This photograph is by Gilad Benari, and is titled "A Reflection of Romance." Gilad Benari is a free lance photographer from Israel that I have been following for a long time now. Recently, he has been experimenting with natural reflection, usually found in puddles or bodies of water. He takes the originally image and flips it vertically, so that it looks like the reflection is "reality," and reality is the reflection, if that makes sense. In this image, much like the others like this that he has done, the reflected image has a dream like quality. It looks as if those people are in another dimension, almost. The vivid colours and hazy appearance of the reflected image make it seem as though it is not even real. Then, at the bottom of the reflection, is the reflection of their shoes, which looks perfectly normal. This lets the viewer know that it is, in fact, real. The part that I love about the way the image is flipped, is the metaphor I get from it. It is as if the photograph is telling the viewer that this couple prefers their own surreal world to the real world. Their world (or at least, that is how I interpret it) is on top, which makes it more important. The real world, AKA the image of their shoes at the bottom, is small and on the very bottom. It seems insignificant. I also love how, in the reflection, the couple is really the only thing you can make out. Everything else just looks like some mysterious, colourful shape. One thing I do not like, is the orange text on what I presume to be stairs. At first glance, it looks like a timestamp from a point and shoot camera. It might be because it is text, or it might be because of the orange juxtaposed next to a mostly red and blue/purple photograph. It could even be both. Also, I used to hate the railing being there, but now I love it as it shows the viewer even more strongly that the bottom of the photograph is reality. This photographer, along with a few others, have inspired me to try more with angling things, or messing with settings, or anything really, to make photographs seem a bit more surreal.

-Rachael Quick