• I chose the piece Ophelia by Gregory Crewdson to write about. This piece is reminiscent of the surrealist movement in art history- things look normal but there's one big abnormality of the piece. The girl laying in the center and supposedly floating in water. The name of the piece refers back to a Shakespearean character in Hamlet who goes mad and kills herself. This photo looks like a more modern version of this cycle- going 'mad' and that leading to suicide. I really enjoy this photo for many reasons. The first is the lighting. I like how you don't have much light (seems to be night outside the windows) but there's a sense of something behind and to the right of the photographer being on by the shadowing and how Ophelia is lit. I also like how the photo is set up so that the staircase leads directly down to Ophelia; that along with the bluish glow she gives off (unlike all other lit things that look yellow) depict her as the subject of the piece. She is the abnormality and therefor the focus of the piece. This picture also has great depth of field, with everything in the foreground and background in focus. I like that the picture also had good exposure- nothing looks overexposed or anything. The picture also has great color- most of its dark and kinda grungy but the subject is in all white agains an almost black water, and has very pale skin with very red lips. There are also great splashes of color spaced across the photograph like the orange door (or something) on the staircase wall, the pink cloth hanging on the staircase rail, the pink pillow, the multicolored books on the shelves, the green blanket on the couch and the orange lamps. These add to the picture by giving it points of interest that you can look around at instead of having a monotonous piece. I feel like the composition is very balanced because of this and the way the furniture is set up on either side of her. Nothing is too cluttered and there isn't a huge imbalance between the left and right side of the piece,. Overall I think this is a wonderful picture and really draws the person into the moment.