freedom of speech
by FourPointX

Comment:
This is an automatic 10 from me. I have often thought much the same thing as the fellow on the right, and for much the same reasons, when reading some of the rant threads here at DPC.

Your 10 is not just a bonus for your shock value BTW, it's a considered judgement on the merits of the photograph as documentary art. There is much more going on than just the 'joust-of-signs'; there is an accusing finger (ironically pointing at 'God'), and there is the gay kiss as well (amounting to another kind of finger). And the 'PHOBIA' t-shirt. All of it contrasted with the serene ignorance of the perpetrator.

emergence
by daisydavid

Comment:
Ooops! Double comment as well. How appropriate.

Message edited by author 2011-02-19 03:03:41.

emergence
by daisydavid

Comment:
Thanks John. I love photographs like this (in this case it's double love). And I love the Steak 'n Kidney skyline too. Holga 120n you say? I looked at one yesterday, in a store. I'd buy it if I could be certain of getting a really 'bad' example. I've seen output of some that is bordering on the photographically respectable, which is of course quite unacceptable.

journey
by LevT

Comment:
Superb photograph. It's my top pick as the Best of 2010. My preferences more commonly run to strange, blurry, even willfully low-fidelity photographs, and not to those of the more literal style like this one. But this one is so good, so genuinely outstanding as a photograph of charm, interest and beauty, that not only can I not overlook it, I can't rank any photograph in the challenge ahead of it. Inspired composition, flawlessly executed, and absolutely alive with possibilities. And a very fine example of the fact that you don't have to be 'weird' to produce an original and durable photograph; but if you're not weird then you have to be very, very good indeed. I think this is comfortably in the top half dozen or so photographs ever at DPC.

I'd like to hope that this could be the first time in my six years here that I ever successfully predicted the blue ribbon, but given that it seems impossible to underestimate the popular taste of DPC I suppose my record as a judge will remain unblemished by success.

Firework
by odriew

Comment:
On Low-Fidelity Photographs:

I�m a dedicated fan of low-fidelity photographs, and this one is especially wonderful. It�s a bold gesture to offer this up as your best of 2010, because it will be dismissed with barely a thought by many of the voters, and you�ll likely be finishing down in the DPC dungeon with me I suppose. But you clearly know that already.

My love of photographs like this one of yours is driven by two opposed but connected impulses.

First, digital photography has reached the point where almost anyone can make an impressive image by buying the equipment and then slavishly copying the style and techniques of already popular photographers. You see it in the forums all the time � �How can I get this look?� etc. There's often even a bloody 'action' to be downloaded to guarantee the outcome! The resulting photographs of course all appear much the same, and are a triumph of style over substance. They may indeed look impressive but individually most are ephemeral and ultimately of no artistic or even photographic consequence whatsoever.

Second, I prefer in any case photographs that make some demands, that require the viewer to get inside the picture and experience it from there; from within. Within both self and image. Only a photograph that is in some sense unfinished � or at least only partly realised � by the photographer is capable of achieving that, at least to my satisfaction. That means photographs that don�t conform to the tedious bloody rules, photographs that leave bits of the story outside the frame, and that render what�s inside the frame with some degree of considered negligence. With a lack of fidelity, in other words.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the difference is that mine is right.

Ah, you want proof? Consider this: Look at almost any ribbon-winning image. Everything it has to offer is right there, unequivocal and complete. All of the potential experience of the image has already been had on your behalf, by the photographer; your job as its viewer is not to experience it at all, but simply to admire it. That�s all that�s been left for you.

Now look at this image, �Firework�, again. One could (and should) look at it a dozen times, and have a different experience each time. That�s because some of the photograph is indistinct, uncertain, ambiguous or even missing, and the job of the viewer is to add the incompletely articulated or missing stuff. And not just once; as many times and in as many ways as the photograph will allow.

That�s why I love low-fidelity photography, and it�s why this wondrous example of it is in my top two picks for the Best of 2010. Thank you.

Four Catastrophes
by pointandshoot

Comment:
I never tried to imagine The Four Catastrophes before, and this picture is probably the reason why I resisted ... I could not have imagined it half as well as you and your Cat have. This is a thrilling photograph, beautiful, witty, but also a little unsettling (like Garfield's Apocalypse might be), and I'll enjoy seeing it every day as it hangs on my imaginary 2010 wall of excellence. Thank you.

Flight
by xianart

Comment:
Just joy unbounded ... his of course; yours (unquestionably, given how sympathetically and beautifully you have preserved the moment here); and my own joy too, because this is now on my imaginary wall of 2010 excellence and I will be able to enjoy it anytime I want. Thank you.

sourthern california #3
by bspurgeon

Comment:
That cow looks unnaturally long... is it perhaps a bulb cow?

My Winter Friend
by jcar

Comment:
Well this is excellent! The photograph sucks a wee bit, but it's all the better for that because it's so apt for this modest but truly beautiful little snowman. He is quite perfect, immensely engaging and it's clear why you felt about him as you do (did). I hope he comes back next year, and in the meantime your photograph will look great hanging on my imaginary 2010 wall. I'll smile every time I see it. Thank you.

- I N C U B A T I O N -
by mycelium

Comment:
Beautiful. A glimpse inside creation (I mean real creation of course, not that other nonsense). There's something very moving about it, something about the fragility of existence. The tenuous hold we have on our own future. But its tone is optimistic, not defeatist. I'd be elevated every time I saw it, which I will because it is definitely on my imaginary 2010 wall of excellence. Thank you.