I found Agtmael’s shots from Covid-19 on Magnum. His images stood out to me due to how private they feel. He isolates his subjects and gives us a personal view of them, which seems ironic due to the circumstances he has shot these images in. He uses colour to make the subject stand out and thinks about framing the subject.
This image shows a woman wearing a headscarf and covering her face with a scarf. We can see her eyes, amongst all the blue and green scarfs. The colours work really well with the portrait and it makes her skin really pop out. She is stood next to a window which shows a reflection of two other women. One wears a beige coat, of similar tone to the main subects skin and the other reflection shows a lady wearing a blue mask, complementing the blue scarfs of the main subject. Towards the bottom right on the image there is a block of dark blue from a door, which fills the last third of the image, continuing the blue theme that is present throughout.
This shot shows a man inside his car taking a photo on his phone. He is wearing a face mask, which brings context to the image. The car is white and adds interest to the image, essentially framing the main subject. The image is quite simple but works really well in telling a story and documenting covid-19.
Jodie Tovey PJD blog 