I feel at liberty to be more outspoken in this section of UF than the usual anodyne critique-style familiar to all here.
As a CC candidate, I'm not quite sure how to interpret this photo, which has presumably been submitted for serious comment - otherwise I'd not bother. So!
As to technique: pleasing framing by the de-focused green foliage. The red plastic container detracts somewhat.
As to other qualities like meaning, art, journalism and whatnot: on the one hand, here we have an apparently ordinary snapshot of no particular merit at all.
On the other, we see two guys displaying stereotypical body-language imposed upon them by their peer-group, a peer-group within which individuality is eschewed, among other things. These young men are as much a victim, a pawn, of their own section of popular Kulture as any North Korean, albeit via very different means.
BUT...I commute to my office, go shopping, spend money on things like cameras and DVDs, watch TV, wear a suit (in extremis). I comply. What does that make me?
Is this image lampooning us all?
We do not know.
There is more to "Fun on the river......" than at first appears. Thank you The Pilgrim!
As CC, I'd suggest that even a snap can be brought out. It's really a close-up, either shoulder up with cropping top of head, or pulled back a bit. But once you have the 'gang signs', you have to get those, so it's most of both torsos. I rotated slightly, and brought out some of the light you could get by overexposing on the shot.