Kenny lives in a small cottage without electricity or running water - he is very content and believes we may all have to become used to living this way in due course.
This photo comes very close to my ideal of a portrait. It reveals the essence of this person, not a pose for the photographer, not an accidental expression caught in a candid picture. The photographer seems to have had a conversation with this person in his self-furnished home, and as a result we see his mind occupied and expressing his sceptic thoughts. He appears not only as an object of the art of portraying but as an individual person, a subject with an independent mind.
In my verses I've tried to create a droll form (rhymes) and to achieve a whimsical contrast between his simple appearance and the academic clothing of his (substantially similar) thoughts:
There was once a sage in Cornwall
who thought in his cottage's warm hall:
"Francis Bacon's method was bright,
but Rousseau's 'back to nature' is right.
We are free, after all, yet nature's born thrall."
The thin line of backlighting on his right sleeve makes this photo for me. The lighting is right on, and my interest remains within the frame.
I would prefer to see more of the photograph, and less of the white frame; perhaps just a white line to separate the photo from the Challenge background. Jeff