Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park

A compositional breakdown

By Charles G. D. Harding

Dec.5^th, 2011

“Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park” is a photograph taken by Diane Arbus that captures a brilliant array of tones and shapes and organizes them into a composition that is extremely pleasing to the eye.  The way that this photograph is composed creates movement and seems to take your eye on a journey through the plain of various contrasting tones.

The journey begins on what seems to be the focal point of the image, the boy. The boy is wearing a pair of dark colored overalls that provide a heavy contrast to the brighter grey-tones in the background. So it serves as a very good place for the eye to begin looking at the picture. You can almost follow the dark tones up from the boy’s shoe, to the strap of his overalls, and all the way up the trees behind him. These objects almost serve as a line that divides the image horizontally into thirds, giving it that classic compositional division. As well, when you look at the head of the boy and you let your eye travel to the far right you can see a family making their way down the trail. But, the family seems to be the same size and exactly level with the boy’s head on the image. Those two objects also seem to create another imaginary line and divides the photograph into vertical fourths.

Another line that provides a great deal of compositional interest is the edge of the cement path that seems to swoop down from right side of the upper fourth of the image and exits at the center-left. This line provides more emphasis to the boy, as it seems to almost resemble a “river of information” that is pushing the boy towards us. Another thing that emphasizes this “river of information” is that the family is walking down the path and towards the boy, providing even more of a push.

What makes this photograph very successful is that all of the elements in the image seem to accentuate the boy. The lines, shapes and tonal contrasts all work together to not only define the focal point of the image but to also push a message through that focal point. As well, it does it in a way that helps us to not get distracted by the other elements of the photograph. It enables us to keep focus on the subject so that the meaning of the photograph can be much more easily transferred to us.

Through analysis of this photograph it is very easy to tell that this image was brilliantly and intentionally composed in a way to keep our attention on the subject. This is what makes “Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park” by Diane Arbus such a powerful image that deserves to be seen by many.