Pause
by markwiley

Comment:
what a capture!

Eye Contact
by pointandshoot

Comment:
This image is amazingly anthropomorphic and therefore so well titled. It has some resonance of JJ's fantastic photograph with the same title which I am sure was intentional.
The shadow looming over the multitude is like a fervid orator.
Excellent

three stories
by jmritz

Comment:
I imagine you John with a tiny camera that has a tremendous capacity of zooming into one's heart, standing in the middle of the road and marveling. Your camera is never mean, always compassionate, sometimes baffled, sometimes annoyed and sometimes carrying the weight of the world.

MB1A2710
by chalice

Comment:
Your story works so much better on your website blog.
It's a brave subject and you created a good pace for the viewer. It reminded me of a French expression:
"métro, boulot, dodo" a wonderfully succinct way of saying that you live to work. Métro refers to a subway commute, boulot is an informal word for work, and dodo is baby talk for sleeping. Same old routine, same old routine.

The question in my mind was why you chose B&W and color and I feel that I am missing the point.
There is also a big difference between processing which could be intentional but again, I am at loss to understand it.

I am totally taken by how you developed the idea, particularly showing the slicing of the arm, your story teller. The whole day is truncated and shaped into same mold.

a
by daisydavid

Comment:
Your session of photographs seem to be made for that music. I looked at the essay without soundtrack and what happened is that I only had favorites and did not see the glue between them or was too keen on why some were in color, some in B&W.
Everything works so well together and it's paced so beautifully that I waited for each note to lead me to its image.

When I go to the Opera and I see the subtitles I regret the time when we were left to sink into the music and the visuals only. Most of the time I knew well the libretto but always tried to leave it behind. Conversely I wish that I in your essay I did not understand the lyrics. but this is a minor point and totally subjective.

I particularly like the vulnerability expressed in your film.

free study
by tnun

Comment:
Gave this beauty a 10, what else?

Cochin 0001
by salmiakki

Comment:
I am amazed that you don't consider this as an essay - well, perhaps we should have titled all this as "Collections" instead of essays.

Had the privilege of seeing already some of these photographs and as I told you previously, felt like experiencing the "1001 Indian nights", the flavor, the sweetness and the harrowing stories also.
You seem to engage with the people and this relaxed relationship shows in your photographs.
I wish I could learn more of this country as seen by you.

1
by markwiley

Comment:
You get me all the time with these captures Mark. The fact that you organized them this time in a collection makes them even more powerful. The collection is more then just "commuters".
I would love once to look at our subway images and observe the Chicago versus NYC! Alas, since I have a larger camera, still small though, I find myself less invisible as before. I'd love to accompany you and just observe you.
Please keep contributing to the essay topic. It's a delight to follow your stories

WhatHappens
by ubique

Comment:
I look at this as a marvelous tribute to randomness. But it's constructed like a piano etude and thus the suggestion of:
"discover what the camera sees that you don't"
is one way of approaching photography. (actually it happens to be my way also.)
Of all things visible what appears in a photograph is always invisible to the eye and surprises us.

I particularly like the pace of this piece, the moment of questioning the exercise.
Wonderful

Importance of the First Impression
by posthumous

Comment:
I listened to your first impressions piece several times until I found that what I was really experiencing was a period of REM. Yours.
We quite recently found out that REM, a rapid eye movement in a stage of sleep is that unit in which certain memories are consolidated and in which this energized sleep forms associative elements into new combinations.
The scientists say that during REM, the activity of the brain's neurons is quite similar to that during waking hours only that it depends on the age and complexities of the individual to make something of this stage of paradoxical sleep.

They also say that:
"According to studies, the mental activity that takes place during NREM (non-rem) sleep is believed to be thought-like, whereas REM sleep includes hallucinatory and bizarre content"

I could not follow each of the points of the essay properly since at times my mind reacted in a contradictory way and had moments when I would have said: but au contraire Monsieur! And then I realized that your composed voice with a pleasing tone paradoxically accompanied the flow of images and created, yes, a POEM.
Chapeau!