It is a very clever photograph.
Beyond the content, it tells me again of the futility of that kind of photography (the subject's photography, not Bob's). All those poor people, being pushed this way and that, and to what end? The little girl in the group seems to understand, and find Bob of far greater interest.
In a way, though silenty and without the music, it reminds me of the closing scene of La Dolce Vita, with the young girl waving and mouthing inaudibly to Marcello across the little gulf between them... only in the latter case it was early morning.
This is an instance of a photograph speaking to a viewer, but mainly because it resonated with something the viewer already has implanted, indelibly, in his memory bank. Without that, for me, it would be a pretty evening picture in pretty light, of some people down the beach, two of them saddled with what appears to be the burden of making happy snaps, either with too much gear or with the minimum.
That's why I think it a clever photograph: it works on several levels. And there the problem, too, with photography if we think of it in terms of having a life beyond the photographer's own imagination: it requires input from an audience in order to gain a wider validity.
