Destroyed and burnt-out residential buildings in Sarajevo, Bosnia with toy tank 01

Please read technical infos for description, I am eager on your

comments. Thanx in advance, Oliver

I like the idea, the colors, and the light. My only critique would be that I feel there is too much space left on the right (the ground). A solution could have been to have the camera positionned slightly more to the left or you can still crop a tad on the right. Regards.

The placement of the child's toy is certainly not subtle, here in this war damaged environment, so the superficial message of the destruction of war is quickly absorbed. Composition, lighting, technical handling are all solid if not spectacular. But is that the end of the story? No, I think there is a bit more going on here. Questions, such as How does a child begin to understand why wars happen? Does giving a child in a war-torn area a toy army tank help them to cope with the grief and turmoil of war? Or simply, What became of the kid to whom this tank belonged?

 

The picture poses these questions to me, and the fact that I stop to think about them for a while, means the image is a success.

I like how the camera angle is inbetween two positions: One would have made the tank look very much like a toy (a higher angle) and the second, lower angle, would have maybe made it look more real. So, it is inbetween, therefore more of a guessing game for the viewer.

 

The lighting is nice, highlighting the treads, the part of the tank that is for movement, rather than the turret, which is missing, and which is for destruction and warfare. The missing turret makes for a broken tank/toy in a broken landscape, a double play on war.

 

The tread on the the right is off the ground, which symbolizes movement, a little. The background is dark and soft, which draws attention to the tank more.

 

I agree with Marc that a little bit of the right could be trimmed. But then, if it were tighter the missing turret might be more evident. I like how I didn't notice its brokenness right away.

 

 

I'd be interested to know if the photographer intended this image to be a serious commentary on war or just an amusing close-up of a toy. Given the battle-scarred backdrop (including bullet holes in the wall?), I guess some meaningful message may be intended, but to my eyes this is primarily a fun picture of a toy tank.

 

It reminds me of a scene from Doctor Who, in the good old days when Tom 'care for a jelly baby?' Baker was the Doctor: A giant robot is on the rampage, creating all sorts of mischief, so the army send in a tank to confront it. But with the paltry budget for special effects (one of the show's great charms), they used a toy tank and a similar camera angle to this one. The tank gets zapped by the robot and it all looks hilariously naff.

 

Anyway, I digress... I have to admit John's pertinent questions never arose in my mind when I looked at this image. But then I think it's inevitable that kids growing up in a war zone will imitate in their play the actions of the grown-ups around them. I think it's a shame the gun barrel is missing (the turret appears intact to me). But then I destroyed many of my toy cars when I was boy, growing up in peaceful surroundings, so I can't blame the owner of this tank for inflicting some damage. Good shot, I like it.

After the tank, the thing that I'm struck by is the garish colouring and the lighting. Contrary to some other folks, I'm not too keen on the low intense warmth of the light here. I think it has resulted in an appearance of over-saturation of the colouring which in turn seems acutely loud for the subject. It seems to interfere with what I perceive is intended as a sombre, reflective photograph. A brownish duotone might suit me better. It's also rather contrasty with deep dark detailess shadow areas at the lead viewpoint/front of the tank. Perhaps linked to this lighting difficulty of mine (and only mine) is that the toy tank was found inside and taken outside. I wonder if it was photographed where it was found and whether anything of the intent behind this photograph was available to you with the tank indoors. I dare say an indoor image would not be so immediately striking but the subtlety of an indoor shot certainly appeals to me.

 

On cropping, I wouldn't crop (because the space to the right adds to the sense of tank motion) save for one tiny reason namely the blue stone in the lower right corner. For some reason that grabs my attention and of course it shouldn't.

 

Just like Doug I like that I didn't notice the missing gun straight away and that it had to be pointed out to me by other commentators.

 

All in all, I admire the belly to the floor angle and juxtaposition of toy tank to bullet ridden housing. The link is unbreakably strong and a worthwhile reminder to self and people like me, how fortunate we were with our childhood compared to so many little boys and girls elsewhere in the world.

I cannot explain why (perhaps someone else can), but this toy tank makes the message of this scene more harmless than it should be. The contradiction between peaceful sunlight, beautiful colours and bullet holes would have been enough to compose a strong picture.

 

Showing the tank smaller, lieing forgotten on its side somewhere in the scenery would possibly have a better impact.

I have to admit: even if I have seen some of the "darker corners" of planet earth already, I was really touched by this trip to Bosnia like all my colleagues were. The fact that such a dirty war could happen in Europe leaves me without words. All the ruins that we saw in this country (and we saw lots and lots) were really frightening and striking, causing endless discussions. When I came to the site you see in the pics of this folder, I was overwhelmed a bit because of the junxtaposition caused by the colours that the buildings were held in and the total destruction. Inside the ruins it looks like the people living there ones just left yesterday. While climbing around there I found the tank some 3 or 4 meters away from where I placed it. I took it away from its original position (it was lying on its left side, no chance to take a nice pic) just because of a small spot of evening light.

I was struck by the idea that some children (maybe) were playing with this toy in that residential site and then were confronted one day with a real tank. Let´s just say Sarajevo impressed me a lot more than I thought it would do and I tried to capture the very special mood of the city and the country. Grees,

Wow! Very striking image that truly speaks.

i REALLY like this shot... i have seen lots of war shots, but this is really something different... the way you physically composed and shot this picture alters the scale of toy tank, making it appear larger than life. You can see the ruins in the background... did the tank cause that? no, the viewer after a long hard look can figure that out. but it offers deeper insight: what are we teaching about violence, war and hate? finally a photo on here that is refreshing to see... nice job..

Wow, very strong statement. great color. amazing huh?

 

thanks for sharing. I hope to see more.

Wonderful photo. Although we don't know why the building in the back is burned out, the toy tank lets us draw an easy, maybe wreckless conclusion. The orange lighting on the tank is excellent and reminds one of fire. Excellent work!