Street Meatballs

Pretty sure that would be me if I were lucky enough to wander by a shop called Meatball Obsession. Very nice tones, great fun shot.

hot and spicey meatballs. the lighting is wonderful and the contrast.a nice urban feel and story Donna.. the juxapositon perfect as well

Good timing and story!

Very nice street shot! Love your title too! Thank you for sharing this nice slice of life! :)

Best regards, Donna!

PDE

A timely capture, excellent b/w work and the sign is perfect... Mike

Ahaha... just that smile I needed this morning... Very nice!

A very good shot! Expresses all the right emotions here - the joy of eating! =) and it's also so newyorkish! 

thanks Mark! i was in my "shooting" trance, but will have try those meatballs sometime... it's somewhere just above Chelsea on 6th ave.

glad you like the tones steph; the sun was crazy that day, but luckily that guy was wearing a dark shirt to set things off, lol..

timing is everything.. right Vlad? Thank you!

Hi Trisha! thanks! i'm slice of life obsessed, lol

cute! i appreciate that Pierre!

Mike, always a thrill when you admire something!

Wouter! you are hilarious! glad you enjoyed!

Ivan! eating and NY! how much better can it get! 

Thanks, you all, for being in the spirit with this scene! 

"people doing daily stuff"... thanks for noticing Jorge!! ;-} dp

I appreciate the way you've located these two gentlemen in their environment, so you are telling a story as much as taking a picture. Simply caught in the middle of their act, you provide a sense of place and the hustle and bustle of the traffic going by and the contrasts in architecture. Send this photo to the folks at "Meatball Obsession." It should be hanging on their wall.

my dear Fred... i'm always awed by the way that you write about pictures! thank you for using the word "environment"... these guys are definitely in their element, and that's always my intent when i shoot. And i'll be in NY next weekend. I'll think about dropping by for a meatball, and having a chat about selling the picture, lol    ;-} dp

although graphics of this photo is good, content-wise I do not like it.

all of us, we have got weaknesses, and we wouldn't be glad to show that to everyone. 

BB.

i take your point, BB... i can understand where this image can be seen as if it were making fun of the gentlemen, or that i'm invading their privacy. my intent was to be fun in a celebratory way. it's summer, it's street food, and these guys are enjoying their food. thanx as always for shedding light, BB ;~} dp

Very thoughtful considerations!

The funny thing here is that while Donna's photo could be taken to be exploitive (though I did not take it that way at all), Boris's comment could also be exploitive or stereotyping. If these guys were thin, would we question the content? So are we basing our reaction to his eating on the guy in the black shirt's weight? Must we, and more importantly he, see his own enjoyment of a meatball sub as somehow a weakness . . . or is that our projection and perhaps stereotype? 

Sometimes photography viewing is so special because of all the things we don't know in addition to the things we do know. What we don't see or can't tell from seeing can be as much a part of viewing as what we do see. Single still photos often lack a context and a back story, so the viewer is often in the position of projecting that context onto the scene coming up with additional information or judgment that's not really portrayed in the scene visually or objectively.

Don't get me wrong. I've seen plenty of photos, particularly of homeless people, that I have judged to be exploitive and I've said as much in my critiques. But I'm well aware others might not find them so and that, given a certain context which I might not know, I could be wrong. I'm willing to live with the possibility of being wrong or being in the minority on such things. That's life. You never know for sure!

i don't shoot to please people necessarily. i hope my candids are fluid and certainly i want them to be provocative. to be honest, i would have made this shot if the larger man were a thin man. it would have had the same effect, i think, of capturing the main subject of the image, which is the meatball counter on a street in NY, without provoking a cry against exploitation. oh well actually anyone can have a beef with it, eg, vegetarians, lol. also, now that we're in this discourse about it, BB and Fred, whose profound ways of commentary are always exactly what i want in a critique, i'd hope for a viewer to recognize that maybe the larger gent might want to consider his weight and his health. i want to be provocative, i want discourse, and i can only hope that my images are rich enough to reach anybody, whatever their views. ;~} dp

Photographic provocation usually comes from a sense of intervention. I see this as a well-observed and well-presented story about the location and the people enjoying their meal. It's got heart, which is the reason I said I thought it would hang nicely in the establishment. I'm not sure they'd want to hang a provocative photo about the problems of being overweight! A sense of social commentary or individual behavioral questioning would depend on visual emphasis and a somewhat strong and pointed perspective and details, IMO. Just one hypothetical example: Had he turned and looked at you like a dear caught in the headlights (and I'm not saying that was necessary, but just describing what I think would have made a provocative photo), that sense of interaction, perhaps guilt, would be a provocative way to look at this scene and bring up feelings about a possible change in behavior. But this more passive and relatively quiet scene just gives me that sense of an acute eye for the everyday rather than a judgmental eye about human behavior. Generally speaking, I'd say provocation comes from visual tension and, in more extreme cases, aggressive involvements in what's going on. This seems a more harmonious scene to me, and I like it for what it is.

I like this , Donna ... There's nothing like NYC street food. Real part of life captured here.

All my best,   Bill

Thanks, Bill! Just another New York minute... Immortalized! Lol dp ;-}

Such a great photo - this guy really enjoys his food - the way he keep his bowl, closed eyes while sniffing the profumes delaying the first bite...He didn't come to this spot by chance. The placard say it all...

All the best!!!