"Dressing Well on a Flea Market Budget", Miami

lol ... love those Guggenheim glasses! Of course, it's highly doubtful that Peggy

Guggenheim would shop flea markets -- not impossible, just highly unlikely.

This is a fine example of a street shot nearly perfectly "grabbed" yet imperfectly captured.

The diminutive subject is photographically attractive as a "character" mainly because of her facial and head outfit. We almost get the sense that the shoe she is holding is a serendipitous bonus. The fact that she is looking down at this moment punctuates the grab nature of the shot. Had the photographer truly bothered to study the subject I think he would have decided to do this shot differently.

Given the busy nature of the surroundings, her stooped and looking down demeanor, her hat and holding that shoe, we must ask: at the very least why didn't the photographer shoot from the hip or chest? A lower (perhaps one step back, or still closer and less wide) camera position is clearly what was called for in this situation. As this is, her hands are much too smallish and remote. Ah yes, her hands. Nobody has talked about her hands! I would submit that her hands would tell us much about her and add so much more to this "story" (and sacrifice some of the flea market clutter). Unfortunately her hands are lost by the condescendingly high camera angled position.

This may resemble or remind some of an Arbus or a Weegee or a Winnogrand, but I would bet they would have done this more effectively by utilizing their learned, self-trained, and instinctive gifts for applied observation.

Good street photography is not about grabbing shots. It is about becoming as one with your subject and positioning yourself (with the right equipment) for the best or most telling shot.

Philosophical definitions about street photography to one side, the ultimate question for me is: Do I like it? and, unfortunately, I don't. For my taste, it's too cluttered, the subject is too cramped in the frame, and the contrast is austere, even in the most recent version. I wonder if this was the only frame made of her? Did Marc follow her around, taking more shots, using different lenses, different backgrounds, etc? Or was this it?

Briefly scanning through the comments above, I hope I'm not repeating anything...

 

but I remember seeing someone saying there was humor in this picture - I couldn't figure out why I disliked this picture so much until Friday - took me a week to figure out I found this picture very sad.

 

not being there to talk with her, not to have been at the flea market, I can't know what the real context is - but I see an old lady, her head disproportionate to her body, making her body seem even more frail... skeletal with the disjointed white "bone like stuff" around her waist, she seems alone - no one close by, to her side and she's holding onto her shoe like it's the only friend she has. her arms are close to her body, stiffly, almost like she's angry, or in pain and her face is turned slightly to the side, as if she's turning away from the camera, not wanting to see the viewer. Her hat and glasses shroud most of her face - so the only expression we can see is this grimace, her frown, which I think sets the mood of the photo. she's dressed in mostly black, with this noose of a scarf around her neck, and she seems coffin-ed in by the frame of the photo - bent over, like she doesn't have any space to stand up straight. the way her hand is held, with one digit semi-extended the the rest hidden gives her a severe look - and of course, she's at the flea market, where junk and old stuff is resold cheaply. it's a sad picture.

Thank you, Andrew. I have been puzzled by those who emphasize a humorous aspect to this photo. I, too, find it sad, not humorous.

 

Unlike you, however, I like it, and I get an uplifting message in spite of the rather sad predicament in which the lady likely finds herself. Indeed, the very points that you emphasize as reinforcing a message of sadness can actually be interpreted as also demonstrating a certain skill of composition in drawing our attention to her rather limited life choices, indeed, of emphasizing the constraints that are in fact rather sad. The photo, that is, is effective in bringing out a sense of empathy in those viewers capable of empathy. For others, it is a technically flawed shot, and that is all that they see because that is all that they can see.

 

The very language that you use in describing the photo ("skeletal," "shroud," "coffin," "noose") point up to me the isolation and probable terminal loneliness of this woman, who quite possibly has outlived a spouse and many friends. Her physical freedom on the street and at the flea market is at odds with and in tension with her likely sense of lack of freedom--the lack of options for self-expression and self-affirmation that the elderly often want but cannot have.

 

I have seen elderly couples sitting staring vacantly into space in fast food restaurants in St. Augustine, near where I lived. They have retired to what they hoped would be paradise, but one senses at times that they are simply waiting to die. They have long since stopped basking in the Florida sunshine. On the best assessment, their prospects for the future are not good--the possible death of a spouse, the prospect of a disabling condition or last years lived out in a nursing home.

 

This lady, by contrast, offers a much more upbeat response to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Even so, she is yet constrained by a likely lack of options, and these constraints are emphasized by the very tightness of the composition and the jumbled nature of the background, which is this case might not be weaknesses but strengths. She appears constrained in the photo. She is no doubt constrained in real life. The background appears jumbled. Well, she is at a flea market, and her dominating presence with the tight crop only emphasizes her personal overcoming of the chaos that surrounds her.

 

I could go on in this vein, but my point is that, whether Marc intended this composition or simply took what he could get, the composition, although not pretty, does reinforce the rigorous constraints that limit the life options of many elderly persons.

 

In spite of the sadness of the figure, she is not pathetic. She may be dressed in black, symbolic of mourning, but she seems not to be mourning, at least not for herself. She seems to be affirming life within the limits of the options available to her.

 

The more I look at this photo in the larger social context, the more I like it. Even the stark contrast lends a certain sense of grimness of the everyday struggle to stay alive and to stay active for the elderly. Simply getting up and out the door can be a challenge, sometimes a painful one for those with arthritic hands and other joints (not to mention other possible maladies), but she not only got out the door. She managed to make herself presentable to the world as best she could, in a style which for her was an affirmation of her own being and personality.

 

We can empathize with her in her plight, but we can also choose to applaud her rather than to laugh at her. Our response to the photo, as always, tells at least as much about ourselves as about the photo.

 

As we look at this photo, let us remember that we might be looking into our own future, if we should live long enough. Time is not on our side. A lot of the things that we now take for granted will be gone soon enough, perhaps a lot sooner than we think. How will we respond when our own options are as severely limited?

 

This photo is not just another pretty picture. It provokes thought, and that ultimately is why I like it.

I don't know if it's allowed to sum up what one learns from POW. I don't look at the POW,

so I don't know protocal. But here's my take...

I found many insightful and something to apply to making

images or editing images in future ... which is the value of critiques that offer an

intelligent review. If fact, I shot a lot this weekend in NYC, visited the Arbus show, and

tried to keep many of the thoughts shared here in mind while shooting. On the other

hand, some pronouncements and declarations, no matter how long winded,

were simply that IMO, and basically useless in terms of gleaning anything constructive...

for me or anyone else looking to improve. One does have to be discriminating in who one

listens to, including both positive and negative feedback.

 

If we had the opportunity to submit what was to be considered for POW, I'm not sure this

would have been one I would have selected myself. But someone else saw merit in it. Some

people saw it is a similar way that I did. Strangely sad, perhaps made more so by

emphasizing the frailness and vulnerabilities of age. Sad is not bad IMO. Humor is not bad,

if that's how some took it. Feisty to some degree is exactly how this woman seemed to me.

Others simply didn't see any of that, or if they did, it meant nothing to them. I do not find

that bad either... just indicative of different ways of looking (not rendering judgement on

the differences in the process, but instead just listening ) ... leading to the polarization of

opinion ... which isn't bad either, IMO.

 

In the end, it has been a valuable experience. Thank you all.

Another Shot of Al Kaplan???

I see another T shirt coming on....

 

Seriously, the overall expression made me wonder from the get go if she was purchasing the shoe or if she had removed it after a long day of flea market shopping!

 

Nice.

Thanks to you Mark for sharing it. I would like that my mother was portrayed as you did this lady. Besides an excellent portrait, I see respect and empathy. It would be my guess that if she remembers this encounter with you she has a found memory of it.

great photograph.