Opera Society, Sorrento, Italy 1986

Personally, I like the guy in the yellow sweater...it was the only way I could tell it was a photo vs. a (insert fancy-schmancy painter here)...

 

Also, I don't know much about opera but I don't think the tones are bare at all...

 

This is one picture on photo.net I've come back to several times...Seriously Bill, this is a great photo and although the yellow sweater is distracting a bit, I think the dichotomy between the loud 'volume' in his sweater as a passive soul in the discussion vs. the subdued tones and 'agressive' nature of some of the other characters is one of the key contrasts of this photo that give it an inherent balance. I wouldn't change a thing.

This is a wonderful photo, and it has opened my eyes to what is possible with a candid shot. I disagree with the notion that it should have a caption. One wonders what the people are talking about. The central figure reminds me of paintings of Lenin, that this is the start of something big.

That's a good point Charles. The possibilities are endless.

Most candid POWs lately have been B&W and have attracted the ire of color junkies. OK, so now we have a genuine Kodachrome color candid photograph. Any more gripes, guys?

It is thanks to him that the composition is so great! He strengthens the feel of a diagonal from

his view towards the door.In my point of view the composition is totally complete and the"GOOFY GUY"

helps the picture become in an awesome balance.

The picture could have been taken in the 50`s or be a painting from 1700-century.It´s just marvelous.

 

Congratulations!

 

Patrik Skolling Möller/Stockholm

 

What have you done Bill? It is a GREAT image full stop. I love the blokes feet in the foreground they are informal, akward and common, ( as in the feet of a worker ).

They anchor the shot firmly to the ground to the great contrast and surprise of the Cherabim floating up to the firmament. I love the way the mural has been worn of the wall by the backs of thousands people, drinking, shouting, playing cards, telling lies and half truths.

The mural is taking off.... flying if you like, to leave the choas below.

This picture works because it tells every viewer a story, one we make up instantly, and as a bonus we get a masterly painting ( photograph ).

Well done, more please. Cheers Brent.

disheartening to read the many comments comparing this image to a painting -- and what a great image because of it. photography is not painting, but a distinct form of art. time to remove the chip off our shoulders. we can do better (and be more helpful).

 

i also like the image, but think tighter composition would improve it (get in front of the man in tan sweater and focus on the faces). look at william allard's photography of basque region of france/spain.

OUTSTANDING, it's the only word to describe this photograph, but, as in any art field everyone has a different view on what is good and I must agree with Brian Mottershead a little cropping does wonders. I hope you don't mind the alteration but the guy at the front is really distracting from the atmosphere in the centre of this photograph.

IMHO.

I don't think the above crop works all that well...the shot loses its depth and I no longer feel like I'm standing in the room. It's more like I'm now looking through a window.

I like Bill's adjusted version that he linked to above, toning down the sweater, etc...but this version is just as good.

Speaking as someone who does a lot of travel shooting, you come upon a scene like this and just shoot it. If the scene doesn't change before your eyes, then you think about getting around guys in yellow sweaters, etc...You often can't work a shot the way you'd like in these situations. They just change or disappear too fast.

Mr. Owens suggested crop is far too severe and completely spoils the atmosphere of the original. While I myself suggested a SLIGHT crop at the top of the photo - it is not essential. Further, the "man in the sweater" is an essential element of the composition and adds some contextual depth to the photo - there is no need to eliminate him.

As one of the ringleaders of the anti-sweater gang, I must admit that the sweater is growing on me. I still think that it is too bright, but it is necessary for the composition. Sweater-man also serves as the viewer's surrogate (we are looking over his shoulder) in this scene and helps to draw us in.

When I first saw this beautiful photograph, I thought Dutch Masters. The scene being in Italy, I'll change that to Caravaggesque. If crop ye must, try bumping the bottom margin up sufficiently to remove the foremost table and Sweater Man's feet, but leave a dark margin around his tuckus so as to keep him "in the picture." Rating 10:9

Absolutely georgous. Reminds me of Vermeer and Fantin La Tour. -Anita Sillery

Wow! A wonderful picture...

Dennis-- my thanks again for another piece of this mysterious image. Along with much else I'd forgotten, the exterior arches (I had foggy recollections of a canopy with thin columns) explain the concentrations of light amid an otherwise dark space. I'm beginning to feel like a character in a Hitchcock movie.

Bill perhaps you had too much limoncello as well!

Limoncello Photo

This is a photo I took seconds after Bill left the building (I was wondering who that pushy guy with the Nikon was and now I know). It must have been after they took down the "Society of Labor" sign because that's gone too. In this picture it can be plainly seen that the man in the beige cardigan was in fact Aldo, the Maestro's twin brother (who has only recently retired as a singing bus conductor on the Salerno to Amalfi No. 79 route). I think this is a superior picture as it does not include that murky top bit, the distracting bottom bit, the negative space of the side bits, tables, chairs, feet, or any of the blurred figures and clearly shows the wall-painting inside the shrine of the famous Green Virgin of Salerno in the next room (you missed that, Bill).

Dennis's now-deleted comment, translated, ran thus:

Antonio, I was today to your house and you have been gone. There was right many bottles empy of the wine. People say that you have gone pazzeschi or something.

I resent the insinuation that I drink too much during the day. Have you ever considered that I might have forgotten to put out the bottles last weekend, and thus have a bit of a pile-up next door to the wheelie-bin? No, I didn't think so.

Perhaps a visit from Aldo "The Singing Enforcer" Tortorella might help change you mind? As his brother, Fabio "The Maestro" Tortorella would have said, "Dat Dennis. He's a real nice guy. But it don' hoit da make sure."

Scuse a Antonio, ho pensato che aveste cancellato il vostro commento.

 

Qualche gente dice che Antonio ricicla il vetro. Dico che Antonio ricicla l' uva.

 

I enjoyed your tale of the Immaculate Consumption.

A good choice of POW, and the most pleasing discussions about it so far.

Beautiful!

This is a wonderful shot. So often in photography, we attempt to simplify our images to say just what we want to say and nothing more (and not without reason); here we are reminded that simplification doesn't mean focusing on one element or excluding any element that could distract from a focal point in an image. Because of that, I'm afraid none of the crops work well for me. The only rework I agree with is toning down sweater-guy a bit, but I don't mind him as originally presented.

 

In fact, sweater-guy changes the experience of the picture. Brian nailed it when he described him as our surrogate. We view this scene from his perspective to some extent. It works in part because he appears to be a somewhat passive observer as compared to the finger-waving and motion blurred forms seated around the table.

There is a strong contrast created between the bright and sizeable sweater-guy, whose head is dark and whose face is obscured, and the central speaker, whose sharply defined face is positioned so strongly in the frame. The lighting and the shape of the design on the wall, combined with the focus and finger-pointing of the other players in the scene, lead us strongly to his face. And yet, because of his size and brightness, we cannot ignore sweater-guy and our viewpoint through him (or over his shoulder). We can become him if we wish, because in his facelessness, he does not give us a complete identity of his own.

 

Yes, alternate interpretations are certainly possible (as with much great art). Sweater-guy could be a gate, keeping us out with his back resolutely turned upon us, for example. And yet, he isn't fully involved in the conversation either, keeping us both at the edge of the fourth wall.

 

I could probably go on further about the composition and lighting here, but I ramble enough. I could nit-pick about the color behind the speaker, which keeps him from standing out quite as much, but I ramble too much. Is it the perfect painting? Perhaps not, but it's a hell of a picture.

 

Because I can't help myself, I included the attachment. Y'see, I started thinking about how, without sweater-guy, this shot is The Last Supper, but with better seating distribution. Damn nice art (and improved by being a less static composition), but ultimately we have a more interesting perspective here to my mind. So I tried including him there. (ok, well, at least the rest of my comments are about the actual POW...)

 

Enjoy.

At first, when I looked at this, I thought it was a painting! I thought to myself why the heck a photograph of a painting would be chosen as POW, becasue anyone who's anyone could do that, photographer or not. (Unless of course the lighting situation was difficult to work with). However, because it is an actuall photograph of a real life situation and not of a painting, I congratualate you on a wonderful job, and want to say you are very talented. Was this intended? There's just something about the ligting the colours, the situation and positioning of the poeple that make it look like a painting! The skin tones are very warm, and really stand out. I was in Italy just this summer, and it brings back memories! Well done!

Exquisite lighting. I've studied the composition in this image before and felt a tension between the great detail in the midground and the muddy foreground. It wants to be cropped, I feel, but loses something in the cropping. IOW, perfect as-is...

I did some online research and found out the guy in the yellow sweater is a direct descendant of the famous Shoeless Antonio Dummetti. Local folklore states that when he was a young man the most beautiful maiden in Sorrento rejected Antonio. Sadly, he had a serious foot odor problem.

Driven by despair; and a strong hormonal imbalance; Antonio married the next available woman he found. Unfortunately she was a rather homely woman who had been raised on a pig farm. Strangely she too had a foot odor problem. Even so, Antonio had many children and scores of descendants, including goofy sweater guy.

To this day the foot odor problem remains a family trait, causing members of this clan to be outcasts from society and always on the fringe of any activity. Unfortunately these problems usually lead to binge drinking as well.

An ancient depiction of Shoeless Antonio Dummetti the 1st being rejected by the most attractive maiden in Sorrento

Dennis, I speak you in the language about our fathers, translated only by the Babelfish so that the photo.nettari may see my shame too. Sapete this means that I are serious. I have said these unfavorable facts to you concerning my life in the secret...confidenzialmente. Unfortunately you have denounced the ancient lore of the omerta and I will have to convince Aldo to raddrizzarli towards the permanent outside....how you say? The Large Sleep. By the breast of the Green Virgin I pledge this make. This means you, Dennis. It is to align with the truth that smelly the feet are one characteristic of my family, here why sons of my sister, The Maestro and Aldo the Enforcer, always drive their buses with the open hatches. It is equally why they sing. Them smelly feet are defective effectively, but their song is defective even badder. Finchè the hatches are maintained opened the passengers equally are preoccupied with the defective song to the worry approximately the defective feet. That is equally why the entire family drinks. It damps the nerves in the sinus passagero in fashion from not tolerating their own feets smells. The argument in this photograph has been interested who had close to be disposed to Aldo in the chorus line. In the opera houses in Italia it is not concurred in order to leave the hatches open. Therefore the curse of the family of Tortorella-Dummetti it is doubly stong during the performances. Aldo not only has the smelly feet, but its breath is not too much the good either.