Men-II.1
by mariuca

Comment:
I've had a quick look and I like it. How could I not? There are a couple of genuinely world-class photographs in there (and none at all that are anything less than excellent), but as ever your real impact is in the accumulation of observational wit and whimsy, on a bed of flat-out artistic accomplishment. But I'm very busy just now ... I'll be back in a day or 2 to leave you a proper comment. Thanks for submitting your invariably interesting stuff!

#7 and #9 are the two world-class photographs I was referring to, although now that I've looked longer I might be damning the remainder with faint praise. They're all so witty and engaging. You seem to be incapable of doing anything dull. If you cook as consistently well as you do this stuff, you'd be the perfect flatmate. Thank you!

Message edited by author 2014-11-03 14:32:19.

Le Flaneur - Sneak Brim
by insteps

Comment:
I've had a quick look and I like it. It's got that HF combination of gentle wit and sharp (in the figurative sense) photography. But I'm very busy just now ... I'll be back in a day or 2 to leave you a proper comment. Thanks for keeping this terrific exercise alive for us, and for submitting interesting stuff!

.... OK, back now following another inconspicuous stroll through your streets, looking over your shoulder.

This work is really fascinating Henry. Yes it's great fun on the superficial level, but there's way more than some street fun on offer here. The viewer must read the Baudelaire quote, and your own introduction, before setting out. Both are an indispensable guide to the journey.

The most captivating thing for me is the way that your shadow somehow inhabits the people on which it is placed. Maybe it's the recurring Tilley that gives your projected self a spectral quality. Maybe it's the fact that CP Baudelaire primed me for that illusion. Whatever, it's irresistible. I tried looking start to finish, and then finish to start, and it works either way ... you have projected yourself not onto but into your fellow travellers. The photography's very good, the craftsmanship's got your usual effortless touch, but the photography never gets in the way of the essay of Le Flaneur.

It's photography elevated into language; pictures to words; symbols to thoughts. You've made a sort of Rosetta stone for photographers. Thank you.

Message edited by author 2014-11-01 04:25:05.

Will he survive?
by lei_73

Comment:
I've had a quick look and I like it. I share your love of shadow magic. But I'm very busy just now ... I'll be back in a day or 2 to leave you a proper comment. Thanks for submitting interesting stuff!

OK back now for a longer look. Great titles! You funny. The shadows transform the original person into someone else. Jekyll & Hyde. It's a very clever and interesting theme for an essay ... I've done one that was similar in the past, but yours is more fun. But beyond the fun there's another level, which is the way that a photograph can reveal things not visible to the naked eye. This shadow theme is just one example of that extrasensory vision you get ΓΆ€“ and we get ΓΆ€“ by looking through your camera, but it's a very good one. Thank you.

Message edited by author 2014-11-01 03:55:06.

overlap of the generations
by daisydavid

Comment:
I am a world-class sucker for multiple exposures, collations and juxtapositions. It's my restless imagination: only about 1% of single exposure photographs hold my attention for longer than a single second, while 99% of multiple exposures thrill and fascinate me infinitely. Your images here are endlessly stimulating. They can be relished on any (or all) of several levels: nostalgia, pure aesthetic, craftsmanship. But for me the most substantial of the many qualities of this collection is that it invites the viewer to personalise the images to fit his/her own history, family and experience. It's an adventure with a different story at every reading. Who could ask for more than that?

Individual comments:
ΓΆ€ΒΆ overlap of the generations : 10/10. This one became self for me. A little melancholy it left me, reflecting on mortality.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ reconstructions of the past: 9/10. Evoked the connection between people and places, made me reflect on paths taken within a family, and the disparate fates involved.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ beginnings and endings: 5/10. The only one that didn't much engage me. I probably rebelled against the excessive solarity, a word I think I have invented as my excuse.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ devotions of the landscape: 7/10. Almost got me, but just a tiny bit too accessible to thrill. Does that sound overly-affected? Yes, I think it does.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ Marcia and the sunrise: 10/10. Nearly too easy, but like many wonderful things its apparent simplicity is whatever is the opposite of 'flatters-to-deceive'. It's more complex and more lovely with every moment's consideration.

A beautiful reflection and contemplation. Thank you.

Message edited by author 2014-10-31 02:27:05.

Selfie
by insteps

Comment:
You're the one in the hat, right?

e pluribus
by tnun

Comment:
Merde! You were, I swear it, my top pick. But I never got any comments nor final scoring done. So your intended ten was just a place-card seven, and the moving thumb never writ. I think this is the second time I've neglected you in this shabby way in recent months, and I'm sorry. These birds are like no others. I could tell you stories of them from my youth; they knew me as a boy on the high country farm, and they always knew from 200 yards or more whether or not I was feeling bloody and carrying a rifle. But I never shot even one, though my father hated them and would've winked at me and called me 'cobber'.

Edit to add: title's sublime, and worth the seven just on its own.

Message edited by author 2014-10-27 07:43:26.

they smile in your face
by jmritz

Comment:
And I smile in yours. Have a 9. Thank you.

total unfairness
by mariuca

Comment:
Wonderful nonsense, but it's a very good photograph too, with some less obvious flourishes fleshing out the more blatantly comic details. The creature's gaze makes clear what would be happening without those restraining barriers; certainly unfair for both the creature and for us.

What is the person beneath the brolly doing? Reading a newspaper? A map? A map and a newspaper?

The paint spill's an excellent touch and I hope that you did that yourself. It suggests what happened to the last innocent bypasser; before the barriers were deployed. The emerald green's good too; the red and the blue would be diminished without the green. Much fun in this photograph, so thank you. A 10 is yours, and inside the packet is an Order of The Thumb in long-wearing recycled plastic.

the sentinel (umbrela revolution)
by Tiberius

Comment:
Love this. All those chrome yellows and ice blues; it's visually fabulous. Also remarkably well ordered and composed for something you could control only in terms of your own positioning. And it's a very sweet bit of social commentary too, comprising the simple and inoffensive juxtaposed with the symbol of the big bucks in the background (and a nameless void hovering behind that).

You can't spell umbrella, but that don't mean nothin' ... half the people voting on this will think that Hong Kong is a really big gorilla.

Anyway, it's a real photograph of an unexpected but real deployment of the umbrella as both sword and shield. Almost certainly the most significant event in the 2000-odd-years of umbrella history. And you were there, and got a brilliant shot ... better and more contemplative than most photojournalists would have come up with: the tear gas canisters bouncing off the parasols. Yours is better, and has more depth, than such predictable bromides. Have a 10 and an Order of the Thumb. Thank you.

Partially Obscured
by markwiley

Comment:
I never got around to specifying just what it is about this photograph that so impressed me. It's this: The most visually prominent player is the Magritte poster, next most prominent is the wee girl, and third is the Monty Python Lady. So you'd think that that would be the order of their respective contributions to the effectiveness of the photograph. But I reckon it's actually the reverse; the lady is the real star of this show (she's the destination), the thumb-sucking kid is the link and the Magritte poster is the start point ... the establishing shot, in cinematic terms. Together they're a triangle, but the lady agog is the apex. The other triangle is the three minor players, all facing away from us and positioned with a studied randomness; just another layer of wit & whimsy.

And the whole picture is the perfect illustration of the Magritte quotation in your Comments section. The promise of meaning ricochets around the frame in these overlapping triangles, and never does get settled. Meaning is tantalisingly close to our grasp ΓΆ€“ teases us ΓΆ€“ but escapes.

I loved this picture. Again, thank you.