Greek Week

This does not look like a typical Carl Root photograph, which makes me wonder if it is recent or of an earlier vintage. It looks a bit vintage thanks to the black & white rendering (and my horrendous monitor at work). You should really identify these people so that some hapless critic like me does not offend you for making offhand comments about your friends or family.

This image seems to communicate the idea that people are individuals and at the same time predictably alike. Or perhaps that there are certain types of people or personalities that are common to the dynamics of many groups of people. Any photo that contains a great looking pair of legs is fine by me. Jack calls these thoughts non sequiturs. The legs are fine, therefore the photograph is fine. Superfine.

I suppose this photograph sums up the activities of Greek Week rather well. It may also sum up Western Civilization in general which is the legacy of the Greeks. We seem to be living in the middle of our own squalor and are oblivious to it for the most part. The other day I was eating an apple and I noticed that it was from New Zealand. I wondered to myself (no one else was around to annoy at the time) how much energy was expended transporting this particular apple to the desk where I was sitting here in St. Louis. Then I thought about the fact that I would probably be hungry again in a few hours.

The character at center left looks confrontational. The one in the center seems to be looking for acceptance. The person on the right seems confident that success and happiness are a natural result of simply showing up to the party. The young woman in the foreground looks supremely confident to the point of boredom. She can have anything she sets her mind to (and some poor fools back to). The people in the background are just that, background people who exist in our lives to fill out the stage. They are only bit players who provide the counterpoint to the important people's lives (us).

I like the loose and casual feel of this photograph, something that is missing from the current thinking which requires more rules and regulations than you can swing an art salon patron at. This is a pleasant dose of reality for a change. Well, at least it is reality and it is a change; and I like it because it is a fine photograph.

I wonder how this will fare with the people who like to rate photos.

This photograph was taken a couple of weeks ago during a visit to Newark, Delaware where my daughter is a student at UD. She isn't at all interested in the Greek system, but I had a few hours to kill while she attended to some business that didn't involve her parents. I put a 20-35mm lens on my D200 and wandered around looking for unsuspecting subjects, animate and inanimate. I walked down a side street that seemed to be generating a lot of noise and quickly realized that except for a few local cops, I was the only non-student to be seen and I stuck out like . . . well . . . an old guy carrying a large camera. I walked the block anyway, saw nothing of interest and retraced my steps, when I heard someone yell, "Hey! Take my picture!" in a tone that can only come from someone who's been partying for hours. I turned around, saw the group you see here, raised my camera at arms length - more of a gesture of acknowledgement really - and took a picture.

The plea must have been made by the guy with his arms outstretched. As you've noted, the other guy looks somewhat hostile, and everyone else is either unaware or could care less. The original frame also includes a group on the right of the frame huddled together looking at something not in evidence, so I cropped them out. What remains is this dilapidated building listing to one side (not really, but I liked the association. It probably looks straight to them.) I also like the accumulation of trash and the chipped paint and dents in the downspout, doubtless from previous encounters with other revellers.