Critical Review of Photography of Shelby Lee Adams - Essay Example

Adam Lee is well known photographer whose pictures are viewed over the internet. His pictures cover large scenes and convey lots of information. This paper analyzes two photographs taken by Lee and makes claim of his skills in taking pictures of various scenes. Though a well-recognized photographer, Adam Lee’s photos fall short of characteristics of good photographs due to their appearance and manner in which they were captured (Shelby and Smith, 68). The first photograph above conveys an old man carrying a naked child.

In the picture, it appears the man does not care about the bad scene created by the photograph especially when the child is wholly naked. From the features of a good photograph, the picture fails since it is not subjective and does not make the viewer react. This photo does not convey several information about the scene as it confuses the viewer (Shelby and Smith, 69). For instance, one wonders whether the child’s leg is swollen, thus suffering or it is just the wish of the man to leave the kid naked.

Therefore, Adam failed in telling the audience the story through the picture thus not capturing the audience’ emotion even though the picture indicates a harsh reality. Secondly, the photograph fails to narrate the event covered. For instance, the photo fails to make the viewer understand the picture appropriately making failing to draw his emotions as per the scene of a man carrying the naked child with a swollen leg (Shelby and Smith, 70). The viewer fails to sympathize with the kid or condemn the man for carrying the naked child aimlessly.

Third, Adam’s photo is not composed since it lacks some techniques in mind. For instance, the classic rule suppose the photo to be broken into three distinct equal parts. The picture contrasts this rule since the sky does not take even two thirds of its frame while the land takes less than a third. The photo lacks linear or cyclical effect thus cannot make the viewer move his eyes through the picture. Therefore, this denies the photographer some extra appreciation from the viewer. Fourth, the photo is not emotional as required by the features of a good picture.

For example, the picture of the man carrying the kid does not draw attention of a people suffering or just relaxing as per their wish. Consequently, it does not reveal to the viewer whether the man in the picture is widowed thus cares for the child on his own thus carelessness (Shelby and Smith, 71). Lastly, the photo is visionless as it fails to make the viewer feel its beauty. The picture of the man reveals to some extent that the child carried is crying thus causing a bad scene, which irritates most viewers.

Most people feel sad on seeing naked children crying as they associate the scene with suffering. Photos of crying kids are often irritating more so to women who feel the child has been neglected thus making them not concentrate on the picture. Most of the photographs of Lee Adams lack a proper background. This clearly denotes that Adams is not a good photographer. A good photographer should be someone who understands several, if not all, the basics of taking photographs. Picture background should be one of the basic things that a good photographer must consider when taking photographs.

Before taking a photograph, it is of crucial importance that the photographer identifies a good site that can best suit the type