Critique / Discussions

I like this later I tell you why :)

Oki. Initially, because I'm a blonde, I would dismiss this picture because of the blown out high lights, a rather "noisy" background and I would prefer the main subjects being a bit closer.

Now, because I do not trust myself well enough, I used a little more time. The noisy background might actually make perfect sense because they are walking away from it. And the high lights .. symbolic speaking it could mean they are walking away from the "noise" and towards brightness. And its a windy road :D

(I'll put four cents its you and your mother:))

Well, thats my try, next please!!!

I like the way our eyes are led into the photo thanks to those walls on the foreground. A + for composition! Following my eyes, i notice the two people there, a little off-center = good. Thanx to the strong sun, the people are surrounded by a kind of halo, making come loose from the setting and making us notice them.
The walls continue to turn left/right to dissapear on 1/3rd of the bottom. Again good for the compo.
At that point, the eyes look up into the messy - "noisy" to quote yourself - background and become puzzled. Not able to penetrate thi spart of the photo, my eyes look down again to the lower part, to the figures. Now, after seeing the top part of the photo - the situation seems more serious to me; but not (necessarily) dramatic. Probably, as you say, them walking towards a more quiet foreground helps here.
It's good you kept the "noisy" background, otherwise you'd just have a photo of a mother&child making a nice walk. Now, the scene looks more intriguing to me. The fact the ackground is so long - almost 2/3rd - is a good sign to make us look further and wonder why it's so long, suggesting there is more. The background might have been a little bit darker here, to make this feeling a bit stronger, but not too dark if you want to avoid it being too heavy or dramatic.

I'll have to come back to this one.

The first thing I notice looking at this picture is how little the two humans are compared to the surroundings. The buildings, the trees and even the walk-way wall seem to dominate and suffocate. The gray tones add to this feeling of oppressive dominance of the man-made unassuming and nondescript buildings. The bare tree branches extending over the two people also emphasize this feeling of oppressive dominance.
The background with lines going in all directions: vertical, horizontal and diagonal without any particular discernible order is what Ann has termed as "noise" which could also be an allusion or a metaphor of the hectic pace of modern life.
But aside from a description of or a statement about the gloom of modern life, overcrowding of working class neighborhoods the picture also offers some hope of an escape at two levels that I can see. As Ann mentioned, the bright light especially ahead at the forefront of the picture where the two persons are heading can be interpreted as a symbol of hope or an escape from the oppressive, "noisy" background to a more welcoming and cheerful place. The other symbol of hope is the fact that the little baby is leading the way.
Young children are symbols of the future. In many cultures they are looked upon to provide care and comfort to their parents as they grow old. Here this symbolism is very strong as the toddler is leading what I presume is his mother to a better sunny place away from the oppressiveness and gloom of the present and the past.
I very much like this message of hope and the judicious use of symbolism in this picture. There are of course some technical issues: some blown-out areas and a little softness of focus. However, I do not necessarily consider those as shortcomings nor as distractions because they work well with the overall tone and statement of the image. I think that you are right in considering this as a very good picture--I can't pronounce it as being the best you ever made though because I don't know all that you have done. Congratulations.

erhh... wow! I'm absolutely stunned at your profound answers.

and I'm even more stunned that they - indeed - explain why I like this pic so much.
what I thought about it is this:
you have this noisy background with these huge buildings, almost covering all of
the sky.. which makes the buildings function as some kind of cage, trapping us inside.
but inside this - selfbuilt - cage we have this "natural" shelter of this trees and bushes,
giving shelter to a mother and her child. furthermore, the mother's silhuette is brought
up by the light, which not only makes her more noticable but also giving her some kind
of a halo. which makes sense, because she is the "shelter" for her child. this child has
some clothes of lighter kind, which brings it more to the front.
these to are somehow coming "out" of they're environment, leaving a path behind that
very much reminded me of some kind of a maze. which also makes sense, I think.

but ok.. I've said nothing new here :)

thank you all very much for the time you took to "investigate" this picture and giving
me your honest oppinions.

see ya next time!