Critical image analysis

This image is a portrait of his father presented in a landscape format, again capturing the shoulders upwards. The main focus of the photograph is his the man’s face as the background is blurred, leaving the focal point sharp and clear. He has a painful expression on his face, suggesting he is crying or hurt. This is clear as his nose is crumpled; his eyebrows frowning and his mouth and teeth clenching. His eye gaze is directed towards the floor and his back seems to be hunched over, rounding his shoulders as if he feels the pain physically. This suggests the change in his mental and emotional state, showing his frustration. This image was captioned with context which states “Eating is often a miserable experience.” Toledano explains the one thing he did love was eggs: scrambled eggs; egg salad; egg-drop soup.” This implies he would stick to what he knew he liked and this was probably easy to make. The main reason I like this photograph is because it radiates emotion, which makes me feel sympathy towards him and his family. It is a painful image, which can be compared to photographs, which show times when he is happy and cheerful. The lighting of this image is dark on the viewers left side, which is contrasted with the right as it appears to have a beam of light shining on the top of his face, which I assume is coming from an artificial light. I personally feel this image is extremely strong and can be linked to straight or documentary photography as he documents his fathers emotions.

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