November 29, 2014 
Another image taken in Hong Kong, March 2014. Taken at night in the bright lights that don’t seem to have an off switch.
The complete cool indifference of the girl to her surroundings is a universal truth for all “door bitches” around the world. She is some kind of gatekeeper for the “VIP Bar” up the stairs. Despite the rather aspirational name, the bar entrance looks decidedly un-VIP. Probably quite a dive. But she is keeping up the appearance of the destination being worthwhile.
She is positioned in the top left of the image with many lines in the image leading in to her. Sitting on the corner of a natural triangle formed by the light and empty space in the image works to bring the viewer’s eye to the subject. The light falls unevenly on her in a subtle way which is very pleasing aesthetically, and gives her an even more unapproachable feel or distance between her and the viewer.
There is a reasonably well defined light edge in the top left which helps divide up the image cleanly.
Normally, I would be tempted to place the subject in this kind of image in the bottom right corner, to give it a more balanced feel, but in this case positioning her top left helps give the image a bit of an unstable feel which I like.
I like your analysis of the composition here. I still find black and white to be very purely about light and pattern. We went to both Singapore and HK last year and HK was wonderful for photography. I found myself with the cameras almost glued to me eyes most of the time. Would love to go back, but funds do not allow!
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Thanks Steve, I have also been thinking about the next steps for me on BW. light and pattern might be a good starting point.
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Definitely. I always find that everything has its roots in shape, tone and pattern. BW is the best way to lead the eye to those essential qualities. I recently posted on my blog just about patterns in monochrome. Just simple frames of lines, shapes and geometries. In some ways I actually prefer this way of seeing things. Just the basics. The very basics. Have a good one!
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