'Protester Turned Victor"

This fighter, covered in grime because of lack of sanitary facilities is a

protester against the last regime in Kyiv, Ukraine, and occupied downtown

Kyiv in the face of insuperable odds, and through street fighting,

demonstrations and citizen support and against protester deaths which

brought overwhelming citizen support, all resulted in the ouster of the

Moscow-backed and corrupt president and free and fair elections bringing

alignment with the West. 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

Street fighting with clubs and shields but no firearms predominated during this period when this photo was taken, as riot police clashed with phalanxes of protesters with their makeshift weapons, and riot police used rubber and plastic bullets.

Four days later, unknown snipers, siding with the President, acting on unknown orders from rooftops began mowing down protesters, bringing protester deaths to around a hundred.  Soon after, public outrage forced the president to flee, first to Crimea, then to exile in Russia.  He announced his resignation, then later 'withdrew' it, although the resignation was accepted even by his party members in the Rada (Parliament) and he was replaced, first by the parliament, then by elections seen by international observers (and me) as extremely fair with almost no chicanery.

john

John (Crosley)

(this man may be alive today, or possibly one of the dead -- there currently is no way to tell.   Fighting continues in Eastern Ukraine under Russian prodding despite Russia's 'acceptance' of a 'cease-fire' but saying their soldiers are in Eastern Ukraine as 'Volunteers' according to Putin's remarks in the news media yesterday aT his annual news conference.)

jc

Very dramatic, gritty and realistic in my opinion John. A great write up always helps tell the story but this image stands on its own strengths. Have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Best Regards,

Holger

John,

Excellent photo-journalism image. Dirty, gritty, & edgy ... what you wanted. Again, well done.

This is a very, very long telephoto view; an area in which I once excelled and am learning to excel in again.  There is compression, but notice how well the lines work despite the compression from being a tele shot.

I am proud of receiving your opinion; I was trolling a folder left over from the 'war' or 'revolt' which turned into a 'revolution' which produced a 'photo of the week' but was otherwise untouched, and saw this.  I said 'wow' 'That should have been posted, though it may be more portrait than documentary or street, but regardless of category, I'll stand by it.

Thanks for letting me know your estimation and for holiday greetings, which I return.

john

John (Crosley)

Gritty, Dirty and Edgy.

Three words after my own heart.

I wish I had a copyright on those words or other copyright projection on such images.

Remember Willy and Joe, from World War II cartoon fame?  Of course not, but look them up.  This reminds me of them, though there was humor in those cartoons, and none here; but they thrived because they did not expurgate the griminess of the battle and those who fought the battles--hand-to-hand fighting is an exceptionally dirty calling, even when one is just not getting showers or shaves except rarely.

I had the honor or walking among these men 10 months ago as they brought down the corrupt leader or Ukraine -- though for the record, I take no political sides.  I record and if he had stayed corrupt leader, I would have continued to take photos, as before, for there are good photos everywhere you look, if you have the eye and mind to recognize them.

As in golf, this was a gimme for sure -- a hard shot to pass up and an easy one to make.

As one famous photographer said of making good photos (f8 and be there).  This isn't f8, but I was there.

Four days later gunfire mowed many of these guys down.

I don't know how many of those whose portraits like this I have who lost their lives four days later and probably never will.

Thanks for the fine and flattering choice of words.

john

John (Crosley)

From viewing this in Photoshop REAL BIG, I note that this one of those rare portraits that shows better with more detail when it's blown up real big.

It's probably because the griminess on his face fills areas that on ordinary faces would be smooth skin, plus of course his stubble and grimy/greasy hair with its touch of gray, interesting lighting (available light of course, not manipulated) and thus it's a photo of a subject we ordinarily do not equate with much detail, but in this rendition there is much detail and much for the eye to observe when blown up 'large' and so not boring viewed 'large' in my assessment.

Part of the 'detail' also may be 'digital noise' but in this rendition of the 16 megapixel rendition, it seems to enhance the image rather than detract.

I'm open to further analysis on that point.

I fell in love with the color rendition, but the B&W conversion is really a good, worthy image that could easily stand on its own.  It's just that in this image the colors enhance the image even more.

But I'd show this as a B&W image with no qualms.  Try the B&W conversion yourself and see.

john

John (Crosley)