Sunday, May 07, 2006
Untitled (02380028)
Hello all; thanks for having me in the group. I look to forward to getting to know everyone and their work.
My first post is an image that's a couple of weeks old. Before moving to South Korea, I lived in a fairly small city in the Mid-Western US, so I've never had much of an opportunity to investigate street photography. I've been giving it a try here, and I'm finding that I'm mostly drawn to scenes that have a touch of humor. This kid's pose struck me as funny particularly in the way that it mirrors the stance of the adult on the other side of the train.
Permalink / posted by and copyright of matt~ : 11:48 PM
Comments:
This has been well done. There is so much in this picture but my eye is always drawn to the child. The rest of the picture does not distract but shows the environment.
Like it.
I often put (or is it find?) humour into street photographs, although I got jeered at on the Rangefinder Forum for saying that I thought humour was important. Do you think a strap hanging future awaits this child?
As John L says, whatever you look at in this photo you get drawn to the child, and then from child to the white feet and from there to the black feet and then back to the child. Repeat.
Oh, and before I forget....welcome to Stills.
Welcome Matt. Having thought - ah, good, more examples of the Far East - I then rather naughtily thought: this could have been taken in London. It's amazing how many customs in cities are very similar wherever one is. It was the man in the dark suit that made me think that. Then there are the legs uncrossed and crossed again. A very good composition, neatly conveying the almost anonymity of the continuous movement of people around the city. I also like the conversion.
Thanks guys. I suppose you are right that this could have been taken in any major city; public transport looks pretty much the same where ever you go.
I must admit that I wasn't seeing much besides the kid's expression when I took the picture. It was only on looking at the scan that I started to see a composition. There was a bit more background detail in the original, which I burned down to keep the focus on the foreground. Seems to have worked.
It's more complex than saying it could have been taken anywhere in the world. My first comment was not so much that public transport is the same everywhere (although it is one of the closest points of convergence of different cultures) but that from your framing one could see a carriage full of people that might be exactly the same in London; possibly mainly tourists but also those who live in the city. Maybe the opposite is not true and one would not see the same in Seoul. The others' comments are more valid on the merits of the photo because there is a certain universal truth to this.
Ah, I see what you are saying. Yes, the composition excludes those elements that would tell you you are in Asia (ie the faces, the psa's in Korean, the advertisements in Korean, etc). That's just a natural outcome of framing so low, but thanks for pointin g it out as it spurs me to think along some interesting lines.
I suspect that on some level I'm still looking for, and hence photographing, those apsects of Korea that remind me of home. I know many people see strange and exotic things when they live and travel in foreign lands, but I keep seeing the human conditions as very similar to home on some fundamental level.
Matt - Your comment "It was only on looking at the scan that I started to see a composition". I suspect you saw the composition when you took the picture but didn't register it in your mind. It just shows how you are able to naturally compose a picture without thinking about it.
Interesting, I scan this image in the opposite direction from auspicious. From the child to the door to the black trousers and back. I'm having a bad day at work today which possibly has clouded my interpretation of this image but I find it a touch sad. The small child does not look happy. He's on a train, perhaps for some time, and tired. He'd much rather be at home playing or out with his friends. In twenty years or less, he may well spend a great deal of time on the trains again. Perhaps wearing black trousers. Perhaps feeling exactly the same. Perhaps there will be a child on that train. Round and round we go.
Matt: I recently listened to an interview with a photographer (can't remember who, unfortunately) who reacted very strongly to a question about her travel in "exotic" places. She said that if a photographer saw them as exotic they would not make good photographs. It is only when they see them as home to other human beings that they are ready to photograph them.
John L and John E, you are probably right about that. It often takes me a week of looking off and on at a set of scans to pick out my favorites.
JohnJo, that's a perfectly valid reading, and perhaps more valid than you might realize given the immense pressure Korean young people are under. Starting in their early teens Korean's are under intense pressure to succeed in school so that they can go on to work in jobs for which many of them will be incredibly over educated. BTW, my eye scans this pic in the same direction as yours.
Colin, if you can remember the name of the photographer or even where you heard the interview let me know.
Welcome Matt.
I just want to know what was said between the child and the standing pair of black trousered legs...the space between them creates so much suspense. But more than that, the camera level is spot on. The cild's perspective of the world...not much above the waist!
Excellent work and one I'd happily have in my portfolio.
welcome Matt
going by metro give a lot opportunities to grab great pictures of urban life. like this.
unfortunately in germany its forbidden without permission. once I was caught...
but no problems. they just ask me to get an permission next time...
seems I didn't find much to add to all previous comments and thoughts.
what attracts me most is that only the child is completely visible amongst the adults legs. well done :)
Matt: the interview was on a podcast, probably at photofocus.com (but I've recently unsubscribed to a whole load of things and this one has gone). In truth, most of the interview wasn't very interesting. I can't remember the photographer's name, but she was a National Geo sort of photographer being interviewed about the practicalities of travel (x-rays for film, humidty etc etc). It was all very low key and you could sort of tell that she was only doing the interview because they were pushing her private work website a bit. That made it all the more interesting when she reacted about the exotic comment. All of a sudden she cared about what she was saying.
Welcome Matt, the delay is due to my holiday.
It is the tired/bored look of the child that is central for me. As said by others the disembodied legs paint the picture of the environment. The black legs on the left act as a compositional counterpoise to the child. It is an image that fits any country, children act the same everywhere. As JL put it, like it.
I am very timid about pointing cameras at children due to the current state of paranoia in the UK.
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Like it.
As John L says, whatever you look at in this photo you get drawn to the child, and then from child to the white feet and from there to the black feet and then back to the child. Repeat.
Oh, and before I forget....welcome to Stills.
I must admit that I wasn't seeing much besides the kid's expression when I took the picture. It was only on looking at the scan that I started to see a composition. There was a bit more background detail in the original, which I burned down to keep the focus on the foreground. Seems to have worked.
I suspect that on some level I'm still looking for, and hence photographing, those apsects of Korea that remind me of home. I know many people see strange and exotic things when they live and travel in foreign lands, but I keep seeing the human conditions as very similar to home on some fundamental level.
JohnJo, that's a perfectly valid reading, and perhaps more valid than you might realize given the immense pressure Korean young people are under. Starting in their early teens Korean's are under intense pressure to succeed in school so that they can go on to work in jobs for which many of them will be incredibly over educated. BTW, my eye scans this pic in the same direction as yours.
Colin, if you can remember the name of the photographer or even where you heard the interview let me know.
I just want to know what was said between the child and the standing pair of black trousered legs...the space between them creates so much suspense. But more than that, the camera level is spot on. The cild's perspective of the world...not much above the waist!
Excellent work and one I'd happily have in my portfolio.
going by metro give a lot opportunities to grab great pictures of urban life. like this.
unfortunately in germany its forbidden without permission. once I was caught...
but no problems. they just ask me to get an permission next time...
seems I didn't find much to add to all previous comments and thoughts.
what attracts me most is that only the child is completely visible amongst the adults legs. well done :)
It is the tired/bored look of the child that is central for me. As said by others the disembodied legs paint the picture of the environment. The black legs on the left act as a compositional counterpoise to the child. It is an image that fits any country, children act the same everywhere. As JL put it, like it.
I am very timid about pointing cameras at children due to the current state of paranoia in the UK.