Rock Bottom

                  

The composition of this photograph combines color and content that spark provocative thoughts. There is no frame to encase the image, nor words or bright colors to detract from its focal point. With nothing to obscure the focus, the heavy irons capture the eye as effectively as they are meant to fetter the hand.  The musty colors of the shackles and stone ground link the two and signify that the situation has hit rock bottom.  These bland colors stretch to every corner, with no boarder to contain the spreading desolation. They encompass every edge, uncontrollably, like watery paint saturating thin cloth. The warm tones contradict the cold silver ones of American handcuffs. Again unlike their western counterparts, the rusty shackles posses neither lock nor key, projecting a sense of hopelessness. These are the shackles of the innocent, a modern slave. While this composition leaves the viewer sobered, the emptiness of the chains promises hope. A future is thus proposed where the shackles pictured are those cast aside by the newly free.