In Teju Cole’s essay “Perfect and Unrehearsed,my favorite photo is “Three Boys in Liberia” by Martin Munkacsi. This is a documentary photo. The reason why I say this is because they are three boys running to the water, racing each other to enter the water. This documentary photo also has a view of the ocean, with waves rising seemingly to welcome the 3 children into the water. This image gives a sense of joy. The figures of the three children in this image, despite the lack of color, indicate the feelings they feel by their postures as they enter the water. A different story would have been told in this image if the children had a different type of posture. The dominant impression of this photo has to be the three boys, as they are the main focal point, as they are enjoying themselves at their young age, possibly having the best day ever. The photographer was able to capture all of those happy feelings in one singular photo. For the photographer, this was a decisive photo to put up. “Three Boys in Liberia” by Martin Munkacsi gives a good story through this photo without putting a caption or explaining it because a person can just feel when they see this photo.
Great post! Keep it up.
-Prof. Scanlan