Response to My Father

The photograph communicates to me a warm, fatherly figure. The shirt, being checkered, the sleeves being rolled up, the comfortable position of the subject, his facial expression and hand positioning, all convey a nice sense of warmth, wisdom, trustworthiness to me. I might even be able to sense a smell of aromatic pipe tobacco if I stare long enough. The overly dark eyes, however, are hiding a potential gold mine of emotional information. The background is dull enough to deflect attention more to the subject, but I don't really like the downward converging virtical wood slats of the wall/fence. I think a portrait of this nature in this setting may work better from a lower angle of view, more direct. I think the image, as seen on my monitor and maybe as printed, is slightly "muddy" which is a term I haven't used or seen for awhile. The contrast is probably OK but maybe printing a bit lighter would make this technically a better print. Let's see more of that porfolio.

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