ViolentorY (175)

A Photo from the Concert of the Experimental Metal Band ViolentorY -

24.04.13. RockIT, Sofia

Good energy in the photo and the workmanship and concentration of the foreground guy against the frazzled and electrified background fellow tells a good tale. The strong highlighting, especially on the wild hair of the guy behind, works expressively and the hand and fingers in the foreground are strong. The abrupt crop on the left is just jarring enough to put me on edge, as is are the blown highlights in the foreground guy's hair and upper arm. A loose and creative photo that intimates personality.

Nice photo man, i love the black and white, ive been wanting to get some photos like this myself. So sick, nice job.

Good intensity in the faces

If it hadn't been for the caption, I would not have known for sure what was occurring in this photo.  I initially thought the guy in the foreground was concentrating on a woodworking project.

Stephen, when I first looked at the photo, I was taken by the concentration, energy, and expressiveness and didn't think too much about the "what" question. When I allowed my eyes to wander around the frame, I did notice the piano keys under his forearm and, perhaps because I play the piano myself, immediately recognized the positioning of his hand and fingers as those of a musician. I'm not sure how to read your comment. Are you disappointed because the photo didn't tell you immediately what was going on? I often like a bit of ambiguity as to what is "really" going on in a photo, which didn't happen for me here, though I can understand why it would for others, since much of the "what is this?" is answered quite subtly. So, even if it took the caption to know the "reality" of what I was looking at, I'd consider the caption a good accompaniment, as opposed, say, to a caption that told me how to feel or what emotion was present. A lot of photos, even good documentary work, don't easily communicate visually exactly what's going on. That's why captions and accompanying text can be so useful and enriching in many cases, IMO.

Fred, you make a good point, and I think it gets down to basic traits that differ among people.  In some cases I don't mind a degree of ambiguity in a photograph, and at some point it becomes an abstract that is interesting or attractive because of patterns, textures, or some other feature even without knowing what the underlying object is.  But when a person is obviously and intently engaged in an activity, I want to know what that activity is, and if ambiguity is present, I need to deal with that ambiguity before I can appreciate the intensity or other attributes of the photograph.  I think that's where we differ.  I didn't see the keyboard immediately, but even if I had, I'm not sure that would have been enough to answer my questions.  I wasn't sure if the figure in the background was a real person versus a sculpture or other created figure.  That was just more ambiguity for me.

My background is in the sciences rather than the arts, and when I want to know what's going on, or when I want to categorize a photograph, I think that part of my background and the way that I just naturally think and interact with the world is showing through.  

I like these kinds of exchanges because they enable me to look at a photograph through the eyes of another person, someone who often approaches a photograph or who has different expectations of a photograph that differ from my own approach and expectations.  After reading comments like yours, I sit back and look at the photograph again, and I can more clearly define and understand my own way of seeing the world.  I can also more fully appreciate that my way of interacting with a photograph is not the only way, and I like to be able to put my natural inclinations in context with a larger universe of how people see photography.  My only regrets are that these dialogues now typically last only a day and fewer people participate.

Stephen, thanks for the response. Agreed that hearing others' responses to photos is very helpful. It helps me both to understand how other viewers see things and to open up my own way of viewing to new possibilities. And I agree that the Photo of the Day discussions are often wanting in terms of back and forth, which is why I appreciate your following up here.

I find the the placement of the in-focus and out-of-focus areas a little jarring. Not sure if it works. I do agree that there's an interesting intensity to both subjects' faces.