This is a simple street photograph of two customers waiting for their hot noodle soup at a vendor's stand in a small Laotian town. I chose to backlight the scene to make it a partially abstract image, and thereby more symbolic of eating and less specific in terms of who is about to eat. By abstracting the three participants, I stress their shapes and body language and how they relate to each in space. One is already abstracted because she has turned her back on the camera. The other two figures are darkened just enough by the backlighting to leave something to the imagination and call more attention to the negative space moving between the figures. That negative space – the areas between subjects -- becomes very important here. This negative space is full of tension flowing in the space around and between the bodies of the noodle watchers. I also like the way the tension is increased by the objects suddenly piercing the frame at left and top left, as well. The splayed fingers of the waiting woman are unconsciously echoing the thrusts of the antenna at bottom left, small pipes of some kind at left, and the jagged flap of the roof at top left. There is enough light spilling into the scene to illuminate the colorful clothing of the woman with her back to us, as well as the faces of the other two people, and the various pots and bowls on the table. Yet we don’t see everything. My selection of a backlit vantage point has left some room for the viewer’s imagination to work.