The size of this image is 44,8 by 29,8 cm, it is in black and white and to me the subject of the photo is the man, but others say it is the wasteland that’s in the back of the photo. I seem to focus myself straight on the man that’s leaping, and the image gives me quite an eerie feeling. 

The lighting in this photo is natural, most of the light seems to be coming from the front of the photo and its darker in the back. There is a range of light and dark tones throughout the image the darkest tone is the man at the front of the image and the lightest tone is the water in which the sky is reflecting off. 

As I mentioned before I am drawn straight to the man at the front of the image this is because he is the darkest tone in the photo and is the decisive moment. The use of the ladder he seems to be jumping from helps draw us to the man as it is used as a leading line to focus our attention to this part of the image. It has captured the man before he hits the water and we begin to anticipate this because we know he is about to hit the water, but we don’t see that, as the photo is frozen in time.  The things furthest in focus are the building in the back of the photo that seem to be surrounded by wasteland.  

The use of different objects and shapes make the space seem a little messy or uncared for, it seems as though there’s a lot going on. It may be a very busy place, area. 

The circles at the front of the image surrounded by dirt and lay in huge puddles of water lead me to think of a cycle that someone may be in you keep going round and round learning and growing and that you don’t give up. I think this had a deeper meaning within this photo.  

The ladder the man is coming from has thick dark lines, so it also focuses your attention on not just the man himself but the ladder he is leaping from. This could symbolise a great change for him, he has gone up the ladder of struggles and now is leaping to better things even though that may be scary, and he doesn’t know what could be on the other side.  

There are ripples on the surface of the water at the beginning of the ladder so there is texture within the image.  

In this photo things are shapelessly arranged, they aren’t organized. To me it seems there is a lot going on from what we can see, and we begin to imagine the bigger picture of what it may look like outside this image we have. It’s as though the things that are put at the front and shown to be the ‘subject’ of the image are there for you to start creating your own story as to what’s happening and the arrangements of everything else also influence this.  

This image has a front angle vantage point, the angle affects the photo as it can make us think of the subject in a different way because of the surroundings we can see. In this image we could question if he’s running away from something/someone? Is he to tell running to tell someone some news? Or could we look at the bigger picture and start to come up with our own story as to why he is running using the area around, the weather, buildings etc. 

In the frame there is a main subject we are focused on but when our attention is drawn to that we start to imagine beyond the edges of the picture. Everyone’s ‘story’ behind the picture may be different, in this case I get ideas of something during war times and begin to build my own idea beyond what I can see. 

In this photo there are other things within the image that we could begin to look at, but it doesn’t seem to distract us as a viewer because we focus on the subject which seems to be a decisive moment. 

 In this image there seems to be a repeated shape of circles even if it is ever so little it is shown in many ways this could have an influence on how you look at this image or the story you start to build, 

‘Behind the Gaze Saint- Lazare’ is said to be the best photo Henri Cartier-Bresson ever took. This picture of a ‘decisive moment’ was possible because he had access to a candid camera.  

To me this photo makes me think of something to do with the war. When I sit and imagine an area during war times this photo isn’t far off what I picture. The fact the focus is a man making a so called ‘decision’ pushes me to think of the next series of events which could be him going to protect his family or prepare them for what is to come. His ‘decision’ in the photo is jumping off a ladder so I put that with him thinking step by step about a huge decision he must make even if it may be something new or cause fear. The background of the image is very dull. There’s not a lot of people, it looks like ruins and the shapes of circles makes me think of the circle of life and that if something dies it gives it new life which links to my thoughts of the war.