The Amityville horrorby
crayonComment by e301: from the eyes behind the portrait of the Critique Club
AH hell, I'm not sure which approach to take. On one hand I completely loath this over-processed supposedly 'creepy' kind of stuff. You know? Take an image of something broken and dodge all hell out of it and call it 'gothic' or 'grunge' or whatever the term of the moment is. It seems to betray an urge toward the darker end of the war photographers' art; well, damn it, get yourself a ticket out to Kabul and do the real thing. But it also, in only a small way, but nevertheless of significance, betrays the real work of those guys, of Norfolk, Nachtwey, McCullin and the rest, who did it to bring those things to our notice and did so more profoundly than any writers.
On the other hand, of course, it's just fun - just making a larking-about dark image, not taking yourself too seriously: and there's something here that betrays a smile as it is made - perhaps the only real moment of inspiration in the image, which is that out-of-focus foreground framing - beautifully done. It adds also a touch of the impression of hyper-shappow depth of field, making the house appear like a model.
The burnt-out sky is kind of a shame: whilst it adds a sense of lurking darkness to the house, it's perhaps such a blat of whiteness that its overall effect is to drag the eye away from the subject. The tonality is fine, though I would think you could have brightened the whole thing without losing the intensity of it and just made it sit a little happier for those with dark screens already - might have won you the few scores to get into the 6's, which it would be my feeling is about what this deserves.
Technically accomplished stuff. Whether or not I think it worth thee effort is beside the point, maybe.
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