Antonin Kratochvil photo analysis



Known for his photos of disasters, this photo by Antonin Kratochvil still stuns, although he breaks that mold in this photo. This one rare piece of his photography that does not depict destruction, however he still manages to give the viewer an unsettled, uncertain feeling when looking at it. With this photo we somehow manage to get the same effect as if we were looking at a photo of carnage or watching a horror film. In fact, this photo wouldn’t look very out of place in a thriller.


The combination of the blur around them and the fact that the group of girls are the only things even slightly in focus brings the viewer’s eye right to them.  The simple white dresses they all wear, along with the palm leaf they’re each carrying probably aids this by making them stand out against the dark background. The fact that they are in the center and right at eye level helps as well. What really makes the photo however is the blurr, not the girls.


 Although the blurr looks accidental it was clearly not.  The blurr gives the picture an entirely different feel and brings it to a different dimension.  It transforms the photo from a normal, ordinary and boring picture of some girls walking on palm Sunday into something slightly cool and spooky. It gives the sense of a horror film and creates an edge of apprehension to the composition. As I said before it was also an effective tool to make the girls the center of attention, drawing our eyes away from the people on the sidelines and establishing the mood.   It was obviously exactly what Kratochvil wanted to do and it worked extremely well.

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