they are, invisible
by jmritz

Comment:
Sometimes, when I look at the latest DPC front page with dismay, I turn right to the back page and look for you. And then I am restored. But not for long, because there's going to be another front page in a day or two. So don't stop. Just don't. Yours is a humanitarian mission, John. You'll probably get a sainthood out of it, and well deserved too.

with the wind
by jagar

Comment:

Originally posted by Neat: Brilliant catch! You captured something special.

You think of this as a catch, Anita? Nothing was caught here. Imagined, breathed into being, and cradled there. No catching.

with the wind
by jagar

Comment:
I'd have given this a 10 if you weren't a team mate. It's the difference between a chord (in this case a beautiful minor chord) and the clumsy single notes played by dullards. Thank you.

mom
by tnun

Comment:
This is a welcome, cooling draught in a parched desert of disappointment.

By interrogating the headstone alone, and eschewing the contrived, you have elevated the challenge theme.

Here is the memorial, and within it the suggestion of the presence still of Mater Nostra. She looks darkly, desperately out at us; hardly discernible yet indubitably there in her compassion and her regrets.

The photograph transcends by a country mile the otherwise predictable stuff that has characterised this paint-by-the-numbers challenge.

Yours is an image that affirms the idea that less is indeed more.

It's a 10 for you (my next highest score was 6). Also the appalling burden of the Order of the Blue Thumb, for which I apologise as it's pretty much the kiss of death in the popular voting. Thank you.

Portrait of a hotel morning
by Paul

Comment:
Hard to credit the cool reception given this photograph. That anyone who loves photography could fail to love this. You must despair, sometimes? Me, I'd like to confiscate 68 cameras, and revoke their owners' carry permits for life.

The Bumpy Road for African Woman
by kasaba

Comment:
I'm biased because I live here and have seen these desperately sad signs many times. But my bias aside, this is still a terrific photograph of the crushing weight of dismal reality that descends on African women, whether they like it or not. Most people won't get this part, but you have suggested the burden borne upon the head, and that's brilliant. I prefer to think that you intended it, so there. Beautiful, awful (literally) photograph that rises far above the formulaic rubbish that seems to have characterised this challenge. 10 and a shared Blue Thumb for you, and Ndiyabulela Enkosi.

Noir
by odriew

Comment:
Thank Goodness for you. I was voting in deep and increasing despair, and going down for the last time until you came along and threw this lifeline. Blue Thumb (shared), 10 and thank you.

between 8 and 6
by Abra

Comment:
This is unexpected, and wonderfully so. Mad hair. But this is also a wonderful demonstration of how to overcome a deathly dull challenge topic with imagination and flair. I hope all the people who punted will look at this and learn something. Faint hope, I suppose. Red Thumb for you, and a 10 and my thank you for this interesting photograph.

Checking the north bound buses
by markwiley

Comment:
Love this. Sparkling sharp photography, and I do not refer to focus. It's a shared Yellow Thumb for you, plus a 9 and a thank you.

Mercer & Prince
by Barroness

Comment:
Bewitchingly lovely. I'd have been thrilled beyond measure to have taken this photograph. It's so perfectly, elegantly balanced between complexity and simplicity. It's wonderful. It's a shared Yellow Thumb for you, and a 9 and my thank you for elevating this challenge with some imagination and art.