This picture by Sally Mann makes quite a statement. The girl in this picture is probably under ten years old yet she is smoking a cigarette. This is why i was originally drawn to this picture because you don't usually see children smoking cigarettes. However, the way that she is holding the cigarette also has just as much to say about the girl than does the cigarette. She is holding the cigarette and is standing in such a way that says to the viewer, "this isint new for me," or "Ive done this before." Her face also says that she is bored with what is going on around her. What is very visually attracting to this picture also is the way that it is framed and how the LINE AND SHAPE of the picture mesh together to make this picture. The three people in the picture are standing upright and it creates three columns, or divides the picture into three. The picture is set up in a way that makes the girl in the middle the center of attention besides the fact that she is centered in the picture she is also taller than the girl to the right, and she is shorter than the boy in the back to the left.
There is also a horizon line which separates the girls from the boy in the back giving the picture much DEPTH. The person in the back, who seems to be jumping on a trampoline or possibly just standing on something, is either a child like these girls, or it could be an adult or someone older than these girls. If the person in the back is an older person than the picture gains more depth because he would have to be much farther away. If it is a child then the boy is not as far from the girls giving it less depth, but depth is still very relevant.
The picture also has a very strong VISUAL MOVEMENT AND RHYTHM. From right to left the figures in the picture continue to get taller making the movement of the picture a diagonal line from the bottom right to the top left of the picture. However when one starts to look from the bottom right and move diagonally left toward the top right, he/she gets caught in the gaze of the girl in the middle. who on which the emphasis is.
I chose to crop the picture to just emphasize on the girl smoking because i think that she is the most interesting part of the picture. Like i said before the way she is standing says to me "ive done this before" or possibly, "ive been here before." I also chose to crop the picture this way because it makes it an entirely new picture. It crossed my mind that maybe Sally Mann wanted to show that the girl was bored and having her holding a cigarette and standing how she is standing is just an exaggeration of boredom. Becuase of this i want to argue the case for CONSCIOUS and SUBCONSCIOUS. Maybe consciously the girl is there with her friends and is enjoying her time outside by the trampoline, but subconsciously, and how she is portrayed in the picture, she is very bored and is looking for something new, maybe in life, maybe a new game. Or maybe she is the type of person who needs to be at the center of attention, and when she is not, like in the picture, whatever else is happening around her doesnt really matter.
Lastly this picture is a great example of CONTRAST AND AFFINITY. almost the entire picture is dark except for the girl holding the cigarette and the boy's shirt in the background. This poses two possibilities, that either Sally Mann just wanted to emphasize the girl in the middle by contrasting her with all of the dark colors in the picture, or that because the boy is also wearing white, the two have some sort of connection. Maybe the girl smoking has a crush, and she is annoyed by the fact that the other girl is there with her, when she could be spending time alone with her crush. But i think that Sally is just trying to emphasize the girl smoking.
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