdanz: Greetings from the Critique Club :)
This is a good example of a photo that provokes the observer to establish a link to the challenge. One thing that is easily overlooked when making such images is the ability of the photographer to put him/herself outside the box of their own thoughts and look at the produced photo with the eyes of someone that does not know about the intent. For example, you know that the book is about the snowwhite, i.e. a fairy tale. For the careful observers that know Icelandic (and you've left very little text in focus) it may be obvious that the fairy tale is the link to fantasy. For me, it could have been a political science or a economy book, where little is left to fantasize about. Once the viewer recognizes the topic, then they can start appreciating the obvious link between reading and fantasizing.
Technicals: You've chosen a shallow DOF, and that left only a narrow portion of the glasses and the text in focus. For the Fantasy challenge, I would have preferred to convey fantasizing perhaps slightly differently: instead of having a shallow DOF, I would have gone with uniformly, yet tactfully softened image. That way the viewer could get the feeling of wandering off in the fantasy world while e.g. imagining themselves amidst the events they are reading about.
Choice of monochromatic image works well as it is universally accepted that we imagine/dream in monochrome.
Border: I haven't noticed it until I really looked hard at the image. This means that the border is tastefully applied and does not take away from the image.
-Serge
edit: separated paragraphs for easier reading
Message edited by author 2006-02-04 03:27:29. 
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