Boy With A Bottle

I don't know what I admire more, the picture that touches me, the photographer who was able to see and take it or the human being inside the photographer who shows so much interest and care for the world around him. I guess it's a little bit of everything.

 

Thanks for sharing all your pics again, in contrast to all the cheap-trick eye candies they are something of lasting value, that I can look up to and use as an example I try to live up to.

Thank you Bernhard.

Koudelka,Salgado,Ian...you're all on the right track!

Really a photograph,if you know what I mean...(8-)

I haven't word to say the power and emotions of this shot!

Maybe "perfect" is the good one!

I hope that one day, i do a shot like this one!

Congratulations

PHIL

Can I be a fan? Your photos seem to expand from the 70's to today...and I think they're good enough to be produced for a book or even an exhibition. Then again I am not sure how many people out there actually appreciates photographs like these (some people I know would call it 'old style').

...Can't say how emotive is this photograph....It is a great professional work. Congrats.

This is just a wonderful, simple, real photograph. Love it. Thank you.

Very well done. This is the highest rated true B&W shot I remember seeing. I am glad to see that it is still possible. The child's facial expression drives the image. The balance isn't perfect, but the mood of the piece is exceptional. J.

This photo makes me I think remember a photo of R.Doisneau(also a child with a bottle , I believe.)

This one is more introvert , because the child doesn't seem to be aware of you at all and looks in front of him.

I also use b&w and hope to get the opportunity in Ireland , where I'm goin to toroow. Forgot to look what camera you use.

I get pleasure from your image because of the mystery of the story behind the capture itself. Marvelous!

 

Also, your image is a distinction between the uninspiring and maladroit digital mishmash images on photo.net that are tainting real photographic genius that we used to see here on photo.net. As I stated elsewhere your talent behind the lens is far more competent and inspirational than those that work synthetically behind a keyboard.

 

Thanks for sharing. john orr

 

Being a real admirer of your work, I'd say that this good, yet not your best imo. I miss the child's eyes somehow. Just see them a bit would have been great. I also feel that the arm's position is essential to this shot, but the image tells me less than your images normally do...

Nostalgic, yes, but maybe not as rich a content as your other boy picture. Imho. Best regards.

This photo brings me to recall a similar photo taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was also a boy holding a large bottle of drink but shot at a slightly different angle. The only thing different is that his photo had a little more context whereas you chose to isolate your subject more from the context. Excellent work, anyway.

Cartier-Bresson's photo definitely has more context, and is much more upbeat than mine.

 

Choice didn't come into this photo. I was photographing in the opposite direction and my attention was drawn to something behind me. The boy. It was truly a snapshot, cranking the lens as fast as I could for this very fortunate moment.

 

This was taken in a slum. The bottle was probably being taken back for a refund, maybe a penny or two, but to him, maybe a small fortune. And that is (I suspect) why the death grip on the bottle, and the downcast eyes are part of the concentration. He doesn't want to trip, doesn't want to risk breaking the bottle.

 

The Cartier Bresson photo is obviously more joyous, he is bringing home two bottles of wine, and he lives in a totally different culture. This photo and the other ones in this folder were shot in one of the worst slums in Canada in the mid-sixties, and early seventies, just before Urban Renewal.

 

This, as usual consisted of tearing down an established community, albeit very badly run down, and moving the populace to Public Housing, where the community no longer exists, and where the problems often become even worse, due to the displacement and the impersonal nature of the new housing, generally high-rise, or low-rise apartments, and where the crowding is even worse than it was in the previous slum. One bizarre irony of the slums in Saint John is that they had the best view in the city, they overlooked the harbour, and the train station and Main Street, so the inhabitants had lots to see. Of course it is all gone now, and there are new, modern (sterile) commercial (even, of course a McDonalds) buildings that have replaced what was once a vital community.

 

I have hesitated to upload this photo because of the inevitable comparison to the Cartier-Bresson photo, but I feel that it is different enough that it stands on its own.

this picture is really mesmerizing, i can't stop looking at it, it's so gripping. the boy is clutching this bottle so protectively, i keep wondering what he's thinking about... what's he looking at... things like that. the picture has a lot of attitude and impact, wow all i can say

YEs, comparison to HCB was inevitable, but although you did not have to defend yourself, at all, as the photo does stand for itself in its humanity, a disappearing if not vanished trait now, your explanations by giving the background did add more interest to it.

Just a wonderful photo, as are all the rest in your portfolio. All convey an incredible sense of time and place. Mind you, I don't think there's much hope of the NB Tourist Board hiring you any time soon :-). So happy to see your portfolio back on PN.

Somebody said that the hand is distracting. Right. But think about it - if this hand was just like you "expect it to be", the image would not be so powerful. The twisted hand is one of the most intriguing parts of this image next to the face of this boy.

I wish I could Take A picture like this some day

 

Superb!!!!

Emotionally charged... Thank you for being there.

 

I think that you should not worry that Cartier-Bresson's photo has not left enough room for you. Your Boy with a Bottle is not a mere extension of the Cartier's happy-faced boy. I think you know that. I was tempted to do some art appreciation exercises here but won't. Literaly or symbolicly, one has to see a boy with a bottle much too heavy for him. And many will see beyond that.

Thanks for a real, nonps'd image. Great.

Great .

Wonderful job.

It reminds me of growing up in the streets of Brooklyn -- not the part that the Huckstables lived... And we would use whatever we found to play with. We could not even afford squirt guns so we would make them out of dish soap bottles. You have truly captured the spirit of what it is like. I am a huge fan of your work!

A photo that speaks.