'The Shroud'

Dead? Or Dead to the World? Those were my thoughts when I saw this

scene at a world famous airport. 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

Good technical quality, also!

 

Best

 

PDE

I don't think this is going to get many comments, it's not overtly dramatic enough, but I find it quite compelling in its understated fashion. Excellent tone and a solid composition and enough mystery in the curious subject matter to keep me interested.

John. I like this. An out of the ordinary image which conveys a reality and I suspect a situation everyone has been in at one time or another. I think its a great shot. Perhaps a little cloning to remove the extraneous foot on the right might help though? Rgds Rick

Consider, viewers, how your reaction might have been different a year or so ago when the ebola crisis was raging in central African countries, and like me as I passed, I realized (which you cannot) that this man is black and certainly related in some way (indicated by nearby gates) to an area where Air France serves numerous African countries.  How you would react when you, the photographer, would come across this scene?

 

Would you have had a different and possibly very unsettling reaction to see this long, lanky body lying supine on this couchette shrouded in black if you knew he had just flown in from an ebola-infected country?  What if the entire airport were filled with such persons, mostly black, as was this section of the airport, many on couchettes, many, like him, also still and apparently lifeless, -- no color detectable in their skin in terms that Caucasian individuals would understand, masked by the great melanin that protects darkest Africans from the prehistorical and historical medical danger of living in a super sun drenched world where many prehistoric ancestors wore skimpy attire, possibly none at all

 

Is this how a pandemic might play out at the start with a lone passenger left on a couchette, draped because no one would get near him, or several such passengers  (shoes to right, also from a similar supine, draped and apparently lifeless man), brought to another continent by a 550 mph carrier of death?

 

Or perhaps he's a tired businessman, maybe pleasure traveling, doing personal business, a government or NGO official or worker, or just doing some sightseeing and part of a highly educated group as I found out when I met a whole group of such individuals and we talked and traded photos, after one of this group tried to make a 'stink' about my taking this photo, and the rest of the group embraced me, made me their friend with handshakes, jokes and group photos all around?

 

Besides technical aspects such as composition, which I strived greatly for, and tonalities, which were critical, given the great amount of 'black' or dark tones in this photo's subject, and its odd and unusual subject matter, do you find this photo a little unsettling; modern man does not often encounter real life death images in the first world except those who have been to war or who work in or near the medical professions and health care or human remains disposal industries?

 

You might consider, what it would be like to see an entire terminal full of such individuals; lifeless and draped.  Many of this group were lifeless, or barely moving and draped and/or partly draped, sometimes moving a few fingers, maybe wiggling a foot, etc.  

 

In one case a man had his entire hand with spider-leg long and narrow dark fingers with pinkish nails capturing his thin, long whole black face as he lay mostly shrouded and otherwise motionless, just hand and face uncovered.

 

Above is the photo.

 

This is just a small hint or peek behind the curtain of the surrounding circumstances and some passing thoughts that might explain if you find it 'mysterious' and/or a little 'disturbing'.

 

For a photographer to come upon this was priceless; for the thinking photographer, far more so.

 

Oh, and no matter what this man's color (black) and your color, you are derived from common ancestors from his ancestral part of the world, and your progenitors were almost certainly dark skinned, probably black, in my Darwinian view.

 

We are all brothers or at least distant cousins.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

Do you always have to write a book John? Why not just let your image stand on its own?

My writings in reply have proven so highly popular that comments and   e-mail have run 10-1 in favor of my writings.  Detractors, such as yourself, are few and far between, and have control of their own complaint.

 

You, in turn, have the option of just not reading, which is entirely within your capability; nothing requires you to read anything on Photo.net. I write. These writings have proved highly popular over 11 plus years here  and coupled with multiple Photos of the Week contributed to high regard expressed publicly and privately by members.

 

Reading my writings, again, is optional.

 

Each image does stand on its own, but I hope if you rated you can say the same for your rating, and if you disagree with the view of black/white origin in  Africa, then please do not return here, to rate, view or otherwise as this would be an unwelcome place for you, as that is the scientific/anthropological conscencus, and this is no place for science deniers.

 

John Crosley

Photo.net member

It is a great image! 

I wrote something interesting (I hope) explaining circumstances around this capture above, and I hope you can find time to read it.  It may explain why you found it 'interesting' and at least why I did, very much.  Thank you for your compliment on the technical aspects of this photo - they were vital, and somewhat hard to achieve.

 

I am most grateful for your comment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Unlike the commenter before you who had nothing to say about the photo except to carp about my writing, your comment stands out clearly and is taken as such.

 

Thank you so much for your endorsement.  I am most grateful for your comment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Thank you for the compliment.

 

About the foot:  I generally dislike cropping and cloning, so if there's a reason to keep a capture original, I try to cling to it, not ignoring reasons for the above two devices -- I'll clone sometimes and crop on occasion, especially if the aspect ratio is just wrong.

 

However, to me the foot, not cloned out, suggests this man is not in isolation and may  be one of a series; like it or not.  Artist's choice, right or wrong.

 

;~))

 

Thanks for an astute comment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

I think you may be surprised by the number of commenters, but I'm not quite so much; good photos have a surprise following on Photo.net, especially those that cause people to think and are challenging.  (That's not always usual, but is maybe an outlier, but a consistent outlier of critiques that might be counted on, I've found).

 

I've written you separately how valuable your comments are to me; I endorse that view and state it here publicly.  Your critiques and comments are concise, accurate and are the gold standard.

 

Best wishes and thanks.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Funny rest! Well done!

I'm glad you can see some humor here.

 

Humor is in far too short supply here on Photo.net; bless you.

 

Thank you for the compliment.

 

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Apologies for misspelling your name.

 

It's yours, it's you, and it's important to you.

 

There is no excuse.

 

Please accept my apology.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)