Chris, 28 Years Old, Los Angeles, $30
This photo of Chris in Los Angeles has great composition. Visually the photo is very interesting. Chris is sitting at what looks to be a balcony of a hotel or apartment complex which creates a very visually exciting portrait. This photo isn’t the typical straight on portrait shot that you would focus on the subject. The photographer, Phillip Lorca uses the environment as much as the subject to create a visually exciting composition.
The environment and position of the subject really sort of pushes a strong emotion. The feeling you get from this photograph is sort of dreamy but also sad and hopeless. Chris is sitting with his legs dangling off of the balcony and he is gazing at his feet in sort of a dreamy state. However, it isn’t just him and his body language that communicate the dreaminess of the photo but the soft lighting and shadows that are created within the environment. The leading lines from the balcony reading bring the viewers eye towards the green lighting that shines on the far building and past Chris.
It seems that Lorca took the photo from a similar position that Chris is sitting in, by hanging slightly on the outside of the balcony. That being said he was able to capture a side profile with light casting on Chris’ face as he looks down at the parking lot. The use of the leading lines is important since it leads you from subject through environment which creates a very dimensional and interesting photograph. Your eye is led around the image which gives it this open, airy and dreamy feel, really emphasizing this emotion of sort of a hopeless day dream that Chris seems to be in the midst of.
The anonymous steel gray doors make this look as much like a prison as an apartment complex or a motel. And Chris is literally behind bars. Dicorscia uses the location to create a portrait of someone trapped. Your description of the image as a hopeless daydream is a good one.
Be careful with the term leading lines. Leading lines lead to something. Chris is the main subject of the photo. The perspective lines do create a sense of space that then dead ends fitting the mood of the photo. They do not however lead to the main subject and so cannot really be called leading lines.