Everybody has (or should have) their own style. How boring if everybody just did the same thing? Likewise, everyone has their own taste. I don't care much for any of the expert editing photos by gyaban. To me it's drawing, not photography. Also I don't see how many of his photos meet the challenges. Yet he scores high with just about everything.
The rubber band here does not look all that stretched or under tension. Also, I have no idea what's stretching it or how rage is stretching it. Then, the photo gives me no idea that there could be road rage here. The point is that it does not appeal well to most voters. And if that's the case why should it land higher? When I vote, I don't take a quick look. I look at the photo and find a critique in my mind. I look for the context and story where necessary. I take the time to see how an image makes me feel. Then I read the title and see how that ties in (but I don't often vote on title). I then also look at the technical aspects of the photo. This all makes me think about the photo properly before voting.
Comments have diminished significantly on DPC. It's one of those facts everyone has to accept. I have started to try to comment as much as I can. I feel it's important for photographers to know what about their photo is capturing people - it allows the photographer to look at their own photo differently.
This is rather unfair: no comments at all in challenge, and none post challenge. Well, as I write this, there is none. And not even, by a slender margin, the back-handed consolation of a brown.
The General\'s immense body of work at DPC may not be regularly distinguished by the standards of popular acclaim, nor distinguished by the even more difficult-to-attain standards of unpopular acclaim (as in jmritz et al), but it is nonetheless distinguished in another worthy way, and often rewards a longer look.
Paul, GeneralE, is a fellow of substantial intellect, erudition and wit. That much is self-evident from the forums. But it also sneaks pretty regularly into his photographs, as in the case of this ’un.
He often tests the question of what is truly creative, and what is merely engaging. This photograph is visually unpretentious but has more substance, intellectually and photographically, than many that finished nearer the other end of the field. What could be more witty - more artistic even - than to use a rubber band as a personification of self? A metaphor for contemporary angst? Stretched. Showing an imminent fault line under the strain. Implying a real emotion, rather than something obviously contrived and counterfeit, signifying nothing.
I'm not saying it should have finished higher. Well, in truth, I am. This photograph is not derivative. It may be very simple, but it\'s not trite.
And I'm not saying that it should be hanging at the MOMA. It\'s not up there with Magritte and Banksy as a bit of social commentary. But I am saying that it deserved more consideration. And comment.
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