NINA LEEN AND THE GREAT PHOTOJOURNALISM

Nina Leen, unpublished photograph from “American Woman’s Dilemma,” LIFE, June 16, 1947 (© LIFE Picture Collection, Meredith Corporation)

-What is it you like about this photo?

I admire the fact of how this picture, which seems so simple, shows me a lot of references of an entire decade. Focusing on the fashion side, since is what I identify the most in photography, it amezes me how these, that could be nothing more than a woman having her coffee, translates a huge fashion reference in an almost hidden way.

– What is the light source, what direction is it coming from?

I was able to locate two different fonts of lightining sources in the image. The first one are the lamps that appear inside the café, they are coming from behind and from above. I also could notice, by the shadows on the woman, that there is another lightning source coming outside the picture from the right.

– Timing. Did the photographer get the “Decisive Moment?”

Nina Leen got a trivil moment in this image, but that is still a “Decisive Moment” of the woman eating her food. A moment later, and she maybe couldn’t get that shot.

– What’s the focus (refer to class discussion)?

The focus in these picture lays down in the womans clothes, since they are where the lighting in most present.

– What makes this photo great?

The simplicity of the photo is what makes it great for me. It shows so many random things like a woman in the 40s just dressing like someone of her decade and eating her food like anyone else in a café, but these trival things put together are a window to that time.

– Could you make a photo like this, here, in Las Cruces/El Paso? How? Where?

I could make a picture like this in Las Cruces/El Paso imagining a remake. With the goal of accomplish the same portrait of a decade as Nina Leen achieved, by doing the same with a woman of the 21st century eating in any café of Las Cruces/El Paso.