Week Eight EOC : What Makes a Photograph Great?

           The age-old question for any photographer is, "What makes a photograph great?" I believe Kevin Carter, in the movie The Bang Bang Club was on the right track saying that a great photograph invokes a question or feeling concerning the photograph. I also believe that the idea of what makes a photograph great can be related to the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Greatness can be replaced with beauty in that saying because people’s descriptions of what is great and what is not are different. However, when one photograph comes along and everyone lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the image and are hypnotized by it, that is when you know you are in the presence of a great photograph.
            To the right there is a photograph by Kevin Carter of a young girl who collapsed on her way to feeding house and was being stalked by a vulture. This photograph invokes a depressed feeling because this poor young girl, about the size of the vulture, was in such bad condition that she could not make it to the feeding house close by. Things like this happen everyday in third world countries, but here in America it is heart wrenching to see because we American’s do not see these things unless in photographs.



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