drorbaldinger 0 Posted March 2, 2012 the level of skill is undisputed and is truly incredible but beyond that, what does it mean?i really admire the technical skill, but what idea keeps it together? Link to comment
niki3 3 Posted March 2, 2012 i don't think the idea is so importat.... just admire the techinique and the realisation! very good work Link to comment
DGorinstein 20 Posted March 3, 2012 Congratulations on a truly marvelous image. I agree, the pure visual impact should suffice for this subjective and highly imaginative composition. Elegant, refined and superbly accomplished post-processing. In my favorites!DG Link to comment
martinforget 0 Posted March 3, 2012 Very nice art work. I like the smoothness and the choice of those fishes who once went out of the see to put some life on the ground. regards and best of luck to you, martin Link to comment
papasan 0 Posted March 3, 2012 Intriguing and original composition. Well done. Regards - michel Link to comment
donev1 748 Posted March 3, 2012 Very well done. I like very much tonality and color balance in harmony with her eyes. Best wishes. Evgeni Link to comment
Pierre Dumas 315 Posted March 3, 2012 Pure perfection! Seven all the way Elena! Congratulations!Best regards!PDE Link to comment
danny_deckers 1 Posted March 3, 2012 Aesthetic surrealism, as expected. Allways a pleasure to look at. Link to comment
wocsart 0 Posted March 3, 2012 Very unique composition. It seems well thought out although I miss it's meaning if it has one at all. Very spacey feel about it. I like it very much, excellent artwork. Link to comment
raymondborg 0 Posted March 4, 2012 Very interesting and creative work. Excellent post processing. Congrats. Link to comment
ldavidson 4 Posted March 5, 2012 This is so beautifully-executed. A fascinating surreal image that I want to explore and look for your meaning and intention. My eye goes back and forth between the fish like creatures and the woman's head. This is wonderfully creative with impressive details. 7 Link to comment
paulcasagrande 0 Posted March 6, 2012 una storia molto raffinata ed elegante,complimenti !saluti paul Link to comment
kallol 1 Posted March 7, 2012 Excellent image, Elena...your concept and execution is simply brilliant...very well done...7...my best Link to comment
pmj 6 Posted January 29, 2013 Please note the following: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.Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Help & Questions Forum.The About Photograph of the Week page tells you more about this feature of photo.net.Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer such questions with your contribution. Link to comment
Alex_Es 388 Posted January 29, 2013 Pretty girl. Very nice fish. A pity that they have been misused in such a cavalier pictorialist fashion. Link to comment
Guest Guest Posted January 29, 2013 Someone above titled their post "Art." This photo is trying awfully hard to be just that. Waaaay hard. Obviously, many Pners are easily convinced. To me, it feels like a paint-by-numbers rendition of something else, as if you can calculatedly and coldly apply the elements of art to a piece of photo paper.[Looking through the photographer's portfolio, though it is not at all to my taste, there is a consistency to the type of imagination clarified in the work that is impressive and daunting. The skill shown in the endeavor undertaken is also well honed. It's just the sort of mythological kind of idealization that simply doesn't reach me. I have this sense that if Ms. Pencheva "got real" she'd be a formidable photographic force.] Link to comment
aplumpton 16 Posted January 29, 2013 A valuable example for students of a city art or photography college, and issuing from a course of Illustrator 101 or Photoshop 101. There is no doubt some quite good if not seamless technique applied by the photographer in compositing such an image, and it will likely wow those who are disciples of this form of expression. It is sort of fun to look at, of course, and would probably gain a foothold for the photographer in the world of advertising fantasy that requires, above all else, an imagery that captures attention- just long enough to do the job of bringing attention to the virtues of something else. The choice facing a photographer is whether to use a fertile imagination to express something strong and memorable, or whether to put together a visually interesting but arbitrary composition of poorly related subject matter. The former quite often takes the form of a subtle image that holds attention and provokes continued viewer involvement. The latter has promise but often becomes just icing without a cake.If the intent was to produce a fun image, then I guess that the photographer has achieved that. The technical quality is very good. The overlap of different images is not too disconcerting, and probably adds a bit to whatever form of expression (?) she may be seeking here. The horizontal position of the girl is very forced looking and she is suspended above a medium (water) that normally might buoy up and relax the subject. This forced quality seems apparent in the portfolio of images and the apparent imagination there applied, notwithstanding an evident and impressive technical quality.I admit to preferring art that can surprise the viewer, but which is also subtle in expression. I do not see that exhibited here, but successful art expression is not perceived the same by everyone. Link to comment
DavidRabinowitz 9 Posted January 29, 2013 I believe Elena Pencheva is an amazing artist that uses photographic elements to create a surrealistic like vision...for me, this is incredibly creative and fantastical...there is much to consider when viewing this piece of art...the metropolitan museum of art just finished an major exhibition, the first in its history, entitled Faking It, Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop...I don't believe this was a indictment about photography or manipulation in the digital age as much as it was a recognition of the "manipulated image", it's history, and it's coming of age in the digital era...Maggie Taylor, wife of Jerry Uelsmann, is a key figure in digitally enhanced photographic art, using scanned "found" objects and elements including images of 19th century men, women and children...this image and others by Elena Pencheva allows for a creative vision that perhaps she cannot achieve by any other means...when I look at this image I am struck with it's beauty but as I look further, I see a story emerging with all sorts of interesting elements...i think it's a great example of how to use photography coupled with fantasy... Link to comment
Hector Javkin 6,963 Posted January 29, 2013 There is a Slavic tradition of a female water spiriit, called a samodiva or samovila in Bulgarian. I believe this is what Elena Pencheva (who has the same last name as Bulgarians I have met) is creating. As such, I think it is successful--she is putting the samovila into photographic form, and it works. I don't know if the photo has a title, but that might have helped those who didn't understand it.You can take the photo as a fun image if you like, the same way that you can take Da Vinci's Last Supper as the painting of a fun farewell event, if you don't know Christian images. It's more understandable, of course, to not know Bulgarian mythology. I'm not saying this photo is a Da Vinci, but I like it. Link to comment
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