black and white: then to now 'Alone'

This photo needs no real explanation. Your ratings and critiques are

invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please

submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Very well done.  At first, I was contemplating a closer shot of the homeless woman but once I viewed a larger image, I realized that you have effectively left her alone.  A closer view would not have shown the near empty sidewalk.  Here the background plays an important role in the meaning behind this photo.  Your choice to shoot this in black and white is indexical of being alone; there is very little colour in her life.

What can I add to what is a thorough understanding of my photo well explained?

If someone is interested in understanding this photo, they only need look at Carla's critique above; it sums it up nicely.

Added point:  This photo is full of triangles, probably not easily noticed, from the building left, the sidewalk to the background, the trees (right, not so distinct) and the slit of sky we see, each is a triangle, leading to a distant vanishing point.

Our eye, as it always is, is drawn to the vanishing point and our instinct is to look in the distance.

But competing with that natural inclination is this woman, bent, cane at side with cup, and nobody to be from as she sits on rainy pavement, apparently on a mat or piece of cardboard.

I wondered all day yesterday after first posting at how it languished with low ratings; I considered this a very good work, but Carla has correctly pointed out its strength and other, stronger raters have stepped forward.

Photo.net raters, in general seldom get it right (sometimes they blow it entirely, see photo of Nina above, which has nearly - today- 900  views, but a 4/4 rating . . . . and I consider one of my strongest, most 'artistic' photos of recent times.

But that's an exception.

Carla, thanks for a very astute analysis endorsed by me that others can rely on.  You have fully understood the 'why's' and 'wherefore's' of this photo

john

John (Crosley)

This osteoporotic old woman, known in vernacular Russian as starinky which is older than babushka (old woman or grandmother), not only got a generous gift from me (breaking my rule of not giving except through a friend to disguise my own generosity and not be associated with 'charity' handouts to avoid influencing my subjects), but also from the people walking in the distance.

They are actually closer than appears, and by the time I had taken this photo (not long at all), and given her money, they too, each gave her an offering not at all  cheap.

I saw this woman the other day in front of a department store with a new scarf.  The scarf colors perfectly matched the spring/summer colors of the season.

Conclusion after also looking many times in her cup:  she is not as poor, I think, as she makes it appear and any look in her cup would show why. 

She does fabulously well for a beggar, as osteoporotic women willing to demean themselves do in Kyiv's main shopping street . . . . (and that does not mean a Mercedes and chauffeur around the corner, but well enough to live on more than sustainable income, I think).  

I compare the hardship she must endure, the pain from her osteoporosis and her meager (probably $100/month) pension, and I personally judge she deserves it.

She is one of those to whom I donate, generally through a proxy so she can't identify me as the donor.

john

John (Crosley

In fact this woman is a regular fixture on Kyiv's main and arguably most famous street.

She takes in substantial donations, for begging not always a very long time, but usually toward evening when the weather's hot and earlier if it's very cold.

Of course it's awful work, but she seems to regard it as a 'job', and she's pretty successful at it.

In part because she is osteoporotic -- has what they call 'dowager's hump' from the cervical and dorsal spine having collapsed in on itself and no longer being able to support the head properly.

Result, she is very worthy appearing and people respond in kind.  Me even.

She may very well have a home, and if it's nearby, it may be worth a substantial amount, this being one of Kyiv's most fashionable areas, and I don't recall seeing her come out of Metros to this place - it's rather removed from any possible Metro -- if she came out of a Metro, a more logical place to  beg would be closer.

But then anything's possible, and I'm no expert, just an observer.

(and donor)

john

John (Crosley)

Now that editing capabilities have been withdrawn, I must post a separate comment to correct an error.

I wrote incorrectly that Photo.netters seldom get ratings right or some such, but the truth is they seldom get it wrong, with rare exceptions.  Raters here, like juries, generally settle on the truth, even though there may be some very wrong-headed ratings.

If one gets a string of 3/3s and 4/4 for a critiqued photo, one has to consider two opposing possibilities:

1.  One's work is bad or mediocre work at best

Or

2.  As in my photo of Nina, to which I referred above, it is generally not within the 'taste' or 'realm' of the average Photo.netter, though I consider that particular photo superior work that I would exhibit.

John

John (Crosley)

Sad anyway. Good capture.

It it affected you, then it was a good capture; it accomplished its purpose.

Thanks for letting me know your reaction.

john

John (Crosley)