Monday, June 26, 2006
That 'F' Word
Comments:
Graffiti, in English, in Tokyo. This certainly conveys a message, which is amplified by the woman on the phone. I think the composition has been well thought out but I would trim off the bicycle wheel on the right. This would then simplify the objects in the picture.
Yes, trimming out the bike or, perhaps, cloning it out (to keep width) is something I would be tempted to do. It doesn't surprise me that there is English Graffiti here and I'm guessing that this phrase is also available on a number of T-Shirts in the shops.
Bright highlights again, which I am comfortable with here and clean streets. I find this whole street photography thing difficult to imagine. Big crowds, yes, but this is far more personal. Didn't the woman give you a funny look?
I must try to stop feeling embarrased about doing such photography. What a wimp I am.
Oddly perhaps, the word which sprang to my mind was 'purity'. Something to do with the tones, and, grafiti notwithstanding, the cleanliness.
I think the wheel is necessary for this shot (in the context of art or street photography). Without it the photo would look a bit like a ad, or a piece of political imagery. Nobody setting up the shot would leave the wheel in, whereas the second figure is just too perfectly placed...... The fact that the wheel is spot-lit is just great.
It isn't a photo that I would have taken. I think that I would have thought that the grafiti was too obvious. However, you have lifted this beyond the obvious. So that is either three cheers to the wardrobe department or well done to the photographer :-)
Johnjo: I've just bought a view camera. If you think street photography is embarrasing you ought to try the rug over the head style. I've yet to venture out of the garden.
I am amused by the fact that the graffiti artist was probably unaware that an English person can read those words more than one way.
Like the sign that says Red Squirrels drive slowly!
It is a clean image, simple words, simple composition and I like the fact she is on the phone, another communication going on. The chap walking away is a counterpoise for the line of the kerb and the girl.
I too would find it hard to take a picture like this, I am shy!
Colin, I look forward to seeing your first view camera posting! I went to a lecture by Joe Cornish and came a way impressed and went on to look up the costs of view cameras. Joe said he never took a picture with a shutter speed of faster than an 1/8th.
I do like your high tones (repeating myself!). An ubiquitous Anglo-Saxon word that makes one feel quite at home . If you waited for this then you struck the right moment with the girl seemingly absorbed enough not to notice the graffiti; but then she probably sees it every day. I like the odd bits on the righthand side: they save the picture from being too smooth and add just the right amount of context. Who's controlling who?!
I can't tell this is Tokyo from the context, so the English graffiti doesn't seem out of place, although I'm not sure that the success or failure of the picture hinges on that point.
There's a lot of geometry at work here, but I'm not sure it adds up in the end. I like how the line of graffiti leads us into the walking woman, but the all the entaglements on the right subtract from the power of an otherwise clean frame. I think you'd have a more powerful photograph if all we saw was the graffiti, the white wall and the woman. Perhaps that would be too obvious though.
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Bright highlights again, which I am comfortable with here and clean streets. I find this whole street photography thing difficult to imagine. Big crowds, yes, but this is far more personal. Didn't the woman give you a funny look?
I must try to stop feeling embarrased about doing such photography. What a wimp I am.
I think the wheel is necessary for this shot (in the context of art or street photography). Without it the photo would look a bit like a ad, or a piece of political imagery. Nobody setting up the shot would leave the wheel in, whereas the second figure is just too perfectly placed...... The fact that the wheel is spot-lit is just great.
It isn't a photo that I would have taken. I think that I would have thought that the grafiti was too obvious. However, you have lifted this beyond the obvious. So that is either three cheers to the wardrobe department or well done to the photographer :-)
Johnjo: I've just bought a view camera. If you think street photography is embarrasing you ought to try the rug over the head style. I've yet to venture out of the garden.
Like the sign that says Red Squirrels drive slowly!
It is a clean image, simple words, simple composition and I like the fact she is on the phone, another communication going on. The chap walking away is a counterpoise for the line of the kerb and the girl.
I too would find it hard to take a picture like this, I am shy!
Colin, I look forward to seeing your first view camera posting! I went to a lecture by Joe Cornish and came a way impressed and went on to look up the costs of view cameras. Joe said he never took a picture with a shutter speed of faster than an 1/8th.
There's a lot of geometry at work here, but I'm not sure it adds up in the end. I like how the line of graffiti leads us into the walking woman, but the all the entaglements on the right subtract from the power of an otherwise clean frame. I think you'd have a more powerful photograph if all we saw was the graffiti, the white wall and the woman. Perhaps that would be too obvious though.