Visual Analysis of a Photo

For this assignment, we were tasked with analyzing one of Lauren Greenfield's photos in her work, Girl Culture. I have decided to analyze the 11th picture, which features Lana examining her body post surgery. After viewing the photo, I found it interesting that Greenfield chose to use Lana's reflection in the mirror to portray her, instead of a shot focused on Lana herself. I believe that Greenfield wanted people to think about why Lana would want to have her body go through the operation (it was breast implants,) since one of the most prominent things that can be seen is the bandages covering her chest and the small vivid scar on her body. When considering the purpose of the photo essay, I believe that Greenfield is drawing attention the importance many girls place on having the "ideal" body, and the lengths girls are going to to obtain it.

source: https://pixabay.com/en/photo-picture-image-photography-99135/

As far as visual strategies go, I have noticed several things. The angle of the photo shows the camera being tilted and off to the side, since it does not appear in the reflection. The advantage of this is that it really empathizes Lana examining herself in the mirror, which is further empathized by Lana's reflection being the most in-focused part of the photo, especially since everything outside the mirror's reflection has a blurry look to it. Speaking of things outside the mirror the edge of the photo is clearly not a reflection, since you can see the edge of the mirror. The effect that this has is that it doesn't look like Lana is posing for a photograph. In regard to dominance, the first things I see when looking at the picture are the bandages on her body. The reason I look there is for these reasons: it is clearly in focus, only person in the shot, and the photo gives the impression that she is looking there as well. It was mention earlier that on the edge of the photo you can see where the mirror ends and the rest bathroom begins that is slightly misleading. It only shows the mirror's edge near the right side of the photo.  The only contrast I can see is between the reflection (in focus) and the non-reflection parts (slightly blurred in most cases, an item hangs over the reflection, and is extremely blurry.) The purpose of this contrast is to draw the eye to the reflection. As for scale, nothing looks too odd or stands out when thinking about scale.