We think some of these images are very good and some are not so good; none are really terrible or we wouldn't display them at all. You may not like airplanes, or factories, or birds, or sunsets—but we suggest you evaluate the image for how well it works, regardless of its subject matter.

You can click on an image to take you to a question we hope will help you to see significant aspects to be considered. Sometimes there's a clear right and wrong answer, but most often it will come down to a matter of artistic preference. So what we're trying to do is not shape your preferences, but to show you choices and ask you to think about why you prefer one or another.

The top image is of a game called boules, I believe. This was taken in France, in the small town of Malaucene, It is played in a public square, very near the open market, and draws a crowd to watch and joke around. The key for the photographer is to isolate an individual or a few people—otherwise you have just a snapshot of people standing around.

The subject of the middle image is the now-closed blast furnace at the Bethlehem Steel works In Pennsylvania. It was taken with a 4x5 camera and the negative then scanned.

At the bottom is a photograph of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, although the mountains occupy only a small slice of the frame. The image is dominated by the shadow of the fence rather than by the mountains.

Here are a few basics to think about.

A first question that might be addressed is what is the photograph about? One might say Frederick's Evans' image, In Sure and Certain Hope, is about a specific corner of a specific English cathedral. And that would be correct. But Evans' was not there to record English architecture, as, say, Bisson, Baldus and Charles Marville were commissioned to do in France. Evans treats the beeches and pines of Redding Woods as though they, too, were slender Gothic columns, and so we ought to suspect that he is up to something more. Above all else his photographs, to us, are about light and shadow. So to ask the question, what is it about, is just the beginning of an examination for which there are no right answers but only personal ones.

What is there about the image that merits a closer examination:
  -- shapes, textures or things that grab your eye
  -- a dominant figure or object that demands a closer look
  -- a mood is created, rather than a shot of a specific object
  -- the suggestion of a story, event or personality that might
     be interesting
  -- is there anything about that moment that would be different
     if the photograph were taken a few minutes later

Are there elements that distract or detract from the image
  -- lack of sharp focus
  -- important elements lopped off
  -- lack of a central idea or point-of-interest
  -- poor exposure (too dark or too light)
  -- a horizon that just isn't right

There is a one-page guide to thinking about an image

If you would like to submit any of your images to the editors of this website, we'll select a few that illustrate a concept we're exploring, and pose a question or two we think may be suggestive. Ours will not be an in-depth critique—we expect our readers to do that—but a single matter we believe merits serious consideration.

No. 0 January 2006