After starting the exercises on depth of field I noticed that a lot of press photos seem to exploit the idea of a three-layer picture plane. I've attached two examples that I've come across in the last week.
The first is by Christopher Thomond for the Guardian. Academically, I thought this was a really good use of selective focus: it is clear that the man, Wol Ariec (a Sudanese political exile in London) is the subject, but that the flag (of newly-formed South Sudan) is included to provide contextual information and mirror the badge on Ariec's lapel. However, I still found it frustrating being 'separated' from the subject because in a real world conversation participants tend to remove any physical barriers between them.
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On the other hand the second image (by Gerry Fox) of performers at the Rainforest World Music Festival does not have the same effect. I'm not entirely sure why - perhaps because a person (rather than an inanimate object) obscuring your view is a common feature of day-to-day life, or perhaps because the subject is looking at - and therefore validating the presence of - the musician closest to us. The framing of the subject also works really well here - the bow mirrors the diagonal created by the nearest performer and seems to cut off the head of the one who is furthest away, leaving you in no doubt about where to direct your gaze!
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