This photograph taken by Igor Cavalli is stunning and unique. It at once celebrates a natural landscape and explores the humanity of its subjects, a feat accomplished by the use of three photographic principles: color, human kinetics, and point of view.
Color
The photo’s use of color creates the mindset from which the rest of the scene is viewed. More than three-fourths of the frame is filled with dynamic colors and the eye gravitates to these portions before settling on the people or realizing that it is their washday. Thus, the color plays a far more active role than the subject in setting mood, suggesting happiness, excitement and creativity. The brilliant green water and jewel-toned clothing do not enforce the thematic energy one might expect to find associated with laundry. Instead, they make for a surprising photo because they overpower common assumptions about the task at hand, rendering the mundane at once rich, vibrant and even joyful. The use of color alone allows the photographer to marry tedium and passion in a single shot.
Human Kinetics
The photographer’s use of human kinetics is subtle, but certainly worth mention. As the eye travels to the girl seated at water’s edge while her older female companion works, the unpronounced extension of her arm evokes feelings of whimsy. She reaches out to stroke the lake without great determination, a reach that speaks of childlike daydreams. The water has become a diversion. In fact, in this case, it even becomes an extension of the body; delicate green swirls suggest a gentle touch skimming the surface and reveal the motion of the arm.
Point of View
Finally, the photograph’s point of view, while certainly esthetically pleasing, also dictates the viewer’s relationship to its human subjects. The scene is shot from above, slightly far away and to the right. While many angles might position the photographer, and by extension the viewer, as an active participant in the piece, this photographer chose to position himself as an observer, carefully removed from the moment he captured. As a result, the photograph appears utterly uncontrived. It presents itself as an intimate portrait of daily life that the viewer is called not to engage directly but to savor and leave undisturbed.
Photograph source: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/green-lake-mount-abu/
