Saturday, December 24, 2011

Photo of the year 2011



This photo gets my vote for photo of the year 2011.

An interesting aspect of this photo is that Obama is the shortest figure in the image. If you didn't know who the people in the room were, you might expect the bald blueshirt in the center with the folded arms was in charge, or the guy in the military uniform.

But the reason it really works is because Obama is isolated - his head has the most negative space around it of anybody in the room; and his head is in line with the corner of the room, which is lighter than the rest of the two joining walls.

But if you do know who these people are, it also doesn't hurt the structure of the image that Obama is at the apex of a triangle formed with the two other most famous people in the room, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

And finally, even if she was only stifling a cough, as she said she was, Clinton's covering her mouth adds alot of drama to the image especially if you know that what they are watching is the assassination of Osama bin Laden.