'Banksy?'

Prolific, popular, and politically active artist Banksy may be the artist

of this street work set on removal plywood which now has

disappeared. See the signature at the far right and compare with

signatures on Google.com images of Banksy's known signatures,

notice the differences, but notice the similarities too. This art

appeared briefly this year on a major boulevard in LA's West Side

down the street from that famous hot dog stand. Your ratings,

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

and critique harshly 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

I'm a great fan of Banksy's work and this picture is a nice tribute to him. You couldn't have caught the woman any more perfectly. Luck favors the patient.

Great capture, John ... well framed & composed. Kind regards (6)

Hi John. You have tripped the shutter at the right time, and you get a good picture.  Nice composition with a perfect frame.  Only bothers me slightly, the orange line at the botom.  I suggest you to crop the image on this side, or desturate the color here.  just my personal opinion, but I like this picture very much.

Regards,

Rosario.

Thanks for the high compliment.

 

Yes, 'Luck Favors the Patient and the Well Prepared' as I was that day, though it really didn't require a long stake-out, though a stake-out was required.  What in Cartier-Bresson's photos would have been termed a 'waiter'.

 

Again, Thanks.

 

Best wishes.

 

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

I could hardldy believe my eyes, that this woman so adorned and with the perfect amount of 'darkness' for the composition should walk by, and then, to be able to capture her just at the right point in the composition from across the street and down a ways, was just 'icing on the cake'.  It certainly made my day, and since I've been looking at this since January, it just grows in my estimation, but I posted several others of supposed Banksy works from the same walls, so I waited.

 

I can't be sure they're Banksy's, but the signature seems genuine though more elaborate and the political sarcasm or 'hook' seems to be missing a little, but then his works now are worth a cool million, and these works are on readily taken down plywood (and were quickly taken down), leading one to think that perhaps they were put up to give them the imprimatur 'street' but were for sale soon or already had been sold with the proviso they actually have been displayed on a real street -- pure speculation on my part however,and that they are Banksy's is surmise, backed by the signature.

 

I don't shoot others' art unless I have something that I think adds something to it that is purely mine and enhances it, if you haven't noticed.  Otherwise, I'm just a copyist with a camera.

 

Best to you/

 

Thanks for the compliment.  I shoot for my own approval AND the approval of my peers (certain works at least, especially peers like yourself).

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Thank you for the very high compliment.  I'm highly flattered.

(What you suppose is an 'orange' line is actually the top of the red curb marker that means 'no parking or stopping' next to the fire hydrant, left, and to Americans, at least, it seems perfectly natural -- thanks for letting me know that so some it seems unnatural.  It explains why there was no car parked there, as parking was at a premium.)

 

Thanks again.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Perfect composition with perfect timing.... Patience rewards those who wait for the right moment...

Very well done.

My highest complement.

Andy

You never know if you're going to be rewarded at all, or perhaps you're going to have to 'stake out' a situation or opportunity for the right situation for half a day, as I did once in Hawaii, where two youths are seen apparently being chased by a jaguar (leopard?) where the cat was a photo taken of a beast on the streets of Paris plastered on the walls of a fancy Hawaiian shopping center jewelry shop being renovated.  It made a great trompe l'oeil photo, and was worth the wait, but I never really knew until I got it, that I would be rewarded.

 

Here I got more than one good capture (you'll recognize the other capture which is already posted).  I came across this later and decided this is the ultimate -- the capture that is the sine qua non that best expresses my ability to do something with this painting and this situation, though the other is (in my opinion) quite good.

 

Thanks for the very high praise . . . . you made my day.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Same photo previously posted, just different woman. I thought we settled this out before that here was a college student (the CBSVT Vocabulary Book) not a Bansky. Is there another signature in this drawing that I do not see?

I gave you clues, but you didn't do the research.

 

Do the research, and you'll see my point.  We did not settle the point your way; you need intellectual glasses.

 

After that, then you can comment instead of just heavily downrating as the numbers suggest you have done.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Your title poses a question so I answered the question.  I did not heavily down rate. If I were so inclined then I'd just not rate.

Being as you often welcome discussion (except mine :-)  ), let's pursue. I've nothing else to do right now.

1. I took photos of two works in Jerusalem years ago  that in retrospect might have been Banksy's. Banksy did paint in Jerusalem and the West Bank

 a. I do not recall if they were signed. One of these was a Israel Defense Soldier with his legs blown off. Of over 200 Banksy's on the internet Banksy's style is subtle humor and statement about society as was the Israeli soldier.

 

2. Comparing to over 200 examples of Banksy on the internet neither of your posts reflect the   the style and motif of Bansky (see above) but rather just  run of the mill grafiti artists. Conclusion: yours are not Banksy's and why would anyone think so?

 

3. Of over 200 Banksy's on the internet I found only 2 which were signed. Conclusion: Banksy seldom signs.

 

 

4. The signature on your latest post is not Banksy's. See the right 2 panels on the attachment. Conclusion: not a Banksy signature; not Banksy.

 

 

5. I recall a photo you once posted very similar to the left panel in the attachment. Don't think you alluded to Banksy there (the one photo you might have called a Banksy). Conclusion: that post might have been a Banksy or a copy.

 

6. As a friend often stated about his wife; you John are often wrong but never in doubt.:-)

Banksy Signature; Banksy Signature; A photo you once posted, possibly a Banksy or copy???

It never occurred to me that the right photo was a Banksy, but so be it . . . that photo I took after driving around the most complicated set of one-way streets and blocks six times for almost an hour as the guy sat there on the sidewalk with his cell phone, and just as I arrived, camera in hand, he arose, making for one of my most memorable photos.  I never had heard of Banksy when I took that photo.

 

However, if you go into Google.com for Banksy signature, you will find one or more identical signatures as shown on this photo.

 

I make no guarantees, but since another street artist told me Banksy was working this street, this work is similar and whimsical (and extremely talented), and the signature read well can appear to read Banksy, I believe it to be Banksy.  Reasonable people can differ but they must do their research before setting forth their opinions for me to hold them in regard, and I set forth easy search criteria - a place where I found an identical (or highly similar) and more elaborate like this Banksy signature.

 

In any case, this artist is very, very talented, no matter what.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Banksy works, as do most street artists with stencils, so his signature is mostly stenciled.

 

And he signs almost all of his late works.

 

This signature, read fairly, reads Banksy, and in Google.com under Banksy signature, I previously have found one or two identical Banksy signature images.

 

So, while not proof, it does not disprove your thesis.

 

Whimsy sometimes is part of what Banksy does.

 

And he makes money.

 

This work and two others near it may have been posted to be taken down soon and sold.

 

Pure speculation, but maybe Banksy the great needed some heavy cash?

 

It doesn't all have to be political, and this is whimsy, which is part of his genre.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

(he does sign his work now contrary to your assertion.)

 

jc

 

 

you wrote: "so while not proof it does disprove your thesis".

 

My thesis was "Characterization, Chemical Composition of Tryptophanyl  TRNA Synthetase and homology with E Coli", not on Banksy. The thesis was a breakthrough in enzyme evolution.

 

 

But the true name for 'thesis' is dissertation.  'Thesis' is a secondary and valid choice.

My first real job at 12 was typing a dissertation from handwritten for a speech therapy Masters Degree candidate on an old Smith Corona typewriter for submission to the University of Oregon School of Education.  I was surrounded by dissertation candidates, as they came and went from my house - residents of all nations where my mother was first on the U of O's list of dissertation typists.

 

We also called them 'theses', but I also have a large enough vocabulary to know (as should you) that thesis stands for argument, and not of the squabble kind, but of the kind in which one sets forth a proposition that one tries to support -- and that's called a thesis.

 

So, your 'correction' fails -- though I'm quite impressed by your credential, which I suspect is the real reason you posted.

 

Here is the first three definitions from Dictionary.com (as much as will copy)

 

noun, plural theses

1.  a proposition stated or put forward for consideration especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections:  He vigorously defended his thesis o the causes of war.

2.  a subject for a composition of essay.

3.  a dissertation on a particular subject in which one has done original research as one presented by a candidate for a diploma or degree.

(two omitted as not relevant).

 

Next time you think to correct me, I suggest you do your research; I do.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Regardless of whatever it was a miserable 4 years?

 

I quote from "Thesis Vs Dissertation" on the internet:

"A Thesis is a long piece of writing based on your own ideas and research as part of a university degree...

A Dissertation is usually done with already existing research work which may require you to add your thoughts to it." Other definitions are: depending in the US or United Kingdom. 

 

Therefore I wrote a "Thesis".

 

My use of the terms does not really matter does it? You must be "trolling" as you often accuse me of doing :-)

 

In my day what I hand wrote we called a "thesis". My wife typed my thesis. My dissertation committee headed by my mentor Karl Muench read and approved my written thesis (thank god). Following approval I gave an oral "dissertation"  to the entire medical school with slides and answered questions. The following morning from 8 until noon was my "defense" of my thesis before the dissertation committee. Any faculty member could attend the defense but only members of the committee could question and challenge. In addition to the dissertation committee there was an "external examiner" Ralph Bradshaw, brought in from Washington University Medical School whose specialty was my field and whose function was to make my dissertation and defense even more miserable.

 

I equate the process above to Marine Boot Camp and would never again put myself through that torture.

 

 

If you have issue you could ask members of the dissertation committee if any are still living. Aside from Karl I doubt any are.

I have 'Doctor' after my name as well, but it's J.D., a sort of also-ran among doctorates as it was a renaming of the term LL.B. to compete with those who had an equal amount or number of years of post-graduate education and who came out then with a doctorate degree.

 

In other schools, and in former times, the LL.B. (bachelor or laws) degree, now a J.D., where I went to school, was followed by a LL.M or Masters of Law, then for the very ambitious or just the most confused or those who refused to go to real', a real Doctorate of Laws' represented one of the most time and study intensive doctorates there is.

 

Because doctoral candidates were daily or weekly coming in and out of my childhood and teen home, the processwa quite familiar to me and the subject of dinner conversation; if my mother had typed your dissertation (we called it a 'thesis' and a 'dissertation' interchangeably but also used the term 'thesis' to describe an 'argument' as I used in my previous comment), then she also would have corrected as necessary your spelling, grammar, and punctuation because frankly she knew more than most doctoral candidates about writing, if not their field of study.

 

I am sure your candidature was a harrowing experience, but you survived; I wasn't so sure about the bar examination a three-day affair with no do-overs until after six months' time had passed, and had a terrible headache (migraine) throughout to the point of almost vomiting from the pain.  I still managed and or three consecutive days.

 

I also typed my essay portions (60% of the exam) and began typing for each of the three-hour sessions roughly 20-25 minutes before the next typist in order began his/her typing, then by an hour the whole room was a cacophony of typists. 

 

I was first because (1) I type superfast. and (2) after reading the 'call of the question' I read the question and analyzed it as I read the subject paragraphs, and didn't have any idea of the answer when I began typing my analysis, and worked my way in my answer to my conclusion.

 

Essay readers are taught to look for those who 'think like lawyers' and that was where I excelled -- I showed them my thought process and in spades.

 

Merely naming a conclusion is worth almost 0 for an answer in terms of points, but showing them lawyerly thinking is worth a huge score regardless of the answer so long as you can show you got there by proper lawyerly thinking following the law and the rules of reason, which I did.

 

I passed the world's roughest bar exam on the first try, as did later my first wife who went on later to become the second highest public lawyer in a state, before her demise.  I taught her how to practice, and we practiced together until . . . .

 

But practice then made me a worse person; photography frees me and makes me liked and likeable, and better, makes me like myself.

 

So, 'thesis', 'dissertation', 'thesis' (meaning three) and bar exam mean little when one is critiquing a photo and so does whether you have a doctorate (or whether my doctorate is actually a doctorate or a sop to the LLB's who complained because three years of post-grad education didn't sound like 'bachelor's work' compared to colleagues who went for grad doctoral degrees and got them in a like amount of time -- so they changed to J.D. to give the status the study seemed to deserve seems to be the general way of thinking.) 

 

I'm not sure what Columbia Law (which gave a Doctor of Laws after the LL.M did with its first degree, the bachelor's of law.

 

Perhaps when things get really slow, I'll look it up.  [i looked briefly and found Columbia School of Law, NYC) offers a J.D. which now appears to be its first degree, then an LL.M such as in taxation, a specialty and no mention of a Doctor of Laws, which I am sure at one time it offered. Perhaps it still does, or I am just mistaken.] 

 

I was bound for Columbia Law and almost guaranteed acceptance until (1) the law boards lost my scores and didn't report them to any schools for nine months until almost all slots were filled, and 2. when I was applying I had been shot and more than five years had passed, entry requirements became greatly steeper, and I no longer had recommendations and 'pull' that came from having been a double assistant to two vice presidents of Columbia University -- power which before the shooting would have been inestimable in the entrance line at Columbia Law.

 

Best to you Dr. Meir.

 

john

 

Dr. John (Crosley)  [but no more honorifics for me]