Central Park Bench, New York City, USA, 2000 http://www.michaelkenna.net/gallery_images/1e94d54.jpg
The photo brings a sense of solitude, and the heavy contrast makes the image pop.
The photographer here, Michael Kenna, used angles in his photo. The way he set his camera up was by the park bench at an angle to get a longer diagonal shot. You can see how the bench makes a diagonal line through the photo and gradually becomes less focused and blends in with the background. This adds to that whole “solitude” aspect, normally benches would be filled but here, they’re entirely empty and the heavy contrast brings out that lonesome feeling, added with the depth of field which basically says “there’s nothing more here”.
Exactly. Kenna isn’t standing at normal height but has the camera lower and this makes the shot. This increases the perspective created by the converging lines of the bech. This is such a great shot because it is of something so ordinary that looks so interesting because of the compositional choices made by the photographer.