The First Picture of the Year

The year opens with a frame caught mid-step — a street scene suspended between the casual and the cinematic. The woman in the leopard-print coat commands the foreground, her figure sharply rendered against the soft haze of the street beyond. Her presence is decisive, yet she faces away, offering no expression, only movement.

The background melts into a gentle blur, two figures walking arm in arm becoming silhouettes of intimacy. The shallow depth of field works well here: the compression between crisp foreground and ghosted distance draws the viewer through the frame, making the eye travel naturally from the coat’s texture to the vanishing point of the street.

Technically, the choice of black and white feels justified. Stripping away colour lets the interplay of contrast, texture, and light become the language of the photograph. Exposure is mostly well judged — shadows retain detail in the coat’s pattern, while the overexposed sky and buildings push the upper tones close to the limit without completely collapsing. The high-key background, though, risks pulling too much attention away from the subject; a fraction less exposure might have given a richer tonal balance.

Compositionally, the image thrives on its diagonals — the woman’s arm, the tilt of the buildings, and the street’s perspective all pushing forward, lending energy to a scene that might otherwise feel still. It’s a photograph that doesn’t shout, but quietly marks the year’s beginning with a gesture of urban elegance and understated storytelling.