I decided to take a little short cut across some back roads on the way home from work this evening. As I approached a stretch of the road that has a really old bridge I noticed this dolls head, the kind for girls to practice makeup and hair, just sitting on the bridge wall. It was actually quite freaky to see when driving by as at first glance it almost looked like a kid peering over the bridge.
I love finding things like this. I think they evoke all kinds of uncomfortable feelings like abandonment, loss, degradation and downright creepiness.
I stopped to take the photo just as the sun was dipping low in the sky. I have to admit that I was very tempted to move the dolls head to a better location on the bridge but I resisted. I’m really glad I didn’t tamper with the scene and captured it as I found it.
I processed this shot using Aperture and Photoshop CS5. I wanted to leverage the weirdness of the scene by giving the image a dark feeling. I used some actions from the Florabella range to add some punch to the image, brighten the centre around the face and add some vignetting to create a more somber mood.
Shot details :- ISO 160, 50mm, 0 ev, f/2, 1/90