'Tattoo Man Strikes Again' (Color Ed.)

Tattoos have been found on prehistoric man. This modern man,

covered by tattoos, he says, every square inch 'everywhere on my

body-- everywhere' draws a reaction as he stands, shirtless, on a

busy pedestrian street in South America. Your ratings, critiques and

comments are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very

critically, or wish to contribute a remark, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. (B&W Edition previously posted, but

this new workup of the color edition interests me greatly - how about

you?) (Raters: Please can you aside your personal feelings about

tattoos -- like 'em or not -- and rate this photo on its merits (which

include 'impact')? Thanks! Enjoy! john

I worked this up solely in black and white some time ago and then had difficulties in Photoshop showing the amazing colors of this man's body - so I passed it over for posting in color.

I found this in a review of prior captures, reworked it with modern plug-ins for maximum 'impact' and was literally knocked over by the result.  I could hardly believe I had not posted this as a color capture originally.

What do you think of my choice?

Please put aside your personal feelings about tattoos and the individuals who wear them, even those who feel compelled to turn their bodies into tattoo 'artworks' and please rate this photo on its merits - one part of aesthetics in evaluating 'street' work is 'impact' - something many raters often are surprised to learn

So, please put aside your personal feelings - or better yet perhaps -- judge how much this photo has impacted you and please judge accordingly.

Does this photo impact any part of you, intellectually or emotionally? 

If so, please let me know.

(it turns out this was a VERY nice guy, and while not mainstream, he presaged a movement that pervades America and certain social strata in Europe and elsewhere -- despite some 'social condemnation - -see photo for one honest reaction.)

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

Well seen and crafted immage, I particularly like how you have pulled out this man from the crowd, it is realy fascinating how others, not so far from focal point look like in other dimension..Excellent work John. Best regards vf  

Vladimir,

I worked this up in B&W some time ago, and it was 'interesting'.

I did not have good enough Photoshop skills then to do justice to it in color, so I inventoried it.

I recently worked it up, solved some underexposure issues, and did a proper job this time of sharpening.

WoW! 

This had exceeded my highest expecations -- a 'hidden gem' (and I have many, many more,  waiting).

Thanks for the analysis and endorsement.

Best regards.

john

John (Crosley)

But when he said every inch (or cm.) and after viewing all the visible parts of him, I did form a conclusion (which you can guess).  Ouch!

My dream is to find him again, get a plain backdrop, take my studio strobes.  and photograph him again, in a studio setting.  I have easily portable lights, and I think he would easily be located again, and also willing.  He's an extrovert about his 'art'.

Any bets?

Richard Avedon showed the way for the pure pose . plain background, no distractions; I think this guy would be perfect for such an approach.

john

John (Crosley)

Once again, a story of connections. Tattoo man looks at the viewer while the viewer is represented by the person looking at our hero.

Capturing him bang in the middle of the frame also means the viewer is confronted head on. Was the square format used for a reason, or just a result of close cropping?

I often wonder what sort of mindset people have....those who go through so much (pain) to decorate themselves. Is it just a form of self-expression to them, or much more? Is it liberating?

This man looks at the camera in a rather defiant way, as if saying "So you want to stare at me, right? Go ahead, for therein my victory."

Regards.

My most important task is to take interesting photos, but in the most artful way I can.  This is five years old, but the first it's ever been seen in color.  I just worked it up - and got my eyes opened.

I cropped much of the rest of the frame -- it was extraneous, and his being in the center is certainly intentional but not necessarily something that 'had to be'.

TIt was just necessary in the context of preserving the passerby's glare  in the best manner.

His look at us (and the everjudging passing crowd) surely has to be one of some defiance.  'I am me' and 'I'll be me', but he seemed devoid of rancor and was a most pleasant man (helpful too).

He was an evangelist for tattoos - he worked in a tattoo parlor.  If you're a shoe fetishist and love shoes, why not sell shoes, says famous psychologist Joy Browne.  Why not immerse yourself at work in what you love.

I am unclear if he actually DOES tattoos or just hangs around a particular shop -- I don't speak Spanish at all well, and Castillian (Castijan) Spanish is even harder for my Western ear, where all the Spanish I've ever heard came from migrant and immigrant Mexicans and middle Americans.

You certainly have to be sure of yourself and your 'art' or lifestyle (it's both I think) to take off your shirt in Buenos Aires' most thickly traversed pedestiran mall at the height of rush hour pedestrian traffic.

That has to require self assurance, and perhaps that's what I caught. 

Surely he's used to being condemned by others on a minute-by-minute basis, almost, but then praised by a few others -- tattoo and some 'art' aficionados.

I cannot be psychiatrist or psychologist for this man, but surely his thought processes are far different than mine. 

With his tattoos, he'd make a horrible street photographer -- at least of the genre I practice -- he could not 'fade into the background' as is sometimes required.

;~))

Thanks Samrat.  Your contributions are always welcome.

(I come by your work, though seldom comment, but notice that you're getting some lively discussions -- good for you. 

Your work is becoming more noteworthy, which is what the discussions and/or colloquy are all about.

john

John (Crosley)

That's a commitment!

'That's a commitment' without more confuses me.

At one time in Oregon, that meant a one-way trip 'Salem' where the State Mental Hospital was - the same place that was portrayed in my former neighbor Ken Kesey's fabulous book/movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' - a place where you went to be insane - and possbly die.

At least there was the possibility of frontal lobotomy and those terrifying electroshock treatments to leave you with a little Buzz, all adminstered by a fictional Nurse Ratched. 

Yes, that is in my culture - Ken Keyse did his research in Palo Alto, CA at the Veteran's Hospital, as I recall; and I've been there, too, and been (temporarily) inside a few 'Bedlams' before they modernized.

So, 'that's a commitment' sounds ominous. 

If you mean to photograph this guy, all it takse is a relatievly cheap stay in Argentina, to find him (easy I think) and to get his assent (also easy for me, I think, since I've given him favored publicity for five or six years now).

So, is it a commitnment to go to a modern-day Bedlam (Asylum), or a trip to Argentina?

Your comment leaves me unfulfilled (and a little anxious).

(I never was committed to a place like those, never WENT to 'Salem' except in the movies, but did visit (as an attorney or visiting doctors)to  a few Bedlam Asylum like places and was in with the very terrifying 'population' for short terms to visit those doctors, which I found personally very disturbing.

Not half as disturbing as those in the locked wards, though, with their strait jackets (restraints, as they're now called).

Next time, tell me more, OK?

john

John (Crosley)

;~))

Aha, or do you mean being tattooed like that is a 'commitment'?  of course.  jc

I'm glad you had a good rumage and pulled it out of your old shots.

i like the image for the subject matter (I like tattoos, but even so..) and the way it has been captured, the square format works nicely, the 'yeah, what?' pose, the wary/curious/judgmental eye of the onlooker. It all works nicely but it lacks a context - for me.

I know that the subject matter is possibly context enough but it feels like this is more of the shot in front of the plain canvas that you mentioned in an earlier post.

As a street capture I would perhaps like to get a feel for the bustling street he is standing in, which i only really know about because i read the posts. You mention he is overt and it sounds like he is very comfortable in his surroundings but I'm left wondering what they are (never having been to south america) and don't get a sense of that confidence(*).

Picky possibly, but that is what originally struck me.

All the best. Rob.

(*) the confidence within his surroundings as opposed to his self confidence showing himself off (if that make sense)

I was thinking first, how would this one look if converted to b&w..but then I read your comments and you had tried it already. It's a good street photo.

This is very unusual and interesting shot! And in a color version of the picture tattoo show at its best.

There is a small folder in my portfolio devoted to photos of this guy.

Perhaps you should scroll down to that, view some of the crowd photos and then perhaps you will see what you are looking for.

A crop for this photo resulted in the strongest photo possible; just not YOUR photo, and of course, I was not unaware of the crowd(s), and I think your trip to his 'folder' (Tattoo Guy) will be well rewarded. 

As to his feeling 'comfortable', I think he's comfortable within his own skin, but how can one truly be comfortable around others when one is regarded by so many of them as  'freak' or 'freakish' because of your bodily adornment.  He HAS to be comfortable within his own choices, but as to the rest of society, I feel he probably has to be a bit defiant -- someone who goes 'against the grain' and cannot help but do so driven by some (unknown) inner compulsion for self-expression.

Interesting comment.

john

John (Crosley)

You know how tattoos as they age gradually seep through the skin and 'bleed' to use a strange term -- they become more indistinct at the edges?

That also applied to this guy, and the power of this photo (which I think he'd approve) is partly the result of contrast adjustment and some substantial sharpening to help overcome the 'bleed' of the tattoos with his skin.

More than how he actually looked, this is how I think he WANTS to look, with tattoos with sharp edges, and 'bleed from the inks minimized -- looking as though all his tattoos were brand new. 

(Maybe I'm wrong, but who knows.  A clown in Buenos Aires I photographed has put my photo(s) of his on the web prominently, and maybe this fellow is watching too?  He could set us straight or not.  Believe it or not, my subjects occasionally contribute to 'set us straight' about our suppositions.

I make sure they know who I am, and how to find their photos when I work with cooperation, as here.

Thanks for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

A little contrast adjustment here, a little sharpening there, and the guy looks better than 'brand new', I think. I have brought out the colors here especially well, and I'm sure he'd be proud.

I'd like to do a wall poster of him for the tattoo crowd -- next time I'm in Buenos Aires I'll search him out, I think.  He should not be hard to find if he's still there.

Thanks for your appropriate comment.  It is well received.

john

John (Crosley)

John,

My comment about commitment is more about going "all in" with his choice for skin decorations.  I think once you go beyond the simple heart tattoo or snake to covering your entire body and face, then that's a "commitment " to a lifestyle.  There's going back, can you imagine your daughter bring him home to meet the parents, or find out your son was going to tattoo his face?  There might be some sort of an intervention that follows.  This is a commitment it's a life decision that hard to come back from, that's what I meant by my comment.  I know the reference to the movie and I think that'e an entirely different commitment.  The Nicholson charactor was commited, as in that was something that was imposed on him, he had no involvement in the decision that lead to his commitment.  Although, I think he was somewhat manipulative and got himself out of a more serious commitment (ie prison) to be in the place where the electro-shock treatments (and in the end more perminant solutions) were administer.

This commitment is about free will and one's own decisions.

Your comment was so obvious to others I think, in context, but for me so much had intervened that I simply lost track that you were commenting on this guy and his 'commitment' to being tattooed in the particular way and manner he was (over every square inch/centimeter of his body).

I was just a little dunderheaded when I authored my remark, but it was interesting enough when I ended and finally discovered in my own dunderheaded way you meant this guy was 'committed to as lifestyle from which there was no turning back, so I left the entire remark.

I think remarks can be interesting sometime, and I thought that was readable enough so why waste the effort?  Just put the realization at the end that I finally understood your point, but was sooooo slow about getting it.

My apologies, about being so slow, but I hope someone (perhaps you?) enjoyed reading about 'commitment' and somehow it made you or others think about the term (as it did me).

I think you did - your comment seems based on it.

Sorry to have taken you all the way around Robin Hood's barn, when I didn't get your point immediately, but that's how I am sometime. At least I can admit it!

Best to you and thanks for the nice followup.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

I didn't think it was "dunderheaded", I found your interpretation interesting and it did give me some pause.  A lot of times I do drop simple comments and I forget that, like the photos, the comments can be open to interpretation.  When it's a simple comment of just a few words then it can be taken in a way that misses the intent.  I will try to be more complete in my comments because I think that's more helpful than leaving it openended.  Maybe I was being "dunderheaded" by not completing the thought but I appreciate the exchange because I did learn something from it.

All the best,

Bob

I get many compliments on my writing, but have a few detractors who say I write too much.  Many, like you, write very simple, short declarative sentences, but all too often what they write is capable of multiple interpretations or may even be unreadable, or even possibly stand for points opposite of what they think they are making, without their realizing it.

I'm a very careful reader as well as writer (my spell check program won't re-install, however).

When I'm writing well, I often write at length because I can spot the potential ambiguities in what I'm writing and the potential counter-arguments, then address all that at the start, so my exposition commonly is much more complete than most posters here.

That has its rewards -- I get some of the most wonderful comments and commentaries as well as colloquies on this whole service, I think, though I haven't researched the issue fully.  In any case, mostly it's a lot of fun, and I type like the blazes (and think mostly a lot faster than that, too, so it's not a lot of blood and sweat or like pulling teeth to write a long post. I hope also they're interesting to those who do choose to read them; some spend days and weeks doing so.

Getting a reply  from a writer/reader/viewer like you with such a nice comment is its own best reward -- and for every detractor (no one forces them to read these things), there are 5 to 10 people who compliment.

I often get approached by readers who say they'd buy a book of what I write here, if I'd make it into a compendium - 'essays by John' or some such. 

Amazon now has a wonderful self-publishing program that allows marketing any manuscripts as books, as well as photo book publishing,  plus video and MP3s as well, and Amazon may choose to promote the work they publish as well.  Jeff Bezos, their founder is a world class seminal thinker (or he hires the best and listens to them.)

I'm looking into self e-publishing as opposed to traditional hard copy publishing which may be mostly dead as vinyl in five or ten years (maybe  sooner).

Kindle or I-Pad? 

What's your reader of choice?

Thanks for a kind, generous and good-hearted comment.

john

John (Crosley)

I think the iPad is my choice, it's on my wish list and I'm probably going to get one soon.

I do appreciate the exchanges on this site.  I think that's what gives it its power.  The best way to learn is with these excahnes.  I learned something from it and I appreciate your indulgence.

Bob

No indulgence involved.

It's intellectual exchange often of a high order, and part of the power here comes from exchanging ideas, not just the photos.

In my world, very often photos are the product of ideas, or the reverse, or both are at work at once, and often I am not even very aware of the process unless and until there is an exchange of comments (colloquy) in this 'comments' section under the photo.

Good comments have taught me so much; I'm so thankful, especially for viewers/commenters like you and the excellent feedback I so often get.

In some ways, this section of my photos is like a semi-exclusive salon, but anybody in the world who can join Photo.net is invited to join and participate, and so long as they do not misbehave, they're welcome.

john

John (Crosley)