Melena Nicholson - Week 8

This is a photograph taken by Diana Arbus. The subject is an elderly woman in a wheel chair. She holds a scary mask of a witch in front of her face. Her other hand lays still on her lap and she has a white blanket tucked around her legs. The subject is placed in the bottom left corner of the frame. It is black and white and the framing is crooked. In the background is a building, I like to think it is her nursing home, and there is a tree trunk framing the right side of the picture. There is a shadow of the tree's trunk and branches on the building that shows the viewer the tree must be losing its leaves. There is also a few dead leaves on the pavement behind the woman. The bare tree and dead leaves compliment the mask to make the image feel like Fall and Halloween time. The shift in the picture also gives the image a creepier feel. Placing the wheel chair at the edge of the bottom left frame and tilting the scene counterclockwise makes it look like the wheel chair is about to roll right out of the frame.
This is my favorite Diana Arbus photo because i love the relationship between the old woman and the old face of the witch mask, the balance between the white hair and the white blanket, and the eerie tree shadow and counterclockwise tilt of the scene. All of this makes this picture have a great, dark Halloween spirit.