EYES Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

The three-and-a-half year old miniature beauty is waiting for her mother. She is clearly deep in thought, but about what? Good art is open-ended — there is a story to be sure, but if a thousand people see the same work, there may be a thousand different interpretations, in the manner of the Mona Lisa. Or maybe William Shakespeare had it right again:

If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers, number all your graces,
The future age to come would say, “This poet lies,
His heavenly touch ne’er touched earthly faces.”

In cropping the photo I was mindful of having one eye of the child centered on the vertical bisector of the frame. It was in 1998 that Dr. Christopher Tyler, psychologist and art-lover in San Francisco, discovered that in almost all great single-subject portraits the center-line passes through an eye, not the nose! This is the case in Leonardo's defining portrait, Mona Lisa, it's even true in Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar, where, if the great artist knew this principle, he would have placed the eye somewhere in the right bottom corner -- to be different. It appears that we focus on an eye when we paint a portrait in oil, or shoot a portrait with a camera. I wrote about this discovery in my book, 'Math and the Mona Lisa,' (Smithsonian Books 2004). I took the photo about the time the book was released.

JPlumb, stego, beautiful_mind, bostankorkulugu, henrytf, veve, Yar, JonteW, bracasha75, sowhat, meltemi, dareco has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mtulika (88) 2006-11-02 9:45

I like your doll Bulent, her eyes are expressive and the notes too.
TFS
MS

mersebeat (78) 2006-11-02 11:34

Very nice!!!! Max.

jaywalker (12312) 2006-11-02 16:23

Hi Bulent, A beautiful portrait of this little lady, lovely expression & innocent eyes, excellent lighting & wonderful colour (purple is my favourite), nicely framed & a good write up, kind regards Wilson.

JPlumb (3153) 2006-11-03 0:23

Hi Bulent,

This is indeed a very nice photograph. Your note about the eyes too really struck home for me. I don't do a lot of portraiture, but I do take a lot of shots of different animals and birds (nature). I have always found capture of the eye(s) important, but have not consciously tried to place one on the centre vertical plane. I will keep this in mind as I continue with this work. I have learned something today.

Thanks, John

UnTrained (0) 2006-11-03 3:04

Hi Bulent,
thanks for this excellent portrait and the note.
Regards Ulf

missninja (495) 2006-11-03 12:08

Hello Bulent!
A very nice photo from a beautiful little lady. First I looked in her right eye. The different lightning conditions are very intersting, the right eye seem to be taller than the right one. Is it because of the lightning condition or because of the center on the vertival bisector?
Warm regards, Nina

megafonreis (37) 2006-11-03 22:17

renkler çok güzel Bülent Bey. bu arada geçen NTV de Da Vinci hakkında telefonla programa katılan siz miydiniz yoksa bir isim benzerliği mi? kolay gelsin. Murat

bostankorkulugu (34024) 2006-11-07 2:43

bülent bey bu boncuk gözlü sarı şeker torun herhalde... yastıklar ve kıyafetteki mor tonları çok güzel ve sarı saçlarla harika tezat oluşturmuş...gözlere zaten diyecek yok...elinize sağlık...allah bağışlasın...
(daha önce edemedim, davetiniz için teşekkürler, 23ünde orada olmaya çalışacağım)
selamlar
korkut

henrytf (977) 2006-11-08 18:32

Wonderful portrait. This little girl has a look that pierces you.
And your comments are very interesting, too.
I had never heard of Dr. Chritopher Tyler's finding.
Thanks to you and to TE I know more.
Regards
Henry

veve (4149) 2006-11-10 13:26

Hi Bulent!
Beautiful portrait!Her eyes are really expressive!
Wonderful colors and good lighting!
Best wishes,
Veronica

beautiful_mind (294) 2006-11-13 23:03

beautiful tones of blue and violet,nice portrait for this qute girl,I think her sight bigger than her age,so serious .

Yar (795) 2006-12-08 16:09

very soft portrait of a child, beautiful photo :)
TFS!

oochappan (22032) 2006-12-20 7:32

Hi Bulent
Seldom I get such an interesting comment that I took my time to look for this shot, not that evident with the internet connection here very slow and since I am travelling I prefer to give my encounters here priority then to spend all day on the internet as this took already 5 minutes only to search for this very nice litlle girl, the pillows colors rendering her face and hair marvellous, maybe a bit static centered but the beauty she radiates let us forget that.
Thank you for mentionning this vertical bisector, I saw her dynamic curving diagonaly pose where you find both eyes along this curve.
Greetings
Henk

JonteW (182) 2007-01-04 5:40

Good composition, because of the center line "rule"? (which I didn't know about). Nice colors too, with the cushions matching the girls shirt. The image could maybe be sharpened a tiny bit more? The girl looks like she is a bit bored by the photographer. :-) The image makes me think of a Helene Schjerfbeck painting of a sick girl.

emjleclercq (14538) 2007-03-14 18:23

Very nice portrait, with a justified emphasis over these wide, blue grey eyes. She seems to be indeed in a pensive mood, or regarding you with distant interest, like a curious nuisance which as to be temporarely suffered...

All the best,

Emmanuel

dareco (17104) 2007-10-16 18:16

Another beautiful picture! I like the colors and her expression is excellent, she appears so deep in thought. I really love this! TFS
:)later

faubry (32429) 2007-10-20 11:01

very good composition like ,joconde. .. this right eye is vertical middle.... great
francine