Life on Earth
by P-A-U-L

Comment:
What a standout this is! Surprising color, texture and composition that work together to create something more than a pretty picture of the sky. Can't stop looking.

The Ride
by vawendy

Comment:
While I'm not typically a fan of this type of stylized color processing, in this came it creates an image that stands out and brings creativity to a challenge subject that yielded few images beyond documenting a dramatic sky. One of my top 3 this time

i love you too
by jmritz

Comment:

You've been POLM'ed.

Yep. Coming and going.

My Future
by Giles

Comment:

You've been POLM'ed.

... and a future worth envisioning, too.

70's
by Phocal

Comment:

You've been POLM'ed.

I've lived in that world. You nailed it.

just thoughts...
by lei_73

Comment:

You've been POLM'ed.

Oddly compelling. Wonderful processing and so nice to look at. Bravo.

Head in the clouds
by P-A-U-L

Comment:

You've been POLM'ed.

A startlingly beautiful image. Evocative. New and timeless at the same time. My highest score.

Message edited by author 2016-01-18 01:20:42.

Walk the dog
by posthumous

Comment:

Originally posted by posthumous: still wondering how I got beat by a battery charger.

Battery charger... electric dog... battery charger.... electric dog...

It's a grey area.

Number 9
by pixelpig

Comment:
Wow. I just don't give 10's very often. This one was an immediate 10 looking for the Spinal Tap amp that goes to 11. Congratulations!

Raining Under Manhattan Bridge
by insteps

Comment:
Hi Henry,

Nice to see this essay and the website where you've posted it. I plan on spending some time there poking around your earlier essays. It gives me a greater sense of who Insteps is. FWIW... Your challenge images are consistently among my highest scores.

Although I really lack confidence in my ability to critique an essay, (I am bit more comfortable with individual shots), I'll give this a shot.

The tile and cover photo caught my interest right away and I wasn't disappointed. I was also impressed with the imagery of your written text, it certainly amplified the effect of the images and worked to create a coherence that the images alone might not have created. I guess that's what essays are all about. And I don't mean to lessen the impact of the individual or set of photos, which would stand well alone, but the context is fascinating and onto something I had a clue about.

I really love the first image with a sense of busy-ness, congestion and dank environment. It is so well composed to take so many elements and present a sense of place and its separate but connected nature to the city. The second image really brings home the place you are exploring - growing up as a privileged white kid in southern California suburbs, it's hard to imagine anyone living like this. Also standing out to me is the powerful diptych of two women's faces (one on the poster and the one behind her umbrella). The two pigeons work well in sequence here, too.

The bright red fire escape contrasting with the drab grey of the day and the building works for me too... it brings my attention to the other similar splashes of color that you have sprinkled throughout. Perhaps my favorite image is the reflection of the bridge in a rain puddle, which you've also used to great effect in the banner link to the essay on your website.

In the end, I find this to be highly engaging and effective in providing context and a sense of place. It really is a complete work, despite my comments about individual images. It is what I would expect a well-crafted photo essay to be... a gestalt set of images (or images and text) that is "greater than the sum of its parts". [As an aside, I recently read on Wikipedia that the original quote from Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka, "The whole is other than the sum of the parts" is often incorrectly translated as "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"]

Thanks for sharing your work!

Message edited by author 2016-01-03 21:25:10.