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sure it could be better but what photo couldnt, its an amazing bit of timing and technique, love it really, except for the goofy aspect of her looking like she's about to sneeze hehe, wonderful image~

Given the slow lenses for the Xpan, the shot is a good use of the tool's limitations. The square object (street art?) made me think it was an artsy version of the image-expand button that the Explorer browser uses. In a digital age, this looks like a clickable icon and therefore distracts from the image more than it would in another time or context.

Man: "Resistance is futile to my evil death accordion! I will play music until they all dance to death! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

 

Woman: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! RUUUUNNNN! RUN QUICKLY! AAAAAAAAAAAAH! SOMEONE GET THAT MAN SOME LESSONS!"

First congratulations Lei, I very much appreciated a lot your portofolio in the past ... and I did not see this one before.

I like the format 'plan americain' movie style, fit the story and the movement. I feel like being on a merry-go-round..."Paris est un manege!". The guy doesnt seem to look at the woman but his look is far and vague and all in his music and, like a bliand man, thinking about fingers' next position. The bright square on the right side is quite distracting and doesnt bring much to the picture... I would burnt it slightly.

Congratulations Lei! On this POW and for an powerful and inspiring portfolio. You have a lot of goodies in your basket! This photo isn't your strongest in my opinion, but it does have quite a personality and offers much for debate. In answer to the Elves question "...does it bother you and do you feel the image is broken in two parts, or do the action, the background and the format succeed in restoring some sort of unity?", my answer is yes to all parts of the question. The imperfect, off-beat and quirky qualities of the image speaks to the very nature of street performances. Street performances are frequently performances meant for a stage (equipped with curtains, good lighting, and a polite audience) but placed into an almost totally uncontrolled environment. The performance is taken out of its ideal context. In most cases the performers compete with the surrounding traffic of noisy vehicles and people running by and sometimes walking through the performance while carrying conversations at their normal voices. Most performers often compensate by exaggerating whatever they do. I agree with the observation that the white-shirted boy and the light panel are visually distracting. Without these two elements the image would probably be clearer, more harmonious, and more elegant, but these two elements also speak of the noise of the environment. The very theatrical and dramatic facial expressions and movements of the performers are contradicted by the nonchalance and obliviousness of the passing pedestrians. It's a messy situation. It's filled with noise, dichotomous actions, and visually disruptive but functionally necessary objects (i.e. the light panel). But isn't that what you'd find on most streets. Well this is street photography no? For these reasons, it would appear that this photo fulfills the theme very well. It would be nice to see the musicians eyes aimed directly at the singer though (i.e. without the distortion caused by image compression).

 

Again congratulations.

 

Juun Hwa Ea

I respectfully disagree (in part) with you, Chris.

You wrote: "I don't think the background is very interesting, blurred people rarely work well, unless you're using the blurred shapes to frame, or lead your eye to the subject."

As a general statement, I think you are pretty much correct here.

You add: "If the kids behind were sharp, then maybe the look on their face would give us a reference to how they felt about the singer and the player."

Fair enough, I can see your point here as well, but I end up disagreeing with this to some extent. I mean, yes, what you suggest would work and would add a "more specific" context to the action in the foreground, but the result would just be another picture imo, not necessarily a better picture.

Let's see: what context does the present background add to the shot ? The blurry background here simply "says", that the crowd is passing by. The way THEY feel about the music and the performers is simply not Lei's subject. That's not what this picture is all about. To me, the blur at the back means INDIFFERENCE towards what's happening in the foreground. The folks at the back are just passing by - a very common thing in Paris streets and subways -: they don't care much basically. This "indifference", to me, adds a lot to the scene, especially if you consider the devilish and passionate expression on the musicien's face. He's almost in a trans, and so is she, but the background just "passes by", missing most (if not all) of their passion. That, to me, is the function of the background in this picture. And that is part of its incredible originality. Lei didn't obey conventionnal ways to use this format, he created a pretty new way to use it.

More interesting perhaps is to consider that Lei stated this picture was taken under the Pont-Neuf bridge. Obviously, there was very little light available, and therefore, your request for a sharper background might have required a 3200 ASA film, or pushing a fairly high-speed film to death. Instead of going for extreme choices like these and to stick by the rules, Lei decided to take adavantage of the low light conditions, and used a longer shutter-speed to blur the background. I find this an extremely clever decision. Perhaps it was almost the only one that was available to him, but the result makes perfect sense to me, as it helps to isolate the 2 heroes of this movie, conveying, precisely, their isolation, and the fact that they are in the world of music, rather than in the street. I also find amazing that the musician remained so sharp in such conditions, especially with the woman so blurry. It seems in the end that he's in control of her transe in a way...

You also wrote: "As the pic sits at the moment, I think compositionally it's sitting in one plain, very 2d ie left and right."

Very much so, indeed. Though we do "understand" the distance between the musician and the background, we can hardly "feel" it.

Finally, you said: "I think to successfully photograph a street scene with an xpan you need to weave form and subject across the frame, holding an interesting background to contrast or support the foreground subject."

My opinion is that Lei has just proven that a different approach may work, but this is one of those pictures for which one may need to suspend his judgement for a while, forget the "standard ways" to do things, and see what's there to be seen, and mostly to be felt.

This picture is, to me, one of the most amazing street shots available in the category of work on photo.net, and it displays one of the smartest usages of motion blur I've seen on this site.

As for the rest of my thoughts, simply read Juun Hwa Ea's comment: I think it's really spot on.

Conclusion: for me, this is a truly fantastic shot, and being French, I dare say that this picture captured the essence of musette and of the artistic Paris street life like almost no picture I've seen did.

It's quite amazing to me that Lei, who seems to originate from China, is the author of a photo which brought me, a French citizen living in Malaysia, "back home". This picture really has France written all over it...

At last a photograph here that has emotion rather than just a subject! So rare here...very nice

A quick glance at the portfolio of Lei Gao suffices to convince me that Lei Gao has the vision to present the scene to us precicely as Lei Gao wants us to see it. Your pictures are excellent overall, and this is no exception. Congratulations!

I love this picture. My favourite photographers are such as Brassai, Doisneau and Lartigue. This picture follows that tradition. It's a fleeting moment yet one inevitably wonders about the relationship between the two subjects, their personal histories. Intriguing!

The subjects of this photograph are interesting and their invitation to pause and wonder about them is more often accepted than declined.

 

I think the man and the woman are definetly together and don't believe its a roller rink but perhaps a subway. They are dressed similarly with black body hugging clothes like performers.

 

The most prominent background man is standing too erect to be skating. The figures seem more engaged in walking and momentarily curious about the performers and perhaps their photographer.

 

I think it stands on its own and still relatively new to comments am amazed at the passions pro and con the images evoke.

Marc, I see your point.

Yes this picture feels very much to me like the streets of Paris.

I agree that street performers work in this chaotic environment, and yes the blur and the almost windy composition

(if this makes sense - windy?) certainly supports the idea of the spontaneity, and shows the difficult places these people perform.

 

But (of course there's always a but with me), and I thought I was being to harsh with my original comment, personally, I want more.

 

I'm stuck in that decisive moment thing that HCB went on about. And do I feel that this moment captured, really brings together all the elements that truly represent what was happening at the time. Non.

 

I think this pic may be more like Jazz than Poetry, and being an old school romantic, I want the classic romantic street shot.

 

 

Lei you have a wonderful eye, loved your desert pictures, but for me Paris is Doisneau and Riboud, so until I have my dose of ECT and wipe my slate clean, I remain stuck with rose coloured spectacles.

 

Regards. CB.

It is cool to see so many people are interested in xpan. I think this photo is one of the better ones in Lei Gao's profolio. But I don't believe it really utilized xpan to its full potention.

If you want to see some REALLY STUNNING street scene captured by Xpan, ever, try Dancing Mind - Zhou Mi Photography.

Since the main question here is when to blur and when not to, and how blurry can be used to enhance a photography, here are a few examples from Zhou Mi Photography.

http://dancingmind.net/Gallery/Panorama/PL/roll.jpg

http://dancingmind.net/Gallery/Panorama/PL/Drum.jpg

Hey, really interesting discussion!

 

The photo rocks very hard and has a really nice story around and this last website indicated is really interesting and well made! I strongly believe in these tipe of applications for film!

 

ciao!!

This picture makes me want to look twice. It's a definite eye catcher. The sharp static musician with intense emotion and concentration in contrast to the moving, blurry dancer who seems to have let go is very pleasing. I like it! Excellent Work!

 

Bijan Zade

I really love the photo and the wide format. This shows the intensity of the musician and the lady. The blurry background lets you see something is happening back there but the importance is up front. The blurriness up front adds to the mood of the shot which makes it more real for me. Greyscale is the best way to show this image, gives it a timeless quality , I believe color would have totally ruined the mood of the photograph. This does show two subjects but shows the interaction of the two into one main subject which I believe is the music and the feeling of the musician playing and the lady dancing. To me photography isn't just what's on the surface and this image relates so much.

Lei, excellent portfolio!

 

Youve got some excellent stuff here my friend. I especially like photographs #1235610, 1235615, Not a decisive moment actually, 1288520 (018), 1362051, Bar-Paris, 1235600, plus a few others. You got some good stuff in the Morocco folders as well.

 

I suppose I like this particular photo more for what I can read into it than for the actual bit of real life captured in it. What I see in this picture is the usual kind of---sexual, male-domineering, egocentric, delusional, forget-the-world, myopic, focus-only-on-the-beautiful-feminine-figure-in-front-of-youharassment type of mind game that takes place in some of the male species minds; one look at the obsessive relentless intent in this guys face and you know hes got but one thing in his little mind(what exactly is going on inside this guys head, I have no clue; but I have a strong suspicion that it will be actualized by his exercising his freedom of speech god given right any minute now). It would have been interesting to not know what the real story was and just allow the critics to conjure up their own. The substitute story is very original and very emotive: a thousand possibilities are taking place there, and every one of them can be visualized in full detail.

As a real story, all it is, is a freakish pose caught in an instant of incogitant plural motion in a scene in which all the players were at the right place, at the right time, with the right expression to reflect a totally different and unreal happenstance; a very down to earth, as normal as the air we breathe, story, with a lucky misconceived type of visual and emotional play. In this specific photograph it becomes almost impossible to divorce the dream from reality; very good as a real life photograph, but much better as the first impression.

 

Use of X-PAN?...a must! Indispensable!

 

 

Eurydice Z, thank you for that fabulous link you shared with us!

I do not agree that the image has two main subjects. The look of the accordionist make us understand that him and the singer form a couple. Moreover, when you see a musician and a singer in the same photo, it is obvious that they are together. And as it is normal, the singer is in front and the accordionnist behind. There is no problem with the fact of the two persons are on both sides of the picture, for the look of the accordionist make our eyes go to the singer, and when there, they are again attracted by the only subject in focus of the photo. In this way, is established an alternative movement between the tho persons. The intensity of their respectiv expression makes a lot as well in the strength of the composition. The use of black and white is perfect, for it add a look of passed that works particularly with the subject when you notice that the singer has an expression that make her look like Edith Piaf. Has anybody ever seen a colour photo of Edith Piaf ? As Regards to the accordionist, I don't no if he looks like Michael Keaton (I do not know him), but if it's true, this is here an historic photo!

I forgot about the pan format: The important here is the expression of the personns and their act. So the frame concentrate our attention on that. No need to see their legs (besides, this shows that the lady is not a dancer but a singer).

Lei has got a "street folder" of his own style, this one particularly stood out. The composition works for me, i disagree two subjects fighting with each other, rather they complements and forms a delicate balance and contrasting each other. The sharp against the blur; the music-player and the dancer. I simply like the mood and atmosphere created by this street photo !

This one is wonderful, and it works for me. My first impression of it was, in fact, street musicians in Paris.

 

 

For those who may feel a need to see have a closer connection between the player and the singer, please look at the player's eyes. He is intently watching her for his leads and cues. That is precisely how musicians work - eye contact - and I think that this excellent image of Lei's protrays that intimate element of performace art perfectly.

I really like this shot. He does look like Michael Keaton and as much as I love Mr. Mom, he looks a little out of place for me. But that is called bias. For anyone who has forgotten about Michael Keaton (about 93 percent of the population) this is a great shot.

Interesting. Irrelevant comparisons to a has-been film star are permissable, discussions with more substance aren't. Go figure. Patrick, anything to say for yourself?

I caught up with this image through somebody's reference just yesterday. I have been disappointed and bored by so many POW selections that nowadays I only check back on them sporadically. This was one rare photograph that deserved the purported weeklong discussion. Congratulations!

 

Having browsed through the discussion thread, now I'm getting straight to my own points:

 

This photograph has upset conventions in at least one department: spatial/temporal relationship in higher-pitched words, or simply put, the sense of image integrity even though the two subjects were disparately placed, and further separated by still/blurry effects, which unmistakably convey the senses of moment/time flow in terms of photographic languages. All this put together, works fine for me. I actually found it rather intriguing. Panning the camera to get still/blurry separation wasnt something all too new, but used on two juxtaposed subjects seemed to be, at least I havent seen any done so effectively. Thats the interesting part. The mans eyesight provided sort of visual link in between, but only to a degree. More of the connotations were to be derived from what both of the man and woman appeared to be performing. Time and space were two themes underlying many photographs, explicitly or implicitly. This one had brought out that relationship in quite an innovative way, thats what pleased me. The white box on the right, the boys facial expression, they were all appearing to me faded out as part of the general background. Their individual characteristics were rather irrelevant in this scenario. I wouldnt in any day trade off sense of spontaneity for perfectly arranged and chiseled artifacts.

 

Now the bad news. No, you have yet to escape that dreaded notion of decisive moment. You might have given it a progressive interpretation in this particular image. Im not sure when you were composing this image, thinking about isolation of the subjects from the busy background, which of the nuances were being considered, which were left out. Anyhow, a good image should not only yield pleasure while you were taking it, later on when you were looking at it, but also provide something to reflect upon after the pleasure onset had long gone. I think this photograph had succeeded in these regards. Would like to see more of your progressive shots not just for the sake of novelty, but also capable of conveying something worth brooding over.

 

Once again, congratulations!

 

Mud City Manglers

The Bullys

Meat Depressed

1/11/03

By John Holmstrom

Photos Copyright © 2003 by Respective Photographers.

January 11th has always been a special day for me. For instance, 25 years ago I threw my 25th birthday party at a hotel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was right after the Sex Pistols gig at Cain's Ballroom. It was sort of like the peak of 1970s punk rock. The tour had seemingly been a smashing success up until that point. There was a feeling that we had nowhere to go but up. The party was just a few of us on the tour - photogs Joe Stevens, Bob Gruen and Roberta Bayley, Sex Pistols Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious (who had picked up a transsexual after the gig) and a few roadies. It was the only time on the tour that we were all able to hang out together and try to have a good time. Just a few days later, when the Sex Pistols broke up after their next gig in San Francisco, punk started to "die." By the time Sid was charged with Nancy's murder in October 1978, it seemed to a lot of people that punk was over with - even though it was just beginning. Now, 25 years later, punk rock is the hottest trend in music (according to the New York Times and MTV - the same kind of morons who have ignored it and pretended it didn't exist for so long).

 

When my girlfriend Mare Idol suggested that we throw a birthday party at NY Decay, I figured we should celebrate the 25th Anniversary of my 25th birthday and have the best punk rock bands in the world on the bill. We spoke with Polina, the promoter for NY Decay (a punk rock/goth event at the Pyramid Club where Mare was deejaying in New York City) about having it there. It seemed like a natural. Piece of cake. So we set the date and promoted it with millions of cool postcards that my friend Frank Black (postcard500.com) printed for me.

 

The party began downstairs at The Pyramid Club. Mare Idol opened things by playing the Mighty Mouse theme song and people started joining the cartoon jam - a huge piece of paper on the wall next to the dance floor. Punk rock blared, the beer started to flow and the party people began to show up. PUNK Magazine regulars like Jolly and The General were there of course, as well as Tina from Charm School and cartoonists like Mort Todd + Cliff Mott, Fly, Joe the Artist, John Terhost, Mark Poutenis, who drew The Bullys' "Tonite We Fight" CD cover, James Romberger, Rick Trembles, and Danny Hellman.

 

There were lots of cool giveaways all night. Meat Depressed gave away 100 copies of their "Scene of The Crime" CD, Polina gave away PUNK and Bosko buttons, and there were free copies of PUNK #0 as well as free toys and free candy downstairs.

 

Before the first band went on, Polina, Mare Idol and I decided to have a bit of fun so we went onstage and held a PUNK Magazine trivia contest. We gave away some Mud City Manglers and PUNK Magazine merchandise as "prizes" to people. We asked stuff like "What is Legs McNeil's real first name?" (no one knew it is "Roderick Edward McNeil" until we posted it on the PUNK message board and "Who produced the first Ramones record?" (someone knew that Craig Leon produced it with Tom Erdelyi).

 

The Mud City Manglers were on first. I knew they'd be good because their CD, "Heart Full of Hate," was the best-received record we ever heard at a Listening Party. (This is one reason why we have these Listening Parties - anyone who has a band who thinks they're great should send us their CDs and we'll try to review them!) The Manglers lived up to their CD and more. They're a three-piece band, in the hippie tradition of the power trio - and they even have long hair. They remind me a little bit of Blue Cheer. But the Manglers make fun of hippies! And play a raw, blistering, pissed-off punk that's as insane as anything since the original Stooges. Anyone who lives on the east coast should check their website for upcoming shows and see them live ASAP.

 

The Bullys, the best punk rock band in the world right now, were up next. Every regular punkmagazine.com visitor knows how much I like this band by now, so for those who don't know about them and want to know what else I've said, just check them out with a website search. Even though they lost master motivator/badass rhythm guitar player/RNR hero Johnny Heff, they're still fueled by his inspiration and more determined than ever to take over the world by being everything that Johnny dreamed the band could be. They even put up The Bullys' official stage banner for this show, which they hadn't used since before Johnny left this world for a better place.

 

The Bullys pulled out all the stops - in fact, they put on the best show I ever saw from them. I'd have to put it in my personal list of the Top Ten Best Live Shows of All Time - probably around number four or five! FYI, that list is:

 

Alice Cooper at the New Haven Arena in 1972 (this show changed my life)

Sex Pistols at Randy's Rodeo in 1978 (if you never heard about this show, you'll have to check out "DOA: A Rite of Passage" when it's rereleased)

Jimi Hendrix at the Atlanta Pop Fest in 1970 (available on video)

The Ramones at CBGBs in 1976-77

The Dead Boys with the Damned in 1977 (both bands were awesome)

The Pirates at Hurrah's in 1979

The Who at Oakland in Wallingford, Connecticut in 1968

The Misfits at Irving Plaza in 1979

Murphy's Law in the early 1990s (I forget the venue)

Sabu and Rob Van Dam & company at ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) shows at the Elks Lodge in the late 1990s)

They started the set with some classic Bullys songs like "Famous" (which has stuck in my head ever since), "Still My Home" (a song about however fucked up your home/family is, it's still... you know), "Pop Is For Fags" (as politically incorrect as you can get, but what else can you say about The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and N'Sync?), and "P.M.S."

 

When they brought out Sean Crusher from Jones Crusher, another awesome local punk rock band, things were kicked up ten notches. The Bullys have refused to permanently replace Johnny Heff but often have "guest" guitarists play rhythm guitar in place of him - he was the best of all time, but you can sometimes hear where the band would be if Johnny was still here when the right person is playing. And this time, he was. It was just amazing. The best song they did with Sean was "Tonight We Fight Again" which is probably The Bullys' best song - it's about getting drunk and kicking ass... Yeah, I know. A lot of bands play stuff like that. "We're bad" and all that shit. Thing is, when the Bullys play this song, you know they mean it. Johnny was the kind of guy who really did get drunk and kick ass! He was one bad motherfucker! (Just like my man Shaft, can you dig it?) "Against All Authority" is another song The Bullys played that kicks ass - who can't relate to a song title like that?

 

Soon after that, The Bullys invited the many attractive females in the audience to join them onstage for their now-classic song "SLUTS!" (You have to love women who have a sense of humor - back in the 1970s The Bullys would have been crucified by Women Against Pornography for singing a song like this, thankfully women have come a long way since then!) This was one great live show, let me tell you!

 

The next guest performer was Mickey Leigh - from The Rattlers and Stop - who joined The Bullys for a few Ramones songs. In fact the last time I saw The Bullys was at The Continental for the annual Joey Ramone Christmas Party where bands play Ramones songs in tribute to everyone's favorite lead singer. This is becoming kind of an interesting collaboration - Mickey is now almost like the fifth Bully. (BTW, the next Joey Birthday Bash is being planned now for May 19th - be sure to buy tickets early: it sounds like it will be a good one! Also, here's another free plug: Mickey Leigh is writing a book about growing up with Joey Ramone with Legs McNeil - the "Please Kill Me" guy. So you heard it here first!)

 

In the meantime, Polina's excellent crew of DJs kept the party going all night long: Charlie The Slut, Todd Prozac, Mare Idol and Mange all did a great job. (Mange even told me during the show he's also from the Cheshire, CT area - where Legs, Ged and I first came up with the idea for PUNK Magazine!) There's nothing to keep a good party going than great punk rock all night long! (Even though Mange blew it by playing The Cure - well, since he's from Connecticut, I guess he's just another fuckup like me and Legs!)

 

Finally, at the end of this night of classic punk rock, Meat Depressed came onstage. They played at our 25th Anniversary party at CBGBs two years ago and did a good show, but I gotta say they've taken their sound to a new level. Walt from The Bullys told me they're one of his favorite punk bands in the country! They put on a great set, and I can see why Pete Depressed is one of the leaders of the punk scene in the Boston area. (He organizes shows and compilation CDs - I've contributed artwork to many of them so check out his website and buy something!). They played a bunch of great songs, then played a couple of Ramones songs with Jolly Prochnik (the reigning Resident Punk after all these years): "It's a Long Way Back to Germany" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." (Jolly fell on his ass during "Germany;" he was kind of drunk!).

 

Then Pete Depressed called me up onstage. I figured I was going to be honored or something. But instead he and Mare Idol had cooked up a plan to give me a birthday spanking! So she invited all the women in the audience to take a whack at my behind! Mare even tried to get me to drop my pants for it but I really didn't want the few remaining drunks in the audience to toss their cookies and leave, so I left them on. Then The General attempted to recreate the pie-in-the-face incident from my last party, but he failed miserably and hit the Meat Depressed drummer instead.

 

This is the way the night ended. Not with a bang, but with a thud.

 

There will be another PUNK Magazine party w

Here you are :)