I came across this abandoned building in New Orleans and took several photos of it...the decay of its outer walls subtly suggesting to me the aging character lines in a human face. Even granted this recognition, I found all my images to still be somewhat sterile. I tried using the building as a background in creating images with foreground overlays during computer post processing. The blending of various foregrounds with the building didn't work for me. Having a photojournalistic mentality, I couldn't help but feel there was a lack of connectivity between whatever elements I would place in front of the building in constructing these composite images. It was only when I allowed creativity to more thoroughly dominate the honesty of photojournalism that I made the image you see here. I placed an old man in one window of the decaying building and put the reflection of a weak sun flaring in another window pane. Then, I used a near colorless tone for the entire image --- all elements suggestive of dwindling life forces, making this an oxymoronic creative-photojournalistic image that I no longer see as being without meaning.

Photographer: Allan Carrano
Camera: Canon PowerShot SX150 IS
Lens: Canon 5.0-60.0 mm zoom
Settings: 1/200s, f3.4, ISO 160
Image adjusted and cropped in Photoshop Elements 12