I like this photo

The other day, I was driving around a nearby city trying to shoot off a roll of color film. Having gotten thru the roll, I drove my way back towards home, shooting some photos with my phone as I slowly wound my way thru the back streets and alley ways. Here's one I really like for its symmetry, & textures, among other things. But what do y'all think?

 

I think that you should also show a sample that's only 1000p tall, so that we can see the whole image without scrolling. I downloaded it, so that I could view it that way, and had a totally different experience from looking at it piecemeal.

 

The top part is all about symmetry and patterns, where the bottom is all mystery. There's a door with no handles, security fencing and no paving outside an otherwise substantial looking building. Then, there's the shadow of a cross, which can only form when the sun is at a specific angle. The almost matching, nondescript pickup is a little added mystery. I don't understand a message, other than to think, "What's this?"

Sorry, I just did the ol drag-n-drop initially, as I hadn't added these to my Zenfolio site yet. Here's a smaller sample of the image.

 

Clearly I did some cropping of my original phone pic to arrive at this shot of a building in an industrial area of the city. Hmmm. Message... OK let me think about this and I'll quickly make something up. ha ha.

 

*I felt the grate or vent at the top is too strong to let it go. It adds a lot of texture, and sort of anchors the top segment of the image or punctuates it or something.

 

*With the light blocks in the wall, and the doors there, I would assume this is a stairwell, perhaps. The symmetry is what attracted me to the shot, I assume also that the two lower "holes" would allow something to weep out like maybe they are some sort of overflow outlet or something? No matter; they add to the symmetrical element of the whole piece.

 

*The shadow of the "cross" is a utility pole. The sloping grass adds to this sense of crosses on a hill, giving the whole shot a latent sense of religion (on lock-down?)

I like the way the "cross" shadow is indistinct while the chain link shadows are sharper. Like religion might exist but (societal) constraints are far more real

 

*The anonymous vehicle adds an element of excitement or would-be action, as much as any stationary element could be interpreted as "action instilling".

 

*Everything is confounded by the chain link & barbed wire, but the way the barbed wire seems to float and sag adds a bit of an element of weariness, like it takes a lot of energy to repress something but time (or gravity) will wear stuff down eventually.

 

*The expanse of the block wall has enough texture to suggest some element of fluctuation but adds to the sense of universal or "omniversal" (of the omniverse?) sameness.

 

*The door doesn't align perfectly with the gate so maybe the pathway is indistinct or complicated.

 

*I tried shifting this to monochrome but it feels far more potent in color, even tho the colors are muted and practically non existent.

 

SO, hmmm OK maybe the "story" or "message" is:

 

Chapter 1:

 

Society has been repressing emotions and stuff for ever;

"they" weary of the process.

"They" have been forced into a pattern of sameness, stripped of individuality, competition eliminated; everything's the same.

BUT

There are glass light blocks in the wall, so darkness has not taken fully over, light is still possible.

 

Chapter 2:

 

IF religion exists

and

IF Jesus came back, (from on high, = down the stairwell) he'd be locked down because his radical message of love and forgiveness wouldn't fly in today's society.

(*whispers conspiratorially* you didn't hear it from me)

 

Chapter 3:

 

BUT

There's a door AND a gate so there must be keys to it all.

Exit or escape is eminent;

Tho not simple, it's still possible to pass thru to the next level;

hope's not dead.

Yet.

 

Epilogue:

 

The get-away vehicle awaits.

 

The End (of repression is near)

 

;-)

 

Or you can read whatever you want into it.

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by Ricochetrider

Personally, if this were mine, I would crop out the door, fence, and truck, and let it be a simple abstract.

Personally, if this were mine, I would crop out the door, fence, and truck, and let it be a simple abstract.

 

This was my initial impression also. The door and all below it strikes me as meaningless clutter that doesn't add to the photo, but takes from it. Above the door is clean simplicity that speaks for itself. Crop proportionally and you'll have a very different photo.

Good advice from @dcstep. Viewing the whole photo is a different experience than scrolling.

 

No advice from me, just giving you my personal reaction to the photo. It's interesting.

 

My personal impression was/is that there are two different subjects (and two possible 'storylines') in the photo. Both compete separately for my attention. One is the top of the door (symmetry) with the barbed wire. This takes up about 60% of the photo. The symmetry is clearly a 'subject' in the photo. It immediately draws my attention. As @greg_scott says, a crop of just this area could be an abstract.

 

The other 'subject/storyline' is the truck, fence, gate and cross in the lower 50% of the photo.

 

The two round, rough holes in the wall provide interest in both subjects. To me they look - despite their symmetry - like bullet or shell holes. They're also the only thing that physically connect what I see as the two subject areas.

 

Whenever I look at a photo, I wonder if tells a story (to me). One subject or 'story' for me (looking at the top 60%) is the two 'bullet holes' in an otherwise symmetrical 'abstract'. This is (for me) 'self-contained' in terms of my attention. A different subject/'story'(the bottom 50%) is whether and how the bullet holes might relate to the fence, gate and 'cross' in the photo and to someone visiting (the truck). This subject/story is also 'self-contained' in terms of my attention.Yeah, these are just my personal fantasies!

 

I have- as yet - no overarching subject or story that connects the large area of 'symmetry' with the truck/fence/gate/cross. That's not to say that there isn't one. But as yet, I've not made the connection. For me, it remains one photo with two different focus areas that compete for my attention (and imagination!). In my book, it's absolutely fine to have 2 (or even more) competing 'subjects/stories' in one photo.Just be aware that this is the effect the photo has on me. This might be the basis of other reactions which suggest 'crop out this and focus on that'.

 

Based on @dcstep's comment, I downloaded the photo too to see the whole photo (before you posted it). I also played around with different crops, B/W, reduced saturation, increased contrast, etc. My different crops (top 60%, bottom 50%) did make each of my 'personal stories' more easily accessible. So that's something to consider. On the other hand, I like the fact that one photo can have two different subjects/storie, if viewers take the time to explore them.FWIW, I agree with you that a desaturated (red/green) color version works best.

 

I think my highest compliment on the photo is that I've spent so much time looking at it, deconstructing it, making and comparing different crops, representations and trying to put my feedback into words, etc.There are 'easier' photos to comment on. For me the very best quality of the photo is that it asks questions to viewers like me: what's it really about? How do you fit the different elements (objects/subjects/stories) together or not? If not, why not?

 

I don't mean to say that 'anything goes' in any photo. Just that this photo is - for me - disjointed in terms of focus areas. But it has more than enough interesting 'objects, subjects and potential stories' for viewers - who take the time - to try and 'join the dots'. IHMO, this level of interest and engagement is the best that a photographer could wish for. It's not an 'immediately clear, instantly accessible, high impact) photo. It requires thinking about. Many potential viewers will simply reject it. So be it..

 

Mike

Mike, Thanks for the in-depth look at this photo.and my sincere thanks to al posters here as well!

 

I'm sure the symmetry of the glass blocks in the wall was what initially made me stop and look at this, but the *other* elements were too much to pass up. Interesting, as I never thought of this as 2 separate photos. But I get it that neither the top part or the bottom part of the. image have anything to do with each other, really. Apart from being shown "as found", Somehow it never dawned me to separate these into 2 images, and you may be able to see from my impromptu interpretation of the shot, I can easily tie things together in my.head. Even tho I was totally spoofing it,

 

The shadow of the utility pole forming the image of the cross behind the barbed wire and chain link is my favorite aspect of this, the gate & truck are incidental in my estimation of the piece.

 

Very nice. I would have stepped a foot or so to the right to align the gate with the door(s), but in some of my photos I notice this after the shot no matter how much care was taken.