'The New Tattoo and the Skeptic Frau'

This large man is getting a new tattoo, and his frau looks on skeptically

or even with disdain, in this recent photo taken in an LA entertainment

venue. Your ratings, critiques and remarks are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, or wish to make a remark

please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Very good documentary. Picture with a thousands words.(-) That's what he needed really. Only in America.

 

Cheers; Bela

This is almost a photo which words will spoil.

 

So I really won't add any.

 

Thanks for encouragement.

 

John (Crosley)

in this particular case, there's a lot of room to tatoo. Tragic and comical image. A moment that had to be captured. Regards.

Both parts are framed on it's own....

John, why do you say "Frau"? It looks to me that I'm missing something?

Thanx Axel

 

I personally doubt I'll ever be tattooed; they're just not for me.

 

But as a photographer I LOVE 'em.

 

Not on pretty women for models as I don't find them sexy at all, but as photo subjects they're incredibly interesting and of course a great way to open a conversation with a stranger -- and very interesting sometimes to photograph.

 

Of course tattoo parlors often see me, too.

 

This capture is a capture that just HAD to be made.

 

And with stop down, it is 1/10th of a second for great depth of field with very high quality ISO and VR lens.

 

It worked well, but some captures were ruined because of turning motion of the tattoo artist's head due to motion blur - everything else held in place by VR lens.

 

Thanks for the comment, Ricardo.

 

John (Crosley)

The man and the woman are together, but I had no interaction with them. I only could observe them during -- them after - the tatto was finished.

 

He got the tattoo, but at first I did not know if she was connected with him or just observing and entirely separate.

 

But afterward, she went to him, then they touched each other as a couple, then they walked together as a 'pair'.

 

I could not exactly call her a wife, but she obviously was not a 'sister', and I had to be careful with my words, to not add beyond my knowledge . . . so I could not call her a 'girlfriend' as she might be a 'wife' or a 'wife' as she might be a 'girlfriend', so I chose the more (to Americans) indeterminate 'frau' which to an American might encompass a 'girlfriend' (who might be close enough to express an opinion about a tattoo as she is here), a life-in girlfriend (significant other) and a 'wife' . . . as Americans do not always know the precise German use of the word 'frau' or 'fraulein' and indeed 'frau' does not always indicate a 'married woman' in Germany I think but a more mature woman in more casual parlance (and that is the parlance I use here) I have spent much time in Germany, but am no Deutsche linguist.

 

I am open to help in my Deutsche.

 

No matter what, this is a photo that 'had to be taken' -- in my mind at least, especially after their 'close relationship' became obvious after the tattoo was finished. (this may have been a 'fake' or 'temporary' tattoo, to be fair.)

 

The caption helps indicate that they are a pair . . . and for that it is important . . .. since this is not a celebrity couple or part of a photo story/documentary with other photos to 'flesh it out'.

 

I hope that helps explain.

 

Thanks for your observation/question.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

The woman looked skeptical because the tattoo will not make such a fat man more attractive.

Good shot!

Tattoos now are very fashionable among all sorts of people in the United States.

 

This photo was taken about a day or so before posting and is representative of a new acceptance of tattoos among all classes in the USA. It is accurately reflected in Hollywood movies and also in rock culture.

 

I personally find them repugnant on pretty women; nothing can improve on nature, I feel, and a tattoo is just going to spoil nature's perfection. If I were to photograph beautiful women (I have on occasion and one member here feels it is my strong suite), I would not allow tattoos (or they'd have to be photoshopped out . . . .

 

It is possible that this man is getting a 'temporary tattoo', but that does not spoil the photo for me, but at the same time, the sign that says 'tattoo' is missing so the photo is not completely self-explanatory; the viewer is left wanting for an explanation without my caption, which is regrettable, as I like this photo very much.

 

Fortunately I am able to supply not only that information that he is being tattooed, but also the information the large man and the woman are a 'couple' (without indication of matrimonial status as indicated earlier).

 

Svetlana, of course we know the tattoo is not going to make him 'more attractive' but consider this: in his eyes, he already may be exceptionally attractive, and she might be worrying a tattoo will spoil his perfection!!!

 

That's certainly a different viewpoint, isn't it?

 

Your statement started with a common assumption, but there are people whose tastes will challenge your assumption, or for whom weight is far less a factor that certce (heart).

 

If the man has a big enough certce (heart) and is a kind and good man, then it may not matter so much to her how much he weighs.

 

My first wife, over my protestations, (protests), always kept sweet things and fattening foods around, no matter how much I protested.

 

Later, after 17 years and as we were divorcing and I indicated it was seen by me as 'sabotage' to my formerly young, athletic, firm and very thin body (her placing temptation every place she could, when she could, continually), she admitted she wanted me much heavier, so I could be guaranteed 'not to stray'. She wanted me unattractive to 'other women' so she would not have to worry. She sabotaged my health for her insecurities.

 

I had no intention of straying anyway and went decades without doing that . . . . even when I was in prime physical condition . . . . I had not been the straying type . . . . until I finally saw what she was doing as actual 'sabotage' which she did admit (with the above explanation).

 

People are complex, and it is not so uncommon for a woman, (for instance) or even a man, to fatten up a spouse to make them seem less presentable to others of the opposite sex, to ensure they will 'stay around' - to ensure fidelity.

 

(spoken from sad experience, regrettably, as once you get heavier, the chances of getting slimmer disappear almost forever.)

 

By the way, Svetlana, your name is synonymous with 'The Grand Designer/Builder -- any connection?

 

(reply by e-mail only if you care to respond and unless you choose to respond, no response is necessary or expected.)

 

The 'Grand designer' is a man I find fascinating . . . . and almost unknown in the West.

 

Even widely read 'reality' writer Tom Wolfe, called him 'the Grand Designer' for want of a proper name in his best selling book 'The Right Stuff'' about America's astronauts, and 'he' was a true hero for the East, whose name was kept under wraps, even though he built the machine that sent the absolute hero of all Soviets to the skies -- a man still unknown to almost all Westerners -- Yuri G -- but a name still revered by most former Soviets, especially Russians above a certain age.

 

I can hardly image what life was like in Russia/Ukraine/the former Soviet Union during the transition from Tsarist rule to a modern, scientific state, and am fascinated as I watch the final turn to a capitalist or semi-capitalist economy.

 

Russia watching has been a lifetime interest, begun from youth, started as a kid listening to Radio Moscow, with its lies and distortions, heard clear as a bell, as though it were the radio station next door, but on the short wave radio service.

 

From youth I could in an instant recite the first bars of 'Moscow Nights' (its opening) by heart. Cleverly, the lies sent to us in America were different than the lies send to other parts of the world, . . .

 

I listened to various versions -- we got a very mild sort of lying/distortion in the USA compared to those received by other countries.

 

When I worked for Associated Press I occasionally encountered TASS and IZVESTIA and other so-called 'journalists',but in reality they were KGB agents, with an agenda of showing a poor America defined by class struggle, losing the class battle.

 

No one (including myself) who dealt with these men had any respect for them, but they were members of our service, and we made their transmissions for them . . . and knew they could see first hand that NO one distorted the news we wrote or edited, while they only sent photos that were heavily airbrushed and that only portrayed the very worst of the worst of America, and that fed their political agenda.

 

It is interesting, I felt no need to detest these individuals who knew they were sending lies and distortions to the Russian people, as I recognized that they knew and were engaged in the ultimate act of hypocrisy just by being in and using the facilities of our Manhattan offices.

 

To get to our offices in a very prosperous part of Manhattan, they had to walk through great prosperity in a very prosperous city . . . . with wealth all around, even for the poorer citizens, something I knew instinctively was unimaginable in the Soviet Union. . . . so the presence in our offices of these so-called 'journalist' (spies) itself was acknowledgement of their lack of fidelity to the truth when compared to the content of what they sent home under the guise of 'journalism'.

 

(I have not been a journalist since age 25-26, and never will be again).

 

That being said, I am a confirmed American and democracy advocate - at least for and in my own country . . . and I hope a good guest when visiting yours, with absolutely no agenda in politics other than as a student of world historical politics, and my only real nonacademic interest is to take good, telling photographs of people that I find very, very interesting and quite photogenic during a most historic time.

 

For the record, they also seem for the most part to be quite willing photographic subjects . . . . and with whom I make many friends on the street, just as I do in America.

 

You might look some time for my photograph of a Communist retired Navy Captain in Dnepropetrovsk, taken within the last decade draped by the the hammer and sickle flag -- an old man:

 

'Two Relics'.

 

My second wife (before she got brain cancer and blamed me for causing it) was Russian, and her uncle was a retired Admiral (a friend of Brezhnev I think), and we he and I) had good times together, though now I am 'out of favor' with him . . .. . as his political ear is to the ground . . . . . and Americans in general now are 'out of favor' in Russia.

 

I never in my wildest imagination, thought I'd ever marry a Russian (after a three year courtship and living in Russia -- Moscow/Ryzan and other places) -- or be supping with Big Macs and fries with a retired Admiral of Submarines of the Red Fleet (attack submarines, I think - he never really spoke, as he was the soul of discretion --AND, I understand his wife who was so gracious formerly was THE librarian of the Kremlin, not one of the librarians, but THE librarian . . . . .

 

The Admiral carried an out of date, but very highly respected 'little red book' that gave him 'privileges' with officials at Sheremetyevo II when he picked me up which I found amazingly interesting.

 

For all the expressed hostilities between the Soviets and the West (America et al), we never bombed the SovietsUnion, and the Soviets never bombed us (all threats aside), as the finality of MAD (mutually assured destruction) worked its miracle, and we hope has brought us a greater European peace -- something that the world has never seen until this recent period.

 

We can only hope that others who aspire to ownership of nuclear capabilities can understand that living is better than dying, but unfortunately for some fundamental Islamists, dying as a martyr for God and Islam is seen as a higher reward then living, and thus death from MAD (mutually assured destruction) in the hands of some mad fundamentalist leader becomes somewhat of a real threat, not just bluster.

 

In a way, these times are more dangerous than the last 66 years in that regard, as Iran pursues its nuclear capability (and would share it with other fundamentalists in the Islamic world).

 

We are on the cusp of a very dangerous time, (more for Russia than Ukraine . . . as Russia has its Chechens).

 

Best to you Svetlana,

 

From a man who only is a konstructor of interesting photos.

 

Look overhead tonight and you may see me; pray for no skolske, because I have deadly fear of falling and breaking a leg in the sneg/lot.

 

(snow/ice)

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

>so I chose the more (to Americans) indeterminate 'frau'

 

This is what I was missing. I never would have thought that it is used like that -.very interesting!

 

>and indeed 'frau' does not always indicate a 'married woman' in Germany I think but a more mature woman

 

You are 100% on spot!

 

John, so I wasn't too wrong when I thought - if John writes Frau, it'll be interesting to know why...

 

Thank you for all that info - and well done also this one!

 

Ciao Axel

 

 

 

 

Very interesting to read comments in which you tell about their lives. I have not family ties with "The Grand Designer" Just the same name.

Generally (with some exceptions which I almost always regret), I choose my precise words with substantial care.

 

I came by that as a journalist, almost immediately, and certainly had it drummed into me at the start as the result of being edited . . . then editing others. 'Can you prove she's the wife . . . or the girlfriend . . . or either . . . or neither . . . but you say she's obviously not a sister . . . based on what you saw, so maybe something 'indeterminate' like 'frau'? is how I process it, and how I would have long ago when editing a fellow journalist's copy.

 

I wasn't long in that profession, having risen from new hire to once a day sitting in on the highest council of the AP planning the next day's news 'slot' with the General Manager and bureau chiefs of New York, Washington and Chicago, representing my department . . . . because my department head defaulted.

 

Great experience at 24 and 25, but lousy pay so I left and quadrupled my hourly pay.

 

Then went to law school and learned how to figure out what the definition of 'is' is. (Bill Clinton parsing words).

 

I also was able to parse them well there.

 

I have a certain amount of credibility here, and if I blow that, I've wasted a lot of careful writing, so I hew close to what I know precisely, and if I don't know something exactly or only think I know it, I try to say so . . . so the reader can evaluate.

 

(it sounds very boring, I know, but look at your comment . . . if john says 'frau' . . . 'and you'll see I had earned your trust and didn't blow it.)

 

Trust is a precious thing . . . . and once blown, hard to regain. And to embellish a caption is something I try not to do (except when I obviously am doing so in a humorous and very transparent -- to me at least - way.

 

Thanks Axel.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

I only suspected a possible connection because 'The Grand Designer' lived and worked for a long time in Kiev, you are a Kiev resident, and you and he share the same last name. Otherwise I had no inkling, and as of now, I have really nothing to describe you except what you write . . . which is perfectly adequate.

 

I do not write just for the highest critics, or for aggrandizement, but for communication, and for those who are interested; since you show interest, I am happy from time to time to direct my writing to you - since sometimes you and I share a city in common and your view is important to me in evaluating what it is I see, and how I have presented it.

 

For that your viewpoint of my Ukraine photos especially (all others too) is very, very valuable to me, as I trust your judgment . . . .much more than what I find in blogs, where one critic says my work is ploho and could easily be done by anyone here with a camera phone . . . . walking around . . . . (paraphrased).

 

I think: Hah!

 

But you can be a judge yourself.

 

Some photos I take and post mostly for myself and potential galleries/museums (see recent photo of man with botelke (bottle) in from of closed kiosk with simple deavushka visage (girls face) graffiti on it.

 

I showed that to a high ranking critic in the US and he was deeply moved . . just two days ago.

 

Did you look up overnight (and see me?)

 

john

 

John (Crosley)