'The Shoe' (Please view 'large')

Between fares a taxi driver inhales his cigarette on a hot day, his door open, foot to

ground,and in front, just barely visible is the barely seen and high heel shoe and foot

of an approaching young woman promising a diversion. 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

The high heel sandal of the approaching woman is a major part of this photo, though is amounts in total space for a very small area.

If you have failed to spot the shoe or figured out its significance to a bored, male taxi driver, you apparently have missed the entire point of this photo and I suggest a re-evaluation.

john

John (Crosley)

The image portrays the taxi driver's activity and posture in a transparent way.  Its impact clearly lies in the fact that all the viewer knows about the woman approaching is in the form of her shoe.  There's an interesting contrast between the textures in the brick and those in the cobblestones.

My best,

michael

Dynamic and balanced urban composition. One more time your momentum is spot-on! There is a slight underlying sense of decadence, which makes the shot extra cool...

John,

Street photography is not my genre, so I may see things from a different perspective.....and then maybe not. The viewer is to look at the incoming foot/shoe and see all that it brings to the image as a woman's shoe because you say it is. Due respect, but do you only want me to see it from your POV?

From where I sit, it could just as easily be a man in those heels. Maybe that's what has got the attention of the cabbie. Perhaps he is the cabbies date and is late to a scheduled rendezvous. Maybe the cabbie is thinking, "Ohhh, there he is...at last". Maybe the cabbie has his toes flexed in excitement. He doesn't look bored to me, but rather a guy with peeked interest, ready to move. Goodness knows what's going in the back seat because we can't see in. We can't see into any of the buildings windows either. What I can't see is what I find interesting. The person on the other end of the foot is only one of those things.

The car door being the only open item in the image is an opening for the imagination. That would be my re-evaluation.

Best Regards,

Laura

I recently viewed a Linda.com series on composition in photography AFTER I had taken this photo.

One thing the instructor, a semi-famous photographer of great skill, emphasized, is the ability to previsualize, something that was almost impossible here, because who can plan for a guy in a taxi and a sole (no pun) oncoming female high heel sandal approaching, AND for balance.

In a weird way, this photo has two sorts of balances.   One is the very static balance of the man in the taxi, centered in the frame, cigarette jutting slightly upward, foot anchored in the pavement, door open for ventilation.

The other offsetting 'balance' is the sole (no pun again) woman's approaching high heel sandal.  Here the sandal is a symbol of an oncoming woman.  We see the sandal but we know that the driver sees the whole woman, and we are in the dark about what he sees, and in my view we are tantalized --- what does she look like?  Is she a passerby?  Is she a fare?  Is she attractive or as man so rudely put it 'a dog?'  He's dragging on his cigarette doing what men with time on their hands do so well, he's 'evaluating her' and 'taking her in'.

That sole high heel sandal in its own way balances out the entire weight of the right side of the photograph because of its unspoken mysteriousness, in my view.

In a sense, that sole shoe and calf carries a lot of photographic and compositional weight -- way far beyond its very small area in the scene.

You can't imagine what a problem I had in keeping that shoe and calf in there and dark enough to be seen!

In any case, that's my evaluation of my photo, but other evaluations can have equal, different,  or better validity.

The brickwork was worse before I emphasized it a little (or more).  

Thanks for your comment.  With so few views and growing so slowly, I hadn't expected this morning to find three comments.  I'm very surprised this has caught some attention.

Thank you so much for your comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Your comment is more of a personal 'feeling about the composition rather than an analysis, and I'm pleased that it has affected you that way -- it's always nice to know that a photo has had an intended consequence when as you say (as I think) it's a 'cool' photo, as I think this one is.

And frankly, it's a very under-seen and thus under-appreciated photo -- a photo for a select group of aficionados such as yourself and several other raters and a handful of viewers.

Best to you, and thanks for sharing your feelings.

john

John (Crosley)

I know what happened before, during and after the shoe approached the car, but obviously you have some imagination, so why spoil it.

One thing I can tell you, however, is that this is Ukraine and that no self-respecting Ukrainian (or Russian) man would be caught dead with a high heel wearing male, so scotch that idea.  However there is a definite look of anticipation -- all men do that when confronted with an attractive female to evaluate, and her shoes suggest at least some fashion consciousness and same with her bare leg and thinnish calf -- suggesting young age and stylish dress.

That's something for a bored man to anticipate, and if she were to invite herself for a paid ride, how could he be upset -- taxis are made for such encounters.

In the meantime, he can have a last drag on his cigarette, pointing slightly upward, as he contemplates his/her next move.    You probably are unaware that LGBT rights have not made it into Russia and next door Ukraine has some but almost none, so your analysis falls flat on its male sandal there, at least in broad daylight.  A man wearing female , high heel sandals would have attracted a crowd.

In Russia it's almost (or is) a crime to be gay and in Ukraine it's a matter of social ostracism even now though I see gay guys, as being from the USA I have good, developed gaydar and can spot the barely indistinguishable gay guys together even though they'd never admit to it to their fellow Ukrainians though to me they might if they were assured of my confidentiality and we had a lomg, close conversation.

It's still dangerous to be LGBT though L might get a pass.

(I don't tell others about my subjects' secrets not revealed to others -- and people can sense that, which is how I get such revealing photos when I photograph up close).

Thanks for an interesting meander.

john

John (Crosley)

John,

I'm more aware of LGBT matters than you give me credit for. But a photo critique is about the photo and the way it speaks to any viewer. If a picture is worth a thousand words, are those words to only come from one direction?

Your 'direction' was an interesting and refreshing (and hitherto unexplored) direction.  That's why I didn't try to spoil it by telling you about what occurred before and after the initial, mysterious step.   It shall remain a mystery for now.  Thanks for participating.

john

John (Crosley)