Exercise: Paul Close.

Exercise: Paul Close.

Take away the photograph’s titles and the images have little meaning.  They are reduced to a series of pictures in which the main subjects have been isolated by the employment of a white cloth, but the reason for that isolation is not clear.   

Put back the words and clarity returns.  The subject, although still isolated from the background, is no longer separate from the context.  One can consider the context and at the same time study the subject.  

These subjects are not as isolated and controlled as Diane Arbus or Richard Alvedon would have them, nor as uncontrolled as W Eugene Smith’s.  

These images work well but only with the addition of the titles.  How would one know the small boy wishes for a large car or that the man in front of the shop is not only the shop keeper but wants a larger shop?  Remove the words and all meaning is lost.