Gina O'Leary, 6, hangs out in a newspaper box as she and her bother Robert, 13, wait for their mother to pick them up in front of Aspen Valley Hospital Monday afternoon May 20, 2002.

great "street shot" and close to absolutely perfect expressions. i love these shots...real life; no touch-ups; quick thinking... congratulations. BTW, I think the picture would have been equally effective in black and white. Bet you anything he's thinking about that missed block in football practice and how the coach got on his case bout it..... Gina is still too young to have anything upset her to that degree...

I envy the little girl. Many is the time I've had the urge to climb into a newspaper box to kick back (or hide). What a brilliant photo.

i enjoy the shot, although skin tones suffer a bit form the superia, but i have a question. i think i saw this on msnbc.com "week in pictures" awhile back - is that correct? kudos for the recognition, and the tight crop is what does it for this shot, imo.

 

kevin

On the first glance a very funny picture, on the second it carries quite a bit of sadness. I love how the situation and mood is captured. A great shot.

I think Paul has some wonderful stuff in his portfolio -- I've looked at it before and been impressed. Oddly, I think this is one of the weakest images, and here's why: the crop is way too tight. There is hardly any background to speak of and, what little there is, it's cluttered and confusing. We don't get much of a sense of a context.

 

This is not to say he didn't capture a funny scene and nailed the kids' expressions -- he surely did this. Compositionally, however, I find the image claustrophobic.

The composition being tight is not a problem, in fact, it's one of the things that makes it work. The claustraphobia of the subjects themselves are reinforced by the additional "box" that the frame creates, resulting in a series of boxes. The clutter in the background would be better if absent, but many great street shots have some clutter, it's just the nature of the work.

...This is photojournalism at a newspaper bubba. I am sure when Paul had loaded his rig with film, he was thinking spot news and features...not skin tones. Newspapers all have a budget to stick to and the photographers (as do I) stick to one type of emulsion in several speeds. We buy it in bulk, get proficient at shooting it and win awards like I am sure this one will when the Colorado Press Association awards are given out.

 

Photojournalism is the undisputed KING of rendering life as art.

 

Great shot Pablo!!

 

Have fun shooting the concert setup this afternoon. (Paul and I are the photo staff at the Aspen Times)

 

db

Nice Pic very Norman Rockwellish.

Hey it's always nice being selected as the designated photo.net chew toy for the week. I probably acquired my idealized vision of photojournalists from looking at Dan Bayer's excellent portfolio. Now if I can just get him to stop calling me bubba.

 

My question about the choice of film was not a criticism (sometimes a question is just a question). I use a lot of this type of film myself, no doubt for the same reasons. It's easy to come by and relatively inexpensive but not so great for adolescent complexions. To me, newspaper photos of people usually seem to be in the same league as drivers license photos. I think this is often (always?) by design and meant to literally show some people in a poor light.

 

As far as photojournalism goes, I will stand by my original observation that this photo as well as many others can be interpreted in a multitude of ways depending on the context in which they are presented. Is a photo included in a newspaper to tell a story, sway our opinion or just to grab our attention? I get the photo part; I'm just wondering what makes it journalism. I don't accept all photographs as depicting real life events. This photo might be more humorous if I added a dancing bear, two jugglers and a banjo-playing nun to the background. Hmmm

 

So much for my sweeping indictment of anything remotely connected with the "news" media (and banjo players). I'm quite sure that Dan and Paul have both forgotten more than I will ever know about photojournalism. Paul has some very powerful photos in his portfolio that I happen to admire more than this one. Maybe I just "get" those more than this photo. That's just my foolish opinion. I would be interested to hear more about "a day in the life" of a photojournalist if that would not be giving away too many trade secrets.

 

I absolutely love this photo. Great timing, great composition, great LUCK! :-D

 

I see nothing disturbing about the image...children have always found unusual ways to amuse themselves when they are bored. This seems pretty harmless to me. Gina reminds me of "Scout" -- from "To Kill a Mockingbird". Looks like something she would have done. :)

 

I find it more disturbing that we project our own ideas/issues/perceptions onto a child's experience. Why not let them define their own experiences? As for the horrors of boredom, since when is life always a trip to the amusement park? Some children, who seem to have an activity to fill each hour of the day, would probably benefit from a few minutes of dullsville...stuffed into a newspaper box. :) The western notion that we must constantly do, do, do...go, go, go...is producing some really stressed out little kids. At least these kids took matters into their own hands and entertained themselves without video games, televisions, computers (er...), etc.

 

Anyway -- congrats and well done! Obviously your photo has sparked a great deal of thought...and that is all anyone can ask for. :)

this speaks volumes of the years of horrible, un-ethical oppression in Ireland.. er.. I mean Colorado...

 

I love it anyways!

 

Looks like the kids are used to waiting for mom... they know enough to find somewhere to get comfortable. And then zone out.

 

I like the whole blue/red scheme and I like the way Robert's hair pops out against the green background.

 

As far as anyone wondering about those flushed cheeks ... that's usually a sign of fair skin and allergies

 

I like the tight crop. Good catch.

 

'shana

This is a perfect explanation of why we do this. The juxtaposition of the fierce introspection of the elder with outward horizonal seeking of the younger is priceless!! C.J. Buttolph

A question has been raised as to what is photo-journalism. To my knowledge, (and I've done freelance work for a very small award winning paper - The Stowe Reporter), photojournalism covers a very wide range.

There are human interest images that stand alone as a photo filler -- much like this POW. Then, there is event documentation, political images, weather photos, community coverage of bake sales, fashion shows, parades, festivals, town meetings and hard news images and more.

Some photojournalists do very reportage style straight images and others try and be a little more creative.

As a point of reference -- check out the award-winnning photographer for The Stowe Reporter in Stowe, VT http://www.yankeeimage.com/GlennCallahan.html He has won awards year after year - both regional and national. I can always tell a Callahan image. Sometimes the photo doesn't tell the whole story - sometimes it enhances the appeal of the paper and is a creative illustration of the story itself. The image draws your attention very effectively when it is done well.

Photo journalism - "reports and documents" events, conditions, surroundings, emotions. Sometimes these things are captured and sometimes they are even posed like when there is a group of people excepting an award -- or a politician posing for the press cameras.

I shoot wedding "photo-journalism" for instance. My job is not to "create" the mood but to capture it and document the day without being intrusive and without making "contrived" and false "moody" shots.

As Mr. Glen Callahan says so well: "I attempt to limit my influence on a subject in order to produce photographs which are an honest reflection of the scene at hand."

This POW image is a wonderfully captured photojournalistic shot that has all the elements of an award winning "slice of life" photo. A well captured moment. I love the crop and agree with Jeff's assesment of it -- I love the boy's expression and carrot red hair and I especially love the little girl in the box -- Quite an unusual and dynamic "photojournalistic" image. Congratulations.

Thanks again everyone for the wonderful comments. I had no idea a quick feature would be recieved so well nor did I know it would generate so much controversy. The interpretation of this photo ranges from a funny photo to a statement of the oppression of kids. Good photojournalism shots usually mean different things for different people.

Thank you Mary for the interpretation of what photojournalism is. And to Dennis, Photojournalism ranges from slices of life photos to the more expansive documentary essays. It can be scenics or fires, building mugs to accidents. It is a wide ranging and, for me at least, satisfying field. And it is understandable that you don't know what photojournalism is. So don't feel alone, a lot of people don't know what real PJ is.

As for the film, it was Fujicolor 400. Working at a paper that hasn't gone digital yet, we shoot Fuji 100, 400, and 800. Sometimes on assignments, you're in then out in a few minutes. You can't always stop and choose the film you wanna shoot with. In situations like this, what's in your camera will have to do. With only a little dodging on the girls face, the photo was colorcorrected with curves in PS and 125% unsharp mask then sized for my files and sized for the web. Not a lot of PS work was done on it.

The one constant in this field of endeavor, and why I like it so much is: change. You never know what you're going to do today.......

Have a great day everyone......

I am not going to rate this photo because of the simple fact that I am biased. But, I would like to explain my bias.

 

There are so many incredible sights in this world that can photograped. Things that most people will never see other then in photographs.

 

Yet the most common subject for photography is people, something that couldn't be any more common. I am surrounded by humans of almost every shape and size every day so why would I then want to take photographs of people or look at photographs of people. Unless the subject happens to be something along the lines of a supermodel in a bikini I personally think it's all just a waste of film.

 

Now take this photo for example. All I see is a couple of ugly little kids loitering. Nothing more, nothing less.

While I don't find the children aesthetically pleasing, I find the whole concept to be quite cute.

 

Second of all, supermodels in bikinis are some of the most airbrushed and fake (can you say "computer generation, expensive cosmetics, and implants?") people on this earth. So I guess you're saying you don't accept reality and would like to live in a world of unrealistic standards. Why don't I just throw away my camera and render my whole entire life in Photoshop while I'm at it?

 

"My job is not to "create" the mood but to capture it and document the day without being intrusive and without making "contrived" and false "moody" shots.

As Mr. Glen Callahan says so well: "I attempt to limit my influence on a subject in order to produce photographs which are an honest reflection of the scene at hand."

I think it is very important to keep all this in mind, and that's why I like this POW...

What would be even more interesting is to try to evaluate WHEN a journalistic picture passes the limit and becomes "false" & "contrieved". This POW surely doesn't look false nor contrieved AT ALL, and that's what makes it a great shot in its own way...

Would you or others consider Henri Cartier-Bresson as a "journalistic" photographer? To me he clearly is. And he did actually in many occasions add so much aesthetics to his images, that one could feel he "enhanced the mood" tremendously, maybe to the point of getting a "false"-looking result...

I think HCB kept life wonderfully alive in all his shots, yet aesthetically, his work is just absolutely amazing. I never felt anything false in his images, but he did, to a very large extent, enhance the mood of his images - imo. So, I'd say that there is also a kind of photo-journalism that adds to the subject without "changing" fondamentally the subject. Adding beauty without modifying reality is, to me, the grandest type of photo-journalism...

...but HCB didn't use a telephoto lens.

"Unless the subject happens to be something along the lines of a supermodel in a bikini I personally think it's all just a waste of film".

That to me sounds like not only Fantasy Land, but a superficial, uninviting world which I want no part.

It is the fact that we are different shapes, sizes, colors, etc., which make photographing people so challenging, invigorating and satisfying.

Anyone can learn lighting and hire a cosmetologist to spruce up an OK looking woman, put her in a bikini and shoot it. Iv'e done it but I prefer shooting real people doing real things.

And as for your statement:All I see is a couple of ugly little kids loitering. Nothing more, nothing less. They are some of the nicest kids I've met while working here in Aspen. And I prefer shooting them over supermodels any day.

The fact is I don't hold up these types of pictures as necessarily being great photography, just eye candy and nothing more.

 

My point was that there are many things in this world besides just other people worth photographing. Excuse me for not being as obsessed with the human race as everybody else involved with photonet.

 

I am really starting to question the relevance, importance, and worth of this whole idea.

 

And by the way, all I do with photoshop is remove scrathces, fix the color, sharpen and crop.

I got news for you, the whole concept of the hyped-up supermodel is a form of being obsessed with the human race...being obsessed to the point where girls as young as 7 or 8 begin to hate their pre-pubescent bodies and starve themselves, to the whole idea that any woman over 25 is ugly, unattractive, and is considered "retired" in many forms of media, whether TV or the movies or the local magazine attempting to sell a pair of $500 jeans made in an Asian sweatshop for $1.

 

--A boring, ordinary person

Sometimes photographing the common is a mechanisim that enables us to renew our appreciation for what we tend to take for granted. I have no trouble at all appreciating a bikini on a super model, instantly and consistantly, and although my appreciation might have considerable amplitude, it certainly doesn't have considerable depth. Maybe this is because I look horrible in a bikini and therefore seeing one looking good on a model just reminds me of how common I am by comparison, rather than how common I am by association.

 

why not upload some photos to your section so we can see what it is you think is worthwhile shooting?

 

i personally think people are a fascinating subject. they change from instant to instant. anyone can photograph a mountain that hasn't changed for millions of years. but to capture a certain human moment, man that is the shit.

...but HCB didn't use a telephoto lens.-- Tony Dummett

 

...and he didn't crop the hell out of his neg to get a decent image.