Jump to content
© © 2012, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All Rights Reserved, No reproduction or other use without express prior written consent of copyright holder

johncrosley

Artist: © 2012; John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All Rights Reserved, No Reproduction Without Prior Express Written Permission of Copyright Holder;Software: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows;Nikkor 70~200 f2.8 at 1/15th sec.wide open D3S.

Copyright

© © 2012, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All Rights Reserved, No reproduction or other use without express prior written consent of copyright holder
  • Like 1

From the category:

Street

· 124,943 images
  • 124,943 images
  • 442,913 image comments


Recommended Comments

There is a saying 'Behind Every Successful Man, there is a woman', and

this photo seems to illustrate that saying. Your ratings, critiques

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

very critically, or wish to make a remark, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

Link to comment

Good capture of the intense concentration of this man on whatever his eyes are set on.Not sure that the saying applies to this situation,but the woman with that explosive smile is a fantastic background and does make that excellent image.You have a good eye.Bravo!

Meilleures salutations-Laurent

Link to comment

Belongs in an art gallery. The juxtaposition, your presentation of it, works outstandingly for me. The pencil, where its sharpened, is (in my singular opinion) the only possible blemish - too bright. [The clip of the ear is not an issue for me.]

Link to comment

I'm not so sure how the caption (title) ties in either, but on this service you have to name them something, or give them some nonsense numbers, such as _DSC-5600123 or something like that, so I chose something rather than nothing.

But sometimes you might find my captions pretty good; I once wrote captions for a living for Associated Press (at least part of my living -- another part was editing photos, dealing with photographers, choosing which photos to send to which continent, giving airbrush (retouch) instructions (never anything deleted or changed, just technical fixes from faulty equipment or exposure), and finally representing the photo department to the rest of AP for the daily news planning (wasn't in my job title either, and at 24 I was youngest man by decades to do the job).

But that was long ago; this is 'just for fun' until someone decides to pay me some money for these. (I quit a job as photographer for AP when I met Cartier-Bresson shortly after being hired, and compared my work -- pretty good and comparable I was told by a friend of his -- to the mammoth museum exhibition he was touring the world and had stopped in San Francisco with.

I just quit photography as a serious pursuit.

Good choice, too.

I never could have held a candle to him; nobody could, however -- a thought that I didn't consider -- it was just I vs. the old guy whose name meant nothing to me who had these FABULOUS photos that I saw on exhibition there after I met that older French photographer and shook his hand at the De Young Museum front door, not having the slightest idea who he was or about his reputation. I was a true innocent.

This, now, is just for fun.

Thanks for the fine compliment, it's all I get for posting almost a couple of thousand of these, but it's my bargain. 

Nobody would pay me the true worth of these, I think.  (But they're welcome to contact me if they will!)

john

John (Crosley)

Link to comment

I had an internationally renowned mentor who promised me the world of art galleries and museums ('of the highest level' he said), and one call from him could have opened doors few even knew could be opened, and I saw that was true.

He promised the highest possible introduction to me with his blessing and for nothing more than the sheer delight of introducing what he said was my 'fabulous work' to the world of galleries and museums.

I hardly believed such high praise; in fact I had to cogitate on it for a very long time.

'Too bad' he told me recently, he was disabled and out of the photo business now.  He no longer was willing to help, but mainly for other reasons; the phone call(s) were easy enough to make, and he still could have done them, but now he just didn't feel like it.

I had angered him.

'Timing is everything,' said this Lucie Award winner, whose mere call would have opened up gallery and museum doors otherwise closed to me and everyone else.

He had wanted somehow to control my life, to make me give up my closest loved one, move to Los Angeles, and also give up shooting photographs to concentrate solely on entering the gallery/museum business.

He's a devil of a guy, smart as a whip, extraordinarily well-connected, charming as all get out, with severe faults which are well known to almost all, and I won't enumerate.

However, his ART and PHOTO judgment is highly respected internationally, and he could have done what he promised, but now 'he's changed his mind'.

'How would you like a show at the the Whitney [museum]? he taunted me, recently in an e-mail.  'I'll make a few calls . . . '.  

But he didn't intend to; he just meant to taunt me, I now understand. 

And he easily could have, but I had not kowtowed enough; that angered him.   I had not taken his instructions on how to live my life according to his directions.

I didn't, as instructed by him, (1) Give up shooting ('you have too many fabulous photos already', he told me three years ago) (2) did not give up my devotion to my closest loved one, and (3) move LA as directed.

LA's only a plane flight away from anywhere, and I always had frequent flyer miles to make any necessary trip.

I've taken hundreds of thousands of good and some GREAT photos in the meantime that would never have been created. 

These are my priceless golden years of creation, and I was not about to give them up.

I guess that's life.

I'm paying the price in lost fame.

I chose to shoot.

I chose to be true to a loved one.

I chose to shoot primarily in Ukraine because the shooting's pretty darn good for 'street', though I was regularly in the USA and still live there -- it's only a day's flight away when I'm in Ukraine, and then I had enough frequent flyer miles, I could have made the flight at any time.

I guess that killed my gallery career, at least through this once valuable but once seemingly well-intentioned mentor.

He had touted me to friends as 'family'; a close, loved one.  We had gone to gallery openings together with me in role of acolyte, but getting known.

But he also once threatened in an e-mall to throw my entire photo collection out on the street corner for the garbage collector to carry away, and he truly meant it and would absolutely have done it.  I drove over 1,200 miles overnight and the following day to retrieve them, a fact I never told him.

I got a 'divorce' from him when I found out his latest intentions; no erstwhile 'family member' will string me on for three years then leave me dry, like that. I prefer the company of people who keep their promises and who are stable.

His parting gift when I informed him that I would not communicate any longer was to write poison pen letters to at least one famous gallery owner to 'poison' my career.

Well, life's life.

Life goes on.

I'd like to see other photos than this in a gallery.

If this mentor wasn't lying, they deserve it.

He told one of the world's finest gallerists in my presence my work was fabulous.  (same gallery owner)

You can guess and look to see which ones I'd like to exhibit - classics for sure, from over 40 years ago included, and right up to the present.  

I'd be interested in seeing your choices if you ever have the time or interest at any time, but entirely voluntary and only if you are truly moved to do so; otherwise just consider it a thought, nothing more.  I don't give assignments to commenters.

(By the way, in those 40 years since I met Cartier-Bresson and gave up my AP photographer's job, I've I lived several other lives, and I'm once again back to photography.  I guess it was my true love; if I hadn't happened across HCB, I might have stayed with photography, maybe for a lifetime including all of those decades I was engaged in other pursuits and just minimal photography.)

Thank you for your very high compliment Rajat, for that I am most grateful, especially because it's unsolicited. 

I value that very much and am more grateful than you can know.

john

John (Crosley)

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...