"Dressing Well on a Flea Market Budget", Miami

This photo had to be done.

Classic. I certainly can see this photo in a commercial sense or as an editorial as well. Great!

This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the

Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest. It is simply an image that the Elves found

interesting and worthy of discussion. Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice

of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Site Feedback forum.

Congratulations!

 

Fantastic photograph, and wonderfully executed with real style!

 

Wonderful to see a good honest photograph. The old ways are always the best.

 

7/7

 

Regards, Nick.

I like the use of wide angle on this one, this accentuate women's head and attitude for searching something, and also accentuate perspective using converging lines to deform the body. I would say this is humourous, and i am sure that shots like this are quite usual in commercial photography environments where the accent is not the formal beauty, the clean look of the image, but rather the willingness to communicate a message. I think this image is intresting for discussion becouse we might pose ourselves the question: it is important - when rating and commenting a picture - the perfect beauty of the picture itself, its satured colours, the perfect armony and aderence to composition rules? or rather a succesfull picture is the one that communicate one (or many) hidden messages, where colours are not always important (unless they communicate a message too), where compostion rules are bent and broken to allow the immage comunicate something?

This maybe an interesting photo, however, unless for political or journalistic statement, I

don't like "people photos" that in anyway diminish the "personhood" of the subject, imo

this photo does. Would you like this to be a photo of your mother?

This picture does not give me "the complete story." Without the text, I did not know that this was shot at a flea market; hence I am unsure of the photo's point, of what it is trying to communicate. Is it an environmental portrait? Well, I can't really see an environment that enhances the photo. Is it a portrait? Well, if so, I'd like to see her eyes, which are obscured by those large glasses frames and the shooting angle. In the end, it appears as a grab shot of someone the photog came across and engaged in conversation; a nice shot, something I would definitely print, but not much more. I'm not sure that this would make it onto my wall or into a show.

This photo illustrates one of the major challenges of street shooting: taking random, slice-of-life events and turning them into meaningful compositions. Many beginners seem to think that merely having the guts to point a camera at a stranger qualifies them as street photographers, even though it often takes little guts and the results are often photographically pointless. (Witness the many photos, often posted to the Leica Forum with great pride, of helpless -- sometimes literally physically helpless -- street people.) But while it takes some practice to become comfortable photographing strangers in the business of their lives, that alone is not enough: the photo still must convey some message, display an interesting relation among compositional elements, etc. This photo fails to do that.

Classic street shot, Mark. You've really done a good job showing a character here. Not having seen the miami flea markets, though, I didn't make the connection. I'd like to see a larger version to more closely examine the background. Anyway, congradulations on the POW.

 

Josh

I like the photo, but I wonder what is "Dressing Well on a Flea Market Budget" in Miami?? If anyone can explain.

Best POW we've seen in a while. This could be a Arbus. Multi-layered and challenging.

I've never been to Miami -- Yet - I see what I believe is a typical retired lady in Florida ;-) Seeing the items in the background to the left - it says flea market to me - or garage sale.

This image is a study of an interesting character looking for a bargan, dressed up in her sunday best.. Love the sunglasses and the "look"...

Perhaps because I've seen this particular type of person in NY City I immediately identified her and found it to be a fabulous capture of a woman of a certain age, background and lifestyle. She looks like quite a character and I think it is priceless..

Great work Marc...

I highly recommend for people to check out Marc's portfolio. He is a successful commercial photographer and does fabulous wedding work as well. He is a valuable member of the Wedding and Social event Forum.

I'd like to say at the outset that I've seen other pieces of this photographer's work and he has shot some lovely images. That said, much as I am a fan of street photography, this shot doesn't really work for me. I find the shot a bit messy. The 'junk' next to the lady's face is a bit neither here nor there, and the leg to the right of the pic is a distraction. This is an okay shot - but I don't really think it is one that I would pick as my 'shot of the week'. In my humble opinion Marc has much better shots in his portfolio. Also, if it is a picture of a STRANGER then I am inclined to add my agreement (to some extent) with the point about the danger of diminishing the dignity of a CLEARLY RECOGNISABLE person who isn't putting themself in the public eye (like a celebrity) - particularly as the caption could perhaps be interpreted in a negative way by some. But maybe I'm being oversensitive. It's a question of personal judgement at the publishing stage. I probably would have taken the shot, but I don' think I would have put it online unless I knew the person and had their okay. But maybe I would... not expecting it to become a photo of the week! It's never easy to make a judgement on such a subjective matter. Best wishes.

Quite a nice contrast with the photos featured in prior weeks, to be sure. The trouble with this type of photography -- exemplified by at least two responses already-- is that it demands a certain amount of knowledge from the viewer-- knowledge about photographic history. Without an understanding how and why photographers have taken candid photos like this, how the interpretation, meaning and discourse about these photos has evolved over the decades, the casual viewer is generally going to be baffled.

 

 

Marc is a fine photographer, and this is a fine photo. It has spontaneity, it has charm, and it has a nice composition. Does it have any particular depth? Not really, and it is not Arbus-like. But this genre really can best (maybe only) be enjoyed when a particular photographer's vision is seen through a collection, not a single photograph. Winogrand, Levitt, Jeff Jacobson, Mitch Epstein, Alex Webb, Frank, and so on, are only really apprachable on anything but a superficial level in the context of cohesive sets of works, not stand alone images. Perhaps if Marc packaged a series this photo would stand out. Maybe not.

First, congratulations to Marc fo the PoW.

 

I think Douglas K. puts it very well. This photo, although of an interesting subject and shot with an interestingly wide lens, does not really have very much going for it compositionally. First, it's too cramped, and even then the figure seems to be a little too much to the right. And the whole thing seems to be squashed horizontally and has no clear compositional lines delineating it. Second, there's not enough separation of background and foreground, so the good variation in intensities (I love the hat and the scarf) is underused.

 

So although I am very fond of B/W candid street shots, I think we tend to get carried away by the human aspect and the B/W (soooooo classic!). Just like people liked the lovely colours and delicate frost patterns of the last PoW, although it had very little meaning as a photograph (spare me the "wonders of nature" eulogy :)).

 

Incidentally, this (attached, and URL below) is the best "big glasses" photo I've seen -- note that this photo addresses both the issues above, and has a lovely economy of expression :)

 

http://www.coldbacon.com/pics/winogrand/winogrand-rhinos.jpg

 

Cheers

Sid

Saw this a few years back from a post in the people forum. It's funny, campy,

an excellent rendering of character/style/fashion. All of the elements come

together to say what the photo means to say. Great work.

I was thinking of this pic when I mentioned Arbus, but you're right. But maybe it's a little Arbus-ian.

I like the contrast of the frailty of the women as shown in the

thinness of her hands and face, do to her obvious age, as

compared to her drive to counter the aging process by dressing

nicely. Note the pearl earrings as well as the matching hat, scarf,

and dress. Even the glasses have a style to them that

distinguishes her from others. I've heard it said that a person is

considered old and has given up on life when that person no

longer takes pride in their dress and personal appearance. This

lady appears to still have the desire to live, to do something

constructive rather than passing time in front of the tube

watching others live as she waits for her time. The shoe keeps

me guessing as to why she is holding it; did she just buy it or is

it hers and she is walking barefoot.

 

I must confess that I may be a bit sensitive here having just

visited my 93 year old aunt and ailing 94 year old uncle in a

nursing home Gulfport, FL. Ancient is more accurate. It is sad to

see these old, old folks but their appearance says much.

Great work, Marc, and congratulations on PoW. I like this, having seen scenes like it many times in my years in Florida. It especially does have that South Florida "feel" to it.

 

In the overall scene the contrast seems to be about right, but the dress seems perhaps overly dark--but perhaps it really was that dark. In any case, I have been enjoying your work for quite some time now and am very happy to see you get this recognition. People who don't browse your folders are missing out on a lot--likewise with your forum postings, which are always a joy to read.

 

By the way, I don't see this shot as diminishing the value of the subject to any degree.

In street photography, a genre all of it's own, you don't worry about the composition all that much or many of the other rules that accommodate the thinking processes of something you may have quite a few seconds/ minutes/ hours to capture. This is point and shoot at it's finest and quickest and it's where you usually capture people un-aware. And yes, sleeping homeless usually are not the subject of advanced artists in this medium.

 

Being that he captured this very interesting person (interesting because she is dressed quite well for a day at a swap meet/ flea market where most of us would 'dress down') and caught the quirks of her nature too. The single shoe. Why a single shoe? Those glasses (much more interesting than the Winogrand attachment/hippo shot- which give no insight of the lady in the pic, compared to this one), the used Kleenex in her hand, the angle with her hand hanging limp to her side, all the vertical movement, etc..

 

It's pretty much a classic, meaning it's an image you know a few years from now you recongnize you have seen before. And of his street photos in his portfolio that I just visited for the first time, this one stands above the rest in it's interest/success. MS

Congrats Marc, excellent shot. I don't understand people claiming that such picture degrades the image of your subject. In what way? this is life as you can see it on the streets and Marc brought us here its own vision. Very well done; perhaps you could share some technical details please: camera, film. Thank you. 6/7

First of all, congrats with this nice capture....it made me smile instantly.... and in street photography the emotion it evokes is more important than composition! (not that composition is unimportant)

 

You'll definitely find pictures of Arbus wich aren't that perfect on the composition matter either.

 

 

I'd also like to comment on the following:

 

"if it is a picture of a STRANGER then I am inclined to add my agreement (to some extent) with the point about the danger of diminishing the dignity of a CLEARLY RECOGNISABLE person"

 

I don't see in any way how the dignity is/can be diminished. If you are a dignified person how can a picture take away your dignity?

Furthermore street photography is likely to take pictures of STRANGERS.........logic?

 

Also, a lot of famous street photographers took pictures of strangers, even when they weren't allowed to (and pictures that were 'heavier' than this one) (e.g. elliot erwitt, weegee).....

 

I once did the test and posted a picture of a very famous photographer.....the ratings were lower than most of the pictures I made (and my pics aren't that good cos I only started shooting less than a year ago)

 

anyway, bravo for this nice shot (it obviously doesn't get its strenght out of the compostion)

"Would you like this to be a photo of your mother?"

 

Yes, since mine is no longer up to cruising flea markets. I don't get "diminished" from this shot. She knows what she wants and is looking for it.

I agree that street photography, and by extension, many documentary shots and b/w pictures in general, pass through very hard times becouse at first sight they are less attractive to the masses: take away color and razor clean composition and suddently people have to wander through the image to search for a meaning, if they don't find it they leave no comments, and rate are generally lower in this case.... no one can avoid this completely and sometimes street photography and documentary are able to reach highest scores just becouse of the ability of the photographer. This image to me a clear example of what stated above... if i had to rate this it would have been a 7 for originality and 6 for aestethic.. why? becouse the image is funny, becouse the woman looks really alive and asking for more, becouse the images presents a clashing idea within: can elder behave like youngest? Also this image would work perfectly as documentary becouse is not perfect: its beauty is not so much that insering the pic into a story would drawn onlookers attention from the story itself. But for many other this will be an everage (even if fairly well done) image. How many of us would like to make all this reasoning before rating and commenting the image? And since not everybody does, this kind of shots - as genre - will difficulty gain the kind of rewards they are worth.

I'll be the first to confess that I don't know what a good picture is any more. I ask myself, would this solicit such praise and high ratings had it been any 'ordinary' member's picture? And am I the only one objecting to the excessive black?

 

The aspect ratio suggests cropping, likely the right side to exclude distracting elements. If so, does that suggest composition is still important despite the interesting subject? And did the crop really improve the picture by much? More importantly, could this picture have been 'better' had circumstances (of the moment for the photographer) been different?

 

And what does classic mean, anyway? Is every contrasty B/W made with an old film camera a classic? Is every picture made by photographers with impressive credentials necessarily always good?

 

I'm unfamiliar with Marc nor his work, so take my comment as thoughts from an amateur expressed honestly.

Ummm... I quite agree it's very difficult to compose effectively when shooting "from the hip", as it were. But there can be no doubt that the finest street shots, by HCB, or Kertesz, or Winogrand, or (of the ones I've seen on this site) MacEachern have a compositional unity about them that is very pleasing. Yes, the difficulty in even framing the subject on the street pushes the ratings of a picture higher (and in extreme cases, like Capa's war pictures, we're ready to overlook almost anything), but for most pictures to be truly "classics", as many photo.netters have dubbed this one, they must, through luck or skill or whatever, be extra well balanced.

I remember that last week's PoW, although not a very good picture per se, was exalted because it was ingeniously shot. Aren't you guys coming up with the same argument here? You're saying the picture is great because it's so difficult to shoot it. This subject hardly poses the levels of difficulty that would truly transcend all other criteria.

It's a fine shot indeed, and again, I really love candid B/W's and try to do some street shooting myself, but I wouldn't call this a classic. Good photo yes. Slice of life yes. Classic no.

> Those glasses (much more interesting than the Winogrand
> attachment/hippo shot- which give no insight of the lady
> in the pic, compared to this one)

Oh please Michael :). Exactly what "insight" does HCB's man jumping over a puddle pic give you? Winogrand exploits the resonance between the specs and the rhinos (not hippos) to convey a huge amount about the lady and about the world as he sees it. It's satire at its best, and a street photog truly becomes great when he can express _him/herself_ through a candid, unmanipulated slice-of-life shot. It's possible -- HCB did, for one.

Cheers
Sid