Contest #1: Photo Representative

This picture is for Victor Hugo's epic classic Les Miserables.
There is no way to truly summarize such a long and detailed book (the translation I read was 1194 pages - it's the 20th longest novel, like, ever), in just a few sentences, but here is an attempt nonetheless:
"‘He was no longer Jean Valjean, but No. 24601’
Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. A compelling and compassionate view of the victims of early nineteenth-century French society, Les Misérables is a novel on an epic scale, moving inexorably from the eve of the battle of Waterloo to the July Revolution of 1830."
And this does not even begin to describe it. This is a book so amazing, you will walk away from it a changed person if you read it all the way through - I guarantee it! I recommend anyone and everyone with a reasonably high reading level read Les Miserables. You might want to start it during a school break because you will need all the time you can get, whether you start now or in six months READ IT!!! I don't care if you've seen the musical or the movie a million times, they pale in comparison to the masterpiece that is the original, unabridged work.
Enough shameless promotion, onto my reasoning behind this photo. This picture represents the sewer outlet that empties into the Seine described in Les Miserables. It was impossible to get an angle where one could see the actual grate, so I settled for this instead. Let me set up the scene for you (though you might not understand it if you haven't at least seen the movie)...
So Inspector Javert is following Thenardier (a known crook) along the Seine (in Paris) when Thenardier vanishes into a sewer outlet. Not wanting to get his feet wet, and knowing how treacherous the sewer is, Javert knows Thenardier is not going anywhere and waits for him on the riverbank (the waiting Javert is represented by the shadow in the picture). Jean Valjean, carrying the wounded and unconscious Marius (Valjean's adopted daughter's boyfriend) away from the fighting (there's a rebellion going on) via the sewers arrives at the outlet and prepares to emerge from the sewers only to find the grate locked. Thenardier approaches Valjean and has him pay him money to let him out (Thenardier has the key to the grate). As soon as Valjean emerges onto the riverbank, Javert swoops in and arrests him, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In other words, this picture represents Javert waiting patiently (the shadow) while the Marius-bearing Valjean (who is of course, impossible to see, being still inside the sewer) prepares to emerge from the sewer outlet (the concrete thing - which is a storm sewer outlet in real life as well). The dullness/dimness of the lighting represents the fact that it is nearing nightfall and the grimness/gloominess of events present (the rebellion) and future (Valjean's arrest). The "burnt" look of edges are meant to represent the fact that there is a rebellion taking place (a rebellion involving guns, explosives, (read: fire) etc.).
This picture/scene represents Les Miserables very well because it brings together so many of the characters and what they represent. Javert with his airtight legalism, Thenardier with his never satiated greed, the lovestruck Marius, and the ever sacrificial Valjean. There are also countless things the sewer outlet could be a metaphor for, which I won't get into here.
Hope that explains it well enough, and I hope you like the picture!
I used pixlr-o-matic for the editing: http://pixlr.com/o-matic/