'What His Eyes Have Seen'

This much older man was around in the 1930s when there was mass

starvation in his native Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) with

millions of deaths, followed by the Nazi seige and ocupation, the

continual domination of his country by the Soviet Union and

Communism, then in 1991, freedom as the Soviet Union fell, the

challenge of capitalism with successive bank and currency failures

which eroded the pension he now receives. Your ratings, critiques and

observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly,

critically or wish to make an observation, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge.

Thanks! Enjoy! john

Thank you for letting me know of your high estimation of this photo -- important given anonymous rating now.

I try not to thank for high rates or complain for well-intentioned low rates, just thank you for letting me know why.

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley)

My eyes are immediately drawn to his and then I wander through the image. I love the texture. My only criticism is that the eyes seem just a tad too close to the top of the image. His face is long, so a vertical crop may work better here. Great image.

Excellent portrait, John. (Any relation to Fidel Castro? Note the collar...)

The look in those eyes is awesome. They almost take you into his soul, to his thoughts. They also take you out of the frame in a way that you want to look at what he is looking at; to me, this duality is a success.

I see the previous comment on portrait framing mode. Of course that is more conventional. However, I think that would also bring into focus other bits of his face and may just take away the intensity that this close cropping has produced. Regards.

A really beautiful portrait with a nice title, John!

I like what you say about texture and your eye moving about the photo -- anytime a photo engages the eye (and mind) so, for good reasons, I consider it the markings of success.  Thank you for telling me.  About the eyes, you may be right; I'll have to consider.

john

John (Crosley)

This is an unconventionally framed portrait -- I came about it naturally, though out in the field in the few seconds he allowed he -- a virtual snapshot then scoot.

But at the same time it (and its unworthy companion) were well considered, and I too saw that far away look -- to me he's looking back on a very interesting and bittersweet history.  The fatigues he's wearing may even have been worn by him as a Soviet soldier in Cuba!   There are a lot of Cubans with the name Vladimir (Volodya) whose fathers or grandfathers are Russian from times when the Russians (Soviets) had a huge influence and presence there.

Now, inflation, currency devaluations and revaluations, independence and bank failures have robbed a once-generous expected pension and oldsters live without enough money to pay for their electricity and food -- many beg or sell in the market - others with any money just get drunk or sit around -- the lot of men is not so good -- many (most) die much younger.  He's a rare bird, being so old, and thus a survivor.

Thanks for a helpful critique.

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you for the compliment.

About the titles, (captions): 

Sometimes they occur to me here just as I sit down to write them.

Other times I envision the caption even before or as I take a photo.

I never know which, but they often are important to me though some of my captions can be disregarded, however, as in the end the photo's the thing - but I think this one's helpful and may help this photo transcend from portrait to documentary.

Your comments are always welcome here, Ruud.

john

John (Crosley)

As shown in your portrait, the oldest people have a lot of tails for us! Gret shot!

In my early life I read in books or newspapers about the people who lead such historical lives never once thinking I would walk among them and hear their tales firsthand; I had never been much interested in history, although the combat of ideologies (Capitalism vs. Communism) attracted my great attention; I was rooting for the 'good guys' -- freedom from totalitarianism.

As you can see from my photos the results are not all good all the time.  Some people, the less well prepared and the elderly, were better off, it seems under Communism, as it took good enough care of its elders, and young Capitalism now cannot keep pace with its own needs enough to take care of everybody as their needs require, however, it does not kill innocents like Communism did, and with abandon, or snoop into their lives or threaten nuclear destruction on the world . . . . a few of the benefits of being without Communist totalitarianism. 

I'm no Consymp!  Just a realist who looks at the good, the bad and the gray zones equally, and I hope somewhat neutrally. 

I cannot imagine what life must have been like under Communism, especially with the threat of the Secret Police under Beria and his successors -- spying on everybody in the name of the greater good -- I can hardly imagine.  He lived and survived that life, and who knows what compromises or sacrifices he might have made -- or secrets he keeps forever.

Now I meet these people firsthand, and speak to them when language differences allow. 

It lets me put their lives into context, and makes my often brief conversations with them full of meaning -- I can ask very relevant questions often about things that others who meet them often are clueless, and thus get very revealing responses from a few (many are very closed, as is the custom, and I do not pry, as I am a photographer NOT a reporter or historian and certainly with no ideological axe to grind.

It's an interesting way of discovering history, as one just takes photos, without any specific historical project -- only taking a chance at gaining personal knowledge and sometimes sharing it with viewers like you.

[i once was practically accosted in a friendly way in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine by a man who under the Soviets had been Libyan leader Qaddafi's chauffeur, who wanted to talk to me about almost anything Western because he saw I had been from the 'West', and he wanted contact with the West, as he had see and lived many things which were irrelevant and outside the experience of his Ukrainian 'friends' and acquaintances. 

Regrettably I did not keep any particulars nor did I question him at all about his relationship with Col. Qaddafi . . . . now much to my regret.]

Thank you for your comment.

john

John (Crosley)

This man has seen much in his life!

That's one!

Maybe a tad too contrasted, but a beautiful and intense portrait.

L.

As a citizen of Kyiv, you surely know someone who has seen almost the same life.  He lives not far away from Kyiv now and who knows where he lived, where he might have fought for the Soviets, what positions he might have held, and what amazing and unimaginable (to Westerners and to those of the 21st C.) things he has seen, and what extraordinary changes he has experienced in his life.

Just like me from the West, he has lived the war of ideologies from the East, as well as the great fight against fascism as well, which I did not -- too young.

He lives a 1/5 kilometer from a modern supermarket, yet I am willing to bet he and his household buy little there, and that somewhere there is a patch of ground where he and his relatives grow potatoes (kartoshka, kartofil, barabola), carrots (morqua), tomatoes (pomodoro) and so forth during the hotter, humid summer months, plus 'winter vegetables for the cold season, because many supermarket food prices equal or even exceed those available in high volume outlets in the United States . . . . (not uniformly, but considering Ukraine's low cost of labor one would expect lower prices).

But now there are no shortages of anything . . .  but cash, especially since the last financial crisis which coincided with the 'world financial crisis' which for the US now is just beginning to lift. 

Contrast that with Soviet times when I learned crowds would form just on the expectation of a shipment of something needed, because supply decisions for goods locally were primarily made by 'economists' from the 'command economy' in far-off Moscow. 

A decade and a half ago, I met many of those so-called economists who made their living under the Soviets, by then having changed jobs with the fall of the Soviet Union, and even at relatively young ages, they primarily were relics, who had no real conception how true economics really worked and were essentially without work in their fields -- except basically as what in the west would be called 'bookkeepers' -- not precisely a high calling, though respectable.

In fact, in trips to Moscow, I met so many young women 'economists' I marveled at how 'educated' in 'economics' the young people were, until I found they studied 'command economics' primarily which had virtually NO relevance to anything in the real world, except how to shove goods down a pipeline.   Kind of like trying to push a rope, I think.  You can try with all your skill, and sometimes things might work out right.

You, Svetlana, know for certain, numerous individuals, who if you asked, could tell you amazing tales that Westerners could only read in books.

Treasure them.

Pass them along.

If you know those who write, encourage them to write those stories, for one day they will be no more and will die as the old folks, many of them from villages and farms with little real education, die off.

I might do it, but my language skills are too little, and my interests lie in photography - but I'm still intrigued . . . . just by looking in his face and seeing what his eyes have seen.

Modern 20th and early 21st C. history.

The global tug of war seen through his eyes, personally.

(And I don't have the language skills -- to be able to hear about all first hand, sadly, for those who have good enough language skills have told me some stories that have chilled me to the bone. All this occurs only while I'm out photographing and only in mostly idle chit-chat.)

Think what a skilled researcher/historian could learn.  Or a novelist/storyteller. 

Russia (including neighboring Ukraine where exalted poet Pushkin lived some times) has a rich tradition of literature.

As a Westerner who only speaks a little of the language, I only get snippets, but I know how to make a well-directed question with what very little I know, and get some very direct answers, and some surprising ones at that, although they only occur while I'm photographing and almost always of subjects and/or their companions/friends.

It's something to think about, or to encourage those who have skills to do before it's too late.

Your comments are always welcome here, Svetlana.

john

John (Crosley)

About contrast, it's all a matter of taste  -- one man's excessive contrast is another's 'texture'.  I may agree with you, however.

In fact, I sat on this a couple of months before posting, not sure how I felt about it, and having LOTS of other things to post.

And this was just a walk-by, not a stake-out or a 'portrait session'.  This was taken as I walked by and briefly interrupted this man as he talked with neighbors on the front of an apartment house front entryway (I'd say 'porch' but the Soviets didn't really build more than doors, steps, a place for mailboxes and no lobbies -- and in most of the five or less story affairs, no lifts -- you walked up).

In fact, a young female student model, in great physical shape in Dnipropetrovsk, who lived in a dormitory at a university there told me she lived on the 13th story of her university dormitory and there was 'NO LIFT'. 

She had to walk up 13 stories every day's end and down every morning.  

There are lots of very slender and healthy looking young women in that town, though they don't all have such physically demanding residential circumstances. 

Now there are several McDonald's and a huge shopping mall with mall food, 'mall rats', and young people are starting to ahhh  . . . .'widen' shall we say.

A not long ago return trip to Moscow in the environs of neighborhood McDonald's showed some children who ate many meals there had grown to proportions never before seen by me in a decade of going to and from Russia and Ukraine . . . . . reinforcing the theory that McDonald's food is fattening . . . . . even though I eat it sometimes (and also am fat).

I didn't really know how I felt about this man's portrait for the longest time after taking it.

In fact I didn't know my feelings until after I had captioned it, saw it on this service, then reflected on the caption -- then it dawned on me the power this photo had captured. 

Frankly it surprised me.  He was NOT just another 'old person' -- there was a 'story' involved, and I had caught it maybe inadvertently, or maybe I sensed it intuitively.

Notice, he's looking 'backwards'.

I guess that says it all.

If I had his head pointing the other way, I'm not sure what impact it would have had in terms of being at one with the caption thesis:  'looking backwards'.

Your comment as always is well appreciated.

john

John (Crosley)

The eyes are in a different world.

They make the photo.

I agree, and I didn't realize it until after I posted the photo.

Live, watch, listen to others, and learn.

That's why I keep posting  . . . . I keep learning from critics' good faith posts.

john

John (Crosley)

What do you mean "This much older man"? He's younger than me. Thank you very much! :-) Too much sun. Too little sun screen.

I talked to this man and (pardon the late reply), recall being surprised at his great age -- a complete rarity among Ukrainian men (women, no, but men, absolutely).

He may be as old or older than you.

Certainly not as ornery, though.

Mazeltov.

bye bye

john

John (Crosley)

Great age? I was around in the 30s myself and if that is not old enough my father was around in the 80s -you know; the 80s before automobiles. :-)

I was around in the '40s, and I think actually a product of a V-J Day celebration.

I had figured you were around in the '30s, but I think this fellow also was, maybe earlier.  He is 'of greart age' and by definition, then, so are you, but having fewer hardships now than he, I would suppose, or at least a different sort. (not counting medical hardships, which for you I do not discount or denigrate.)

My grandparents (all I think) were from the '90s, and none was born when cars were in existence for sure.

john

John (Crosley)

Of "great age". Ice Age?  Cro Magnon?? I am not of "great age". I do not have a "simian line". I am just another senior citizen to whom people offer their seat on the train and bus. Not that it would make the picture better but I am corrious to know what style hat he wears. Could be he still wears his WWII war helment?? joke.