A Living
by JPR

Comment:
Philosophers.
"We build because we must...
....or an angel's wings
Robert Ward
(bear_music)

Very fine tribute, bear. In a style reminiscent of Herman Melville's forecastle philosophising, and worthy of that comparison, too!

six
by dragonlady

Comment:
Greetings from the Dead Critics Society!
There is much to like about this photograph. It's a very absorbing study of tone and shape, and the minimalist lighting was well chosen to accentuate those two qualities of the subject - tone and form. Several commentators endorsed your achievement in that respect.
Another comment, perhaps the most interesting and perceptive of all, applauded the "misleading" nature of the effect you have achieved. By this she clearly meant that the subject forks were presented in a way that disguised their identity, at least at first glance, but which instead revealed something important about their true nature or "personality" ... i.e. their clean, elegant lines, especially when seen as a group.
There are several things you have done to accomplish that in addition to the lighting; there's the top-and-tail arrangement of the forks, the cropping to exclude the tips and handles, and the rotation of the image to provide a less familiar viewpoint.
The result is two things. First, ambiguity. Ambiguity is always good in an artwork, because it forces into gear the brain of even the most lazy of viewers (well, maybe not literally the most lazy, otherwise this would have appeared on the first page of the challenge results). Second, it reveals and celebrates an essential quality of the subject that we would probably have overlooked had it been instantly apparent that we were just looking at half a dozen forks. My first guess, if I were seeing this image without the context of the challenge topic, would have been some kind of fine glassware.
Possibly a greater depth of field may have satisfied those viewers who need to see everything in focus to avoid 'distraction'. It may even have thereby resulted in a higher score for this thoughtful image, but I'm not sure that would have added anything to the considerable artistic merits of your work.
And that's the point of my critique. Those photographic pedants with elaborate equipment and perfect technique may feel they could take a better photograph of forks. But what they would be failing to understand is that yours is a photograph about forks.

Eye for Colours
by librodo

Comment:

Originally posted by jsas: He must not have kids.

Of course he doesn't have kids ... look at his profile, read his comments; he is a kid.

The fashionism of...
by Aron5109

Comment:
Underestimated and misunderstood. Including by the photographer.

Private Thoughts
by cheegirl

Comment:
A very fine, evocative image. The composition is really very, very good. The thing I like best about this work is that you obviously knew what you had here, and so you excluded everything that wasn't it! The photograph is all the more powerful for that decision. 9.

Desert Tendrils
by crabappl3

Comment:
This is a beautiful, artistic image. This is almost certainly not what you were intending, but I can't help seeing it as a Pink Floyd album cover. It has the same stark, simple yet deeply layered quality as the best of their music. 9.

thinking
by arsenal

Comment:
Interesting how the most prosaic of subjects and the simplest of set-ups can result in a memorable and powerful image if (but only if) the original idea is a worthy one, clearly expressed and sympathetically executed. This is one of those! 9.

Window
by FranziskaLang

Comment:
A very appealing photograph; interesting in spite of its apparent simplicity. 8.

Nightstalker
by Imagineer

Comment:
A memorable, elegant photograph - brilliant composition and processing. And all of the comparitively spectacular major structural elements nevertheless play only a supporting role to the tiny, distant human figure! This is a confident and instructive work. 10.

after midnight - bus shelter in frost
by visaksen

Comment:
I love the somehow sci-fi feel of this shot, and also the sparse composition. One of the rare occasions in 'street photography' when the addition of a human figure would actually detract from the impact of the photograph. 8.