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Author Topic: Growth  (Read 907 times)

michswiss

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Growth
« on: May 01, 2012, 11:20:12 pm »

I've been back in my old stomping grounds around Shanghai for the last couple of weeks and have been continuing work on my longer-term project of growth and  displacement in the city.  Here are three new shots from around the outskirts.

1)



2)



3)



I'm not normally one to talk about equipment, but I've shot pretty much everything on this trip with the NEX-7 and either the 24/1.8 or the 18-200.  I'm enjoying what it can do.


michswiss

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Re: Growth
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2012, 09:03:06 am »

I'm interested in the indifference to these shots.

There are a few hidden elements that connect them to a larger story, although I know they might not tell much in and of themselves.  I consider them connective tissue to what I'm trying to put together around inner and outer Shanghai.

amolitor

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Re: Growth
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2012, 09:16:35 am »

I had not registered these until you bumped the thread, but since you ask, I will reply!

Overall these read, visually, as pretty flat and dull. This is largely the light, I think, since you've actually got a nice tonal range in all of them. The light is extremely diffuse, and the sky is completely flat. There's pretty much nothing here to attract the eye initially, AND they all seem to me to be slightly off of horizontal. The overall effect, in that first instant of looking, is 'these are shoddy snapshots of nothing'

Once you've made that first impression, it's hard to get past it to the ideas. Looking closer, there is some real appeal to the last two. The silhouetted figure in the foreground is a little sinister, and definitely interesting, but incongruous against the essentially bland construction behind. Is the figure part of the story, or the entire story? One wonders, a little, at the connection between the figure and the buildings, but we can't quite tell where the figure is looking, so we're not sure that the two elements are related at all.

The last one is the best, the light seems a little less diffuse, and I like the figure in motion on top of the structure in-progress. It feels like there's some message here, placing the treed area in the foreground (nature, organic) with the completed developments in the background (hand of man) with the construction in between (the encroachment of the hand of man, perhaps?), but with the large building in progress dominating the left this message is muddled. Is this photograph about the construction itself? Then emphasize that, and get rid of some of the surrounding material. If this photograph is about the encroachment of construction on the natural world, diminish the building and emphasize the natural world.

The sky being bland and flat like this demands better treatment -- either minimize it, so we're not bothered by the lack of interest in the sky, OR emphasize it, so we're forced to confront the large negative space, so we know it's deliberate, and try to use that negative space in a good way to balance other elements, or echo forms, or similar. As it is, it just looks like you were out on a bad day for shooting, and burned off some exposures.

Anyways. That's a lot of criticism and chatter. I don't mean to say these are crappy, there's definitely things to like in them, but hopefully I've illuminated in a small way why people aren't responding.

It could also just have been bad timing! Maybe you posted these after everyone went to bed and then ten new posts showed up, yours was pushed down, so nobody clicked. That happens too!

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michswiss

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Re: Growth
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2012, 09:46:01 am »

Quick reply. A clear or defined sky in Shanghai is a rarity. Flat is what it is the vast majority of the time.  Thanks for your thoughts.  It's helpful.

RSL

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Re: Growth
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2012, 10:39:32 am »

Love the framing in the first one, Jennifer. For some reason, these pictures remind me of Josef Koudelka's work. On the face of it they're nothing like the environmental stuff he did, but there's something about them that strikes me the same way.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Rob C

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Re: Growth
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2012, 02:54:25 pm »

I very much like the second one, the silhouette.

It's amazingly strong and frightening. I can hardly imagine living in an environment like that, and suicide would seem preferable to survival. That the guy isn't looking quite directly (if at all) at the place suggests he is either inured to it because he knows no better or is as scared of it as I would be.

Strong.

Rob C
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