Thanks for the reponses. I think my dissatisfaction with the picture stems from the fact that it has a more casual feel than the image I thought I was taking when I pushed the shutter. I was aiming for something more impersonal, geometric and formal.(posted 8798 days ago)I wanted the feel of someone pootling through their daily round, oblivious to the larger picture, and it's clear from your comments that that has come across. I also wanted a figure squeezed from the sides and towered over simultaneously, and I liked the frame-within-a-frame formed by the iron grill. The shadow detail is deliberate, and there's a lot more where that came from: the image is actually a testament to TMY's ability to soak up over-exposure.
I'm neither bald nor anti-bald, just looking for reasons why the image is not as stark as my original intent. The man is a person and not a symbol, which in the end is probably no bad thing.
I liked The Matrix on all sorts of levels. The heavy borrowings from the Gospel struck me as lazy and unimaginative, and it relied on the uncontentious cliche of opression by outsiders, but it was a visual treat, and the storyline and concept were much more thought provoking than the usual Hollywood tat.