Pete

This is Pete. We don't know anything about Pete other than what can be seen in this photo. His life, his deeds, his accomplishments, his failings outside what can be seen in this instant of time are all gone. We are left only with what this anonymous photographer chose to capture of Pete in this single instant of time. So, what did the artist choose to show us?

With the sun to his back, Pete is dramatically backlit, yet the sun is placed just out of the frame to avoid completely silhouetting the subject. Composing the scene with the sun in the background, but not directly in view of the camera, gives Pete a sense of three dimensionality. Here it has also created a dramatic corona of light around the subject, provided solely by the sun and the angle of the shot, not Adobe Photoshop. This specular effect is what originally drew my eye to the photograph and reminds me of the way sunlight plays off our eyes as it begins to set each evening. To me, this effect gives me the sense that I am right there with Pete as my eyes are adjusting to the changing light of the day.

Pete is a smoker. The photographer could have zoomed in closer to catch the packaging on Pete's cigarettes to show us this, or simply shown him with a cigarette in his mouth. What makes this image more eye-catching is the smoke wafting from Pete's mouth slowly drifting into the sunlight. A painted portrait of Pete, even if it included him smoking, would never be able to depict the ethereal, transient nature this photograph shows. Nor would it have the "live-action" feel this photograph does. Looking at this photo one feels right there in the scene with Pete. The overturned bike, only half shown as it falls off the edge of the frame, also helps keep the photo from looking staged, like a portrait, and further contributes to the sense of the moment created in this shot.

While Pete is certainly no longer roaming this world with each glimpse at this photo, with its inherent sense of the moment and dramatic lighting, Pete feels like he is still with us here today. If only one photo survives of myself in the future I sure hope I look and feel just as alive as Pete does here.