1: Photograph: The Lams of Ludlow Street, taken by Thomas Holton. This photograph was based on a close observation by living with a Chinese family “The Lams” who live in Chinatown, New York City. This project is based on what lays beyond the cheap eats and tourism. Holton’s intention for this photograph was that he wanted to document the daily life of a family in Chinatown. In this photograph the feeling that it emulates is a emotion of calmness from the side of the children and the mother as she stares at her children having a relaxing and playful time. This also emulated through the colors of the environment with the cool colors.
2: The three important formal elements by Steve McCurry that are seen in this photograph is diagonals, rule of thirds, Figure to Ground. The way how Holton uses these compositional principles is with diagonals he captures Shirley (mother on the right) looks diagonally downward toward her children creating movement for the viewer to see her then he children. For the other principle the rule of thirds we can see the a the focus is on the points of the children and the mother’s face instead the center where it can’t be focused on. Finally for the last principle the figure to ground, we can see the environment play a roll with focus with the family which is the figure.
Certainly the most important line in the photo is the implied diagonal line that follows the mothers gaze towards her children as she washes the dishes. And as you say, the apartment and its crowdedness tells us a lot about the family so the relationship of figure to ground is very important.
The photo can’t really be said to use the rule of thirds. It is asymmetrical but the rule of thirds suggests there is one subject and that subject is placed off-center. Here we have two subjects-the kids and the mother-in juxtaposition.