This original image was made in response to findings about the toxic arsenic coloring that was commonly used for green dresses and wreaths. Although fascinating, I was drawn to this image because of the skeleton imagery and the part of the title “New Dance of Death” even before reading the article that includes the above image. I think the artwork already tells a compelling story, there is not an “issue” per se with the original cropping. However, I did really enjoy the image and wanted to try my hand at transforming it to tell enhance the story or tell a different story. Perhaps the simplest option for cropping would have been removing the surrounding text and calling it “A Dance With Death” or something similar. Or perhaps doing a tight crop near the faces with a title like “Face-to-Face with Death”.
However, I wanted a more dramatic change to the story being visually told. Another part of the image I was also drawn to was the way the ballgown wearing skeleton’s hands are clasped almost in prayer. In my mind, with this cropping we have a woman who has been left waiting, hoping, praying for something (or someone, if we take into the context of the original) for too long. Her idleness has has caused her to become death itself. (Hence the skeletal form).
While I do think the main cropping concept I used for this assignment is cropping to tell a new story, I have also (technically) simplified the background by removing the text on the edges, and I have changed the focal point and emotion of the image. The focus is now solely on the remaining skeleton, and removing the other skeleton makes this piece feel lonelier and desperate.
