Here is one of my favourite, most successful images from my personal investigation. I took this image whilst i was in Burkina Faso, Africa. The image is of a young boy standing with his younger brother. They are presented in the centre of the image  with the local area behind them. The protagonist of the image is the older boy, he stands in the centre of the frame breaking the rule of thirds, but this is for a powerful purpose. He is meant to be the direct subject of the image showing his strong character even in the harsh society. The framing around the image is equal and proportional to the size of the portrait. I think that this is a contemporary style of portrait is i have use a slightly wider angle and stood further away from the scene so that i am looking upon the scene and not becoming to involved. The equal border gives the image a sense of symmetry and therefore becomes unintentionally aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore depth is created in this image through the individuals being in the foreground of the image and the becoming the initial aspect which the audience  is drawn to but then in the background is the environment this community is living in and begins to create a depth story of what the conditions that the locals live in are but how they cope with it. Moreover i think that colour is very important in this image, the colours are not bright and bold making it a happy seen but vibrant in terms of the tones that are used and the contrast between the pure white tones and the pure black tones, this has the impact that the image is true to the view that i saw and has captured the natually rich colour of the environment. The direction of light in this image is coming from high in the sky but is moving more to the right of the subject which we can tell through the highlighted aspects of the older boys face and the shadow on the toddlers face as he is behind the protagonist.

This photographs is not just a vernacular image which i took whilst i was there. I built up a relationship with the young boy as he came to the building site nearly everyday that we were in africa. He would help to build, lift bricks, and became a friendly face that we saw each day. However the harsher reality of his lifestyle is shown through this image where he is holding his crying younger brother. The meaning behind the image is not hidden and a task for the audience to discover but is presented on the face of the image which is the harsh realities of young peoples lives who are living in poverty stricken societies. Here the younger generations are left to grow up whilst their parents are out at work, meaning that like Abadu in this image, he is left to look after his younger brother. He does not go to school and has had to mature quicker than any child in a first world country would have to. Further connotations of how he has had t mature early is the way he is standing. His posture is strong, with his shoulder back showing confidence. Furthermore his emotionless facial expression emphasises that he is no longer a child playing this is a serious society. The colour pallet of the image are mainly beige with both the clothes and the landscape connoting the simplistic society they live in. This is furthermore emphasised through the uncluttered environment shown in this environmental portrait, they do not have towering buildings are technology, they are living in a minimalist community.

My Judgment of my own image is that it is taking with technical skill. The image is clear and well focused and i have consider the ISO settings as well as aperture so that the individuals are in clear focus and the background is slightly out  of focus creating a frame and border around the subjects of the image making sure that attention is not drawn away from the real meaning of my images. I like the way the i have remained eye level with the subjects so that i am not either looking up or down on the individuals, i like that this gives the image a sense that we are all equal and that i am not being invasive into their community but that i am considering myself as equal to them. The image ahs been edited in a minimal way just to enhance the contrast slightly and bring the most of of the image. Through the use of light room i also lowered the exposure of the sky as in the original image it was over exposed due to the amount of harsh and direct light. But selecting just the sky and using the levels tool to reduce the amount of pure white in the image, i have lost some of the authenticity of the image and this is one of the only critiques i majorly have against my image

My images throughout the personal investigation project link closely to my recent contextual studies of how images should be authentic and objective rather than subjective images which lack authenticity of the real life situation the photographer was experiencing. When taking my image i was keeping in mind how i wanted to stay as impartial to the situation as possible, capturing authentic images of the reality of this community. However as a vernacular photographer as well as an outsider it was hard to gain a compleatly objective view of the situation. It is notable that the subjects are looking into the camera and therefore they new that a photograph was being taken of them however i did not position them to stand the way they are or place them in the location they are. Therefore the portrait is realistic to the situation that i was actually seeing and not altering the situation with a subjective minds eye. Furthermore i have kept the image is colour therefore not trying to beautify the image into a work of art that is so overly aesthetically pleasing that it takes away the true meaning of the harshness of their society. Through looking at the works of Sebatiao Salgado, i didn’t want to change the image to black and white as this had the effect on his images which overly dramatised the situation and became unrealistic representations of the reality of third world countries. Therefore i was sticking the the rules of straight photography and realism in the way that i was avoiding artistic conventions which altered reality as well as trying to represent the subject as truthfully as possible in the way in which the events where occuring