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11/20/2003 03:41:43 PM · #1 |
Not mine, I hasten to add - but one of the best sots on the site ...
Ed
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11/20/2003 04:24:08 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by e301:
but one of the best sots on the site ...
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Hmmm, technically OK, but stirs zero emotion so for me doesn't particularly work at all. I'm interested as to why you like this one so much above many other great shots on this site?
Ron.
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11/21/2003 04:44:36 AM · #3 |
i agree with ron.. it's a fine photograph.. but it is a little dull and seemingly without anything of a message or feeling attached to it.
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11/21/2003 07:45:31 AM · #4 |
there is some feeling of loneliness there I think
like all lights on but no one's home
like loneliness in a city
like deliberate isolation
=) or am I reading too much into the image? |
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11/21/2003 11:56:41 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by guobin:
there is some feeling of loneliness there I think
like all lights on but no one's home
like loneliness in a city
like deliberate isolation
=) or am I reading too much into the image? |
I think you're reading too much into this image... it's a reasonable stock photo of a gas station forecourt, nothing more.
Ron.
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11/21/2003 12:01:36 PM · #6 |
I wouldn't call the photographer a "sot", let alone "one of the best sots on this site"!!!! (hehehehehe)
I really like the picture. The colors and lighting are fun. Nice pic, Ed. |
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11/21/2003 12:27:16 PM · #7 |
As someone once driving with a family through the back roads of Bakersfield ,CA at two o'clock in the morning - with only fumes left in the gas tank of our rental car- a similar sight, such as the one photographed here, was one of the most beautiful apparitions I ever saw. In the pitched blackness of the farmlands, you could see the glow of the lights for miles, and miles ahead. The emotions once we stopped: It's real, it's open, someone speaks English, and a sigh of relief.
Beautiful shot that stirs a lot of personal feelings via car and motorcycle trips. Thanks for sharing it. |
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11/21/2003 12:31:26 PM · #8 |
ten - as I said, not my photo. And thanks for noticing the typo ... :-(
ronners - obviously I disagree with you. Let me see if I can in short explain something of why.
The isloation of the shot - Catherine's given us enough negative space to feel that this place is almost hanging in air: you could almost imagine that there is no little hut or shop where the guys who take the money hang out. Sure it would be a good stock shot, especially as there's almost no gas station logo visible, but this framing of it moves it beyond the purely representative.
Graphically i think it's very strong indeed: there are the solid grouping and shaping of the roof and it's red line, and the red pumps in their perfect lines, and the ditribution of the lights; against that is the almost random looking arrangement of the yellow hoops, and the solitary Pepsi bin - which serves also to re-emphasise the absence of logos from the rest of the image: os it's isolated by colour (the only blue in a world of the other primaries) and display.
Colour is essential to the image too - for those reasons above, and because it is a purely primary image - allowing of course for black and white - and this adds to a simplistic child-like feeling ot the shot. One might almost call it propaganda - 'look at our nice clean gas-station world: see how organised it is, see how clean it is, and look, there's nothing to threaten you here, only to show you how we help to compartmentalise your planet and make it understandable'.
Personally, I don't know how much you travel at night, but I do a great deal in different ways (to and from shows, tour buses etc.), and these places have been refuges on a number of occasions; and there is something other-worldly about their presence at night, about the evenness of their light, their brightness, and the sometimes random-seeing placement of them. They can crop up anywhere, like strange technical oases. This is not in praise of gas stations or gas companies, but an acknowledgment of their place in my world, and this photo communicates that perfectly.
Those are some of my reasons for liking the image so much, anyway.
Ed
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11/21/2003 06:48:32 PM · #9 |
Ed,
I appreciate the explanation. And in the spirit of the discussion I'll expand on my comment as well.
From the purely technical perspective, things such as the green flare spot, the vertically central positioning of the main subject, the blown out white lights and so on make this less than perfect. As far as capturing a sense of isolation is concerned, I'd probably like to have seen a wider view of the subject within it's environment.
However, I do understand that this shot has 'personal' meaning to you, and above all else that is to be respected.
Cheers,
Ron.
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11/21/2003 06:51:07 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by guobin:
there is some feeling of loneliness there I think
like all lights on but no one's home
like loneliness in a city
like deliberate isolation
=) or am I reading too much into the image? |
Excellent way to think... Looking into an image like that allows you to 'see' what the photographer may have wanted you to see. All of the comments prior to yours seem to have only looked at the image itself rather than any possible meaning the photographer may have been trying to offer.
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11/21/2003 07:19:34 PM · #11 |
I like the cool emptiness in and of this shot.
I don't know what it is that gets a photographer out of bed. The prospect of finding a clean, swept place like this, would make me miss a meal. I often look for it where one might expect it, in the mountains or along the Pacific shore.
To find it where C. found it, well now, that's cool. |
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11/21/2003 07:21:20 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by ronners:
I think you're reading too much into this image... it's a reasonable stock photo of a gas station forecourt, nothing more.
Ron. |
I think your not reading into it at all. You are looking at the flaws of the photo. Do you see anything good about it? Really, do you see good in any photo? Relax and enjoy the pictures. :-)
I think it is an excellent shot. Not one of my favorites but it does make you think. For instance, why is it empty? It is a big gas station so it should at least have 1 or 2 cars.
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11/21/2003 07:43:29 PM · #13 |
| Probably the prices are too high, that’s why no one is there. And it’s in the middle of nowhere. Nice colors. Like the empty space surrounding the station. Around here there’s always a line to wait in… |
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