Contrast, Balance, and Harmony

This is a picture by a photographer called Alexander Yakovelv. This image is part of a series where he photographed ballerinas while adding the dynamic element of exploding flour. This picture is beautiful to me because it is powerful while still being graceful and captures contrast, balance, and harmony well. First, there is contrast with the black background and and her elongated arm which looks stunning and creates an infinite line that extends beyond her fingers. Not only is there also contrast on her with all the shadows, the flour also creates contrast. The ballerina is standing on pointe and holding passé position strongly while the exploding flour looks like its moving all around her. A lot of the flour covers her body but with the law of closure, my eyes fill in the rest of her torso. Her position is also creating balance by having one leg in front of her and one arm back allows her to balance and hold this position on one leg.  All of this creates harmony within the picture which makes it beautiful to look at.

From a pscyhological context, this picture takes me back on stage when I used to do pointe and gives me a nostalgic feeling. I miss dancing and being on stage and looking at pictures of beautiful dancers brings me a lot of happiness. I think pictures like this depict strength because ballet is tougher than it looks and that is the beauty of it. Trying to look light and graceful while being powerful and strong is the whole essence.