Shot of a lifetime?

[dan park]

Every once in a while you come across an image that defines what it is at least

I am trying to accomplish with this thing we call photography. A lot of us

fixate on equipment and take sides with different manufactures as to who has the

best body or lenses etc. This is what we do to fill in the spaces between the

shots. Between making the images that touch us or others. I came across an

image today that defines what photography is at least as far as I'm concerned.

As Dylan put it "the truth is just a plain picture" and I think this picture

conveys that.

<br><br>

<a

href="http://news.yahoo.com/photo/061006/photos_us_rank_afp/1541fcbd3cd0c8ee9deec3f6509264c5;_ylt=AsbjkDQcJrT3F.vh2OWWDedPXLoF;_ylu=X3oDMTBia2Jza2VjBHNlYwNnYWxsZXJ5">

Photo</a>

 

<br><br>

Please forgive my inadequate expression of the effect this image has had on me

and how it transmitted me, if not for a moment, into the eyes of the innocent

girls shattered lives.

<br><br>

Dan

[mendel_leisk]

Until I read the caption this seemed a fairly mundane image to me.

 

I do agree though, we all have images that really hit home.

[david_henderson]

Fortunately, every time I half-convince myself that I have the shot of my lifetime the future proves me wrong. I can't tell you how relieved I am about that.

[dan park]

My apologies. The picture does benefit with the addition of context. Either keeping up with current events or reading the caption provides that.

[Spearhead]

The problem is that it isn't the "shot of a lifetime" if it doesn't do much without a caption. There are quite a few photojournalistic shots of which this is true, that doesn't make them not great shots, but it does say something about the ability of a "picture to tell a story." There are some great shots that work on multiple levels, with or without a caption, and they are far more likely candidates for "shot of a lifetime," if we accept the one shot theory.

[dan park]

I agree the title is a little melodramatic. I should realize by now you don't have to cry wolf on a headline just to get somebody to read the copy.

 

I think the picture once the context is known shows a few things. First it makes the person imagine what kind of monster it would take to walk into a class room and choose girls not unlike the ones in this picture. Tie them up look them in the eyes then shoot them execution style.

 

That was the first visual I got when I saw this picture.

 

The second and more subtle was I think I see a kind of wonder in the girls eyes. Like the circus has come to town. Might even be the sort of incredulousness the victims felt as they watched a strange an armed man walk into their classroom. Some for the last time.

 

The Dylan illusion. There was a little cry wolf there too.:)

[dickhilker]

Would you poke a camera in the face of someone in a funeral procession if they weren't wearing "different" clothes? Should folks immersed in grief have to also deal with a swarm of camera-wielding people who are there out of morbid curiosity and with the hope of catching them when they're so vulnerable? Whatever happened to respect for someone's privacy, or are the Amish legitimate targets because they ride to a funeral in horse-drawn carriages instead of limos? Does the tragedy of the deaths they mourn legitimize all the attention they're getting from the press and other photographers?

 

I don't mean this as a personal attack, Dan, but simply to raise the question of how much liberty a photographer can reasonably take in capturing an image. This has been discussed a bit in previous threads, but perhaps this situation's somewhat different.

[ben conover]

Those poor kids will take years to understand what happened.

The photo is a good one but not the shot of a lifetime.

Perhaps Ironically a photo of the gunman in action (although rather a difficult subject to view) may have been the shot.

 

I think the ongoing proccess of striving for each shot is what I try to do, otherwise it would all be too easy.

 

Cheers.

[ben conover]

Dick, I tend to agree regarding the post traumatic morbid curiosity thing.

[dan park]

Morbid curiosity? No I think some photographers are there for those reasons possibly even the one that took the picture. But whether intentioned or not this image I think is above that classification. You would never know it was a funeral procession nor that anything was wrong if it wasn't for the headline. Without the headline it is just a picture of two sweet and innocent Amish girls looking out a window. But the look in their eyes conveys something more. Sadness, wonder, awe? Maybe something darker. Maybe something like distrust. Distrust at the world outside their own that doesn't live by their rules of sobriety, piety and pacifism. The dangerous unpredictable world that we call America. The world were it no longer shocking to here of three fatal school shootings in one week.

 

We can learn from pictures like this. We can see through others eyes. I wish tragedies like this never happened but if they must we should all have to experience some of the pain. And that's why images like this are so important.

[engelgrafik]

My shots of a lifetime are shots I missed or accidently deleted. It's true, and it angers me greatly! :)

 

One time I was in Quedlinsburg, a small town in Middle Saxony or Thuringia in Germany (I forget which). It was 2002 but the town still looked mostly like it did during the Cold War when it found itself in the Soviet sector in 1945. The city still has a charm and non-touristy nature to it that you can only find in similar "medieval" type towns maybe in Poland or the Czech Republic.

 

I was walking along the gray and wet cobblestone streets, passing by decrepit stone buildings with busted windows and shutters, and cracking walls with weeds and moss growing throught them, and I saw a kid talking to his friend up on the 3rd floor of one building who was leaning out the window. The kid was nicely dressed with a new bike, telling his friend to come and out and play, and his friend was upstairs in this old crumbling building looking shut-in and a bit tired. The sun was shining perfectly on that section of the street. I don't know, I just felt it was the perfect picture.. maybe even described the "two Germanies". You had to be there... if I had a picture, you might agree.

 

Well, I DID take the picture.

 

However, later that day we arrived in Dresden and before night fell I decided to go around shooting some of the old part of town (which actually has the "newest" architecture). I don't know what I did, but I was flipping through menus really fast, and I accidently double-clicked some menu button where it really only needed one click (I didn't mean to double-click, but sometimes your thumb does that spasm, you know?) So the first click moved to a screen which had a "delete" button, and the 2nd click hit the delete button. Really bad... I felt sick to my stomach.

 

Oh well, I'll have to get it next time.

[beeman458]

"Every once in a while you come across an image that defines what it is at least I am trying to accomplish with this thing we call photography."

 

What about "your" shots which define who and what you are as a photographer.

[William Kahn]

Dan, I think it's a marvelous shot, and if it's not the "shot of a lifetime", it's pretty damn close. It doesn't need the caption, it stands on its own.

 

I downloaded it to "My Pictures" folder so I could enlarge it. As I did so my wife, who is an artist, walked in, looked at the screen and said, "Fantastic picture!" She didn't see the caption, and I didn't explain it.

 

Congratulations!

[pico_digoliardi]

That's more like a shot of a few deathtimes. If one can read. If one cannot read, then it's just a picture.

[rlk121]

"Should folks immersed in grief have to also deal with a swarm of camera-wielding people who are there out of morbid curiosity and with the hope of catching them when they're so vulnerable?"

 

In response to that comment. The Jews have a saying and it goes something like; "May we never forget"

 

I agree to a point that we should respect those that are grieving and give them room to mourn. But with photos like this one the images stick in our mind and we remember. We don?t just remember the facts, but we get a glimpse of the emotional side too. We will never forget the images of Auschwitz or the September 11th attacks because those images have been burned in our minds forever.

 

And I for one hope that the things we can?t forget are the things we will not repeat.

[ben conover]

Rebecca:

 

"I for one hope that the things we can't forget are the things we will not repeat."

 

I will respectfully disagree with that. For me it is more important to remember the shots we like, the nice, funny, loving, healthy shots. The things we want and can repeat because they pay off. We can move on from the tradgedy of life, if we want to. if we don't want to we end up blaming each other and having wars. Finding the truth is another question. We know the truth of many of these terrible cimes, the shooting of the Amish kids, the Holocaust...Of course the attrocities of war have a place in photography, but I agree with what Dick Hilker said regarding morbid curiosity.

 

Jeffrey, if you had used a simple point and shoot camera with film you would not have any regrets! Sounds like a strong and good memory for you, nicely depicted.

 

Cheers.

[Brian]

<P>Sorry to rain on your parade Dan, but to get a high accolade like "shot of a lifetime", doesn't a photo have to contain something pretty unique or dramatic? This picture is just two little girls looking through a window. When you read the caption, it evoked a lot of other imagery and conjecture in your mind.</P><P>OK, the shot had a big impact on you, but you were primed by other information and this was just the trigger.</P>

[William Kahn]

<i>This picture is just two little girls looking through a window.</i><BR>

<BR>

Right. And the Mona Lisa is just a woman with a little smile.....

[Brian]

<P>Clever riposte, William, but aren't you moving into the realms of the absurd here? <I>Mona Lisa</I> was a masterwork of one of the greatest painters in history, and was an incredibly complex creation, perfected over a number of years. Our subject here is a snapshot taken at a funeral procession.</P>

[andy_laycock]

I agree with Ben Conover. One of the main reasons that I don't care for PJ photography is that it primarily dwells on the negative, the grisly, the horrific and the sad moments in life.

[William Kahn]

Well, first, let me clear up my initial error. When I first read Dan's post and looked at the photo, I thought Dan had shot it. It was apparently shot by a Timothy A. Clary. My apologies for that.

 

Moving on: Brian, I may have ventured into the realm of the absurd, but I followed you there. Of course you can't compare this photo with the Mona Lisa as art. On the other hand, the only way you can discard the photo as "two girls looking out a window" is by disregarding the element of art altogether. And if you disregard the art, you can also dismiss the Mona Lisa based solely on who the subject is and what's she's doing. And that was my point: We're disregarding the art, here. Consider this: Of all the posts on this issue, is there even one that deals with the framing, the composition, the lighting, etc.? Emotional impact, yes, that's an element too, but not the only element, and the consensus here seems to be that the emotional impact will erode with time. I don't think so. It may change, but it won't go away. Looking beyond the horror of the moment, what I see is two children of a cloistered society looking through the window of their culture at an insane world outside. That has always been the Amish way, and this shot captures it very well. Oh, and the lighting, composition, etc. are all excellent.

 

Thus endeth the Tuesday morning rant......

[pico_digoliardi]

The picture in question may have some impact if you know where and when it was taken and the circumstances of the story. Otherwise, it's a good, general shot. I don't see the angst.

 

The picture linked to below remains on the the most descriptive, moving images I have seen in my life:

 

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2006/feature-photography/works/heisler03.html

[Landrum Kelly]

The posted picture does impel me to ask what is going through the minds of these young girls. Are they asking why God would allow such horrible things to happen? Are they talking about Cindy's new puppy? I don't think that we can assume that they are only thinking about the shooting, although one imagines that they easily could be.

 

It is indeed a good image on its own merits. In or out of context, however, it is not for me a shot of a lifetime. I'm still glad that you posted it, Dan. It does remind me that, after a disaster of any sort, many of us can't help talking about it (sometimes for days or even longer), and this might indeed be what is happening here.

 

It is definitely more powerful in context, in any case, although I think that persons are going to vary enormously in terms of the emotional impact the photo has on them.

 

--Lannie

[h._p.]

"Mona Lisa was a masterwork of one of the greatest painters in history"

 

That's one opinion. Personally, I prefer pictures of cats.

[kellen1]

I understand, your picture brought tears to my eyes. That event was more horrid than the plot of the most twisted slasher film. It took place about 40 minutes from where I live in Chester County, PA. Those girls in the picture look devestated. Nothing in Lancaster County will ever be the same now that this violence has occured there, to their Amish children.

 

 

FYI-The Old Order Amish however, do consider it a sin to have their picture taken