Melena Nicholson - Week 7

This photo by Peter Essick has a great composition of a few small country houses amongst some bare silhouetted trees with a low horizon line behind them. Above the horizon line are four silhouettes of smoke stacks jutting up into the sky. One is spewing out dark smoke and behind the other three is more clouds of gray smoke enveloping most of the sky in the picture. The sun is blocked by the smoke and the sky is a weird yellow brown color, with only a little bit of blue in the top left corner.
The ratio between the amount of sky and the amount of ground shown in the picture really puts the viewers focus on what is going on in the sky. The smoke seems to be filling up the sky and blocking the light from reaching the earth. The houses are stuck in the shade and it creates a doomed feeling for the small civilization in the scene. The smoke has a sickly yellow brown tinge to it. It is complemented by the blue in the sky. The ground is black and neutral. And with the glowing sky behind it it looks as though the ground is on fire. The picture looks like some kind of man made hell. Sending out a message about pollution and what it is doing to our environment.