Marco 2, 1976

My first thoughts/feelings on seeing this photo:

What fabulous, deep, primal, fresh, unspoiled, honest colors! The man is a fetus curled in nature's belly. His form is echoed in the dark space above him...Hey! Is that dark space water? It looks liquid...no, maybe it's mud revealed at low tide...no, it's rock whose shininess makes the dark look like the night sky and the sparkles are stars. The whole composition is fluid out of which many thoughts and feelings can be born. The green moss looks primeval, formless...it wraps over the rocks like the man is curled around his own body. The moss's softness transforms the rocks' hardness. There's a wonderful feeling of balancedness in the composition. I just love this photo! There's something compelling about it that makes me want to keep looking to try to put words to just why it is that it feels compelling. And I love that this photo is not manipulated. In reviewing Juan's portfolio, I love that he has taken pains to be clear about his technique and when/if a photo is manipulated, he explains clearly what that manipulation consisted of. Thanks, Juan, for a great photo. Well deserved POW.

Excellent composition, especially the relashionship between the figure and the big boulder and the curvy cracks framing the subject. I would crop a tad closer as a square, I find that little white rock at the bottom center a little distracting. Nice work.

Preciosa imagen Juan!

 

I like yoiur three images of marco, but I have to say that I like more the other two (all are

excellent indeed).

 

My favorite is marco 1 ...

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your images ...

 

Saludos de un compatriota expatriado en los USA!

 

Miguel

this is a great asbtraction of the relation between nature and human. a subject that I like to work on too. it is also great in visual aesthetic aspects as the color contrast beetween warm and cold tones, shapes and lines, the texture of algs... homogen light is just the right choise here. inspiring work. congratulations!

You can see this is more or less my crop in the desaturated version on my portfolio! we have the same vision. However, I must do it is very unusual for me to crop an image, as to me photography is first of all the vision of a moment - It takes very very long to me to take a photo and I like to keep the original view I had, maybe an heritage of my large format experience. But this is not a rule of life, this works to me but I accept all sort of things that makes an image interesting...

I like it alot. Though as a begining photographist, I am curious as to how you created the paint like texture of the man.

You wrote: "As I say on the PN comments to this image, when I see this place I thought immediately about having a person there as an egg or an embryo, following the rock curves. To me this is not a nude photo as the figure is not the main theme here, but the relationship between man and nature."

Glad to see the "message" you had in mind for this image did get accross to many of us... Now here is the kind of "pose" I was thinking of, as I wrote my first comment to this POW... Interesting ? Uninteresting ? Same message ? Different message...?

Or in black and white...

To Juan:

 

I had seen your desaturated version much earlier, Juan, and it must have subconsciously influenced the way I tried to crop your photo, although you nailed it on the crop and mine was a bit tight.

 

Actually, I like both (your) versions, and I do regret the loss of the foreground rocks on any crop. Great work in any case, and congratulations on PoW!

What is the point of the flipping of hte man? If you flip him flip him on his back or to the left or put him lower and then flip him up. flipping him down what does that say? it is puzzeling.

...It's a take on the familiar juxtaposition of people and nature theme.

 

However, I love the textures and colours of the rocks and (sea) weed; the human figure provides a useful indication of scale, but I'd rather look at the rocks and the weed. They make the photo for me, so I'm a bit upset that other members are so eager to crop them.

Alexander... I don't mean to actually "flip" him the way he was posed, but rather to have him pose more or less this way in front of the camera. Why ? Well, because I feel his rounded back then echoes the rocks, and because I think the message is in fact stronger that way... Of course, that's just an opinion, which I was hoping to discuss - if possible, half seriously...:-) Regards.

Marc G I see what you are saying but to my skilled eye having the man face the the in that way becomes that he is hiding from the universe because it is a fearful pose which is not a good message to me. his story now is that he is hiding to himslef because the world is big and his life is humbel. It is intersting to see the way the picture changes with the flips. I wish I was the Juan Rivera that made this photo.

Interesting... I would have thought the following:

1) The man in the POW doesn't really seem to be sitting. He seems to be floating above the ground while HIDING in his arms... as if he was crying indeed...

2) Having him turned the other way around seems to "abolish" the possibility of a crying man. I would not have considered at all, that he would be hiding or protecting himself in my "alternative" version. I feel he would seem to hide indeed if his hands were above his head. Instead I imagine that the foetus's hands should have both palms on the moss - suggesting an exchange with Mother Nature...

3) The pose I suggested is one that I can't quite show precisely, but I agreed with J Doyle above, as he wrote this: "The man is a fetus curled in nature's belly. His form is echoed in the dark space above him (...) The whole composition is fluid out of which many thoughts and feelings can be born. The green moss looks primeval, formless...it wraps over the rocks like the man is curled around his own body." I feel that a foetus just doesn't sit: it floats... Therefore I suggested a pose that would help to integrate him as part of the belly he seems to be in...

More fluidity, more of an exchange between man and surroundings, and also a similarity of shape between the man and the surroundings; that's what I was after, that's why I proposed this...

I've noticed this picture when u posted it and I thought I posted a message too... but not...

a cold - warm effect with color and texture... the man seems to be a stranger in the picture's universe, nude makes it colder so the green and stone... no need for further contrast. POsition does look a bit un-natural ut the while picture is ... so what's the matter... man looks small too.. back to reality may be...

...and so and so...

interesting and eyes catching...

a bit too cold for winter indeed...

to Marc G I never thought of the man as floating but as nestled in the rocks almsot as cowering in the rocks because they are rocks not stars and space so why is he floating over the rocks? and that is why i was looking for support under his body because he was tucked not floating. so he is tucked in the cave and so the way juan Rivera put him at first makes sense to me. I dont like my idea of turning him the other way. it is a bad idea to me now. in your filp the lines of the rocks are like his back but i like them coming from his head. what does someone else thing? (someone who is not offended by the picture *ahem)

Compelling image. Good juxtaposition of living and inanimate matter; both at rest. Excellent choice of model and location.

hi, congratulations on pow first of all....

 

the first thing that occours to my mind is that the picture is uncongruous, something that is difficult to achieve! Being uncongruous is not a defect, it is an add to the image, expecially when trying to express very different subjects... please consider the following...

 

1. the image evidently express a relationship between the nature and the man, expecially the man is overwhelmed by the nature and asks her protection. The nudity of the man and the nudity of the rocks are on the same plain here and this enforces the image... i don't feel offended nor disturbed by nudity of any kind, and i admit this is one of the best "nudes" i have ever seen, expecially becouse it is introduced into a specific context: man vs nature! anyway this is one of the most powerfull still simple nude images i have ever seen.

 

2. the relationship above is expressed through placing 2 very different subjects very near... the man is really close the earth, he is naked so harmless, and it needs protection... but still mankind is very capable of being very far from earth (space?), and pose serious and continuous threats to the nature itself, the earth needs protection too.... i proposed too a similar kind of subject comparing a human artfact (a parking) to the nature (a mountain)... but i admit this works really well and is more immediate.

 

3. the unbalanced equilibrium of the image itself is very pleasant.... the man could fall any moment, but in the picture he stays still... anyhow taking that pose requires muscular effort thus the balance between earth and mankind is in everlasting equilibrium and only mankind can apply the necessary force to mantain that equilibrium, if the man fails... he falls down!

 

I don't know wether the photograper had all of this in mind when shooting, but sometimes best pictures came out from just a slight idea. I would like to know poster's opinion on these points, and anyhow technically the picture itself is great and i am not going to add critiques on that.

 

regards to all.

My first impressions viewing this was the wonderfully vivid colors and textures - they pulled me right in. Wonderful technical flair, dead-on exposure. In regards to emotional evocations, it was a cold and isolating feeling. Any photo that solicits emotion from me, good or bad, is fantastic. Well done!

Having read the debate about whether the body works as is, i.e. upright and perhaps "floating", vs positioned face down, I now understand why I like the body the way it is: 1) the body seems to float...like a fetus floats in the womb; 2)the body is upright, ready to unfurl and stand...it is full of potential energy. If the body were flipped as Marc G. suggested, then, as Alexander C. opined, the human would somehow seem fearful, retreating from the world; it would give the photo and entirely different "feel". The more I look at this photo, the more there is to see. E.g., the man's surroundings work so well as Juan captured them for a number of reasons: 1) the shiny black upper portion of the photo almost looks like some kind of primordial sea ooze out of which all life emerged; 2) the primitive looking moss just adds to that impression; 3)the expanse of rock and space seem to give the man ample space to explore and grow into; and 4)that the colors look so simple, fresh and unspoiled (unmanipulated) adds to the overall feeling of newness and birth. This is such a great photo!

Landscape + human figure, placed at rock/algae swirls = creation.

Now, back to the picture: esta fotografía, en una escala de 1 a 10, se saca un 11!

I don't know where the comment for a "tighter crop" came from, but obviously inherently was oblivious to the fact that this picture was taken with a square-format camera, and this is full-frame (as full as it can be without the notches).

I love the sense of the "swirls" and the relationship (geometrical and allegorical) on the elements in this picture. I'm sure this would have had an equally great impact in B&W, but it's to the photographer's merit that he balanced the composition in such a way to have the colors add to the strength of the forms.

Bravo, Juan.

This pic reminds me of John Boorman's film Excalibur ..because of the saturated greens and naked bod. It's interesting to note that this picture predates Excalibur. So I have to wonder if Boorman came across this photo and was influenced by it. Anyway it certainly is a photo ahead of its time. Congrats Juan

Greetings!

 

My first thought was - 'how on EARTH is the subject balancing?' I'm still not satisifed regarding that. Thoughts immediately thereafter focussed on the circular flow of the image, stunningly and beautifully embryonic. Thankyou Juan! On reading the comments made relative to this photo...silly me - I thought it was PHOTOGRAPHY critique page, not a political/religious one! Keep your tripods steady, people. Warm regards from Australia :)

I think the Elves picked a winner. The first time I saw it 3 months ago I loved it. My feelings havent changed. It is simply great art, plain and simple.