Photo Critique

I really admire the work of Anne Geddes so I chose one of her pieces for critique. Of course I almost always enjoy the content in her pieces because they are usually cute and happy babies. She captures a lot of innocence and light that children seem to exude. I admire her creativity and ability to imagine children as part of nature and photograph them in ways you we don’t expect to see them.

In this particular picture I love the soft lighting, but the way she included the vase and marbles that highly reflect the light around the subject. The reflection of the light on the vase was a good manipulation of bounce lighting that caused more contrast so the baby stands out. Geddes also did a fantastic job manipulating texture. The dark background seems very flat, but the subject in the foreground features the baby wearing the flower hat. The hat inspires an organic feel and makes me think of holding flower pedals. It is a nice contrast to the smooth texture of the glass and marbles.

The composition is also nice and simple featuring the child as the subject in the foreground, but fallen down on the table to her right is a flower, that flower gives a nice twist to what could have been a boring almost symmetrical photo. It was really smart of Geddes to feature the one fallen flower to add interest for the viewer. The lovely colorful flowers full of texture really stand out from the grey background and brown table, again causing the subject to "pop".

The direct approach of the central focus is really nice. Geddes chose to capture the child from a frontal vantage point, where I think she was able to capture the innocence and curiosity of the baby in a simple manner. Between the elements of texture, lighting and the subject, it worked to her advantage to use such a direct approach for this piece.

Part of what makes this picture so captivating to me is the organic natural feel. Although geometric shapes obviously make a strong and interesting photo, I enjoy the warm and inviting feel of the natural shapes and lines in this piece. I feel like the simplicity of the natural shapes, and the curvy lines lead to the greater appreciation of the innocent subject. The photo features a natural subject we can all relate to in some way. Combining all the elements leads us to be able to understand the picture, and they invoke a reaction.