'The Protester' (Ukraine) (Best Viewed Large)

One of a vast array of tents which have sprung up in the center of

Kyiv, Ukraine housing a veritable army of pro-Western citizen

protestors who have occupied the city center of that city of millions

forms the simple backdrop for this citizen protestor shown wearing a

balaclava, a home-modified head mask, to ensure he cannot be

readily identified in case the three-month-long Pro-EU protest fails

and there are reprisals. The dispute which has crippled Ukraine's

government is whether Ukraine should continue its new alliance with

Russia or ally itself with the EU. ( I take no sides in this dispute, and

am a photographer only) Your ratings, critiques and observations

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

wish to make an observation, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! john

This photo continues an intermittent long theme of mine:  threes.

john

John (Crosley)

god ideal and portrait .

Expressive eyes! I see in these eyes, not only fatigue, but also resoluteness to stand up to the victory.

I think you mean 'good idea and portrait' with spelling corrections if I am not mistaken.

I view it as one of my best.

I have another one or two to come, but this strikes me as incredibly simple, yet very, very strong.

I'm proud of it.

Thanks for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Yes, the photo really is all about the eyes (and the composition).

I missed all the most interesting stuff, but am making up for lost time a little bit, though injured in an auto/pedestrian collision in the US and can barely walk.

Still I can get around every few days now, if I rest lots, now it's been almost a month.

This took just about three seconds to take, and just look at what I saw through the lens!

I had to record it -- weary though he was at standing still for me -- he had better things to do, like trying to do what I am sure he felt was his patriotic duty, instead of posing.  (I am neutral, as an outsider should be).

Best to you.

john

John (Crosley)

If you double click, you get the original 'large' version that was uploaded, not the smaller, compressed version that is meant for ease of distribution and fits even the smallest screens.

For me, the larger this photo shows, the stronger it becomes.  If you try double clicking on the photo, you can see if I'm right as the image will become much larger.

john

John (Crosley)

Too much contrast though! The skin looks like drawing with a very hard pencil!

Best regards, John!

PDE

Thank you for the observation.

I suggest that although you think it is too contrasty, that if you download a copy and take away the contrast by moving the contrast slider to 'less contrast' I think you're going to find that it also removes a substantial part of the impact.

I have so far until today never been accused of 'too much contrast' in one of my photos, but I admit this photo is very contrasty, and did so deliberately in order to bring out the power in this man's eyes, the texture in his balaclava (home made or home modified), to contrast his skin and eyes with the darkness of the blackness of the balaclava, and also to bring out the grittiness of the unwashed face, the latter part of which would not show without the high contrast.

I think you might take a look at Viet Nam or other war photos, and then compare this man's face with the look of US soldiers who were in the field and see if you see any similarity.  I was in Viet Nam with a camera as a civilian photographer (for a while until I was medivacced) and I see the same sort of look on this man's face with the same high contrast and grittiness I saw in the GI's who had been in the field for a long time.

I also viewed books full of World War II photos taken by famous (and some dead) photographers, and it's amazing how much this guy looks like those grunts who were depicted in so many of those famous photos.

Those were my guide -- they were all film and high contrast in general, and mostly the best were very gritty. 

Most however, is the weariness in the eyes, which I caught in just a split second.

I think they tell everything, and the high contrast I felt best showed them off.

I accept your criticism, but had my reasons, which were well founded, even if wrong.

If you have a better workup (the info's in this photo), I'd be greatly welcome to see your version -- maybe I'd change my mind then if I could see a version that I liked with less contrast that still accomplished what I tried to show here.

I saw a film (now a video) of Ansel Adams explaining his photos.  He likened each photo (negative) to the musical score (he was a concert pianist at one time).  He likened each print he made with so many manipulations that are legendary among aficionados and gallerists as 'interpretations' that varied over time and called each print 'the performance' and likened each to a musical performance.

Each print over time (he demonstrated), changed as his views and his methods changed, just, he said, as he expected any concert performer would change his performance over long periods.

This is my performance.

You may prefer a difference performance -- and I'm very happy to see what you can show me (the basic info I think is there to produce a different performance, which you can post, or I can send you a jpeg if you request one, and then you can show me your version . . . I'd be more than happy to do so.

By the way, thank you for the compliments . . . . I kind of presume they're in large part because of the same thing you say 'needs improvement' which to me is a bit ironic, if true, which is the point of asking you to consider showing me different.

Best to you Pierre.

This is not basic photo club stuff'/this is master's class stuff I think at this level, if I'm not mistaken.  I often have reasons for departing from well established norms when I do so, which is fairly often, but sometimes quite successfully, as I try to do my research and be well informed.

However, not everything's to everyone's taste, and if I went 'overboard' I'd like to see how this might be reigned in and still have the same 'impact' as this is all about 'impact'.

;~)) 

I always value your judgments and opinions and never laugh them off.

Respectfully,

john

John (Crosley)

This man almost looks sinister. My thoughts even before I read the above about contrast was that his skin has an almost metallic look. To me that works a s symbol of his strength: "showing his metal". It was not until I read the above that it occurred to me that look is probably precisely because of  the high contrast. 

At any rate, this is a portrait of a man that I would not want to anger! Nicely done.

Amy

Great documentary portrait!

Very well explained comment; among the best and most explanatory.  Also, you understand the import of my photo precisely as I processed it.

One has many choices when processing, and usually one does not have to deviate much from the norm, nor did I with this too much, but adding some contrast on this very low contrast day seemed imperative, and as you note, it worked well and conveyed the message that reinforced the look of his face and somewhat contrasted with the weariness (and strength) of his eyes.

I'm impressed by how well you understood what I was trying to convey.  Of course, there's nothing to convey unless you get 'the shot', but there are choices, and I availed myself of them here, more than usual for a 'no post processing' kind of guy, since the day was overcast with some fog and pretty low visibility, AND I was standing a very long distance from him - which may not be apparent at all, but his features are quite compressed and the tent backdrop is very far from him.

Best to you, Amy, and thanks for understanding and a well written and perceptive comment.

john

John (Crosley)

'Street' and documentary overlap quite a bit.  I chose to post under 'street', but documentary is as good a choice as any.

I thank you for the kind comment. 

I hope there will be more and so well received though my shooting time is drastically limited (and it appears that the standoff may be alleviating somewhat . . . hopefully).

john

John (Crosley)

Yes, it actually has happened that the arrested demonstrators have been freed from prison and one barricaded street has been unbarricaded plus the City Hall has been vacated by protestors.

However, the protest continues according to my sources, with the entire downtown and Independence Square (Maidan) occoupied by demonstrators living there in a vast tent city complete with canteens (field kitchens) long rows of port-a-potties which are scrubbed daily, and in general, the demonstrators seem (to my personal view) to show some substantial interest in not demolishing anything further than what they did when they were fighting when I was in the States, and they apparently were tearing up things.  Now things are very, very well run and order and safety prevails with apparent respect for the fact that the city street on which tents are pitched and the giant park (Maidan) are jewels of Ukraine and one day will be free from such disruption.  Apart from a spray painted slogan and mounds of trash bags/filled like sand bags that once were cemented together with rubbish containers (still are I suppose) and snow which has melted in the rain, the barricades are formidable, but temporary and could be removed in a few days easily and restoration (to my view) would not take too much problems.

Main issue seems to be tent stakes pounded into pavement, but a little asphalt probably would fix that.  Maybe I'm wrong.

Largest problem is the profound mistrust between protestors and the Administration, and for all that I take no sides  I merely repeat what I've seen in passing or read in the press.

I am merely a photographer looking for interesting photos, NOT as long ago a political reporter and do NOT want to be confused with one.

I have NO dog in this fight, and am entirely neutral, as a guest in this country should be.

I hope you understand.

john

John (Crosley)

Four Dead today adding to the previous toll.

At least four demonstrators/protestors died today as the Parliament was brought into session, perhaps to consider restoring a 2004 Constitution that would have had the possibility of stripping the current Administration of its powers.

Police shut down the Metro and blocked entrance to Kyiv, and clashes reported as involving as many as 10,000 protestors and highly-trained police took place in several places in Kyiv that were blockaded around government buildings.

What had seemed highly peaceful several days before was a prelude it seems.

My knowledge, if it is that at all, comes from the press, as I was nowhere near, and again, I am only a bystander with NO DOG IN THIS FIGHT.

This is an internal Ukraine dispute of which I have no interest other than taking good photos, and I stay from combat or combatants.

I am neutral; friends back both sides and they are Ukrainian.  I am a guest and know better than to interfere or express feelings where I am ill-informed, and it is not my country and I don't have to live with the consequences of the outcome, whatever it is.

Worse, this is a civil war, and they tend to be the most divisive and rife with potential for danger -- good warning signs to stay away from expressing viewpoints, especially from foreigners.

Cowardly?  Not at all.  Just good, common sense from someone with experience who only wants to take good photos, and they don't have to be of political demonstrators - they can be in the bazaars, the people, the shoppers, the landscapes (of people as I am a photographer of people primarily) and so forth.

john

I stand with the Good People of Ukraine against the Russian Soviet Mobsters and their puppets!

The Soviet Union died Christmas Eve 1991, an almost silent death and mostly Communism with it except in a few Communist stronghold countries, such as Cuba, North Vietnam and one or two Eastern European countries.

Otherwise I express no comment, I'm a visitor, not a fomenter or a partisan and have NO STANDING.

john

John (Crosley)

This protester, shown in portrait style with balaclava (home fashioned head mask), is the exact same man pictured to his right in my 'New' folder (at present, March, 9, 2014, with an axe at his belt and with a tent and the now burnt out Ukrainian Trades Union Building in the distant background). 

Both photos were taken within almost seconds of each other.

First I took the wide angle view with a 12~24 mm Nikkor to get the scene, the protester, tent in background on what had been Ukraine's most sought after destination, Independence Square, a place for strollers, tourists, lovers, and skateboarders, all atop a major shopping center (still below).

He was somewhat impatient (naturally), but I prevailed on him to allow me to switch cameras, to allow me to back up to use my tele lens to take a portrait of him with the tent shown here (see above the folds of the tent comprising the background) of his head, suitably masked so he could not be easily identified by my photo if his side did not prevail (which was the purpose of the 'balaclava'). 

Indeed, the balaclava was mostly the point of the photo, that and his handsome features which it did not hide.

I do not know at this time whether this man is dead or alive, and I believe I'll make inquiries about his fate and that of another man whose photo I posed whose headgear was quite distinct.

There's enough freedom now at Maidan for this man possibly to be identified or for him to self-identify to me, now that almost everyone can walk freely among almost all the tents on Kreshatyt Blvd and Maidan (Independence Square - bisected by Kreshatyk Blvd.) 

Both places are generally the finest tourist destinations other than the Black Sea of Crimea (or the becoming 'former Crimea) of Ukraine, as Kreshatyk Blvd is as much a park as it is thoroughfare, and Maidan (Independence Square) was the jewel of all Ukrainian urban parks -- a destination for all Ukrainians.

Yahoo News reporters after sifting the news reports and relying on interviews with doctors who treated riot police, spectators and protesters alike who were shot by snipers comprising the vast majority of those killed, (100 or more, mostly protesters) suggested that the gunshot wounds that killed both the riot police, protesters, and bystanders  (and the wounds too), were remarkably similar and may have been fired by the same snipers or at least from the same positions (or both).

The gunshots almost certainly came from up to three positions on rooftops of government buildings, but that does not say Ukraine government figures were firing, just that the buildings have apparently been identified.

Riot police supervisors have denied giving the orders to fire bullets, and Yahoo News describes the dead as piling up rapidly from the sniper fire and apparently turning the protester crowd from really angry to incredlibly inflamed, and suggests (but does not prove nor does anybody) that perhaps the snipers were provocateurs, maybe not riot police, not protesters and possibly from an outside government or agency seeking to provoke instability to further that government's ends in destabilizing a new soon to be formed Ukraine government that certainly was already going to be gained by the protesters and such gunplay and violence it is suggested would delegitimize a new protester government.

Speculation?

Sure.

Truth?

Only time and maybe memoirs or official records well beyond my lifetime will reveal the truth.

Dying men on their deathbeds have an uncommon penchant for uttering the truth, and someday the men who were the snipers may be at death's doorstep and/or those who may have given them orders, and then the truth may be known.

At the same time, it is sure that ballistics analysis (such as the bullets and their custody has been saved and a chain of possession has been established for those that killed protesters, non-participant civilians and riot police alike), may show that the same guns were used on all three groups (or maybe not, which is the point of conducting such an inquiry -- just to find such a fact IF IT EXISTS).

I repeated time and again as I posted, I was neutral and didn't take sides; I regretted death in whatever form.

With the possibility the riot police never fired real bullets (I have seen the rubber bullets they did fire and while dangerous and stunning they would not kill though they could (and did) take out some eyes), the whole situation bears an entirely different look . . . . not only at the riot police role but possibly even at the role of hastily departed President Yanukovych as a 'war criminal' as he has been accused of by the new government.

I am not an apologist or blind; I have no love of the former President or his riot police but was never mistreated personally by Ukrainian police, but on the other hand I was an American and treaded very carefully, guided by advice from close friends on my personal behavior in a country that was claimed by world organizations to be one of the bottom 25% of the world's most corrupt. 

Police on one or two occasions did 'save my bacon' when crowds or people got unruly, just as they did in Paris, and no bribes were sought, and at the same time I didn't prefer charges, and when two young men battered to death over 20 people in less than three weeks in Dnipropetrovst while I was there, it is rumored over 1000 detectives were brought in secretly to comb the city looking for clues and arrested two young men who were tried and convicted of 'thrill killing', videotaping their mass murders . . .. . while the populace was entirely kept in the dark about the dangers.  (See Dnipropetrovsk massacre(s) in Wikipedia for details and note the time of posting of various Dnipropetrovsk photos of mine to confirm my presence during that time.

Also, I have lived in Russia; I used to have a Russian high admiral, advisor to Brezhnev (retired) as a frequent luncheon partner, along with my then Russian wife who was felled by brain cancer, and those were good, happy and memorable times, when I lived in Moscow and times I would not erase but also times of more freedom under Yeltsin, but much, much less individual personal safety . . . a safety which Putin has helped restore.

Ukraine has been remarkably safe in my view - much safer to walk through for me than in most parts of almost any major urban centers of the United States, including Seattle, if one is carrying expensive cameras. 

The Ukrainians by and large are peace-loving people; they actually gave away their nuclear weapons (to Russia) in 1994, with a 'reassurance' their territorial integrity would be respected, all memorialized by a multi-state compact of which Russia and Western nations were signatories.

Things change though.

******** 

I'll be interested to find out of this guy survived.

I'll bet I find out.

I'm for 'good people' no matter from what country they hail, so long as they behave properly and treat others with respect; I'll treat them back with respect.

I have NO PERSONAL AGENDA POLITICALLY.

Ukraine as a nation must figure out its destiny, together with its allies, whomever they may be, and at present that appears to include Western Europe and the United States.  I do not cheerlead for anyone except 'the common man'.

Because they're my photo subjects -- not celebrities and seldom 'big-wigs'.

I respect these subjects from wherever they come; they pay back that respect in ways that overwhelm me and in ways for which I often never get a chance to say 'thank you'.

I took a photo of a 'grandfather' (deadushka) the other day an aging man, sitting in a protester tent, joining a grandson (I presume) from a distant city for the 'Internatiuonal Day of Women' weekend (a major European/Russian holiday) and sitting next to what appeared to be his daughter, also a visitor for the same weekend.

The man's aged, crinkled face,  Leonid, he was named, almost surely had been once the face of a young Soviet Citizen, had surely seen the famine of the '30s, the collectivization of the Ukrainian farms and subsequent starvation/famine deaths, had lived through World War II, had seen the Crimean Peninsula carved out of the Soviet Union by Khrushchev who in the stroke of a pen, affixed a Crimea full of Russians and Tatars to Ukraine, then mostly an empty gesture . . . had seen the fall of the Soviet Empire in a lass than resounding thud, Christmas 1991, then the rise of Ukraine as a separate state, in 1994 the surrender of Ukraine's nuclear weapons to Russia, the more recent 'Orange Revolution' of the mid 2000s which failed because of leadership bickering and alleged corruption, and finally the fight against democratically elected leader Yanukovych, who turned his Presidential office into what appeared to be an autocracy (which was why there was the revolution in the first place at Maidan, and how crinkly-faced old Leonid got to that tent on Kreshatyk street as it bisects Maidan.

Leonid's eyes sparkled, his face was alive as I took the photos of the lines history had