other othernesses selfless

Well done , Ricardo!

Regards,

Mário

Nice reflection and effect.

Thank you Mario, Jack and Chris for your support.

Regards,

ricardo

Interesting play of reflections!

I see layers and layers of reflection, some real like the people in the cafeteria, while others are abstract, like the geometrical patterns of light. I see this as capturing the hierarchy of human psyche, from the subconscious to the conscious. Every human mind is a universe of its own.

I like the depth produced by the converging hallway in the reflection. The two human figures to the right of the frame add great interest to the scene.

From a street photographer view, this image is the

definition of a street photographer where his identity is

hidden from his all works, it's only his vision of what he

sees and record is apperent in his work, the people, places,

life interactions, emotion, smiles and sad faces all defines

his look to the world surrounding make his face in his

faceless image.

I guess he, the photographer have defined himself with

great accuracy.

My regards.

It probably will take me multiple views of this image before I could hazard an interpretation. For now, I'm limited to the observation that Ricardo created a set of multiple possibilities when it comes to the reflections in the center of the frame. The image's bold contrasts between light and dark add impact to the potential interpretations that may arise.

The body is headless because of the physics of where the lens of the camera is placed relative to the shadow the head causes on the glass. I don't see it as selfless so much as I do an obvious photographic occurrence. In any case, I don't identify someone just with their physical head. There are reflected and refracted lights, there are people and things outside and things reflected. To me, it doesn't mean anything more than it shows because there's little visual coherence. The irony suggested by the title does not appear in or apply to the photo itself, IMO. Nothing beyond the very obvious grabs me here. The self reflection and idea of the photo seem a bit beginner-like. Ricardo's portfolio on the whole, though, is worth the time spent going through it. His body of work overall does have a coherence and spirit to it.

This image is, at the very least, perceptually intriguing. I tend to agree with Fred that is does not evoke deep, spiritual self-examination. It does ask the viewer to stop and contemplate the layers and interlaced reflections, and the somewhat ambiguous place of the photographer within the scene. The nested perspectives add a nested but emphatic sense of depth. I like this image if for no other reason than it piques my curiosity and makes me think about its making. Kudos to Ricardo for seeing and capturing this image. As to application of the title: It may well be that the word from Portuguese that he translated to "Selfless" has less to do with our English usage than it does with the idea of lack of self-identity or -perception, which would be very appropriate to this image. I speak English and Spanish, but not Portuguese, so somebody else will have to offer an alternative vocabulary. I just know that there are ideas in Spanish that when translated literally, word-for-word, do not have the same meaning in English. It seems, perhaps, that this could be the case here.

I would not say that the photo catches my attention apart from within this context of the "weekly photo", where you are strongly invited to look at it !

It makes me think about the term, sometimes used in Quebec, as far as I know, of "ego-portrait", to fight anglicisms in the french language, which could refer to a photo of the ego of the photographer more than just a banal shot of easily recognisable facial features. As such this "selfless" portrait could be interesting.

Too busy for my taste, and yet if one should take it seriously as a "selfless" portrait, one could put much meaning into the dissolving of the self into the physical frames of our lives by the triangular structures and endless deep perspective of falling - with "real life happening outside behind glass windows.

Well, I guess I shall say something…

First of all, thank you to the Elves for such a distinction. As, due to time restrictions, my photographic life in the last year become mostly posting and commenting on this site, I can’t avoid to feel glad with the opportunity to have an higher level of exposition for a week even if only on one photo. I look at this site with a lot of credibility and therefore I’m truly honored.

I realized however that the most valuable aspect of this event is to have elaborated insights from remarkable and talented photographers. As such, thanks to everyone that took time to go into this image and complement it with comments.

As for the photo, after reading the previous comments, I find it much easier to me to find common platforms of agreement with all the ideas instead of building a firm disagreement position, as maybe the most interesting issue about this image is its wide range of possible interpretations whether for mere aesthetical terms or whether for its contents. I hope not to disappoint any of you by saying that there’s no such thing in what I do as “the revealing guidance from the author”. Truth and understanding aren’t for me the most stimulating aspects on an artistic form, so don’t expect me to bring conclusions for you.

This photo was taken two years ago at a magnificent building located in Porto called Casa da Musica (House of music). The unique architecture of the building took me there, while on a visit to Porto, for a series of captures outside. This photo is the last one of these series and it’s the only one that was shot inside the building, two steps after the door in a hall between the entrance doors and the cafeteria. I remember to be grabbed immediately as soon as I got in by the way that the natural light swept the entire floor and how that, together with the edgy architecture resulted in rich reflections through the several glass walls. However, being short of time and with a lot of people walking in and out, I didn’t have a chance to do any photo other than this.
I don’t have any clue why I kept it in the closet for 2 years… I suppose that I feared that at a first glance nobody would see more than an uninteresting shadowed self silhouette, very much as it may be indeed, as the beginner-like interpretation from Fred seems to validate this possibility… or maybe at that time I was looking for something more immediate (as many of the photos I took outside). When I found it a couple of months ago I realized that it was worth to explore the complexity of the composition… after this time it is now also for me a challenge to perception as it seems to be for David, offering multiple possibilities as Michael pointed out and Supriyo exposed his own … It drives me now, and often in a literal way, through the ever unanswered ambiguity of how much of the art remains owned by the artist after being released and how much of the artist don’t move away from a finished work… yes, that echoes something about ego as referenced by Anders… but I also enjoyed it nowadays as an ironic statement about selfies as I’m there but it’s not really myself… a selfless?... It is also street photography as Saad illustrated so well… yes, that kind of punk-rock photography where you only need to know three chords, have your instrument almost tuned and then it’s all about instinct and the will to achieve something…
Thanks again. Regards,
ricardo

The most interesting part of the photo imo is the center area and as such I think that the square aspect ratio brings down the composition. The glass panels and street outside on either side of the photo do not add much to the image ( perhaps they reinforce context a bit) but they do add busyness and distraction to an already busy frame. The seated figure looking forward at the rear of the row of tables and the two people walking beyond pull me into the center of the image and somehow add mystery and drama. The black silhouette "selfie" aspect seems too obvious to be interesting. Again a tighter crop and portrait ratio could make this aspect less blatant. I like the B&W conversion the tones are handled nicely.