HW 1 – Composition

Suzanne Stein’s “Little Dog on San Julian St” is just one photograph from a series on Skid Row, Los Angeles. In the photograph, we can see a dog sitting on a computer chair while another person in the background is seen in distress. Around these two is a dirty street littered with articles of clothing and plastic bags/wrappers. In addition, we can see tents where the people of Skid Row would sleep and baby strollers which appear to be used as storage. Stein, being a social documentary/ street photographer, aims to take photographs of the everyday life of the people of Skid Row. As such with this photograph she was able to capture this real moment of the environment that the people and pets of Skid Row reside in. The image invokes this feeling of despair that the people are facing; it acts as a sort of call to arms for changes to be brought to help these people get out of this terrible situation.

Through the use of diagonals, figure to ground, and the rule of thirds, Stein can capture the vulnerable state of many people who live in Skid Row. The use of diagonals can be seen through the positioning of the shopping cart and the black metal fence in the background that helps guide us to certain different points of interest in the photo such as the dog on the chair and the person in the background through the disarray of the environment. Figure to-ground composition with this white dog sitting on the blue computer chair and the person further to the right is mostly separated from the cluttered background to the left of the photograph. As the viewer, we can more clearly distinguish between the clutter and figures. Lastly, the rule of thirds is established through the positions of the dog who is exactly centered but falls along the lines of the rule of thirds.