Hello from the Critique Club- I was one of the people who gave this picture a five so I was right in the middle of the pack. It is an Okay photo in my opinion. I like some of it and don't like some.
I like the roadway, the red tail lights being so sharp and thin and the bright headlights merging into a blur. I like the compositional lines that they set up, leading the viewer to the horison which is dead center. Funny that the headlight stream feels like it is moving away from me rather than towards me. Both sides of the traffic feel like they are going away from the poor subject who is going nowhere. I like the mood of the picture, it is wistful and gloomy at the same time. I like the way the grid of the bars are straight and rigid in opposition to the road which is diagonal and a bit curved. Very nice composition here, I like the contrast in focus also, where the forground is out of focus and theback ground has a sharper focus. The exposure is well done capturing both head and tail lights as well as giving a night time feel and including the road sign,
Being a staight line sort, it bothers me that the bars are tipped. I think the horizon is also tilted and I would have rotated the image to straighten it. I think the bars would work off kilter but the horison needs to be straight. I don't quite like the way the middle bar covers the horizon line. Would it have looked better higher or lower? What if the vanishing point had also been moved to one of the rule of thirds points instead of smack center? I suppose a different title might have help, I bet several people thought "Hey, it's not a real jail". How about just Unable to Travel, or Nowhere to Go.
Overall this is a moody and somewhat sad feeling photo. The subdued colors contribute to the mood. I like it better as I look at it longer but still it is not a very powerful image. Maybe it is too dismal for a wide appeal. |
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