two girls on the beach
This photograph entitled “Two Girls on the Beach” was captured by Diane Arbus and was taken in Coney Island in 1958. This photograph clearly depicts two women in contrasting swimwear colors staring at the camera. They are in what photographers like to call a “Short Focus”. This is when the there is a smaller range of focus and is better used for captures with a main object or focus as opposed to a landscape photo where it is necessary to have a wider/deeper depth range. In this case, the short focus/soft focus works in the favor of what the photographer was trying to capture. Because the main focus of the photograph is on the women, it makes the most sense to only capture the women in a hard focus and not the background, as it is less important in the overall meaning of the photo.