'The Tunnel'

Kyiv, Ukraine boasts one of the world's most utilitarian, efficient and

cost-effective mass transit Metro's in the world, a virtual copy of the

world-famed Moscow Metro, right down to identical trains and some

stations that are near identical copies of their Moscow counterparts that

carry millions of passengers daily, now for the equivalent of 20 cents a

trip anywhere in Kyiv, due to recent inflation. This one vast passenger

connecting tunnel, jammed shoulder to shoulder at rush hour, between

the two most central downtown stations, Maidan and Kreshatyk, famed

for recent disturbances, but taken a year ago, off peak hours. 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

This photo was chosen for its tones (tonalities) and geometry.

Its color version (cousin) is the same, but the non-correctable fluorescent lights give it a brownish cast that make for an interesting photo that is 'identical' but shows quite differently.

john

John (Crosley)

Love it! Deceptively simple, fantastic black and white tone, but the composition is what really strikes my eye. So simple, but really no, there is so much there.

This is one of those photos where even the photographer was a bit surprised.

Although the composition worked out as planned, the tonalities of lights and grays on the walls turned out magnificently --- not as suspected.

Taken a year ago, handrails have been installed in the center, making this scene no longer able to be taken. 

I meant long ago to post this, and it kept getting pushed away by something more 'urgent' -- what a shame given its reception now.

Best wishes, and thanks for letting me know your feelings.

john

John (Crosley)

A tunnel is a 'structure' of sorts, and this is one.

But many people who have had 'near death experiences' describe having gone down a tunnel, often lighted at the end, and one supposes a tunnel symbolizes the same thing that the River Styx did for the ancient Egyptians -- the thing that separates life from death.  

When one crossed the River Styx in Egyptian, then Greek and Roman, mythology -- one entered the afterlife.

So, in a sense, the relatively geometrical and somewhat pretty but mundane photo may have philosophical underpinnings -- a photo  symbolizing the separation of life and death.

If one stares at a good enough photo long enough, or just reflects on one that is a little ambiguous, one might be led into thoughts beyond the obvious first and most apparent meaning.

john (with food for thought for the day)

John (Crosley)

Simple yet striking. The figures are placed in perfect position to provide an ominous mood, as if a premonition of something disastrous, the pair walking into an inevitable doom...like it is today in Ukraine.

A classic, deceivingly simple image. Deceiving, because it easily allows to project a lot into it - people heading down a tunnel allows for some strong metaphors without any doubt. In a sense, it's not very subtle maybe, especially with the denser, dark mass of peoples down the road.

What I specifically like about this image is the texture of the walls; it stops the image from being a pure graphic, but makes it that necessary bit more likelike, more dynamic. It helps (in my eyes anyway) giving a sense of direction to the tunnel - seems a one-way street, really.

Personally, I would not rate this among your most original images but it is a very well executed idea, a photo clearly taken with an idea in mind, and for me manages to communicate that well.

I am sorry I missed replying to your pithy analogy in your remark posted in March; it was very well made at a time when it seemed very, very appropriate.

Now that the 'fog of war' seems to be changing a little bit, though not lifted by any means, there may be 'light at the end of the tunnel', a welcome and refreshing change to continue the analogy, now that Ukraine has made its pledge to the EU and Putin seems to have backed off somewhat assisting the separatists.  However, anything can happen, and who knows where Ukraine will be in six months -- recovering, or on the ropes without gas as winter progresses?

Is the tunnel like the entrance to an endless morass, or does it lead to some place of greater prosperity and security.  Time only will tell.  I hope to be around to document that.

Thanks for  a thought provoking post.

john

John (Crosley)

I am pleased with your comment, but must defer some of the credit for the stunning tones on the walls mainly to my hardware's firmware and the Adobe software I processed with.

I was absolutely stunned that the walls of this tunnel came out looking so wonderful, and although this photo kicked around for a long time (over a year in fact), there was no doubt it would eventually be posted, for even if it was not a strong story teller, though symbolic, it had a good 'look' about it, as you note.

Thank you for your compliment.  You never know what stopping and raising a camera for four seconds will result in.  I do it regularly, even maybe to 'excess' except 'excess' would suggest 'too much' as one critic who examined my captures told me (you overshoot he told me, and my reply, was 'you keep finding hidden gems among those you say I overshoot, and the only way to get them is to keep shooting, shooting, and shooting, even if just to keep my camera and eye exercised, and I quoted Kertesz on his shooting when cooped up with Cartier-Bresson and others for a while during wartime, shooting almost randomly when there was NO chance of getting a good shot.  'A good photographer has to keep exercised' (paraphrased).

I keep Kertezs's comment in mind every time I take a shot I am pretty sure will result in a worthless capture, reminding myself that every once in a while a gem results.

Thanks for stopping by and giving me your impressions, Wouter.

john

John (Crosley)