I have different responses to each:
#1 - the darkness makes me uneasy and so I feel the "safe place" more strongly than with the other two.
#2 - I feel the pride and love of the parent, but no concern.
#3 - I'm ambivalent. It's not obvious that the child is "better off" in the adult's arms. It could be the child is being taken from someone more caring and his/her distress relates to that. I'm a little distracted by the details of the background also.
Graham Smith wrote:
In your father's arms.
These are all different yet all alike. The economics, the location, all different. But what is oddly unsettling about them is that the children look uncomfortable. Maybe they are uncomfortable because of health issues, or things they've experienced, or the camera, or other factors. Maybe the dads know about the discomfort and how to make it better. But the thing that makes these well taken photos so interesting, is the unsettling component.
I wasn't trying to portray any element of danger, more I was attempting to show the security that a child feels when in a parents arms.
In the first picture the light was very low, the child was curious and unsure about the big white guy with a camera, the likes of which he had never seen before. They were waiting to see the Doctor, who was in the village as part of a visiting health clinic that I was accompanying.
The second was taken after a church service in Sarenga, India. The parents always offered their children for photographs, they are so proud of them. Again this child was unsure of me not least because I tower above the average Indian male... I was something of a giant to the children.
The third was taken on Southbank, London, close by St Thomas' Hospital where the child had received treatment. I think any hospital visit can be quite traumatic for a child but treatment to an eye, particularly so... she wasn't a happy bunny, poor mite.
The children all look curious Graham - of you, as you say, but they're not worried by you because they're in Dads arms. They know they're safe.
The London landscape does rather get in the way but they're all lovely shots.
Studying them-----always come back to no. 1 as the most provocative, powerful of the three.
Graham Smith wrote:
In your father's arms.
Nice series that tells a wonderful story.
Erich
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