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Fred, thanks for the explanation of the word mold. I undersntand better the delicate balance of tension and frail.
I still think that womanhood/fenininity is a way to define a femal sex,as well as it will define manhood as a masculine sex, and /or the word gender - for both, as well as mixed gendere.
( Donna's example of your Andy ).

For me, looking at a photo and evaluation of it, is how the composition seen in my eyes the first look at it(without judging it), and only later "dismantle" and critique its detials.

What I mean is looking at a photo that I'm asked to look at,(like POW), my expectations will be to see substance in it. some will have it more than others, but even the better onces, must not have the qualitative orginality.
Some will connect to the first impression and some, later on ,will not.

(Took me a long time to express my thoughts..I hope it will be understood ....;-))

Lannie/Pnina, the issue for me is not the word "womanhood" or "manhood" per se. It is the different narratives our culture has perhaps been guilty of conditioning us to have towards "womanhood" and "manhood." Let's say we saw an attractive guy in tight jeans, a short tee-shirt and clumsy-looking sandals that he was adjusting as he was leaning against this wall. I'm not sure many would imagine or describe in such detail the potential scenario of him falling over onto his rear in his tight pants, his tee-shirt hiking up exposing his bare stomach, then scrambling to his knees all in public view. What I'm saying is that what you're describing, Lannie, seems to me a sort of damsel-in-distress situation, one that perhaps brings out the "protector" in many men. I'm not sure there's a counterpart to that in the way we see men and there is something bothersome to me about moving toward that hypothetical from what we see here. I do think that has something to do with my discomfort at notions we tend to have of "womanhood." None of those hypotheticals are specifically in the photo, of course, nor are they the responsibility of the photographer who made it, but it seems to be to some extent embedded in a sort of collective psyche relative to how women are often seen.

Fred,I don't like to look at nude women's photos because most of them are exploitative of the
women body,and I think as well about man's nude photos.

Why? not because I'm conservative (far from it, ) but because 99% of them are not art and look artificial...while very few of both examples has substance/art/message in them.

Your hypothetical example IS hypothetic, as you may be right, and you may be wrong...;-))

I find that this photo is a bit different from the usual, especially because the light and contrast of a human round/warm body , and cold lined architecture, well composed together.

Pnina, it might be a language issue, but I'm not sure what hypothetical you are talking about. The hypothetical I was referring to was Lannie's example, not mine. And, for me, it's not about it being right or wrong, since it's just about where imagination can take us, not what will really happen or not. What I'm questioning is how and why such a hypothetical would come into consciousness, not Lannie's consciousness, but anyone's in our culture and whether such a hypothetical (I'm talking about the damsel-in-distress idea) is more likely to be formed in our perception of women than in our perception of men, and why.

I also wasn't saying this photo is exploitive and, like you, don't see it being similar to nudes. I was saying that putting labels on what we see, especially if that reduces an individual to a type (which probably doesn't have to happen), could risk being exploitive.

There is a rich history of nude art of both men and women. There are also bad and objectifying artworks of nude men and women. There's also pornography. And a lot in-between. IMO, there's a full spectrum.

I'm conscious that we may be getting far afield from talking about the photo per se, even though these matters are related and important. In any case, I really appreciate hearing the varying views and I will move on to other photos from here.

Fred, it was really a language issue, thanks for explaining your thought behind the words, that I have interpreted wrongly.

There is a rich history of nude art of both men and women. There are also bad and objectifying artworks of nude men and women. There's also pornography. And a lot in-between. IMO, there's a full spectrum.

And..

Fred, I completely agree with you, and appologize for undersnding you with the wrong connotation...

Thanks everyone for all of your comments. Very interesting reading, including the philosophical comments about womanhood. I just realized today that this photo was selected as the POW, and I thank the elves for their selection.

For the record, this photo was not posed or staged - there were some comments regarding that possibility. This woman was entering a store on Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile) in downtown Chicago, when she stopped to adjust her shoe. I have a couple more photos of her taken during her shoe adjustment, and may post another one.

Thanks again. Sid.

Actually, the prospect of someone who looks like that and who is dressed like that being splayed out all over the sidewalk brings out a lot of conflicting feelings, Fred. We do well, I think, to think about offering her a hand so that she can pull herself up, and push those other thoughts back into the subconscious.

Why did I think about that scenario in the first place? Someone else made reference to her rather painful situation, and so I thought that I would try to empathize with women in short skirts in awkward situations rather than try to think about how to take advantage of them. They are not so much in distress as vulnerable. What do we do with that vulnerability? Well, there are a lot of possibilities, some more noble than others.

--Lannie

This is my very first comment in photo.net. I was captured by this beautiful image because it gathers a excellent composition, with a well balanced of tones and textures. The skin tone is perfect, and its contrast with the "texture" of the wall  create a very good exposed, clearly defined. The moment, gestures and woman are fabulous. So classy, indeed.

Sid, I think that the best part of this thread, is your explaination of the way this photo was taken.

Clearing a lot of assumptions.... Thanks!

True Pnina but I'm glad Sid did not explain the photo until after the dialog had run it's course. If Sid had explained up front, we would not have gotten those raw first impressions. The girl, the skirt, stiletto hills did not look posed but normal for large city garb. She is holding on to the wall for balance with two small fingers, suggesting she is very comfortable in the shoes and outfit. Hmm, no purse, maybe a working girl.
What a get catch Sid. Were you just hanging out on the corner, camera poised waiting for spontaneity? ;)

Thanks Pnina. I usually don't explain photos unless asked, leaves more to the imagination. I mainly wanted to make it known that it

wasn't posed.

Doug, I was walking down Michigan Avenue when I saw her turn and stop to adjust her shoe. I had a 15 mm lens on my camera, and

quickly took a couple of photos hoping for a good one. I was a little farther from her that I would have liked, and I did get more of the

scene in the original as Fred indicated he would like to see. I chose this crop because I wanted the focus to be on her, not what is going

on around her.

Thanks Sergio for your comment. When I saw her, I knew I had an opportunity that I didn't want to miss, however, it took some photoshopping to get the effect I wanted.

Saad, you are correct, I shot this in a hurry, I didn't want to miss the photo. Thanks for your review.

Louis, thanks. The background is about as important as the main subject, I don't like clutter.

Thanks Michael, I agree, blur does give it a sense of motion, good or bad.

Tim, thanks for your in depth review and analogies - you are very perceptive and have a story telling approach to your review.

Mark, a simple act as you say. So correct, so many of them, and usually it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time, as most

street photographers know. Thanks for your review.

Fred, thanks for all of your comments. I know you would like to see more of the scene, and you have a valid point. That, however, is not

usually my approach. When I edit my photos, I seem to drift toward a closer crop. Good or bad, that's just me. I appreciate you viewpoint,

you made me think about that the total scene approach quite a bit.

Lannie, you seem to have a skill to read a lot into a photo, a good skill to have when providing a review. A picture tells a thousand words,

so they say.

Les, as you said, life is ten million moments, that is what I like about street photography, catching a few of the good ones.

Thanks Mark, you are correct, a moments hesitation would have lost the photo. I can't count how many times that happened.

Anders, thanks for your review. I see from your portfolio that you have a eye for patterns and geometry, as you commented on in your first

first paragraph.

Donna, as I indicated before, I always enjoy reading your comments. You don't hold anything back, you say it as it is. You are correct, the

patterns are an important part of the photo. Just where she happened to stop. If the background was cluttered, I would probably still taken

the photo, but probably not posted it.

Façades. The building with its fake stone covering hiding the raw steel and weld marks built by corporate America and capitalism with materials mined from the earth and built on the back of migrants, the young lady hides behind her wide brimmed hat wearing a uniform of the time gifted to her by a society shaping her body and mind to fit in useless shoes, I'm left wondering, where is her purse?

Sexy and voyeuristic cheesecake. Lovely. Demands a caption.

"Would one of you gentlemen care to help hold me while I fix myself?"

The technical aspects most instructive. It is okay to crop and Photoshop does not make a photograph look unnatural. The hat is a lucky stroke. Usually a hidden face kills a photograph. Here it does not.

The hat works well in two ways. It mercifully hides the woman's identity in this awkward moment and it emphasizes her healthy, athletic legs.

This is likely the most daring photograph to making into POW. In shooting awkward moments there is a fine line between creatively and cruelty. This image does not go over the line.

I like it.Great sensibility.

Completely agree with Alan Klein above. It's very sexy, which perhaps is what (if anything) is wrong with it. It is difficult to be rational. It resembles an advertising image, and I certainly think it was rigged/posed. For example, where's her bag? Every woman would have a bag. Her anonymity only heightens its erotic charge of course.

Hi Sid,

Nice to hear - I like the shot!

This photo is tremendous.

the woman’s concealed face makes her an unspecific figure, more relatable and universal. There is a terrific odd sort of grace going on here, (odd in that one no longer sees it) as in the photos of leggy (unreal and unapproachable) hyper idealized models who worked with top fashion photographers from the fifties, cats with names as Cecil Beaton, Gordon Parks and others… It is that old elegant sensibility what inform this picture aesthetically.