Image Interpretation

In this image, the viewer sees a very close-up image of the lower half of a human face sporting a wide grin that showcases a full set of fairly straight and very bright teeth. The lips are painted with bright red lipstick--some of which has rubbed off onto some of the teeth--and there is a noticeable bit of food stuck to one of the front teeth. The colors are very bright and vibrant--though what little of the background can be seen is quite dark--and the depth of field is quite shallow.

The first word of interpretation that comes up in my mind for this image is “uncomfortable.” Whether I mean that solely for my own feelings or as applied to the photographed subject as well, I’m not entirely sure. Based on the lipstick and lack of prominent facial hair, I’m assuming that the subject is a woman, since those are culturally feminine traits. The fact that the camera is so close to her face that you can barely see anything else except for the mouth is very discomforting and disconcerting to me. In my personal opinion and in our society as a whole, personal space is something that is normally enforced and something that individuals typically want to protect (with exceptions, of course), but this picture completely shatters that “personal bubble” by zooming right up close to her skin. And being so close even exposes certain flaws that the normal person probably wouldn’t have noticed at a regular distance, say, during a conversation, but those small details are blown up in large proportion because of how the image is framed. However, the subject is smiling, which makes me feel as if she is completely fine with such a situation--or doesn’t know that it’s happening, which adds another layer to the “uncomfortable” interpretation and even adds a (I don’t want to say “sinister” because that feels too strong and dramatic of a word) different angle to a possible backstory for the image. But that almost feels on the verge of trying to dig too deep into a meaning/interpretation to the point of going overboard, so I’ll stop here.

(Also, I’m certain none of these interpretations are biased at all by my own anxieties, surely.)