Re-Framing A Photo

I have cropped the following photo by Ben Goossens:

Before

After

The main reason I cropped the image the way I did was because I wanted to focus on the picture that was originally in the center of the frame. I felt that this picture was the most interesting part of the image and that this is the portion that contained the artist's message. As you can see from the top image, the original picture had the person with the painting for a head centered and taking up little space. The person also fit perfectly into the gap in the wall and their verticality and height mimicked the columns to the right and left of them. Therefore, the person and painting blended into the picture rather easily. I was drawn to this original image mainly because of the visual intensity of the colors and lines. The warm colors that fill the frame give the viewer a welcomed feeling and attracts your eye. The lines of the floor, columns, seats and even the shadow on the ground lead the viewer's eye to the painting (of an eye).

I decided to improve upon this image, however, and create a greater focus on the painting. To do so, I changed the shot from a Medium Shot, in which much of the room including the ceiling to the person's waist is visible, to a Medium Close Up that focuses on the painting and only displays the top of the painting to the bottom of the person's shoulders, and much less of the room. I ensured that the viewer's eye is attracted to the painting by giving the painting the most visual weight, since it takes up most of the frame. The painting is also much darker and cooler than the rest of the image, which offers a contrast of colors within the image. To further emphasize the painting, cropped the photo according to the rule of thirds, so that the eye and person's body lay on the left intersections, and the edge of the columns lie on the right.

I think that the artist wanted to provide more of a contrast with the rest of the image by leaving it as the dark spot in the center of the frame. I also think that, consistent with the rest of his images, this artist creates landscape images with a twist, in which something out-of-place is put into an ordinary setting. Therefore, he left more of the room visible to remain consistent with his other images.