Stills

Robert - it's a new film that was given its premiere on UK Channel 4 television. I do not know where it has been released since then.
 

There is something urgent about the picture, the way the picture was taken, the movement of the characters. I see the picture on the poster of the couple kissing and then see these 2 people and they feel disconnected.
 

I like the head with two bodies.

As an aside, I've taken a number of photos in the street recently in which the subjects appear to have their eyes closed. I'm beginning to think that we all walk around with our eyes closed a substantial amount of the time. Your woman here is surely sleepwalking.
 

Colin - I suspect that she is looking down to check the pavement on this side of the road (somewhere between Shaftesbury Avenue and New Oxford St). But it's annoying nonetheless.
 

I hesitate to bring up small details of composition with shots like this - I know there's little time for adjustment - but the barely cut off shoulder of the woman makes this feel unbalance for me. The expression on the man is nice, but for me the picture is undone by the 3/4 woman.
 

Matt, I think that you are perfectly entitled to question composition. Indeed, I was expecting some sort of opinion on both the hidden man and the cut woman. Subject matter has overruled my hindsight regret over the composition! With more people, it probably wouldn't matter but here I think that it does reduce the worth of the picture.
 

Because I am totally intimidated by the challenge of street photography, I am quite leery of composition issues here. I know it's incredibly tricky to get wonderful shots within the limitations of the genre—I'm too chicken to try. Still, the extra shoulders behind the central figure's head and the woman on the left with the missing shoulder disorient me a bit. Maybe that's good? I don't know.

I do enjoy very much the picture within a picture and the strong lines bringing me around the corner to the focal point as well as the man's expression. I very much appreciate the strong tonal contrasts—the dark, rich blacks and bold whites. That's another thing I'm not good with. Then, all those wonderful lines, textures, and patterns. There are so many lessons in this shot for me.
 

The action is in the left two-thirds which makes the empty right-hand side a little and perhaps not needed? I have no objection with the 'head with two bodies' and though the lady walking out of the scene is a little unbalanced the crop along the bottom gives her a root to the ground rather than floating on the bottom of her coat. It was also a delight to see a potted plant on the pavements of London Town!
 

I like the sleepwalking lady, perhaps an nice analogy for how some many cruise through life, looking not seeing, there but really not engaged. Contrasted with the guy who has seen the camera and is engaged. He is also slightly blurred giving him a little more life.

The unbalanced composition is jarring to my senses and thus I feel engaged, wondering, questioning.

Only suggestion is to burn down the upper right corner to keep the focus more on the individuals.
 

I think the main subject is strong despite the partial person behind him, and I don't mind the woman though ideally she would not be quite so cropped -- she seems a sort of secondary subject.

I would hazard a guess that the package is a stack of printed posters like the one on the front -- I've seen many such packages since I'm in the graphic arts business.
 

The title says that the central man and his package are the subject. I find the piggyback person a bit confusing but as a snippet of street life the lady is Ok by me.

Although I don't mind the lady a square crop without her seems stronger.
 

Thanks for all the comments. I think that, notwithstanding the acceptance of the 3/4 woman, my preference would be to have framed the picture at the time by shifting left to exclude the lamp-post but include the shop frontage and some pavement. That would still leave the hidden man, but the shot couldn't have waited!

I don't think that one can crop this and make it work.

Christina - I should have asked him but was keen to get to my destination. The package could be what you say or it could be a framed poster.