Elder Sister 1996

Gung Hai Fat Choitoday is Chinese New Years. I live in Vancouver,

right on the edge of Chinatown. The firecrackers exploding, drums

beating and lion dances have been going on all morning. Tomorrow

there is a big parade, its great fun. About this photo. Its off the

first roll of B&W film I ever shot. It was March of 1996 when I stood

mesmerized in the darkroom watching this shot appear before my eyes.

At that moment I knew there was to be no more kodachrome in this guys

lifeit was B&W forever because printing unlike shooting slides

allowed me the chance to take control of my photographs. Now I could

crop, adjust tonality & contrast, defuse, bleach, flash, dodge, burn

it was up to me. And this shot that changed my photography and my

life forever? To this day I cant remember taking itits as if it

appeared on my roll of negs on its own.

if you asked permission, this is a great shot. If you didn't it feels exploitative to me.

Here is the original unmodified shot.

WOW Jim. Very powerful portrait. I used to live in Vancouver. I miss it alot. Nice work.

You could dodge mask the upper left corner - otherwise great!

Sweet shot, man. I'm glad you came to the bw side of the force. My only complaint here is the hair right behind her left eye-seems to be a dodge spot. cheers.

tkx kelly...i fixed it...get along little dogie...cheers

Great photo, Jim; I can see how you would get hooked on B&W with a debut like this. Funny you went for 1600 ASA on your first roll...

Don't forget to wear sunscreen.

Goodbye ozone, hello skin cancer!

Excellent portrait. Looks like her entire life is written in her face.

The last guy took the words out of my mouth. She looks like a woman of great dignity.

it's a little more subjective than just that, don't you think? exploitation really comes down to the intent of the photographer, i would say. as far as the pic itself is concerned, she's an intriguing subject, but have you over sharpened it? makes it a little over the top for me.

Yeah, it's an interesting technical experiment, too bad it was on someone's face ;-). I think for a more valid creative direction on which to practice this technique, you would need to look at someone like Ivan Albright (google for more articles).

 

http://www.winnetkahistory.org/Gazette/Winnetkans/flesh.JPG