That backdrop - what made you choose that?
It competes with the main subject to such an extent it nearly drowns her out. Its brighter and more colourful, therefore the eyes are drawn to it. Meanwhile the lighting on the hair and right hand side of the image is almost dull in comparison. A simple solid neutral colour would have been much much better.
Almost every technical aspect of this shot seems a bit off: The focus on the tablecloth is sharper than the focus on the subject's hands; so, too is the lighting. The color pallet is bizarre and there is much too much detail in the backdrop, though it is nice that the mirror and the tablecloth share a similar purple that complements pink. The curlers being an essential part of the composition are not well lit and are just about chopped off at the top. The hands, which might be quite expressive are not properly lit. And the darkness of the mirror really does suck whatever life there might have been in the photo, right out of it. The result is a photo of curlers, backdrop, and a sort of metaphorical black hole.
All that said, if one were trying to make a political statement about the process of making a beauty queen and the result of the process, it would be hard to choose a better example than this one.
I see the idea, the hair is a nice touch. A couple of things that I don't like about it are that the mirror seems too close to her face to be natural, and the backdrop is pretty busy.
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