communication

||- In a few hours, I'll be leaving the Bronx and heading back to school. Thankfully, I finally feel like I can move without my head threatening to explode & can actually keep food down. It's terrible that I've been sick all week and this weekend - I could do nothing, see no one, really, and everything hurt. Damned migraines will be the end of me.
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||- Communication has a few definitions, some being:
"1. the act or process of communicating; fact of being communicated.
2. the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.
3. something imparted, interchanged, or transmitted.
4. a document or message imparting news, views, information, etc." (dictionary.reference.com)

The definition that I will focus on is the second one, because it seems to me the best way to explain the kind of communication that occurs in photography. One may be tempted to speak of the ways in which a photographer positions their models to show some form of communication *within* a photo, and this can be one of the simplest and most effective way to provoke a certain sentiment in the viewer.
One may also be tempted to focus on the type of photography that are intentionally meant to spark dialogue with the audience - social commentary, if you will. These photographs have a certain degree of force behind them, and I've the utmost respect for them... but that is not what I wisht to speak about.

The kind of photography that really strikes me when it comes to communication is the kind that attempts to speak to/with the viewer - whether or not it's successful is another matter. It seems to me, that it must be very difficult for photographers and models to get the shot just right when it comes to that kind of photograhpy - if the point is not the pose, but the expression and the Reality behind it.

One such photo that I feel falls a little short of that, is one by one of my favorite photographers in deviantart. I really enjoy looking at his work, but something about this one just feels like they JUST missed the moment of true communication. Maybe it's just me, what do you think?:


Another deviantart user whose work I really like does a lot of macro photography and manipulations of eyes. I'm not surely how in the world he does what he does, but there's a force behind his work and a lot of expression in the eyes. I suppose I can safely say that my favorite is this:

This photo is so striking to me because it feels as thought the person is trying to speak to the viewer - implore them perhaps. There is shock and fear and something else seen in the gaze, and try as we might, we just cannot figure out exactly what this eye is trying to tell us. It succeeds and yet fails to communicate at the same.