I'm going to start critiquing things than inspire me, probably the majority of it will be photography but I'll also write about personal interpretations of song lyrics among other things.
This photograph by Federico Forlani is very intriguing to me. The first thing that really catches me about the photograph is the brilliant use of direction, which seems to be telling the story. When I first looked, my eyes drew to the contrasted lighting; in this case the bathroom is the lightest part and contrasts with the darker remaining space. It's as if the right bathroom is the lightest, then attention is brought to the next lightest area- which as the other subject in it. The direction is also brought on by the doors, it's natural to walk straight into the room in front of you, and in this case the bathroom is framed as a rectangle. Now out of the corner of your eyes you can see the other room with the other figure in it. As for meaning behind the photo I see a man looking into the mirror and seeing himself, perhaps it's a darker side of himself. Either way their posture dictates a state of being calm and undramatic, which causes an ease as though the subject is contemplating something about himself. Simply looking into that mirror wouldn't show the contemplation, both figures seemingly staring at each other but at a great distance. The link that really shows that the figure is staring at himself is the distance from the mirror on both sides. Now you may be thinking 'He isn't standing an equal distance on both sides from the mirror' but this is where an optical illusion takes over. Since the photograph is taken at this angle the eye references the wall as the distance between the man and himself, and since the wall is at an angle it references the longest straight line nearby. The nearest and longest straight line is that where the two door frames meet, so that becomes the axis for reflection rather than the physical mirror. I think the artist did a fantastic job of using not only direction, but tone for telling the story. Having the photo in black and white also adds to the contemplative-ness and exemplifies the lightest areas without distraction from the color. The black and white also induces a feel of film, which adds to the beauty in the photograph in my opinion. The nudity of the man on the left, however, is odd. It creates a sense of the photo being uneven because it defines the two figures as being separate from one another. I would suggest either have both nude or both wearing some sort of garments, perhaps white briefs on the right so that it blends with the room and opposes the darkness on the other side. Walking away from this photo I feel like we can get a sense of self, and it makes me look within myself by taking a step back and seriously looking. I think this photo is great and I would love to see more work by Federico Forlani!