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10/03/2002 10:29:51 AM · #26 |
Thanks Gordon -- of all the elements in this picture, I really didn't think the camera/cameraman would spark that much controversy. It's quite clearly (too me) just a guy with an old view camera. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised based on how well my Something Old entry did. *grin*
I know I have an unfair advantage in critiquing this pic, since I know where it comes from, but I still try to play like I don't know when I'm critiquing.
You're all right that at first glance it appears to be a newspaper shot, but the longer I look at it the less that feels the case. Documentary, yes, but not for a newspaper. A good photo for a newspaper should answer the 5 Ws and H of the journalistic world although it may need a title to set the stage. (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How for those of you who are thinking, "Huh?") Even knowing the title of the piece, I only get a couple of those questions answered. Who are all the men standing around? If, as you've all correctly surmised, this is a crime scene, then I want to see their faces and try to put names to them.
OK, photo as art... the composition works really well. The direction each of the men face coupled with the leading line of the post all draw the eye to the object (which I will leave unnamed for now). There's also a nice circular feel to everything as your eye moves down the post, looks at the objects at its base, moves over to the feet of the guy in the lower left and then up around the men and back to the top of the post.
While it's hard to tell from this particular image, I believe that everyhting that needs to be in focus probably is. Some of you may argue that the objects at the base of the post need more detail in order to make them out, and based on this image I'd agree. I think it's just too small.
Nicely exposed throughout with perhaps a bit too much blow out on the top of the post. I'm guessing the photogpraher used a flash. (It looks like it might be a lamp post, but there's not enough light on the ground to justify that to me.) There is enough detail there to burn that in a bit though and remove a little of that blown out quality, so I'm a little curious as to why that wasn't done.
In terms of negative space, there isn't much here, but what does exist is used perfectly. That shaft of light which falls from top right to object at the base of post is another attention focusing element. (Of course in terms of what we're seeing, it was also probably accidental for this photograph. I'd guess the photog in the pic needed some light on the object and told people to back off to give it to him.)
Finally, for those of you who are "anti-title," see what a title can do to give you that extra little clue you need to read a pic??? *grin*
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10/03/2002 01:44:33 PM · #27 |
PEEETTTELLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
What title. |
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10/03/2002 01:53:57 PM · #28 |
Nope, not until tomorrow -- critique the photo for crying out loud. That's what the thread is for. :-)
That's what everybody always argues: "The title isn't important." So, make do without. :-)
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10/03/2002 01:58:46 PM · #29 |
| *looks crosseye, slaps forehead* I thought I already did that. First responce? and it's not a lamppost it's a gerder. |
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10/03/2002 02:20:32 PM · #30 |
As other have said it looks like a crime scene-mystery shot. I think this shot is from the early 50's, ..in Chicago under the 'L'..a gangland/mob killing. Their body language is somber, it's rained and the mood is 'down'.
I don't like that I can't see their faces but I can see the dead guy's face. Maybe that's the point and it's just over my head.
* This message has been edited by the author on 10/3/2002 2:19:05 PM.
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10/03/2002 02:26:44 PM · #31 |
Ohh, PATELLA!! ARG!! The anticipation is almost worse than waiting for Sunday night DP Challenge change over. I want to know the answer to this mysterious photo. I know I'm not being very patient, but this is cruel...LOL.
Now that I'm looking at the picture again, I'm thinking that the post we see is a bridge support. The light is coming from a street lamp close to the bridge. I still think that the object that they are all looking at is a child's stuffed animal.
Oh, I do agree that the title of a photo is as important as the photo itself. I can hardly wait to see what the title is to this one.
Thanks, Gordon, for the explaination of the old camera. I'm always up for learning something new.
Connie |
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10/03/2002 03:14:42 PM · #32 |
I believe both the objects under the post/girder/support are the same thing -- heavy duty shopping bags. The one being photographed is opened with packaging emerging from the top. The one on "this" side of the post is still closed. Given the nature of the packages they would have come from a high-priced store.
Is this an advertising shoot of some kind?
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10/03/2002 03:19:00 PM · #33 |
Okay, here's the title: Murder under the Bridge
(soon to be released on PBS as a four part series).
We already gave our art critique, granted it was buried under a lot of evidence speculations. It is an effective picture as it tells a story and it works up a great deal of imagination. I didn't care that the most important props were not clearly discernible but it would induce the viewer to read the accompanying article, assuming it was a piece of photojournalism and it also adds to the mystery and the suspense. Maybe the props were so gory that as a matter of delicacy they were not clearly shown but merely hinted at. The fact that all faces are hidden or cropped adds to the sinister aspects of the scene. It adds gravity to the circumstances. The lights get you to the props. Unlike what you said Patella, I feel the photographer automatically induces a lot of attention and I wonder why he is so significant in this shot. Is the shot meant to put out the thoroughness of the police evidence gathering on a crime scene? The purpose of this picture is not to show the crime scene so much as the photographing thereof. Perhaps the guy making this shot is the actual perpetrator of the crime, standing on the bridge above. Criminals like to hang around the crime scene to see what effect their deeds have. :) (I will probably have a great deal of egg on my face when I hear who actually made this picture).
Patella, I have given a title, a critique of sorts, and demonstrated in tiresome posts the high visual impact it had on me. I have done my homework, tell us now what this is. Cough it up, Patella! |
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10/03/2002 04:12:10 PM · #34 |
Nope -- not til tomorrow -- I have a method to these critiques (the ones that work anyway) and I'm sticking with it.
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10/04/2002 10:47:14 AM · #35 |
Artist: WEEGEE (Arthur Fellig)
Title: Human Head Cake Box Murder
I highly recommend the Masters of Photography website, even though the stuff is all from an "older" generation of photographers. Maybe you have to be X years old to be a master -- or maybe dead...
I will also warn you now, many of WEEGEE's pictures are disturbing. Many/most all portray death, murder, and/or mayhem. If I'm reading it correctly, the most disturbing to me is Their First Murder.
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10/04/2002 11:41:14 AM · #36 |
This is a nice shot for critique... when I spoke earlier of ignoring composition in 'photojournalism' photos, I was not implying that this one has poor composition. This one is composed rather well considering the circumstances in which it was made. I just don't think that journalistic photos have to be composed well to serve their purpose in most cases.
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10/04/2002 11:36:35 PM · #37 |
Thanks Patella for coming clean and also for giving us this fine art critique. Interesting, isn't it, that in the Human Head in the Cake Box image all except one are headless, either by having their face hidden by their hat or by having their head cropped out of the picture! Nice touch. I thought this was a terrific picture. I like Weegee a lot, so thanks for bringing him to my attention. Besides First Murder I also thought Booked for Killing a Policeman and Murder in Hell's Kitchen were very powerful.
Mmmm, First Murder. I wonder whether this would make a good dpc challenge :) (It would keep the number of submissions down and help those poor voters faced with so many submissions). And perhaps lateron followed by a Your Corner of Prison challenge. I could see dpc moving into entirely new directions with these proposed challenges and help the photographers to get out of the cliché trap. |
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