5A: Reframed Image

I choose to reframe the image of the little girl smoking the cigarette, created by Sally Mann.  I chose this image because I found it to be really bizarre.  I don’t understand why a girl who looks about 10 years old is smoking.   I think the artist framed the picture the way she did, rather than zooming in because it added depth to the picture.  Also, the picture is sort of a mystery in that you aren’t exactly sure what is going on. I chose to reframe the image the way I did, because it gave the picture a little bit more VISUAL INTENSITY, in my opinion.  Instead of the girl having that vast black background and people behind her, all you see it the girl and her cigarette and a little bit of black behind her.  Also, it focuses on the part of the image that my eye was drawn to first, so I feel that she is this focus of the original object.  The SPACE is much more limited in the reframing due to the fact that the frame is so tight around the girl versus the ambiguous and black space that surrounded the girl in the original image.  The SHOT TYPE in the original was a wide shot, with the girl in the middle, another little girl to her right and a very vague background.  There is something hanging in the background as well, but it is unclear what exactly it is.  With my reframing of the image, it is more of a mid shot of the girl.  With the majority of the background gone it is more of a self-portrait of the girl rather than an indefinite shot of two random young girls and a confusing figure in the background.  CONTRAST AND AFFINITY is included in both the original image and the reframing.  The background is dark and black and the people in the image are bright and white.  The dark background causes the light images to pop out of the picture, especially with the girl’s white dress.  Also there are CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSIOUS elements to this image.  The conscious part is that there is girl smoking and a younger girl standing next to her, with another object hanging in the background.  The unconscious part is the true happenings of the image. We are not quite sure what exactly is going on with the smoking girl, the younger girl next to her or the figure in the background.