"Red Cloak" is a photo taken by Cig Harvey in 2015 as a part of her new collection You An Orchestra You A Bomb. It features a single velvet chair in an empty red room with a small child in a red cloak on the chair, facing away from the camera.
The three main elements that stick out to me in this photograph are color, space, and texture. The image has a very strong use of color, specifically of different shades of red. Nearly every aspect of the photo is some value or shade of red, from the dark cherry color of the hardwood, to the velvet burgundy chair, to the bright red cloak. Another strong element of the photo is space. There is a great deal of empty space in the room, as only the chair/child seem to be in. Even the background wall is completely empty. This empty space places great emphasis on the subject matter as it is the only thing that your eye is drawn to. Space on the wall also helps to draw your eye to the one patch of light that's on the wall. The space in the image creates a feeling of loneliness in this large space. Finally, the different textures within the image is another strong element. From the hard textures of the floor and the wall, to the child's cloak as well as the chair's soft velvet, the different textures are very contrasting.
The photo's color scheme simultaneously creates unity as well as contrast within the image. While the purely red color scheme absolutely unifies the entire photo, there is strong contrast between the left and right side of the image as a result of the lighting. The left side of the image features very dark shades of red and dark shadows, while the right side generally lighter and has more bright shades of red.
This piece seems to be abstract, and not very realistic. When I view the photo, I get this imaginative feeling as the red-cloaked child reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood and reminds me of some kind of fairytale. I feel as though the image can provoke this kind of feeling among most of it's viewers. But because of the large amount of empty space within the image, there is also a lonely, empty mood within the photo. It seems to play off the story of Little Red Riding Hood because of the cloaked child, but perhaps with a different purpose to the story. The image may be suggesting something about the child's imagination being lost because of the large amount of emptiness it is surrounded by.
I very much enjoy this photo, and would consider it important in association to todays society in which it seems many children's imagination and creativity is more repressed. The title definitely directly corresponds to the piece, as it refers to the red cloak that the child is wearing in the image. Although the image is new, I am sure it will inspire new work from others, myself included. For my next photo series, I hope to continue work based off Cig Harvey's new photos (including this one) and her strong use of color and sense of magic within images.