Look to the future
by snaffles

Comment:
I like this very much. There is a lamentable tendency at DPC to believe that every portrait should have 'tack-sharp' focus on the eyes, and that every pore should be smoothed. But this superb photograph shatters all that. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the photography and the forensic mood of the lighting and composition are perfectly suited to the motivation of the portrait. You give us a three-dimensional person. Imagination. Anxiety. Unease. But not panic; there's a hint of resolution there as well. I'd put my trust in this person. 9.

Farrier's Work
by izadoodle

Comment:
First selective desaturation I ever saw that I really liked. But it's not really the selective desat that makes it; it's the selective focus. 8.

Time
by badger88

Comment:
Makes me think of Prince. Or the artist formerly known as Prince. Whoever he is now. 8.

dis'con·nec'tion
by Seanachai

Comment:
Well the theme is a good one, if not exactly rare (though this is a superior example) but the hidden gem within your hidden gem is that small, stout lady only part seen. Could she be clutching a cell phone too? Checking in with her office ... "Hi, it's me. No, totally bloody boring. No, nothing new at all. Complete waste of time. Any messages?"

Nuns on Ice
by Coley

Comment:
A classically good photograph. Or maybe I mean a good classical photograph. It's damn good (oops .. sorry, Sisters) either way. 8.

Redes
by Mambe

Comment:
Beautiful! Art in the most unexpected places. 7.

Giant
by RKT

Comment:
Yes it is. I wonder if I'd have made the connection if you hadn't used a title. I think so. I hope that I would have.

Anyway, even without that connection at all, this is a very good photograph about iconography. What's represented symbolically is just as palpable as that which is literally depicted. Maybe more so. Just goes to prove the old adage invented by me: "There never was a photograph that couldn't be improved by not including half the story." 9.

Lonely Party
by wacksonjackson

Comment:
I love those genuine hidden gem photographs that are so much better than they first appear (when it is the exact opposite - fool's gold - that is so much more common, both in this challenge and in the wider world).

It doesn't look like much at first glance, I admit that. But consider it just a moment longer and you see that it has substance. It obliges the viewer to get involved, to become a participant in the photograph, rather than to simply admire it. Nothing is certain: nothing is excluded either. I like it because it's not about photography, it's about the photograph. 9.

Footsteps
by shot

Comment:
This is wonderful. The almost-but-not-quite silhouettes, the high-contrast processing, the shadows not fully realized, and above all the odd 'unbalanced' composition all invite the viewer to look at this in a new way. I don't think any honest viewer can say, 'Oh yes, I've seen shots like this before.' Because there aren't any (or at least there are so few that it doesn't count). They walk with some shared sense of purpose, and each with arms caught pinned at the sides. Makes them look like they are playing a game of Simon Says. Maybe they are. 9.

Monumentous
by Lonz

Comment:
It's a simple idea, but one that would escape the notice of many. Would make a great book cover shot for a reprint edition of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. 7.