Light

Obama - Nadav Kander

Mad Men

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Andrezj Dragan

Where the Wild Things Are

I like to look at catch lights in eyes for what they add to images of people. They instantly create a depth and connection to the subject that wouldn't be the same if they were missing. The portrait of Obama is powerful because in adition to catching him in an angle we're not used to seeing, there is so much light in his eyes. The absence of light in a photo like this might subconsciously associate a person with a darker personality type, but of course with the light there we're reminded of innocence and purity. The same goes for the portrait of the old man by Andrezj Dragan. He uses a similar technique in much of his work that highlights the eyes in this way. This idea is also at play in the promo still from The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. As we can see more light in Rooney Mara's eyes and less in Daniel Craig's it creates potential to interpret him as more evil, especially including the way they are positioned. I like the photo from Mad Men as a cool use of chiaroscuro technique, and the Where the Wild Things are landscape as an opposing saturation of light with more bright than dark.