Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => Street Showcase => Topic started by: drmike on January 01, 2020, 10:28:59 am

Title: Showcase?
Post by: drmike on January 01, 2020, 10:28:59 am
It has to be street but showcase implies quality :)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49309862238_b666d134d9_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2i8kW7A)

It was a very hurried shot taken in a cowardly manner. He was in fact conscious. Probably a lovely guy but he was doing this in the wrong part of town.

Mike
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: stamper on January 01, 2020, 11:02:21 am
Plenty ambiguity. It is street!
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Martin Kristiansen on January 01, 2020, 11:13:04 am
Good one I think.
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: RSL on January 01, 2020, 11:34:58 am
Good grab, Mike. What was "cowardly" about it?
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on January 01, 2020, 11:49:47 am
Very good "Street."
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Rob C on January 01, 2020, 12:33:24 pm
I don't think it's street at all: I think it's very good photographic art. Pure and simple.

Too good to be street.

Rob
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: RSL on January 01, 2020, 12:41:16 pm

Too good to be street.

Rob

 ;D 8)
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Rob C on January 01, 2020, 12:54:11 pm
;D 8)


Not a knock at the shins of street; a reference to the technical precision and composition that takes it elsewhere, in my mind at least. Too perfect, in other words, for one genre but a great example of another.

:-)
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: drmike on January 01, 2020, 02:39:58 pm
Thanks Rob. I was trying for a good composition using the 'found' subject which is what I usually do.

Cowardly because I wasn't big and bold and I was quite concerned he might regain consciousness. I wasn't too worried but in a foreign place and a clearly unpredictable subject it's fair to say I didn't own the street.

Ambiguity? I don't go for that idea much and I don't think there is any. The guys is just spaced out on a bollard.

Thanks for the kind comments though, they are appreciated.

Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Ivo_B on January 02, 2020, 05:06:46 am
Thanks Rob. I was trying for a good composition using the 'found' subject which is what I usually do.

Cowardly because I wasn't big and bold and I was quite concerned he might regain consciousness. I wasn't too worried but in a foreign place and a clearly unpredictable subject it's fair to say I didn't own the street.

Ambiguity? I don't go for that idea much and I don't think there is any. The guys is just spaced out on a bollard.

Thanks for the kind comments though, they are appreciated.

It is good to read you bring it back into its proportion.

Personally, I don’t see the ambiguity, I even don’t see the value of photographing a passed out dude. I understand your cowardly feeling.

I think shots like this works better if no attempt was made to find a kind of arty composition.
Color could help to bring it alive.

Just my five cents tough. 😬
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: drmike on January 02, 2020, 05:22:25 am
I know what you mean Ivo.

However, I prefer to take photographs with composition which I think this has. To me it's an image that happens to have a passed out dude in it who contributes to the composition by breaking it up a bit. He also coils round his chosen post very nicely. I couldn't pass it up.

It is a full colour image. I don't think I destaurated at all. It's outside some huge IT company in San Francisco, SalesForce I think and I was really surprised that firstly he wasn't moved on and secondly that I wasn't told off for photographing on what must have been private property although used as a public path.

The money these corporates have is obscene and the way they spend it equally so.
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: stamper on January 02, 2020, 07:27:32 am
ambiguous
/amˈbɪɡjʊəs/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning.
"ambiguous phrases"
not clear or decided.
"the election result was ambiguous"
Similar:
equivocal
ambivalent
open to debate
open to argument
arguable

It isn't obvious to me why he was in that pose. Picking himself up/ asleep/ being sick/ or just resting? Whatever it makes you think about the image and that what makes it work?
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Ivo_B on January 02, 2020, 07:42:07 am
ambiguous
/amˈbɪɡjʊəs/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning.
"ambiguous phrases"
not clear or decided.
"the election result was ambiguous"
Similar:
equivocal
ambivalent
open to debate
open to argument
arguable

It isn't obvious to me why he was in that pose. Picking himself up/ asleep/ being sick/ or just resting? Whatever it makes you think about the image and that what makes it work?

Everything is ambiguous, depending on the viewers awareness / willingness / understanding. ...
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Rob C on January 02, 2020, 08:25:18 am
Everything is ambiguous, depending on the viewers awareness / willingness / understanding. ...

The viewer is almost always the problem.

That's why unless you do it for pay, you have to please yourself and the hell with the other people. Especially with the second-guessers, who insist they know better than you do what was in your mind.

Rob
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: drmike on January 02, 2020, 08:30:08 am
It is fun though, to see one of these 'ambiguous' images and build your own story. As ever it's more about you than the image, what you bring as context for the interpretation.

Putting it crudely - if you ask an artist 'what does it mean' they'll almost always bounce back with - 'what do you think it means'.
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: RSL on January 02, 2020, 09:15:39 am
The viewer is almost always the problem.

That's why unless you do it for pay, you have to please yourself and the hell with the other people. Especially with the second-guessers, who insist they know better than you do what was in your mind.

Rob

Hear, hear. Of course that doesn't happen on LuLa.      ???
Title: Re: Showcase?
Post by: Rob C on January 02, 2020, 12:04:40 pm
Hear, hear. Of course that doesn't happen on LuLa.      ???


Of course not: banned by decree!

:-)  :-)  :-)

Rob