Anyone for the Big I?

Quite sensitive topic for me, although not as much as the homeless man in the previous photo, this portrait showed a strong sense of place and also person within place, in a way that was consistent with the brief. I was pleased with his photograph technically and thought it was well-balanced. This was because there was symmetry with the trees leading up to the London Eye, the colours in my opinion worked well on a dull day and most importantly the portrait was impactful - mainly because of the model's expression.

4. Anyone for the Big I?

   I would say the composition was good in regard to including such a famous landmark as the London Eye, but at the same time the Big Issue seller was deliberately placed out of line so as to still draw a lot of attention in the frame. This was to the side of the symmetrical line of trees and the London eye. That being said, I wouldn't think it would have worked so well had the Big Issue seller not been wearing the bright red jacket or had his expression been less captivating.

   The fact the London Eye was so obvious in the frame gave the photo some context and I thought I got the distance between the model and the London Eye right. This was to distribute weight fairly equally between the two subjects and incidentally so the London Eye fitted into the frame.

   One photographer I had been looking at and in particular his 'Motherland' project was Simon Roberts. My photograph of the Big Issue seller was similar to some of his portraits in that project in regards to letting the viewer observe how positive the vibe of the photograph was for themselves, even though my subject and Roberts' subjects were trying to make the best out of adverse circumstances. In the words of Rosamund Bartlett on Simon Roberts' website: "Whilst acknowledging their country's deficiencies, Russians nevertheless believe their native land to be a remarkable and exceptional place." R. Bartlett in http://simoncroberts.com/work/motherland/#PHOTO_0 accessed on 13/11/2012. While this perspective on poverty was more patriotic than survivalist, they shared the same purpose in terms of showing a brighter side of a darker theme; the big issue seller wasn't sleeping rough like the homeless man in my previous image. The portrait photographs by Simon Roberts which stood out most as similar to my photograph of the Big Issue seller were 'Identical twins, Elena and Vera Karnova, Magadan, Far East Russia, August 2004' - found at: http://simoncroberts.com/work/motherland/#PHOTO_3 and 'Driller, Kupol gold mine, Chukatka, Far East, September 2004' - found at: http://simoncroberts.com/work/motherland/#PHOTO_7 both accessed 13/11/2012.