Just Another Day At The Beach
by muur88

Comment:

Originally posted by posthumous: A photograph is limited. In most cases, it's just a little flat square trying to convey a world. One of the few tools a photographer has is the illusion of a third dimension, depth. This creates more "room." muur88 makes full use of this room, with his 4 characters each at very different depths, and moving in different directions. Notice they create a triangle in this illusory dimension. The boy runs along the hypotenuse. The joy of the photo comes from the energy of 4 completely disconnected characters being arbitrarily tied together. Most memorable photographs remind us in some shocking or subtle way that they are capturing the briefest moment... or perhaps more aptly, a space between moments, when something is about to end and begin, to dissolve and change. Not only do these character not belong with each other, they do not belong in the setting, which seems like it would be more comfortable in emptiness. But don't get me wrong: chaos does not equal art. The trick here is to balance on the edge of chaos, show these elements not belonging but present them in a precarious momentary balance. For example, the triangle I mentioned, and how it's echoed by a triangle of birds which seem to be pouring out like smoke from the chimney. The point here is to be right and wrong at the same time, a classic Surrealist strategy. If you do not like Surrealism, if you do not want to be disoriented or a little frightened, you will not like this photo.

This transcendent appreciation should have a permanent place on the front page at DPC. If everyone would look at this image and read this comment – perhaps once a week or so – it would elevate the corporate standard of both photography and thought here. This is a little unusual I know, but I hereby award to posthumous the Order of the Thumb for his comment.

S H I I T A K E S
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Yes, but they taste so good!

Cherry
by Ecce_Signum

Comment:
What a terrific dog pic! Really a ripper.
But wait ... I've got a dog; Gus (the Magnificent). Better brace yourself.

Motorcycle Diary
by Germaine

Comment:
I see a 'splat' moment approaching. He'll leave a nasty mark on that white wall.

feed
by ErinM

Comment:
I can't believe it! I saw this exact same horse just yesterday. He'd been eating green oats then, too.

T minus zero
by Kali

Comment:
Just quite brilliant, and the best photograph in this challenge. The subject of a child flying a paper plane would normally be a sure recipe for sentimentality to the point of schmaltz. Cute little freckled face, intense little Norman Rockwell determined expression, tongue protruding in concentration, and so on ad nauseam. And all of it then grotesquely over-processed as if by Liberace's interior decorator.

And yet this photograph is instead so totally original and so entirely absent any hint of cliché. The arm boldly obscuring the face, thus giving accent to the fingers reaching for flight; the plane cocked into the launch position and illuminated by a beam of light: all wonderful. The strange point-of-view, anchored and validated by just enough marginal trees to ward off vertigo in the susceptible viewer: more wonderful. And the hint of blur – just enough to animate the launch – as well as the simple and sympathetic toning and processing: wonderful again.

But of all its outstanding qualities, if I could encourage other viewers to reflect on just one it would be the counter-intuitive marvel that the photograph is made so much more powerful because the child's face is not seen.

This is the camera used with real purpose: to sound out the imagination of both photographer and viewer. It's the best photograph of 2008, and one of the very best here of any year. 10. And also the dubious distinction of the Order of the Thumb:

Dancer
by kvickrey

Comment:
Yes. That's a lovely photograph with the perfect hint of movement. I think that little girls of this age slip in and out of their own private world whenever it suits them, and this seems to be just such a moment. Not a word I'd normally use, but "enchanting" seems an appropriate comment here. A very fine image, simply presented and all the more beguiling for that simplicity. 9.

The Hour Of Gold
by molliefestus

Comment:
Such a beautiful study of a simple subject. A perfect balance of forces ... light, movement, tone, form: it's simpatico in every way. 9.

interaction
by sigrun_th

Comment:
This is an astonishingly good bit of seeing. Knowing this was there is really the breathtaking part ... after which the actual photograph, as good as it is, is just a mere detail.

Panopticon
by zarniwoop

Comment:
This is terrific, and the fact that it's so oddly composed and blurred makes it all swim uncertainly around the protagonist's head. I suppose it's more correctly a reverse panopticon, in that a single point (the man) is seen from everywhere else. When seen in a flock like this, those CCTV cameras are even more malevolent-looking, aren't they?