'Smoker Gulag'

Stalin and the Soviets sent 'state' enemies to the Gulags of Russia.

Lately, unpopular in the extreme, the USA now sends its smokers far

from buildings and public building pedestrian entrances and

ventilation windows as shown by this woman outcast seated on a red

plastic crate inside a truck delivery entrance. Your ratings, critiques

and observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate or

critique harshly or 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

If I had to caption this a second time, I'd choose 'The Outcast'.

Or perhaps a variation:  'Modern Outcast'.

This is entirely a 'candid' photo.

john

John (Crosley)

Hi John

Nice shot. Congratulations. Roldao

Thanks  Roldão.

I think in this simple shot, I have encapsulated a whole social change.

Really, this shot seems so simple; it even attempts at 'artfulness' with its spacing and its repetition of reds, yet through the signage (a hallmark of some of my work), the expression on the woman's face, her isolation, her sitting on a lowly plastic crate, the stains on the sidewalk/ramp leading into the truck delivery area below grade, (how low can one get?) one gets a great sense of the social isolation of today's smoker.

It's a far cry from the days of when I had to suffer from cigar smokers in elevators who seemed entirely unaware they were the problem and instead regaled in their stogies and wouldn't even hold them apart from other passengers in crowded elevators and we nonsmoking passengers (a minority) were held hostage.

Now even menthol cigarette smokers are ostracized and removed at least 25-50 feet from building entrances, windows and air intakes from buildings, when they are allowed to smoke at all near residential or commercial establishments, with the question in condominiums now whether they will be allowed to smoke in private units with 'common walls' because of smoke seepage through joints, infiltrating drywall and wood construction and otherwise traveling from a smoker's unit to a nonsmoker's unit, with concomitant health risks to nonsmoking neighbors or at least irritation for the susceptible or the unwilling second hand smokers.

Kudos to whoever coined the term 'second-hand smoker!' as I'm terribly susceptible to smoke in all its forms, including MJ smoke, alas.

Really, if you look at this, this is a photo of its times - it defines the times in its own very subtle, unexpected yet quasi-artful manner, I think, and thus is far greater for its message than a photo of a woman on a crate with a sour face which it may appear first to be.

john

John (Crosley)

"I think in this simple shot, I have encapsulated a whole social change."

True enough. ....For better or worse....

The other side of the coin is acceptance of tyranny of mass opinion. 

Nevertheless, an excellent visualization of the concept. Congrats on the photo.

At first there was no concept.

I only walked by and saw this woman sitting on a crate at my far left.

I purposely veered far to the left, and started walking down the ramp after setting my camera, back to her.

I wheeled around, knowing that on the deserted ramp after the first frame she would already have me under surveillance and at the appearance of a camera pointed her direction she would react.

And react she did; captured right here -- a look of irritation, surprise or bewilderment, perhaps at being caught in the ignominy of being forced to practice her habit which once was allowed in offices, elevators, hospitals and everywhere else, now only in such places as freight entrances (here) to a neighborhood shopping complex.

I had no 'concept'.  I didn't even know she was smoking.  I did spy the colors 'red' on the sign, the crate and eventually the alarm or signal above her, and that helped dictate the framing.

This is a one-off shot where the 'meaning' was not realized until later, and its importance was not realized until it was posted.

I think many who view it will not realize its singularity -- I think highly of it -- far higher than the ratings, in part for its artistry (placement of the three objects in relation to the ramp and the entrance which tell the story, the placement of the three red objects, and the look on the smoking woman's face.

One could not have ordered or directed a better photo, in my opinion, and this is the reason I stumble around with my camera(s) always at the ready, knowing that every once in a while, I'll take a photo that is symbolic of the times.

This is one, I think, (for better or worse, Wayne).

As an allergic child and young adult, I never dared wish or dream that smokers would be exiled like they are now, and this is my dream, but I take no delight in it; I lost many relatives through early and horrible deaths through smoking-related diseases.

Everybody smoked when I was younger (except me).  Even doctors, or so the fraudulent Tobacco Institute would have had us believe.

I had a former wife who was a major player for the giant Tobacco Settlement, and for her part in that I proud of what she did, though the states just took that money and used it for their General Funds rather than using all funds to cut down smoking or help those afflicted by tobacco-related diseases.

The tobacco companies now are raping the underdeveloped world; a carton of cigarettes as a gift is obligatory when going to a business meeting in China, which has over a billion residents.  

This is the US, but in much of the rest of the world, people are still being killed early by Big Tobacco -- they've just written off the US (and this woman to her ignominy).

I have found myself capturing in one frame the symbol of this world historical change in social mores for the US and Western world, and I'm delighted.

Regrettably, it's only a photo and won't stop tobacco-related deaths elsewhere in the world or even here.

Thanks for letting me know your opinion, Wayne.

I stumbled onto something here, unknowingly, and was swift enough to capture it, then later figure out its significance.

This is a photo that had to be posted.

It's one of my 'most significant' social captures ever (my view of course, and growing with each day).

john

John (Crosley)

I forgot to thank you for your congratulations on this photo; please pardon me for my oversight - I am most indebted to you for your comment.

john

John (Crosley)