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© Copyright (©) 2009, John Crosley, All Rights Reserved

The Reflection


johncrosley

withheld, from raw through Adobe Raw Converter 5.5, then Photoshop CS4, full frame, slight manipulation throgh burn/dodge, etc.

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© Copyright (©) 2009, John Crosley, All Rights Reserved

From the category:

Street

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The Reflection show winter hat saleswoman at a brief moment with one

side of her mirror turned toward her customer, and the other side turned

away, and that's how we spy her, the distorted side turned toward us in

a more 'film noir' version of 'street' than is usual for me. Your ratings

and critiques for this unusual photo are invited and most welcome. If you

rate harshly, critically, or wish to make a comment, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment or remark; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

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I really like this...

 

The motion blur provides action to the scene, and seeing just a bit of her face gives me a clue to what she might look like. Story well told IMHO. I also like the textures in the image shiny (faux) leather, fur and even some texture in the skin of the buyer.

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It's always a wonder to see a photo like this, which is greatly subject to interpretation, through the eyes of another, for, although I really like, even love, this one, I have not thought this one through.

 

So, your analysis is the first attempt by anyone in writing at formally attempting to find out what -- if anything -- holds this photo together.

 

You mention especially the shininess of the leather garments as a unifying factor, and the blur -- especially in comparison to the sharpness of the somewhat distorted reflection of the woman in the mirror.

 

In case you ha0d not guessed, this is a 'make-up' mirror, with one side (the one pointed away from us) being absolutely flat and giving an absolutely 'true' reflection, while the one toward us and reflecting the seller (showing her face to us) is not flat, and is intended to provide a close-up magnification of the face to the person applying make-up (or squeezing blackheads, pimples?, well, that's for the individual's taste, if you'll excuse the choice of words).

 

Here it has a different function -- it seems not only to 'magnify her face, but also to redirect it to us, at a vastly different direction, even though the woman being reflected in front (and all the time she was in front and looking in the 'looking glass) was able to 'see herself' , the distortion was not projected directly behind the 'looking glass' but to one side (and perhaps another side, top and bottom as well).

 

The woman seller, though distorted, looks sufficiently attractive, which I found her in person when I went to her, when she finally (after several minutes) discovered me nearby in a crowd straining for an even better capture (when a customer alerted her).

 

Instead of slinking away, I rushed up to her and pointed to her image on the digital screen within the mirror, and she was absolutely delighted.

 

One thing about Ukrainian people, most are very appreciative of a good photo and understanding of 'unusual' photos -- it is a delight sometimes to photograph in Ukraine because of it.

 

I am not sure where appreciation of photographic arts such as this comes in, but I am almost universally greeted with a welcome response even to unusual photos such as this . . . . . although of course, I do not slink about to much as I am proud of such work.

 

An American response might be 'delete that' -- 'you took that without my permission and I don't allow that' (misunderstanding the law entirely of course, or 'how do I know you're not going to put it on a porno website, put strange heds on it or strange bodies and do horrible thigns with it?

(yes, there are a lot of Americans who think such ways), while a German response might have been to call the polizei for 'photographing 'without permission'. (not required, - permission reqjuired only to 'show' the photo ;~)) (I had the law of Germany researched).

 

And then they gotta prosecute you, and what German prosecutor is gonna do that for a lousy 'street' photo caught by a foreigner when EVERY German has a camera phone and every retail establishment is riddled with video and still cameras constantly taking photos and videos of everyone?

 

Such prosecution would make the Germans the laughing stock of the 'free world'.

 

I suppose since I've got a photo of an Afghani neighborhood leader and businessman in hamburg, Germany watching a television re-run of Osama bin Laden and showing obvious glee at watching his spiritual leader, if I published that I might be subject to prosecution?

 

I think not in these post 9-11 days,and I do have such a photo (taken a year ago in a Hamburg Arab/Muslim business district. The guy's a bin Laden supporter, and I think not a 'good guy' but probably well known to authorities..

 

Germans in past have let terrorists thrive on their territory lest they be accused of Nazi tactics, in an overreaction to the Nazi and fascist abusive excesses, and that permissiveness is partly responsible for the tragedy for 9-11, as terrorists prepared in Germany for 9-11 .(they prepared in the US as well, though).

 

Me, I just take my photos, and when someone spies me and is not overtly hostile, I share good captures with them, unless there is a good reason not to (security guard or hostile police just behind me, etc.)

 

Most people in Ukraine are happy, and frankly also in many other countries, and even in Germany, with the few vigilante type exceptions - also even in France which has Draconian anti-street shooting laws but a huge tradition of 'street' shooting in their culture (Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Ronis, et al.).

 

[ukrainians are very strict in their train stations, though . . . . .]

 

Which somehow eludes me when I am the person shooting because I am a most unlikely trouble maker . . . . . given my age, weight, obvious American heritage and sympathies etc.

 

In the Metro, authorities wiggle a finger at you and suggest 'no', you move on and they're happy you've moved on -- no skin off their nose if you go somewhere else and do the same thing until a new finger gets wiggled at you, so long as it's obvious you're not holding up crowds or planning something.

 

Holding up crowds is a great sin in Kyiv's underground, too. (Dnepropetrovsk has an underground too, all six stops of it -- almost all transport is by jitney bus (marshrootka), bus (bagdan) and tram.

 

They're the arteries that hold the city of Kyiv together.

 

(At one time I remember shooting up from the waist at Metro cops in Moscow who were discussing whether or not I could be allowed to shoot their fabulous Metro).

 

I just moved on, and they moved on, and ultimately nothing was really said (and the waist level shots were not good and served no photographic purpose, other than to prove a point).

 

I'm most interested, Ken to read your 'take' on this unusual photo, caught because in one 'flash' I spied this woman's face in a turning mirror and stopped in my tracks, pointed my camera lens and wondered if the scene would repeat, which it did, again and again.

 

With me snapping quite a few shots . . . . until satisfied.

 

If someone asks for photos with an 'art' theme or a 'noir' theme, this would be one of them.

 

Thanks Ken. (as much as for enduring the above discursive discussion about the nature of shooting 'street' amid privacy concerns as anything)

 

John (Crosley)

 

© 2009, John Crosley, all rights reserved

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Picasso, whose work I long did not understand, and did not once admire, I now greatly admire for a new and different reason.

 

He was greatly inspired as a young man, picking over trash heaps to make his collages and sculptures . . . . an artist through and through.

 

As a young painter, his graphics were stunning.

 

His 'Blue Period' itself could stand alone as outstanding work worthy of note if that were all he produced to the end of his life.

 

Yet he progressed through cubism and neo cubism, into modernism and became a chief proponent of his own style of 'art', (that which I did not understand, same as with 'cubism').

 

I now understand that such styles were not only about artists trying to 'understand' and 'dissect' their 'art' but also in part because they were trying (1) to differentiate themselves from all that came before, like children who must rebel against their parents for the sake of differentiating, but also (2) because on some level they were just 'bored' and to escape that boredom were compelled to make new things and indulge their imaginations, in an artistic way (and, rarely, be hugely rewarded as Picasso was, becoming a French National Treasure).

 

For him, his 'ART' was just a great way to lead a life.

 

I was with a 'close personal friend' when I walked here, she was a little miffed at me, 'not speaking much', having anger for some unknown reason.

 

But when she spied this shot and saw me working hard to get more and better such shots, the ends of her sour mouth turned upwards, as she saw the fire lighted my soul as I went about my task, oblivious of all else.

 

Picasso always was found attractive by the opposite sex, for his creative forces; those forces in themselves are seen as attractive by many - part of man's nature sometimes is to admire creativity and industry of others. (sometimes those forces are also feared, as well, though).

 

Attorneys experience such attractiveness less for the legal briefs they produce than the money and 'success' it breeds, but in pure artistry, with the proper friends just the sheer act of 'creating' as above, can inspire loyalty and good humor as one is watched, freely expending and over-expending energy, all without hope of recompense.

 

It's just what I do, is my personal explanation -- pay or no pay.

 

(some day I suppose I have to get paid, but no matter what, I'll still do it)

 

I like doing what excites me, and if it also excites those around me, so much the better.

 

Eastern Christmas, 2010

 

John (Crosley)

 

© 2009, all rights reserved

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It has been observed and I have written that I thrive best in photography when I make 'contrasts'.

 

Here is just another example.

 

There is a sea of darkness.

 

The face is surrounded by darkness, but closer, by bright light, outlining it.

 

In effect, though it is a small part of the photo, it is the major part.

 

In effect, if it 'highlighted (if one can excuse the word) by the darkness that surrounds it, though the surrounding dark tones are 'busy' and somewhat 'jumbled' and full of activity.

 

I like to find one small detail like this that is interesting and 'focus on it' -- while not shutting the door to other themes and repetitions (repeating leather shininess, and general busyness around) plus theme of stillness amid hubbub.

 

And surrealness amid the 'real'.

 

I like it.

 

I'll keep it.

 

High rates and views or low.

 

John (Crosley)

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I had to read all that twice...to get it to sink, so to speak....I will some up my thoughts in a brief (very brief statement) You really amaze me and I'm very intrigued by your thought processes.... Please keep posting these daily images, even if I don't comment, I look and read, be sure of that.
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I sometimes wonder whether anybody reads those things, but at the strangest and most unusual times I get 'atta boys' from avid readers (and viewers).

 

Thanks for the enthusiastic feedback.

 

It's Christmas in Kiev today, my second, and what started out as a well below zero (Fahrenheit) day, keeping me in hibernation at the top of a hill near the center for fear of falling and breaking a leg or back and disabling myself further suddenly at three o'clock turned into a general thaw, and the crowds came out from all over Kiev and surrounding areas and there literally was a carnival with ice skating, carnival characters (men dressed up as mice, tigers, etc., and lots of 'Deadushka Morozov' characters and Sneg Tsaritsas (Grandfather Frosts and Snow Princesses) all in costume for what started out to be a horrible alone day ending in a wonderful day.

 

I was still alone, as my best friend is with family) but really not alone, as I make friends and acquaintances galore photographing in a crowd especially among people having a good time.

 

After they see me a few times, I 'belong', and over time ,I've come to 'belong' in Moscow, Buenos Aires (to an extent) Marburg and Giessen, Germany; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Bangkok; Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; Hong Kong, Honolulu; Kyiv, Dnepropetrovs'k, Ukraine, and a few other places that will go nameless.

 

Today I filled mostly five 8 gig flash cards; although the good photos were hard to come by until the last hour or so, before almost 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. when suddenly I got 'in the groove' a state which any good basketball or baseball player will be able to describe (or perhaps a tennis or golf player).

 

I could foresee things, preposition myself, just based on a glance, plant myself ready for the capture, so few noticed my presence, and just shoot away as the capture came to me (even to the extent that in one instance the person I was waiting to capture even leaned over and looked straight down my lens, pointed down as that person passed by . . . thinking it couldn't possibly have been waiting for that person (but of course it was . . . I was way ahead . . . .)

 

I finally took maybe ten good shots, including maybe five that will make it into postings for sure, and another five that might.

 

I even got one or two really, really good ones -- one for portraits and one for street - maybe two for portraits just before I trudged up my steep, once again my icy street home - one block but a very long block, which has caused cars with snow tires for weeks to skid backward (chains are unheard of here), and ended my efforts to leave my house on numerous occasion (even though a block from center).

 

I'm so happy you get enjoyment about what I write. I write when I can't shoot, often, and early this 'Eastern' Christmas today (the 7th of Jan.) alone and 'frozen in by a foot and a half of snow, stunning cold for weeks, including fresh yesterday, the forecast said no warmth between here and Paris with even Paris in the deep freeze.

 

I even considered splurging and flying or taking a two-day bus ride to Paris ($120) on a cheap 'weekend' sort of thing just to escape punishing cold and danger from falling in deep, icy, slick, slick, slick snow -- no salt on the snow, little snow removal by residents, and so forth, and residents just trudge and 'make do' unlike other parts of the world.

 

In Russia and here a major injury in winter is the fall on snow and ice with broken bones (or worse, a back that is permanently injured) In previous years, I've spilled but escaped serious injury but it's hell on the psyche to one moment be looking ahead and the next to be looking up at the sky, stunned by how fast it all happened and by total lack of chance to avoid same.

 

I am a former skier and know how to navigate on slippery surfaces, but sometimes falling is the best choice, and I do know HOW to fall, but sometimes bones do get broken, and I have too much fun shooting to endure 6 weeks indoors in a cast with crutches.

 

Here the snow stays white mostly, not black as in New York City or brown as in Moscow where everythign in winter (to my recollection) always is muddy with hosts of grandmothers wielding mops always cleaning up for the mud tracked into establishments, tripping everybody with their mops and buckets and with their head scarves providing a glimpse of what some of those great looking shop girls may look like when THEY get to their '50s unless their is a major change in culture. (women tend to let themselves go in Russia/Ukraine after making babies in the early or mid ''20s, but it's a gross generalization with many exceptions, and the same women who might emigrate to America to marry would be stunners at age 50 .go . .. go figure.

 

(and still wonderful mothers).

 

Here, only McDonald's has such things as clean toilets, generally, and they apparently don't use that stuff called 'Beef Product' we discovered was retrieved from trimmings and used in their US hamburgers, using a recovery process to kill bacteria which accumulate on trimmings by leaching out the trimmings with ammonia (leaving a strong odor and a pale red pasty substance that is mixed with the hamburger.

 

Here a McDonald's is never served unless it's hot off the grill, as in Moscow, and it's tasty, as they lose their taste almost instantly a they cool or sit in a warming drawer. (I like mine plain -- and pure -- just meat and bun and no crap, and definitely no high calorie -- more than 50% fat -- cheese)..

 

It's considered a treat in Ukraine to go to McDonald's.

 

The toilets are clean, a rarity here, same as in Moscow when I stopped going there more than half a decade ago.

 

Now kids in Moscow around the McDonald's in the neighborhoods I saw two years ago when I visited were getting very obese from 'fries with that' and the 'old style' 'apple pies' and 'cherry pies' as well as 'cheese' on all burgers (which is NOT the way McDonald's started out).

 

They started out with burgers of such high quality beef my friend the supermarket butcher who inspected them told me in the late '60s it was remarkable they could stay in business in the late '60s when they opened in Eugene, Oregon - and their burgers then were tasty, too, cooked with flecks of real onion (not onion powder or reconstituted onion (and the burger meat was cooked fresh, not frozen.)

 

Same as in Ukraine.

 

So, I just came from an unexpected party.

 

Half the nation came out of weeks of hibernation and participated, most I think unexpectedly, as a sudden Christmas thaw was not predicted to the extent it did.

 

it was warmer than Paris.

 

I got enough good shots, it'll be days or more before I process them or even unload them all.

 

I'm trying to work on getting higher image quality, so look for a change in that direction, maybe subtle at first, but noticeable, over the long run if you compare, as I have new filters and a new advisor . . . . who is tutoring me . . . and doing some other things . . . . toward helping me build a portfolio.

 

(I know some tricks with Photoshop she does not know, but she knows thousands I do not know and never could have imagined, but she is good at showing them to me . . . .)

 

I'm SO glad you wrote me what you did.

 

Like today's Christmas party, it was unexpected and most welcome - a Christmas present for a present-less John and otherwise lonely John.

 

Thanks from the other half of the world.

 

John (Crosley)

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