'The Joy of Living'

People react differently to knowledge they have been, will be, or are

in the process of being photographed. Look at the expressions on

these two men faces, friends, during the middle of a work break,as

you decide whether they like being photogrpahed and how much it

afford them a break in the monotony of their work installing tile in a

Metro entrance as part of a large remodel project. If you wonder

how close these men are to each other, just look at which one owns

the arm, left foreground. . . . Your ratings, critiques and observations

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

This photo is dedicated to Svetlana Korolyova and her family, a fellow Photo.net member and whose kind spirit and generosity gave me the freedom to be able to take this photo.

Svetlana is a superb photographer in a variety of genres including 'street' as well as nudes and other genres at which she excels; her work to my mind is gallery worthy, and it is my hope that a gallery 'finds' her and exhibits her work, as it is worthy, and so is she.

Svetlana is a fellow PN member and colleague, nothing more, and photographs primarily in Kyiv.

I am of the honest opinon that her work is both original and superb.

john

John (Crosley)

Your critique with three observations in one sentence is a masterpiece of brevity; I'm glad you were able to find three good things to say about this photo, I knew when I took it it was one of my recent best.

I'm glad you like it; I do too.

john

John (Crosley)

John, I like the inclusion of the men in the background as well. Their on-looking presence speaks to the comradary that often exists between coworkers. This photo captures that feeling beautifully. Congratulations on another great street photo.

Amy

Sometimes in 'street' you as photographer know from the instant you take a photo you've got a winner, and can't wait to post.  Other times it takes high (or low) rates to pound in your head that what you have is different than what you thought you had.  It's live and learn in the ratings world.

This one I'm very proud of; the expression to me is priceless -- a total keeper and a kind of spontaneity, with those background workers helping.

Sometimes for those hundreds of spoils, it all falls into place -- you just have to 'be there' (like Bubba Gump?) and keep pushing that shutter.

In fact, if one looks over my career, it kind of measures major trends of the 20th and early 21st century, and some is shown photographically, starting with the assassinations of King and Kennedy (Bobby), which I captured (reaction).

But it's shots like this with 'no one famous' for which I'm most proud . . . . where no one paid me and I just walked around and 'made' a photo from nothing but my chutzpah and some enterprise and a very inexpensive camera and kit lens.

Thanks for the recognition.  Total cost of the outfit that took this photo -- less than $500, and despite flaws and some difficulty for 'street' it takes great photos, and I've learned to overcome idiosyncrasies, like a concert pianist who must give a recital on a piano with keys that stick.  It all works out in the end.  You don't need a gazillion dollar camera to make serious work -- though it does affect how those in the street react to you if they see obvious 'pro' equipment, as opposed to a more 'touristy' camera, as this one.

Best to you, Amy; thanks for commenting.

john

John (Crosley)

This photo is diffent than many, and because of that and largely because of the unique expressions -- with their infectiousness -- I'd place it in any exhibion of the 'best of the best' of the 'Work of John Crosley'.

And it's recent -- taken last week, and just waiting for Internet access, (previously all fouled up) for a chance to post.

I've tons of photos to post; keep watching.

I don't know what to do with them all; I'm 'in the groove'.

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you very much for your kind words for me!

Very good emotions are in this shot! Interesting characters!

Life is complicated, but the time for joy should always be.

Svetlana.

John, out of all the images in the critique forum at present this one caught my eye. But not so much for what we can see but what we can't see. This is only my observation and may not be a true representation of what is going on but here goes.

The worker at the front seems overjoyed to be having his photo taken and is seemingly unaware to what is going on behind. The two guys on the right seem to be amused by something the left hand guy could be doing with his left hand or I would expect them to be looking at the camera. I am thinking this because the guy on the left is focused on his work mate and not the photographer, there is also a sense of movement to the left hand guy which suggests he did something spontaneous. 

Whatever the interpretation this is a stunning image showing great friendship between the group, presented with superb lighting and contrast.

Very well done John, this one goes straight in my favourites.

Very best regards

Gareth.

On words of praise for Svetlana's work.

It is obvious that Svetlana has done something that has affected my life in a kind and good way, which I will not reveal.

However, my opinions about her work are not for sale, even for a kind and even life-affecting favor.

I was not asked to write what I wrote; in fact it is basically a synopsis of what I told her when I first met her within the last month or so.  Her art sometimes is 'world class' and deserves gallery exposition, and she needed guidance, some of which I offered to help her with through sharing what a mentor, a gallery expert, taught me in nightly dinner-table seminars.  I will do that when she has done her preliminary work.

So, words of praise for her work came from my heart and not as any sort of payback, and saying so publicly right now was an opportune time, but it would have appeared in her portfolio or some other forum sooner or later.  It just happened to be here, now.

No need to invent things or 'gild the lilly'; people who know me and my writing, know I have a good reputation for truth telling and although I may flatter from time to time, all flattery from me is well deserved -- never any false praise.  (it's safer just to keep quiet than suffer the humiliation of being known as a sycophant ;~)) ) 

john

John (Crosley)

(Her 'family' also well deserves praise not only for backing her artistic/photographic endeavours but also for the favor done for me, but as she wishes to remain mostly anonomous in her personal life, I do not describe the nature of her 'family' in any way.)

I thoughly examined this photo, examined the term 'lighthanded' which in the French is the word legerdemain, and explored in a draft comment how you may have suspected the left man was perhaps engaged in some trickery on the right, smiling guy.

In fact, they were engaged in a sort of good-spirited rivalry, and after analyzing that in the draft comment, I've shortened it to a more conclusory response (it got too long).

They were horsing around for the camera, and the right guy with the smile wanted more to have his photo taken and the left guy, as a friend and sort of friendly antagonist wanted a little to interfere and also have his interference memorialized as part of the photographic process, so he put his hands and arms around his friend, and as I encouraged them by taking photos, their relationship changed, and this was absolutely the most engaging, because of the right guy's smile.

I had stopped them by taking a photo or two as they lay tile on walls of a Metro entrance, to pretty up Kyiv for the UAEFA (federation of football = World Cup Soccer) finals to be held in Kyiv, and also in other Ukrainian cities (two) and also split with Krakow and Warsaw in neighboring Poland -- the world's biggest sporting event, and split between two countries as a lure to draw Ukraine to the Western influence and also to encourage Ukraine to want to side with the West and not with Russia.

These guys were prettying up a pretty worn out Metro entrance by quickly replacing old, square tiles with newer wall tiles, though ones not of such high quality, while paving crews literally were racing and repaving a 10-lane freeway (Ukraine's second freeway) which leads from the Kyiv airport to Kyiv city center -- a huge thoroughfare.

And, as the foreman kept telling me, it was 'Euro', which I supposed meant they were being paid in euros (a tricky thing today, I woud have guessed since the Euro is in danger of falling out of bed), but what he really meant was they were using European methods (and American equipment including aged Caterpiller 'steam' (minus the steam) rollers, to flatten the newly laid asphaltic concrete they laid, hundreds of meters at a go, though to my trained eye the 'modern' equipment' looked pretty aged and the labor crew was huge, AND mostly Turkish, (and hard-working).

So, these men were part of that effort but worked alone and apart. (I have eery, ghost-like photos of the paving crews too, and they look like they were taken from hell, with the smoke and steam from fresh-laid asphalt being smoothed, raked and rolled in the late-afternoon winter-like sun hiding behind clouds.)

My photographing provided a chance for these guys to take a break - they were delighted to be subject of photographs, and what they saw from the early 'portraits' encouraged them onward and to 'compete' a little in a friendly manner.

[i always ask someone if they want a 'portrait' taken and introduce myself as a photographer or artist of portrait photography, and never ask them for a photo, but for a 'portrait' which gives the taking of the photo more gravitas. 

(People will more willingly let you take their PORTRAIT when they wouldn't for a fracton of a second allow you to take a posed photo.  That's the magic of using the right word.  "Portrait' please," I'll say, and the answer sometimes is 'yes' but 'photo please?' and the answer almost universally is NYET!.

It's just words but magic words.

So, here these guys were not just giving me their portraits but they were offering me an inside look into their sympathetically antagonistically friendly relationship, shown through their amiable horseplay, as the guy, left, tried to get his own 'face time' in the photo at the expense of the guy, right, and in the process, I captured their  PLAYFULLY ANTAGONISTIC AND HAPPY INTERACTION that brought about the above expression.

This is not just a photo about a smile, but about a playful, antatonistic interaction being captured and memorialized -- a rare capture indeed.

Thanks for spurring me to write this and to now understand more fully why this photo 'works' other than that the guy, right, has a world class engaging smile.

I now know how to explain WHY it works and why the smile is so well received, I think.  It's not just a 'smile'; it's a 'relationship captured and a rare one at that.

I hope the above explanation works for you -- it seems harmonious to me.

Thanks for a very helpful comment.

john

John (Crosley)

marvelous capture - you're right about the relationship. And: I love how the joy of the two guys in foreground "ripples" through the photo by being echoed by the other two guys watching the scene.

Good hint about asking for a "Portrait" - will try that :-)

And: agree to your praise of Svetlana's work!

cheers, Wolfgang

Sometimes I feel I've been WAY too self-indulgent or carried away when writing about something like the capture of the men's relationship above, then along comes a clearly understanding posted by a member like you who obviously read, understood and accepted the whole analysis and somehow I feel vindicated -- this is the ultimate in sharing -- I guess more on the level of a Master's Class in photo analysis than in onanism (look that one up), as I think a few members believe I am sometimes engaged in. ;~))

But a capture like this can be a worthwhile venture, and I've been posting a few good ones, and high raters, after trying out some lower rating but personally rewarding (and possibly self-indulgent) captures.

I'm also glad you think the same of Svetlana's work; my praise of her was something I felt like doing publicly, as I told it to her in private, but her work, at its best really is world class or nearly so, and she needs direction, as she works alone and is driven, much as I am, and it's hard to make a dent for a native Ukrainian in the 'art' world with no guidance and little outlet with no influence and no 'connections' unless one is sleeping with someone important, and that is definitely NOT in Svetlana's game plan or ever would be.

Thanks for helping boost my ego and vindicating the very long time it takes to write these things and make my analyses, even though I do write like the wind when I do write.

Best to you, and thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

The only way you ever understand this image, if you ever lived close to this kinda people. A simple people, in a pure life, bus still has a time for smile and happiness. Excellent image, captured from real life, nothing artificial. Bravo,  John.

Cheers.

Bela

Bell L. M., it's a thrill once again just to have a reason to view your wonderful portfolio - perhaps one of of the best -- perhaps even THE best on all of Photo.net, though there are oranges and apples to compare in many instances.

However one slices it, your photography excels and, is, as you state it, ART with capitals.

So it's also a thrill when an accomplished artist like yourself says 'I approve' to my effort at capturing a simple moment in time and putting it in box called a camera, saving it, and then disseminating it around the world for all to see, AND with your approval (BRAVO = I approve).

Thanks, ever so much, from a big fan of your work for which I might add my own BRAVO with big thanks for stopping by to add a well-thought-out comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Well done John, I feel like I am part of the scene.

You've come to the right place.

Here the viewer generally is king.

I take my photos with the viewer in mind and ultimately both to please myself and the viewer (or some part of my substantial number of viewers, as there is a wide range of viewers and tastes).

A few photos, like this one, seem to appeal universally. 

Keep looking, if you will, among my 1850 others, and maybe you'll find more that appeal to you similarly, if you feel you care to look.  You're very welcome to.

This folder and entire portfolio, you see, were created to be seen by an audience, although a highly disparate one, as I shoot in many genres, sub genres and styles, and so not every photo will appear to every viewer, even if it's my 'best' for that genre, sub genre, or style.

I hope to find my photos 'clicking' with some part of my audience's intelligence and/or emotions (or both), and here I think I have connected on an emotional level not only with you but with others, and with time, more will follow, as the expression here seems priceless, and as noted above, I've not just captured an 'expression' but an entire social structure of two men being good naturedly antagonistic in their own playful way as they strive for competition with the camera, each in their own way, and each, therefore, shows his own individuality in his actions.

So, I invite further scrutiny among the 1850 brothers, sisters and children of this photo, and maybe you'll find more you like, if you find the time, the energy, and the desire.

Tens of millions of online clicks confirm that millions of others peviously have made the trek.

And more every day, much to my everlasting surprise, and also creating a need for me to make new and better photos with each passing day, even hour.

Thanks, Matthew, for stopping by, showing your approval and letting me know that.

john

John (Crosley)

John, sorry, it has taken me too long to post this reply.

Thank you for lengthy explanation it has totally put this image into context and makes it far easier to really understand the relationship between these friends.

I thought for a while as to why these friends were here at this point in time and in such good spirits. I concluded that had it not been for the politics of international football then this wonderful image may not be here for us all to share.

So at least I can thank politics and football for something!

Very best regards to you John, please keep up the good work.

Gareth.

Thanks.

Don't be a stranger.

Even if a photo that strikes you is years old, I'll find your comment if you choose to comment.  New comments are highlighted for me, and I almost always find them.

Take your time, but if you wish, please return from time to time and enjoy!

john

John (Crosley)

I wasn't aware I was being a stranger, I will keep looking through your images and comment on any I find interesting. It can work the other way too, please feel free to comment on any of my images. I need all the help I can get!

Regards

Gareth.

Great shot, John. Contagious smiles.

Thanks very much for your kind evaluation of the expressions here.

I enjoyed them both very much and hoped to capture just what you commented on; it looks like I succeeded based on your comment.

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley)

A further thought that may be of interest to 'street photographers' on this site and elsewhere.

I was browsing the Internet the other day and came across a FLICKR.com rule or at least a strong suggestion for their group 'Hard Core Street Photography' (spelling?). 

One 'rule' or guideline was that the subjects were supposed to be 'unaware' of being photographed.

I looked at that, and was very disappointed and somewhat confused.

I had considered joining the group just to enjoy the company and work of like minded photographers, but found the rule confounding.

Another similar and confounding 'rule' and/or strong suggestion that might lead to 'deletion' of photographic submissions by moderators was that a 'street' photo had to actually be taken on or about a street or there be one nearby (probably inferred from the photo).

Now I've been taking photos since 1968 when I bought my first camera, and my first photo preserved on this site that is of interest from my first roll of film is three men on a ferry boat.

It has its own folder here on this site; please have a look.

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=995095

 Each subject is a ferry passenger.

They are unaware of being photographed (one is sleeping and two are inattentive to me) so score one of two for the 'hard core' rules, but there's not a street for thousands of yards, as we're in the middle of New York Harbor and at night.

When I first bought a camera, I never had heard the term 'street' photography.

I first hard the term when I joined this site in 2004.

I was in 1968 hanging around photographers, had access to the New York Times photo department and similarly to the New York Daily News, Time-Life, etc.

I also spent some time at Associated Press that year (just to get the brush-off).

In another year, after returning from Viet-Nam, AP and UPI each invited me to work for them as a photographer, and I went to Associated Press.

I had been (supposedly) free-lancing along with a bunch of other like-minded young men and some women first in Viet Nam then in the US around college campuses in ferment, and some with strikes and riots. I cut my teeth photographically in part on student takeovers, strikes and riots.

Many then did.

I had never then heard the word 'street photograph' uttered by anyone.

I met extremely briefly Henri Cartier-Bresson, the greatest 'street photographer' (and a great portraitist as well) who ever lived in my view.

Never once have I heard in many videos I've seen of the man from his later life, him use the word 'street' to describe his photos, nor have I seen others from more than ten years ago when videos and movies of the man were made (he died in 2004 at 94) was the term 'street' photo ever used to describe his work.

I imagine that at some time since I joined AP as a photographer and worked with them (I quit almost immediately and rejoned them as a writer after meeting Cartier-Bresson and seeing his great works), and the present, someone has coined the word 'street' to describe candid works.

But Cartier-Bresson's works were not always candid.  Sometimes, such as the man with the great, winning smile in Uvalde, Texas, who was framed in from of a gambling device commonly known as a 'pinboard' and on his left a Coca-Cola sign, the subject was perfectly aware of Cartier-Bresson's presence.

I have followed the same manner of photographing HCB did in much of my work.  

Sometimes the subject is aware of my presence, and at times has participated in the project, and at other times the subject never has been aware of my presence.  It all depends on the circumstance -- whether I feel safe and secure revealing my presence, whether the event is newsworthy, are police present or available if the subject turns hostile, is the subject drunk, on drugs, psychotic and dangerous (they are not always the same thing), and a host of other indicators of whether a situation is safe, not safe or care must be used.

Sometimes the captures do not speak well for the subject, so I don't want to be inveigled into showing digital captures to such subjects.  This was no problem in film days as everybody understood that they couldn't see 'film' captures, and if someone was afraid of what you shot or angry, they might try to strip your film - that's something police and/or criminals sometimes tried to do (and Germans too, as they have a preoccupation with the proclaimed right that doesn't exist to control who takes their photograph and I emphasize that it is NOT a right in German law, though they have some say on publication, and even German polizei often misunderstand that state of affairs to the photographer's detriment.  I had a German attorney/jurist research the law and also a fellow PN member who was quite learned undertake the same task.

In any case, nowhere except on the 'Hard Core Street' photography group 'rules' or 'guidelines' which if broken subject a submitted photo to deletion from the FLICKER.com group, do I find such restrictive definitions of 'street' photography, and I suggest that the definition they use is NOT universal by any means.

In any case, this is a case of a photo taken on a street (literally a sidewalk at the entrance to a Metro, but within spitting distance of Ukraine's largest highway -- a 10-lane affair in a country with only one major city-to-city freeway.

But you note these men are looking at me, and that's by design.

I contend that if I use the word 'street' which now has popular usage, but apparently NOT popular and universal meaning, that this is also a 'street photo' even though the men are obviously playfully fighting for my attention as potential photo subjects.

Literally in American idiom, they're 'horsing around', and the photo speaks a certain 'truth' far greater than most photos if one believes the critics who have written above.

So, why the stricture on that FLICKR.com group to anonymous captures and proximity to street?

I am left to ponder and have come up wanting, except perhaps speculate on this.

Somewhere, somehow at sometime probably in the last 20 years, someone has coined the term 'street photography'.

Whoever made the rules and/or 'strong suggestions that could lead to deletioon of a submitted photo for that group at FLICKR.com was a literalist.

They read the words 'street' and decided that was a definition of the type of photography they wanted in their group and to exclude all others.  Somehow they decided that subject must also be unaware of the captres being made. 

Consider the photo of Cartier-Bresson of the workers in front of piles of cotton.  They are posing for the camera, and the photo is a pure work of art.  Is that to be excluded from being a 'street photo' because of some arbitrary definition that was created apparently decades after the photo was taken, and taken by in my view the world's greatest master; and as Richard Avedon stated in a video, 'the father of us all' (photographers).

The workers to a one are staring at HCB's camera.  Flickr.com's Hard Care group would seem to exclude that capture from being called 'street' and it seems would consider it for deletion because not anonymous.

In effect, the FLICKR.com group are working with a subset of what I define as 'street'.  I bet I have more experience photographing that almost any one of them.

There is no doubt that Henri Cartier-Bresson took what today by the vast majority would be called 'street' photos.

A woman slapping hard a Nazi woman collaborator, was both filmed by Cartier-Bresson's documentary crew which followed the Allied (Western) forces as they moved through Europe and then documented the return of prisoners and displaced persons to their homes -- 'The Retour' or 'The Return', sponsored by the US government and the Allies, filmed with US equipment.

Cartier-Bresson was director but not videographer.  He used his trusty Leica to catch the woman slapper in mid-slap making for a memorable photo. Yes, it's documentary, but it's also street.

Both women were aware of being photographed as the event was widely attended and obviously being filmed, but he caught in his style a completely spontaneous event and isolated it, framing it wonderfully as was his manner.

I consider that not only documentary but street.

There was no proximity to a 'street' that one could discern, and both women were aware of photographers (including HCB) present and photographing.

I would consider the definition used by the FLICKR.com group a small subset of 'street' and personally feel that if it works for those people, that's fine, but it also feels just a little affected.

Similarly for many years when entry to the Leica Forum on this site was like entering a 'war zone' with serious sniping and snarking going on, it also felt affected a