Philip Jones Griffiths, Boy Destroying Piano, 1961
This image shows the city of Pant-y-Wean, once voted the most beautiful city in South Wales, not destroyed due to mining. The photographer shot at a lower angle than the boy to make him look grandiose as he prepares to drop the rock on the piano. It is a representation of the beauty in destruction, a piano which plays a beautiful tune now stripped to its elements playing its last notes as the boy is about to completely demolish it the way this once beautiful city has been destroyed by man. The boy v.s man is a reflection on the past and future, the past being the boy, a symbol of innocence, who is performing the act of man, destroying something beautiful. Griffiths uses good contrast between the boy and the gray of the background to see all the pieces of lumber scattered across the grounds.
Reminds me of the old music video for the Cranberries song 'Zombie.' :) Photographing children during wartime always brings interesting results, because the innocence of youth mixed with the harsh reality of war provides for some powerful meaning behind the work. The angle of the shot, the details in the foreground and the sky, and the 'decisive moment' where we anticipate the stone being tossed make this picture very compelling and beautiful to look at.
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