Photo analysis

  

•    This photo was taken in London, 14th June 1969. It detects Queen Elizabeth II observing the guards parade. One of the guards, as seen on the photo, lies there unconscious. Most probably because of the exhaustion and heat. One of the most evident techniques used in this photo is the repetition. The guards are arranged accordingly in two rows. Their shadows also create repetition of their own kind. Also, the thing that makes this image visually very affective is the unequal spaces. The image is cropped the way that there is practically no space behind the queen and her horse, while the raw of guards is surrounded by open space. The physical distance can symbolize the emotional and social distance of queen from the guards. The queens’ posture is one of the elements that make the viewer pay attention to the main character of the photo; the fainted guard. Her body is towards the line of guards. However her head is clearly focused towards the fallen mans body. The whole uniqueness of this photo is the simultaneous presence of symmetry and asymmetry created by one ‘defect’ in a perfect line. The point of this photo was to portray how though the job of a royal guard could be. When a viewer looks at the dead looking body between other motionless figures, that don’t even look at him, he kind of feels the exhaustion and discomfort that is felt by these people.