Hotel room, Grenoble

A facinating scene. Perhaps it is a portrait?

 

A fantastic use of elements to construct a scene and storyline.

Now you say so, indeed, a large TV for a hotel :)

A good photograph, Dominique. For me, youve captured that familiar sense of wallowing in self-pity, and enjoying the feeling. Hotels are often boring places that can be conducive to loneliness (of course thats the real reason they put a phone in the room!), and usually those emotions drive one towards contemplation of oneself. You know that Manic Street Preachers line Im happy being sad? (My Little Empire) That. Exactly.

 

The lighting is remarkably attractive. And you pressed the shutter release at the right time to capture a good still of the television. Its interesting that the lighting used on the set in the television still is roughly compatible with the direction of the light in the hotel room. The composition is also pleasing, interesting without being messy; it gives the eye plenty to explore, in an unhurried manner. (After all, weve got the entire night to kill!) Quite tightly framed. Ive always felt cramped with a 35mm lens, never mind a fifty. This must be a bigger room than I can afford!

 

Thanks for displaying.

I've been a fan of Dominique's for a while: I like the way this distills some order (the tension between the art on the wall and the TV) from a fairly chaotic setting & lighting arrangement. One question that has to be asked after last week's fiasco: was it good timing, or did you photoshop the TV screen in? I'd say it's a class photo either way... Felicitations!

but what's going on in the upper right hand corner of the shot? What is that? 10 For originality, 10 for unusual... :)

I think the tv is perfect, but the rest of the room doesn't quite fit.

 

You've stumbled into the territory of one of my favorite photograher's, Lee Friedlander. This past fall he released a book of his television screen photos - "Lee Friedlander: Little Screens." Look it up. The book isn't one of his better ones - the thematic focus is too simple. Definitely take a look at his earlier books when you have a chance.

i think the picture is interesting, funny and warm. but i too am bothered by the hideous hotel art in the top right. every other element in the photo can "speak" in comic book simplicity. but the artwork? in my inflated opinion, it just doesn't belong.

Been in countless hotel rooms, never saw the potential for a photograph. Dominique shows the knack for seeing what others may not.

 

Every element belongs in the photo, from the "hideous" artwork at right to the emergency exit chart over the teevee. One cannot arbitrarily eliminate an element by composition or cropping and still have *this* photo.

 

BTW, I didn't realize T-Max P3200 could hold detail and tonality so well. Very impressive.

I read this as a self-portrait. Dominique is in bed watching TV - herself in bed, watching TV.

Nice darkroom work. Knowing how TMZ reacts this sucess in capturing shadow detail may be due to an unusual flat lightning, but nevertheless good printing. The composition seems very confused and unbalanced, though.

This is very cool. It strikes me as being both a self portrait and a photographic double entendre. A window, a mirror, and a spectacle for visual consumption. Watching oneself while photographing oneself while watching oneself... and now being viewed by the whole Photo.net community! So in the end we've got an onion of a photograph. Bravo Dominique!

This is a good picture. I too am curious as to what is the mess on the upper right. Is the TV picture fixed in photoshop? It is not easy to get a perfect picture and composition on the tube. Good stuff!

The picture certainly has charm - chiefly because of the face in the TV screen. My question concerns the items to our right: the thing on the wall, the chairs, table, and so on. They don't really add necessary context, because an image on a TV screen is its own context. This photo isn't really "about" composition - and, even if it were, they don't add to the composition. The items do convey a certain sense of the room being static, lived in but devoid of life - except what we see of life on the TV. Is that, then, the role these items play? Or is their presence an accident only, the result of the focal length you were using? An "accident" that worked?

(That's what I like about thinking out loud: you get to answer your own questions.) I commend you, mystery moderator, on this week's selection.

I think the elves got it right in their explanation of POW. It is a photographer's picture. Lots of things to delve into. Even the ugly wall decoration on the right,as we try to figure it out. Who hasn't seen something offbeat in a room. And offset by the more humble and easily recognizable,almost comforting, fire exit diagram on the left. A sense of place.( Mise en scene.) And the wonder of who and what scene is being played out on the TV. Some endless talky french movie,with all chatter, not really much "skin" like our films. But interesting chatter, it's the accent of course. The eye keeps going to what the hotel does furnish, complimentary I bet in Grenoble, a bottle of Bergundy for two. A lot of story in this picture. And the print is very well done.Meaning I like it.

Congratuations on being selected for POW, but I don't see this photo as having a lot of charm. I fail to see any creative genius in it. It is sterlile and leaves me unmoved. Not well composed, it appears random and cluttered. No artistic expression. No story. Captured the moment? This is a camera recording a shot of a hotel room with no balance of the visual elements, no geometry to the composition. There is nothing in this picture to elevate it above a snapshot.

 

There is not a lot to nurture here. Perhaps Tony Dummett can lead out in that department this time.

What makes this image appealing is the contrast between the tender, natural expression of the woman and the sober, lifeless interior of the room. One could interpret this as a symbol of the appalling discrepancy between the human needs and the sterile society in the western world driven by commodification of everything in life.

I have to admit, even though I don't want to, that I'm stumped. I'm not sure what this is telling me, if anything. The TV, the fire escape map, the bizarre thing on the wall on the right, it just doesn't piece together for me. And the light patches in the middle of the frame seem like an oopsie. It's an interesting capture, with a lot of interesting grays (if that makes sense to anyone else), but it doesn't particularly strike me in any special way.

 

A little edit: It doesn't have to necessarily tell a story to be interesting or even good, but for this, it isn't compelling enough alone as an image that grabs me. Italics to emphasize the me part, doesn't matter what other people think. You should take all our comments at face value. hopefully this thread will stay peaceful!

i have no idea what i think of this photo, because i am too distracted by the weird ghosts in the center of the frame and on that wacko piece of wall art on the right. on the left edge of the wall art, my eyes keep on insisting i see some sort of standing figure with really hollow eyes...and that ghost in the center just doesnt seem quite random either....

 

was there a double exposure here to create those ghosts? or is the lighting reflecting off of the table and other objects collaborating with my imagination to drive me insane?

 

like everyone else, i love the still on the television, but it only adds to the eerieness of the unexplained light bits.

 

dominique, i'd love to know exactly what i am seeing...and how it was done. my interest is throughly piqued.

 

side note: i would love it if, before putting up a POW, someone would encourage the photographer to provide some more detailed technical information, or at least a small caption, to explain the image. as an amateur, i am thoroughly interested in knowing how these great images are created, but other than composition, i can learn nothing without some sort of explanation. it would be great to be able to enjoy these photographs AND learn from the great photographers that produce the POWs.

Congrat with POW, but personally I don't see why the elves chose this picture either. And in Dominiques folder there are much better pictures than this one.

And again it seems that the elves has chosen a composite, at least I can't see any other way to take a photo like this. (well, apart from a simple double exposure ofcourse, but the texture of the screen doesn't seem grainy enough to really come from a tv screen)

 

To take a picture af a tv screen without synclines, you need at least 1/25 sec exposure. Using ISO 32000 and with all the light coming from a tv, this means (on my tv) F11. What did he use for lighting the rest of the room, HMI lights?

 

I agree with Peter regarding the composition of the room random and cluttered. But the picture on the tv looks nice, I'd like to see this without the room and "tv-frame"

 

There are so many god pictures on this site that really capture a "decisive moment", but still the elves like to chose simple photoshopped pictures for POW.

 

Anyway, Dominiquie, I really like some of your other pictures. You have several I would rather see as POW!

 

Robert

 

 

Congratulations Dominique, this certainly has the "look" of a photograph, all over it. Score one for relevance to the site's purpose. I only wish I could say the picture grabbed me more than it does.

There is little depiction of either hope or despair here. It lacks emotion, which I believe is an important part of creative photography, to save it from becoming merely forensic.

A photograph of a banal subject isn't necessarily interesting in an au contraire fashion. There have been plenty of photographs of "symbols of the appalling discrepancy between the human needs and the sterile society in the western world driven by commodification of everything in life" - whew! - that have actually been interesting and informative, rather than as banal as their subject matter. Who needs to be reminded how awful hotel rooms are? And how phoney the life is coming into it (or any other room) through a TV tube? These are not profound thoughts, so they need something extraordinary to to tell us something new concerning them.

To me, hotel rooms are things to get the hell out of, not take photographs in. But I already knew that (and please, don't bother introducing me to someone who doesn't).

Having said all that, when I first move into a hotel room I turn on the TV and get a drink to watch it with, so this is pretty true to life (in my own experience) as far as it goes. But as a worthwhile subject for meaningful photography? I'm not so sure.

This reminds me of the kind of thing I don't need or want to be reminded of, a documentary picture, true to its subject as far as form goes (particularly those awful chairs that you find the world over) but not particularly brilliant, novel, socially valuable or witty... it's more of a "so what's your next point?" kind of picture.

It fits in better as part of the essay-like portfolio the photographer has presented with her other pictures; a forensic inclusion necessary to formalize her treatment of the topic. Perhaps it was necessary to include the downside of her life on the road. We have shots of lonely streetlamps, a walk on the beach on a gray day, the dog playing silly buggers, an interesting image taken on what looks to be a boardwalk, and so on: a portfolio that depicts a fairly humdrum existence (whether actual or constructed I don't know). So we have this image as part of the formal depiction of the "sterile society", but again have to ask, is this anything new, or is it said in a novel manner?

Technically this pic (and the others in Dominique's portfolio) appear to be very good and workpersonlike, but is that enough to rescue them from the overwhelming impression I got that - either pictorially or emotionally - they tell us nothing we didn't know before?

I'll have another go in an attempt to say why I like this (note, like, not go into transcendental raptures over).

 

Notice that most of the hotel room junk is stacked up on the RHS of the frame: the job-lot art (wonder if it was the same in every room?), the chairs, table, complimentary champagne (Dominique's boss pays for better hotels than I do). In comparison, the TV sits alone and is a vertex in a sideways triangle. The actor in the film is looking out and away from the junk with a slightly imploring air ("Francois, aide-moi de quitter ce bordel!")... so she stands (lies) in as a proxy for the hotel-stranded photographer. Grand art? Non, je n'y crois pas. But a pleasant and slightly wry appraisal of the hotel room aesthetic. I'd rather have it on my wall than, say, a girl falling off a sheep. Not because I doubt the technical felicity of that very well executed shot, but because I don't have much interest in sheep.

 

PS Tony's lament worked: I payed my $25 but am still waiting for my badge of moral adequacy...

This picture is NO composite, there is no Photoshop in it. I was just sitting watching the TV and snapped when she looked into the camera. What I wanted to express with it is the dullness of being on the road in an otherwise boring and sterile hotel environment. Others are in this series. I add a sample. See also my individual photos for more.

 

Oh yes, the champagne stayed in the bottle. Not included in room price :-)

 

D.

 

Ugh...I hate myself when I criticize the critques of others. It goes against my instincts and better judgement. But, alas, my hairshirt is at the cleaners.

 

I must admit I'm usually mystified when someone requires some form of fulfillment or gratification from an image before accepting it for what it is. Is it necessary for an image to be self-explanatory, crystal clear and uncluttered, when nothing about life is?

 

I can't be the only person who finds it ironic that some people see clutter in a photograph of a neatly arranged hotel room. Or do they in fact also recoil in horror at the sight of any furnished room? Life must be full of surprises then.

 

Is it so unpleasant to see what nothing but the camera can show us, a literal slice of life, unencumbered by peripheral vision or selectivity? Perhaps some of us are like vampires around mirrors - it isn't that our reflections can't be seen. It's that we don't like what we do see.

 

I find humor in images like this. But I also find it hysterical that my mom changes the outgoing message on her answering machine almost daily. The message is usually pretty much the same - "Hi, sorry I can't take your call right now but if you'll leave a message I'll call back." - but the tone always reveals her mood and subtext: Hi, I'm glad you called, leave a message and I'll call you back; Hi, I'm glad you called but I'm not in the mood to call you back so don't hold your breath; Hi, I'm taking a nap but pretending to be out; Hi, piss off.

Tony, I think youve been in too many hotel rooms. I dont travel nearly as much as I would like, and maybe thats why I still get a tiny thrill out of hotel rooms, just like I do from eating airline food. Criticising hotel rooms and airline food is for some people a way to prove to the sympathetic that they are seasoned travellers, bored with the world because theyve seen it all before. Well, I dont like the actual hotel rooms or airline food any more than anyone else, but the aura of what they represent -- new places and new people -- is for me still strong enough to allow myself to enjoy them nevertheless. In an oh-dear-another-hotel-room sort of way, as Im phoning everyone to tell them how bored I am, while in fact lying on the bed with my veins tingling about what Im going to do the next day.

Television and I are incompatible, and too many of those French movies are themselves mediocre, merely riding on the reputation their innumerable predecessors legitimately won. But like a lot of people, I nearly always try the TV after turning the air-conditioning up and getting something to drink. It feels a necessary thing to do in a hotel room, at least if youre on your own. So this photograph doesnt so much tell me anything new, as confirm to me that there is a percentage of the world that lives like this, and that I would hate their job on principle, but that perhaps my secret longings are at odds with my stated principles.

Taking pictures of the inside of a hotel room, even waiting for the screen to have the right image; that strikes me as something you would only do if being pushed to the edge of boredom. This picture can tell me a lot about the photographer. I can think of photographers who would feel nervous showing themselves to the world by presenting such a picture. It is a self-portrait; not in the trite sense of the girl in the screen, but in a more meaningful and infinitely more exposing sense.

My first thought is; what is the film showing on TV about?

 

It's not accidental now is it, that the TV frame in this photograph contains a girl in bed.

I feel Dominique has captured a typical male stereotype : When men are alone in a hotel room, what do they do?

Yup. They're watching girls on TV

 

Staging vs. WISIWYS:

This photo is telling a story, it's not Art. It is delivered 'As is'. Hence the furniture etc.

WISIWYS (What I Shot Is What You See) is IMO what works best with Dominiques stated conditions.

Staging this photo would not make it better, at best just different.

 

A small remark about the Elves:

I think they are doing a good job picking POW's that makes people talk.

Just think how boring it would be if the Elves picked the perfect POW every time,no controversy, no discussion, no difference of opinion, just "how nice", excellent etc.

Thank you Elves, for making interesting choices.