The photo shown above is a candid, live photo taken of a young man's reaction after a cyclone decimated his home in Yangon, Myanmar in 2008. The photo depicts desperation, sadness, despair, hopelessness, and stress all in one. Chaos surrounds this man. This chaos behind him is emphasized with the use of light and blurring, making him the focal point, and the first thing on which you lock your eyes. This photo shows just how precious life and everything we have is. It has a theme of loss, a loss of family, hope and home, things that everyone can relate to.  Everything that has happened to this young man could happen to anyone and it makes people feel sympathetic for him as well as frightened that this could happen to them too. It makes the viewer feel the man's pain using the strong elements within the picture, like focus, perspective, and placement; even the man's body language. In telling this story, it uses these elements to portray the emotions felt within the man and the photo.

The use of light is one of the most important elements in photography. It can make or break a photo. Light is all about balance. This photo has a good, purposeful balance of light. There is a contrast between the man and the background. It has a relatively dark background where all the debris is, but that darkness may have a deeper purpose: it seems to represent the mess this cyclone has made not only physically, but also mentally. It reflects how dark and chaotic this moment is. The darkness also emphasizes the man's emotions of depression and sadness, helping the viewer focus in on him and the feelings that he is portraying. However, there is some light shown in the photo. There seems to be a ray of light shining on the man's back. It draws the viewer's eye to the man instantly and more clearly. This glimpse of light could also have a meaning of its own: it could mean a ray of hope for this man. In this moment he has hit rock bottom; he is lost and empty. However, this tiny glimpse of light could mean there is still hope for this young man to recover and remake his life.

The scene depicted in the background also conveys much meaning. Behind the man there is chaos. Everything is in shambles, destroyed from this natural disaster. Homes were destroyed, items were lost and people may have been hurt, some of the most painful things for someone to lose all at once. This is exactly what this man is going through in this scene. The mess behind him is slightly blurred, and this effect adds to the chaos in a way, enhancing how much of a mess it really is while keeping the focal point on the man to show what this destruction has done to him. While the blur is reflecting the chaos, it is also trying to hide it in order to focus on the man's strong emotions caused from the chaos. In the photo it is also raining on him. This rain was definitely a coincidence but it adds to this man's situation, enhancing the scenes' gloom and sadness. Rain in general has a gloomy, colder, darker feel to it than sunshine, and in this situation it enhances the emotions felt by both the man and the viewer. All of these elements of chaos and sadness shown in the background bring the viewer to see that there is not just destruction surrounding him but it is inside him as well.

The young man is the most important aspect to the photo, and his body language is what is the most significant when trying to read his true emotions. "Body language is a way people communicate nonverbally through conscious or unconscious gestures and movements" ("Body Language"). This man is hunched over with his face in his hand looking upset, closed-off and scared. It is as if he is trying to hide from what has just happened, while being in such disbelief. His facial expression is one of pure sadness and stress. His one arm is crossing his body tightly, grabbing his other arm expressing a sort of defensive, self-protected yet closed-off feeling. His body language shows his weakness in this moment, and how delicate his life was and that it was destroyed without any warning. After such a disaster like the one in this scene it is not unlikely for someone to act and feel the same as this man does. No one knows the true story but what one does know just by looking at him is that it is not a good one.

These elements of light, background, and body language used to tell this story helped to portray the purpose of the photo and create its strong emotional impact. The use of light, or lack there of, gives the viewer a glimpse of the emotions felt within the photo and the man, while the ray of light portrays hope for him.  The blurring behind the man reflects the chaos of this disaster and how it has destroyed him, yet still trying to hide it.  Just by looking at him the viewer can feel his pain. He is lost in this moment of weakness. The man in this photo represents how precious life can be. Everyone should be grateful for all that they have because at any moment it can all be taken away. Everything that has happened to this young man could happen to anyone and with the use of these compositional elements, the viewer is able to feel more sympathetic for him as well as frightened that this could happen to them.
