Photographer – Thomas Holton
Photograph – The Lams of Ludlow Street IV, Remarried in China
Thomas Holton is a photographer who followed the Lam’s family that lives in Chinatown, New York City for over 10 years. Even though it is a story of growth and complexity of a family dynamic, and his attempt of understanding his own Chinese background, what stood out to me the most were the kids. In particular, the daughter Cindy. In this photograph I believe Thomas was trying to capture both emotions of happiness and sadness. The mother is in the back holding a poster of herself and her new husband smiling, while Cindy is in the foreground of the photograph and she seems unimpressed, bothersome, annoyed and uninterested to see what her mother is showcasing. The opposite emotions in a singular photo intrigued me as I believe he was trying to convey a message of discomfort, and separation between the relationship of the mother and daughter. No little girl ever wishes to see her mother with any other man, other than her father.
In this composition I believe the following principles are applied, rule of thirds, figure to ground and dominant eye. Cindy is placed in the lower right corner while her mother stands in the left top corner of the rule of thirds grid. I believe this principle supports both separate emotions at different parts of the photograph even though they share the same frame. The space between them allows the viewer to travel from the right bottom to the upper left. Figure and ground here are expressed as Cindy is the figure and the rest comes as secondary. The figure and ground here help support the audience to focus on Cindy’s facial expression. Even though the dominant eye is usually placed in the middle of the photo, here it is on the right. I believe Thomas’ intention here was to capture a heavy disturbance between the relationship of mother and daughter.
You state the photographer’s intention beautifully. The daughter is not happy to see her mother remarry.
You can say the photo uses the rule of thirds in that the mother and the daughter are placed in opposite corners. Fgure to ground is really just means that the background is active and here is not really relevant. I think the implied diagonal between the mother and daughter is a strong formal element or even how the frame is divided into left and right.