This first picture is from the backyard of my childhood home at night. It struck me as a scene from a horror movie. The playhouse in the background seems spider-like here, with the swings being just visible, and the color of the wood and slide showing that it’s old and abandoned, not used regularly like it’s meant to be. The trees along the side and top of the picture almost seem to be reaching up towards the moon or simply above and over, making the viewer feel as though they are contained. While this isn’t a claustrophobic feeling of containment, it is still threatening.
The horror and eeriness of the picture is lessened a bit by how bright it is, having been illuminated by a motion sensor light. However, I believe the light and the circle of grass in the middle of the otherwise snow covered ground are both a juxtaposition that makes the picture very dramatic. The forest behind the playhouse is pitchback, contrasted by the white snow, and I can clearly imagine the motion sensor as a spotlight, as though this is fictional, the set to a horror opera.
The second was taken at my friend’s house. Similar to the first picture, it was taken at night and illuminated by a bright light behind the camera. It feels like daytime, it feels safe, until you look at the background to see how the shadows land artificially and are too deep for the setting to be during the day, not to mention the lights in the distance that could be a safe haven or the glowing eyes of something watching from beyond the tree line. It’s eerie like the first picture but also terrifying. Whatever horror is out there, in the second picture it’s closer to the viewer. It does have that dramatic quality to it, but I feel like it’s lessened by the light being less like a spotlight.
