Old City, Kashgar

Xinjiang.

beautiful composition and light. The seppia tones enhance the old Kashgar.unfortunately in the last years the chinese have destroyed a laot of this old flair. Heinz

Great shot.

beautiful colour and light - regards

Elegante presentazione,complimenti !   saluti paul

Very good work...

Good atmosphere.  Well done!

Iker, the light and the textures create a really nice atmosphere for this. The single figure in the long empty alley adds a sense solitude. 

visually stunning..take care samme

Beautiful work!

Timeless !

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I love the muted colours.

Since this photo derives much of its power (for me, at least) from the details and textures of the brick and paving stones, I would like to have seen it in a somewhat larger size. Apart from that, there is little to fault it.

Congratulations, Iker, on a very fine photograph.

--Lannie

I like the lighting here and the atmosphere, but because of the present of the man on the right side of the frame work and being too close to the end of the image at the right, makes this image composition is not very well balanced, as the man looking almost toward the direction of the right, he should have been to left of the frame work.
All of the best.

I like the off-center composition. I also like the way the lines of the bricks on both sides lead the viewer's eye deeper into the frame, but the only problem with that is there's nothing to see once you get there.

The overall tone of the photograph gives it just a bit of a vintage feel for me, which I like. I also like the solitary feel to the shot.

Basically, this is one of those like-but-don't-like-a-lot photographs for me. It's interesting for the period of time it takes to see everything in it, but unlike a lot of the photographer's other work, there's nothing here that would make me want to revisit the photograph for further study or inspiration. It just doesn't elicit a strong visual or emotional response for me...it has no real impact on me.

I like the brick & stone texture as well as the muted colors. Overall I like this a lot, I think the framing cramps the photo & it needs more room on top. It's a very good mood shot

A scene from China, and seen from the jacket of the clothes of the man, present China, from the old city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far East China (the Northern Silk road). This is where a massive demolitions of the old centre is presently being made which is being denounced by the European Parliament and Unesco calling for protection of the Uyghur heritage.
This being said, the main scene of this POW shows us an old "Hutang" (as it would be called in Beijing) with narrow streets of family houses - with (probably court yards behind). I have never visited the place, so maybe Iker can tell.

So, for me, the choice of sepia filter is well chosen and well controlled, calling history to our attention and the composition centering the street perspective, inviting us into the city by this almost empty street paved with six-sided-tile stones, is a common and obvious choice.
And, then we have a man standing looking straight at the viewer (the photographer). That Iker has chosen to make a selected sepia filter to the photo, leaving the man in very contrasted B&W, is an esthetic choice, that I would not have made - even more so, because we don't need, as viewer, the man to be called to our attention beyond the general composition of the photo. Furthermore, as I see it, the man is not the message. What's around and behind him, is.

 

This is a good photo for POW...The view and camera angle are very nice and the old city showed as well...IMHO,the walls are a little dark and a little light and processing can change the shot completely.This is not a better version but the details are more clear.Anyway,this is a nice photo of the week with very well composition!...Best regards(Bobby).

A big step for the "elves." Something approaching street photography. This is a posed shot, of course, in an exotic setting. The exoticism of the scene is the draw, not the decisive moment. There is no decisive moment--I mean a sudden tiny experience captured a 1/500 of a second before it is lost. This is a documentary shot. Probably it is best appreciated within a series of photographs.

This is not a typical tourist shot nor a shot meant to lure tourists. To a local this would be an ordinary and perhaps boring scene. To those of us on the outside it is something else. The man posing casually with his hands behind his back and his white hat is unusual because we probably have never met anyone like him. The background is ancient. He seems (and probably is) utterly indifferent to it.

What I like most about this photograph is the amazing ancient structures surrounding this man and his utterly casual stance. It is how you would pose in your neighborhood if a Chinese tourist insisted on photographing you. Yes, your neighborhood is exotic beyond dreams to someone.

I like this photograph. I like its understatement. It is exotic. That is the draw. But it makes the exotic wonderfully commonplace.

Whenever an image is posted from some exotic place (at least to most westerners) I always cringe at what might be seen--well, rather seen again. But I was pleased with opening this image as well as looking through Iker's China folder.

What I particularly like in this image is the sense of quiet and calm. The wonderful stone and brick work let us know we are in an old setting although the manhole covers also inform us that the area is not primitive. There seems to be a haze in the air that suggests that time of day before things get going or possibly when things have receded before the night which is then reinforced by the use of the subdued tones in the image. This feeling is enhanced for me by the solitary figure--is that another person all the way at the back of the scene?--that has a stronger suggestion of morning before things ramp up than maybe evening for me (maybe a cultural bias).

What I like about the portrait is that it doesn't feel forced or opportunistic but seems a moment of contact with this individual. There is something organic about it where I feel Iker is part of this scene and not just someone looking in. In fact, that is what I liked about most of the shots in his China folder, that he was connected with what he was doing rather than just being a voyeur. (there were a few that came closer to the expected shots, but minimal overall)

Compositionally, I would suggest that there is maybe a certain brilliance to how this is set up--in fact, I am not sure there is an alternative. This man stands in the one place in this image where every dynamic line leads right to him. Draw lines along the rooftops, center line and ground of the buildings at the rear and they all lead right to him. Then, the receding lines of the building and bricks on the right lead us to him and stop. Finally, draw the lines of the bricks on the left--the vanishing point is right in his heart! And then there is the strip of shade that frames him around his head and helps to make him stand out.

In addition to this being maybe the best placement, IMO, I also think that his bias towards the right suggests the momentary contact here. That he has another life and isn't just a fellow traveler posing for the obligatory photo. There is a resulting sense that even though we see quiet and calm, that there is more outside of this.

There's an atmospheric and ethereal sense of light here, made more so by the winding alleyway which has its own kind of depth and catches the light irregularly. The man feels surrounded by all this and his bearing seems to pick it up, as if he belongs here. I think no matter what particular spot the man stood in, that feeling would remain the same. It's a kind of synchronicity. How soft is the feel of concrete, stone, and brick seen this way. The capture of the variety of soft light in the scene is subtle and reads beautifully. It looks to me like there's another figure way in the background . . . likely just happenstance but nevertheless adding a dimension here, as if one will discover things in this alley if one stays with it. It is meditative. There's a harmonic alignment of place, humanity, shooting conditions, and photographer's visualization.

This photo offers many fascinating elements:

A figure at the end of the alley, barely visible and wearing what I believe to be a blue garment (making this seeming sepia image full color if I'm right.

Wires, maybe antennas almost invisible in the hazy sky at the end of the alley tying the old world to the newer.

What seems to be a picture frame hanging on the brick wall to the right of the door.

The very sophisticated color palate that's primarily cream, black and white.

The classy frame with the very subdued "China" lettering.

The only thing I'd change is the upload size. I would love to have seen this enlarged.

Great job, Iker!

Cheers ~
Alberta

On further looking at the photo, I want to amend something. I think it would make a significant distance if the man were stand a bit further back in the frame, though I think this positioning is fine. This positioning does feel a little more than he was placed there and like it wants to be at least somewhat of a portrait. Placed a bit further back would probably emphasize the feeling that he is part of the scene and not a highlight. Standing where he is, the foreground is weighted a bit (man and dark wall). Set further back, I wouldn't be feeling as if I go past the man to the rest of the alleyway, but more that he was simply in it. I don't necessarily think one way would be better than the other, but I do think it would make a difference in my emotional and visual response.

Iker has a vision, and that is expressed in his style of somewhat muted colors and relatively low contrast scenes. That vision very effectively creates a mood and a feeling about the subject and the place he is photographing. That style even extends to the physical presentation of the photograph with the very broad borders on two sides of his rectangular shots to produce a square (it's not the square that's important, but rather the broad, black borders). While the current POW expresses this style, the photograph in Iker's portfolio that really stands out in this regard is his version of the red dunes of the Namib Desert -- very different than how this area is "normally" portrayed, but it carries the mood and feeling that Iker is expressing with his camera.

Bobby K. showed how the colors could be more vibrant and the details more distinct, and it significantly changes the mood and feeling of the photograph. I think Bobby's presentation may be more traditional, i.e. what a majority of photographers would strive to achieve, but I also strongly feel it's not Iker, especially judging by the pervasiveness of his particular style throughout a majority of his photographs.

Iker's personal view also extends to composition. As someone pointed out, a more traditional photographer might have the man standing on the left side of the photo (the "looking into the photo" rule). But again, that's not Iker, as seen in the body of his work. I suspect that the most compelling practical reason for the man's position in the photo was light, although it may also be leading lines as John A. suggests.

I'm especially struck by the body of Iker's portfolio that shows us the whole place of an area that he phototographs: the people, the landscape, the wildlife, the community life. I find this to be particularly refreshing, and I feel that I'm seeing the entire area through Iker's eyes. His personal style carries through in nearly all of the photographs.

Iker is not unlike many other photographers on PN who express a personal and unique vision in the subject matter, light, and tone throughout the body of work. I think, however, that this group of photographers is in the minority. That I'm probably on the other side looking in makes me aware of and even more appreciative of those who can capture a personal vision in terms of composition, light, tone, and resulting mood that extends throughout the portfolio. [in contrast, I and others, perhaps the majority, tend to focus primarily on subject matter and composition in more traditional ways.]

I think I'm expressing what others have stated in different words and or with a different emphasis: toning, context, light, atmosphere, muted colors, natural depiction of the place rather than a posed or structured set-up, and, most importantly, a photographer's vision made real.

This is not the way that I probably would have approached this particular scene, and that's what I like and value the most: it gives me much to think about.