upyours
by bvy

Comment:
Ai Weiwei. Thank you.

Liberté d'Expression
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by marnet: I am amazed how many comments here are about the photography and how few about the issue. ...

I think it's because the issue is difficult and not well understood. Most of the Je Suis Charlie poseurs, both universally and at DPC, are inconsistent at best and hypocritical more likely. They say, "I believe in freedom of speech but that doesn't give the right to be offensive", which actually means, "I do not believe in freedom of speech".

In your own case, just to pick a random example, you declare yourself in the first comment on this photo to be Charlie, and declare that solidarity with Charlie Hebdo is very Important to you. You declare your refusal to live in fear. And you conclude by wrapping yourself in the French flag.

But your record contrasts sharply with these declarations. You have several times in the past said, quite unequivocally, that you do not want any comments on your work that are not favourable. You have in the past had a perfectly legitimate negative comment on the artistic merits of a photograph removed by SC simply because you didn't like it, and then you gleefully celebrated your censorship in a subsequent forum post.

Christophe, in his original challenge proposal, pointed out that DPC is a community of artists, and that freedom of expression is especially important to artists. But he didn't mean merely saying it's important via a slogan. He meant actually living and working by it. As did Charlie Hebdo. Vous n'êtes pas Charlie.

Message edited by author 2015-01-26 23:36:51.

like back in the summer of '69
by Neat

Comment:
Very nice indeed. Great implied stop motion effect with the divers. Thank you.

Chase
by MargaretNet

Comment:
I love this photograph. It's filled with life and charm and movement and contrasts. It's a delight in every way. Thank you.

For aince it’s toomed my hert and brain, the thistle needs maun fa’ again.
by posthumous

Comment:
It swooped around me. Just when I felt I was looking in the right direction, you disappeared, and then came up behind me, passed me by with a sort of chuckle. Or maybe I disappeared, and found myself approaching you, or where you'd been moments before, afresh.

I never quite felt oriented. But there were lines of force crackling all around, though not very loud. Just loud enough.

Henry's right, about the pact between the pictures and the words. I felt like you were teasing, in places, but you often have that will o' the wisp quality.

I did not follow everything. But I don't think I was meant to follow. I don't think that's what you wanted. It was more like a hall of mirrors (slightly ugly characterisation, sorry), with a different Don in every mirror.

Your reaction to your own pictures is very like your reaction to PH Award pictures, brevity and pith. A sort of distillation.

There were some beautiful allusions though; stand alone sparklers. The energy of the mystery ... Lost but comfortable, et al. Parts even greater than their sum, perhaps.

And, "This is what it looks like from my brain, someone is running toward me like he is trying to become me."

But the most beautiful of all was, "the calamity hardly seen, a volcano that fits in your hands has ruptured, has surrendered what's inside of it,"

An essay wrapped in the spirit of its subject. A philosophical onomatopoeia.
Thank you.

ETA I forgot to say, the pictures are more lovely for the words. No surprise there, but I mention it for the wretched souls who insist that a picture needs no words, nor even title.

Message edited by author 2015-01-04 02:02:19.

stick and water bottle
by 2mccs

Comment:
"I was not aware of any thoughts ..."

And that shortens the connection between your soul and mine. Your imagination and mine.

So the reception becomes preternaturally clear. No static.

Beautiful conversation. Thank you.

ETA:

"What if I took a series of photographs with nothing in mind before, during or after? What if I just left everything up to the fates? "

That's an exercise in pure curiosity, and curiosity is the deepest cut of all in art. Without curiosity, nothing else matters. It's immensely audacious. Thank you again.

Message edited by author 2014-12-30 13:31:36.

001
by daisydavid

Comment:
Crikey, this is a beautiful photograph! The elegance of your eye sings so sweetly.

The essay is lovely and loving. Shadows are a few of my favourite things. And the delicious caramel tones are beautiful. Perfect key for this music.

The first and last photographs are also perfect as a pair of loosely matched bookends.

It's never less than a sensual pleasure. Thank you.

December Photo Essay: Reflecting on Automobiles
by jomari

Comment:
Your stuff's always interesting Marion. This essay isn't quite as absorbing for me as was your terrific Wrecking Yard essay, but that's only because these pictures are easier to resolve than were the much more abstract wrecking yard images.

But it's still a clever and reflective (groan) series in which the total effect exceeds the sum of the parts, and there's a coherent point of view. So the interest in any one picture is multiplied by its relationship to the others and to the artistic theme.

Next I'd like to see an essay about sweeping those paths. Or about not sweeping them. Probably the latter would be the most fun, in your hands.

You always entertain and very often surprise with wry points of view that attest to your youthful (well done you!) curiosity and your lively intellect. And you always leave a smile on my dial. Thank you.

Protected
by MargaretNet

Comment:
Margaret, we don't often see things eye to eye. Maybe we never have done, in the past. But now ... now this is a charming essay, of which you ought to be proud.

You are a good, accomplished photographer. That's not in question. Your tastes are not mine, but that doesn't prevent my appreciating the essential beauty of this essay. Or perhaps I should say this collection. This album.

Because it's not really an essay, in the literal sense, ... but perhaps I'm just being overly literal. I want an essay to have a narrative that is more ambitious than the sum of its parts. I enjoy an essay that proposes, even if only by implication, a point of view that is unfamiliar, or uncomfortable. Something that presents a position of which I would not have thought, but for the essayist's premise.

But looking at this presentation, I wonder if I'm being too conservative? Too hidebound? You've made a virtue of the light touch here. It may be (for my taste only) the Barry Manilow take on photo essays, but I can't deny its charm, nor its beauty. It's a satisfying experience in terms of imagery and emotion.

I enjoyed this essay very much. Lovely photographs, and a deft touch in linking the whole together into a coherent production. Well done. I hope you'll do more collections in this charming vein.

Do you still fly in your dreams like kids do?
by lei_73

Comment:
Yes, that's a thrilling photograph. I didn't look at the Challenge because I couldn't stand yet another picture of waves smoothed into silken smoke by time. Your picture is a beautiful exception to the banal. Thank you.