The barren soul
by Dennisheckman

Comment:
I have seen this before (by which I mean superficially similar pictures) but this is a beautiful example. Its Spartan composition is what makes it a standout for me: so much fine detail made irrelevant by the overall effect. It's a found Zen garden. 9. Thank you.

swing
by bvy

Comment:
An absolutely wonderful example of the photographer's transformative art. Part hint of Rothko, part spoor some other painter whose name I can't remember. It's an elegant, beautiful, deeply absorbing canvas that never existed but for your brief intervention, and continues to not exist even now, but for your photograph. The tonal blocks are perfectly harmonious, like a musical chord made visible, and the yellows link all the parts into a whole. I really can't recall any photograph in my ten years at DPC that approaches this as exemplar of photography as art.

10. Thank you. Add an Order of the Thumb to the many accolades that I expect this picture to attract.

thrust
by jagar

Comment:
What a picture of delights, wit & whimsy!
So many wonderful connections; the boy and the truck comparing horsepower (and emissions!); the woman and the man balanced on their concrete see-saw; the perfect triangle of the three players.
Then there's the grid. And of course the shadows making each of them into two people, two personalities.
Then there's the score, which is a 10. And then there's the Order of the Thumb, which is compulsory here. Thank you.

where the sky ends
by posthumous

Comment:
Improbably beautiful. Perfectly judged tones; perfectly judged everything, really. You have made a virtue of everything that would have failed to attract and stimulate a lesser photographer. The result is a singular and thrilling picture. Thank you. 10. And the Order of the Thumb slipped under the wire.

fugue
by skewsme

Comment:
If all botanicals were as interesting and absorbing as this, I'd be a lot more appreciative of the genre. What a beautiful, captivating image this is! 9. Thank you.

Dreamer
by insteps

Comment:
Very nice photograph that's more complex with each moment's appreciation. The girl and her guardian are the obvious play of course, but the supporting cast are all right on their marks, adding another layer of pleasure for the viewer. Imagine if any one of the minor players (including the flags) was in a different spot, or doing something else other than what they are doing. The photograph would be diminished. But they aren't, and it isn't. 9. Thank you.

hover
by undieyatch

Comment:
It's a quite beautiful thing, this photograph. The relative weight, one side versus the other, animates the bird, the picture as a whole, and the imagination. 9. Thank you.

the telling of it
by jmritz

Comment:
Yes, that's good stuff. Sidesteps all the usual mind-numbing constrictions of 'good' photography, and arrives deftly at a good photograph; at an interesting, dynamic photograph. It's one of those contrary pictures that thumbs its nose at convention and carries it off comfortably. 8. Thank you.

From The Shadows
by insteps

Comment:
Henry.

It̢۪s always a pleasure to look at your photographs, and it̢۪s always a pleasure to see a foreign culture through educated and sympathetic eyes. So this is a double pleasure indeed!

The great benefit of an educated (in the sense of local familiarity) foreigner as a guide is that we get the best of both worlds: insight into the soul of the culture, and understanding of what will most comprehensibly depict that essence for a less educated foreign audience. So what we get is a more elegantly poised narrative than could be delivered by a genuine local, and also a more textural and reflective view than could be offered by a casual tourist.

Let’s talk pure photography first. These are all the flawless, visually literate B&W images for which I’ve 'known' you all these years – but that said, I still say that you’re getting better at it all the time. The photography is so clear and pure that it can come only from a deep passion for the craft of photography, and comfort in that place. The subliminal message I get is that not one technical aspect is forced, nor contrived. It’s effortless craftsmanship, and I don’t think you (Henry) could now do it any other way. So like a writer who has mastered the tool kit of language and its usage, and for whom the words no longer get in the way, for you the photography no longer gets in the way.

And that leads to the next dimension, which is artistry. The conversion of craft into art.

The choices you̢۪ve made in terms of subjects, points-of-view and composition are very satisfying for your audience. There̢۪s variation, conventional, unexpected, contrasting, refreshing; all the beautifully structured sequences and sensations that one would experience in one of those fabulous Asian meals composed of many tiny courses.

So I say there̢۪s two levels of artistry in this essay. The obvious one is the artistry of the photographs individually. The less obvious but ultimately more appreciated one is the effect of your having orchestrated a feast of many tiny courses, all connected, directly and indirectly; all dependent on the others for the proper appreciation of their full flavor and texture.

The fact that you know all this, and that you intended the effect, is evident especially in your final course of a fish in a water glass. That's the very kind of surprise exclamation point that a great Asian chef is likely to present to his guests as his final course.

It̢۪s a beautiful essay Henry. Enjoyable on every level from the superficial to the considered to the theatrical. And I suppose I must now say to the gastronomic too. It̢۪s professional standard stuff; actually quite a bit better than the usual professional photo essay in this cultural/sociological vein.

A wonderful start to our month of essays. Thank you.

johnny angel
by jmritz

Comment:
Still crazy. After all these years.
Thank you.