It was just a schoolboy kneeling on a balcony wall. Yet the web of light and shadow that flows around him is extraordinary, creating a symbolic cage that seems to lock him in and limit his options. I was able to layer the image from top to bottom by linking the crate -like roof to the shadow it casts on the floor and wall. The rail he leans on repeats the horizontal thrust of both wall and roof. The only color in the image was his light blue shirt, which disrupted the somber tone of my hemmed-in concept. I remove that color by converting the photograph to black and white, and in the process add still another layer of abstraction to the image, making it seem almost surreal.