Portrait-118

Great portrait again! Interesting pose.

Un ottimo lavoro!

Gianni

A strikingly candid portrait, bravo .. 

Black and white tones are nice and the pose is a familiar and natural one and unusual in a portrait. The obvious issue here is the lack of shadow detail in the eyes, which to my mind rather spoils the shot. This is where one's eyes rest when viewing and yet there is not much to be seen. Mehmet has a large number of excellent portraits in his portfolio: many of extraordinary faces, so it seems a pity that this one of all of them is the one selected. But there again, perhaps I am alone in finding the lack of eye detail disappointing.

I think it's great that the elves selected this photo out of Mehmet's collection, since it has what will inevitably be a controversial gesture of the photographer having presented the eyes of his subject in shadow. In this case, I can feel their presence without being distracted by the shadows, which fall naturally on his face due to his hand gesture. The eyes being thus hidden wouldn't be a problem for me in and of themselves. What the portrait has to recommend it, IMO, is the cutaway of the shadow just under his right eye, which suggests to me the man's being able to see out. That's what this portrait seems to me about, the man's seeing as opposed to mine. That shape, created by the light coming through the shadow of his fingers is somewhat echoed by the shape of his light sweater against his darker coat. It's a very well exposed portrait as well. Other than that, the portrait doesn't do much for me. The expression seems mostly a reaction around the mouth that comes from the strong sunlight rather than any particular emotion. The expression doesn't convey much meaning or feeling to me. The gesture of his hand is natural enough and, again, provides a nice shape to the top part of the photo but isn't all that expressive either. The back of his ear is the most white part of the photo and I'm not sure that area's getting such attention and prominence is helpful to the portrait. It actually does stand out from his other portraits in a couple of ways which I think are worth the time to consider. It's one of the few where his eyes are obscured, something I think most who do portraits will eventually play around with. It's also one of the lowest key of his portraits. Due to the good handling of the dark tones, it reads to me as one of the richer of his portraits and one with more depth than most of the others, many of which have better expressions to work with. It's also one where the processing (which often creates a fairly strong spotlight effect in his other portraits and even a halo effect in several) seems fairly organic and unobtrusive.

My first impression is like Robin's. The lack of eye detail restricts the impact, unless there would be other environmental subject matter present that might create an emotional or symbolic reason for that exclusion of visual information (like other elements within the picture frame that might speak to that).

I would love to see in future a description by one of the 15 elves as to his or her reaction to a selected image, much like the explanations often presented by one or more of the photo competition judges of photo salons for their selection or rejection of a photo. One might at that point have a starting point for the choice made. Or alternatively, and perhaps better, that one of the elves provides an epilogue after the discussion that provided their reasoning, as it is apparently recognized by Photo.Net that the selected image is not chosen as best image of the photographer but one that elicits discussion.

My complements to Mehmet for a fine Karsh-like tonality to his image, and I wonder, if he uses Photoshop or other image treatment, whether he thought of opening up the shadows in the eyes region to some degree? A little detail might better support the very good observation by Fred of the light slit between his fingers as giving some basis for the perception of this instant by Mehmet. Otherwise, the photo does not tell me very much.

Marvelous illustration of Mehmet's own description of what he does when shooting photos: "I take pictures of myself only".
A great introduction to his many fine shots of Turkish men and one small girl.

Mehmet is indeed an excellent photographer and hits the mark particularly in his Human Landscapes portfolio where it is well worth visiting. This is one that demonstrates his perceptive spirit. I think the images of that portfolio are less usual and more revealing of him and more original than the portraits, however well done the latter my be.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=10956358

I feel this image raises more curiosity in the mind of the viewer than providing answers. What compels the man to look in the direction of the sun, while squinting his eyes and fighting tears and distorted muscles. What is it that he is looking at so curiously? Probably the photographer can tell.

It is interesting that the subject's curiosity raises the curiosity of the photographer to take the picture, which in turn makes me curious as a viewer to know what he is looking at. What to call this - cycle of curiosity?

Even without analyzing, one could easily be drawn to this image because of the rich dark BW tones and the personality of the subject. The uneven teeth, the wrinkles in the skin, all speak of a grounded, senior person, approachable and affectionate?
BTW, I can actually see the eyes, but then my monitor's gamma is not calibrated.

Supriyo may well be right that the image raises our curiosity and that the person is approachable and effectionate and that his squinting is fighting tears, but these do not seem to me to be possibilities strongly suggested by the portrait. Looking at his eyes in an analytical manner (I trust that Mehmet will accept this curiosity on my part) in the following treated copy does not seem to give any more indication than that of someone looking at something outside the frame with the difficulty of doing so when looking towards the sun. That is what appears to me to be a reasonable interpretation, even though my imagination may want to fight that reason.

Arthur,
My curiosity is in the fact that he is looking directly into the sun. Why would he take the pain to do so, unless there is a compelling reason, a visual stimulus that attracts his attention. Otherwise he can simply look the other way. May be there are other explanations that I am not thinking of right now.

Supriyo, if you were told he was looking at someone assassinating someone else or you were told he was looking at a couple making love in public or that he was looking at a volcano erupting, would that make the photo itself more interesting or compelling to you? It would certainly make for an interesting story but I'm not sure it would help my feelings about the photo. Put another way, is your being curious in this instance enough? I think raising curiosity in a photo can be very interesting and engaging but it's got to be accompanied by a little more that will get me to care or pay attention. What if the photo in some way, shape, or form, without actually giving us the complete information, hinted at what he might be looking at? Would that help? It might. I actually think with just a different expression of the man's mouth, this would work a lot better. His mouth could give us hints that this was more than just a squint and might give us reason to become interested in the man. Which is not to say that capturing an interesting squint in and of itself could not be interesting in some cases. It just doesn't seem to be the case here.

Fred,
Thank you for expanding on it. I understand your viewpoint that some hint of what he is looking at could make this a more interesting scene. For me, the initial attraction was the man's simple looks, then came the curiosity about what he was looking at. All my imagination seemed to center around his point of interest. Is he waiting at the bus stop looking out for the bus, or watching for his grandchild to return from school, or watching some street show. Revealing just enough to hold someone's attention without disclosing too much is probably a fine line, and it makes all the difference in a photo like this one.

As I have considered this image several times and under various circumstances today, and after reviewing other of Mehmet's portraits, I am increasingly impressed by the photographer's ability to capture, memorialize, and engage the day-to-day details of his subjects' lives. His portraits from this collection are clearly about regular people going about their daily lives. His interest and the quality of his photographs give his subjects thoughtful attention and recognition that they likely would otherwise never experience, at least on an international level such as this forum. Portrait-118 is consistent in this theme. The subject is neither glamorous nor famous, his pose is familiar and unremarkable, if unattributed, and the setting for this image is entirely undefined. We cannot discern the subject's wealth or social standing. What we have, then, is a carefully, even lovingly crafted image of a man striking a familiar pose. The technical quality is excellent and clearly intentional in terms of balance, focus, DoF, composition, exposure, etc. The vignetting pushes one's eyes back to the face, as does following the loop of the arm and hand. On my monitor his eyes are shaded, but clearly visible, so no issue there, at least for me.

We ask a lot of questions regarding intent and causality. I suggest the real meaning in this image can be to simply recognize the humanity and dignity of everyday life, as it applies to this person in this moment of time. We may ever wonder what draws his attention, unless Mehmet deigns to tell us, but I don't think the object of his attention matters at all. I believe this image is about this man, in this moment, period. It may not be extraordinary in its content or subject, but it certainly is caring and thoughtful, and does not demean or objectify this individual. Rather, I believe the attention and care Mehmet dedicates to the making of this image adds honor and human value to the subject, and therefore to the image.

I recall our previous discussions regarding the importance of context and intent. In this case I assume the context is simply "real people, real life", and the intent is to make an image that honors and respects the subject. I construe these as much from Mehmet's portfolio as from the image itself, as it seems consistent to the body of work.

Well said, David. Thanks.

Bravo Memeth, you are showing in this shot not only a portrait but a seeking around mood! Well done!

This is an edited image,it was originally a bright one I

assume, and to produce the effect appearing in the image

the photographer have lowered the midtones and the

shadows at least by one and half stop.All what we see is

intentionally done by the maker himself, probably if he

partially masked the effect on the face where the hands

contrast the shadows, may be all the talk about the eyes

would be absolute.

We are looking at the photographer's vision of a special

portrait.

It is more then a portrait, it is a look a very good natural portrait with power, dynamic and movement. Excellent.