Tuesday, December 30, 2008

As an artist, and especially as a photographer, I'm always editing myself. My first instinct was to simply ignore this shot because it's so common. At least for my work anyway... it's just another street shot of retail advertising.

But I worked with it a bit and I think it really has a great balance now. I had to crop it a bit, but now there's an interaction between the mannequin heads that didn't really exist before. The upper central figure with the fur cap kind of peers out at you while the two in the front are more focused, yet they're not focused at all - they look in different directions! And then there's the head to the left with the gray cap that seems to be looking at them. I had to take out some stuff at the bottom for that to happen, and that also allowed for a more balanced color palate...

...there's the faceless purple and blue head in the center left that works color-wise with the pink in the background, and that's contrasted, but also complementary to the brown and green of the fur hat in the center and the green Eagles cap. The blue of the denim cap is the only thing that really seems out of place, but even that's balanced in some way by the sleek gray hat to the left. And if you take that line and skew it on a central axis just a bit counter-clockwise there's a dark grey hat to the left and a black hat to the right behind the central head with the fur cap.

Hmmmm... here I am looking at photos as if they were paintings or drawings. I tend to focus on balance and shape. Maybe I should just do more painting!!!

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