'The Boarding Process'

You get up in the middle of the night or spend overnight packing, drive through an

hour or two of driving snow over slippery, icy roads, are met by icy clerks who look

over documents and pronounce that this or that item 'cannot go' or this bag is 'too

heavy/' and 'cannot go' unless you pay maybe $200, overweight fee, then race to

immigration where an almost unseen person takes forever to decide if you an even

leave to get on that expensive plane to wherever, then wait in line for the scramble

to wait HERE, stuck in line behind a hundred other passengers who are taking

every last cubic inch or centimeter of overhead storage you need for yourself, and

you get 'THE LOOK shown here, common to many airline passengers during

boarding. 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

I collect faces.

I also collect moments.

Here is a perfect marriage (in my mind) of both.

And I didn't let the face dominate the scene on purpose -- rather let the scene in its totality diminish her to show her relative insignificance.

It's a very strange photo to ask evaluation of PNer critiques to evaluate, but sometimes they can surprise.

It's my kind of photo, however, what I'd exhibit.

Thanks for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Well seen and captured, the face says it all.

I had seen this woman in the waiting area and noted her face as being portrait worthy, but there was no way to take a proper photo.

I was stuck in second row of coach, first on board, seated, and the fish here (passengers) were swimming upstream (up the aisle) stowing things in the overhead and taking their good time.

I figured, 'now or never', and took one photo, making sure to keep her face small in the frame to ensure its power was evident despite small ratio of main subject to the total coverage.

The interesting part is that she is trapped and shows it; something I was fortunate enough to capture just  because she was stuck so.

Thanks for an astute comment.

john

John (Crosley)

John,

I think this scene will serve as dejavu to many people who have experienced the trauma of modern air travel. Inside the aircraft, when one is all buckled up and waiting for the long flight, what does that person see? ... a tight space with plastic and fabric all around, and a streaming line of unknown faces, meticulously trying to hide their frustrations behind blank expressions. You have captured one such face, very successfully. The distorted lips, the blank stare, all seem to attest to that. The part of a human face on the right edge of the frame suggests the constant motion of the queue of people ... the subject is going to be lost in that queue very soon.

To me, this scene is also an irony. The dark, drapery covered personal space (left of the frame) may indicate a private cozy niche, but the stream of faces on the right side contradicts that. 

I wouldn't waste your time by complimenting on the effective framing and placement of the face in the frame, etc. I think those are evident. I found this work to be very relevant to the modern society that is bound to raise emotions in a lot of people, John. Great work!

I am open to brickbats that are based in fact and well-formed opinions as well as bouquets such as this one,Supriyo, but I find this critique especially heartening.

On a site like Photo.net with so many 'pretty pictures' and so much image editing (Photoshopping) meant to eliminate any chance at the appearance of 'reality' and casualness' stepping into the pursuit of perfection, this seemingly mundane photo seems to have moved you and certainly has motivated a thorough analysis by you.

I think that is for the exact same reasons I was motivated to take it; her blank (almost blank) face to me spoke volumes, with its wrinkles, eyes semi-staring at me, but really that 1,000 yard stare known to military snipers (meaning looking into nowhere, right past the observer), and the wrinkled smile as well, speak volumes about the stresses this woman probably is suppressing, as she most likely is an experienced air traveler (combined with other observations I made of her at other times).

She's 'there' but also 'distant', and I think I have captured 'the look' which is precisely I think what you have commented on, and what seems to have been the motivation behind your terrific commentary, critique and analysis, which I commend others to read, and about which I can say nothing better or more.

Thank you so much for the affirmation, Supriyo.

john

John (Crosley)

Staying put at home is very attractive to me! V I think if there would not be your story with the portrait, it could be a face anywhere, tired after a connecting trip? tired because she worked till the very end before the trip, tired because the reason of the trip is unpleasant?..... Regardless, excellent capture! V

The commentaries are just stories; sometimes it helps to place a photo in context for those who long to know the circumstances, particularly beginners testing their skills.  For others, it's mere surplusage. and contextual 'facts' or 'help' is simply unhelpful at all. 

In either instance, you can look at the photo and read or not read, digest or not the commentary that may ensue.  I like to comment for the beginners and sometimes the more erudite, because it builds community here and promotes sharing, but you have a very valid point, and also some very good alternate views.  I relish those alternates; it keeps me from having tunnel vision I stayed up all night the previous night too and can sympathize, but luckily I had the second coach seat and was seated first with camera plying my hobby/trade.

Best wishes to you, Verena.

john

John (Crosley)

John, a wonderfully evocative image, one that too many of us likely identify with. This has that "in the moment" feel that is so essential to an effective documentary image. I wouldn't change a thing.

This indeed is not a 'fun' image, but as you note it is the essence of 'true life' captured on early morning when the temperature outside was well below freezing, the snow being blown by wind and even the drive the airport on completely empty superhighways was absolutely fraught, even with total absence of vehicles.

Thanks for a thoughtful critique.

Best wishes.

john

John (Crosley)

What immediately drew me into this photo was not just the character of the woman's face, but the way it pops up among other people to the far right of the frame. It is bold and unusual and I appreciate that.  Bold in that -- because it is not conventional and does not follow orthodox "rules" of photography -- some people would dismiss it as a "mistake" or a snapshot. I like it for its very sense of immediacy and sense of place. 

 I tend to look at photographs in two ways.  First, the photo as it was taken by someone else, and my immediate gut reaction as to whether I am drawn in or not.  Second, if I am drawn in, and see some resemblance to the way I photograph (which I do), I then start looking at it as if I had taken it and what I would do, if anything.  We are all probably the same way, but I am much more forgiving and willing to be pleased by someone else's photograph than I am with my own.  In this particular case, had the photograph been mine, I would wonder (perhaps agonize over) whether I should crop at all at the right, possibly to remove the slight portion of the man's head.  I am not at all suggesting that you should do that (it might leave his shoulder as an unidentified mass which could be seen as a shoulder or perhaps a sleeping bag, who knows!).  Yet when I look at it as your photo I am fine with it as it is.  Sorry for babbling here, it just struck me as odd that I would see it differently, and be less willing to accept it just as it is, if I had taken it. 

Despite having called this photo unconventional, it gives me an overall sense of balance that I cannot explain.  The large dark expanse of curtain at left gives a sense of place as well, but it is not the sense of place (boarding an airplane) which gives me a gut sense of satisfaction.  I don't even care whether or not it is on an airplane, whether I have had a similar experience, etc.  It could just as easily be a brick wall and the woman is turning a crowded corner flooded with sunlight.  It is the large expanse of dark at left which sets off the sudden burst of light and partial body parts amongst which the woman's head pops up at a slight angle to surprise us.  I can often "feel" a photograph (my own or those of others) and know whether I like it or not (I do, or I wouldn't be writing so much about it), but I sometimes have a hard time defining exactly why I derive the feeling that I do. 

And therein lies the final reason why I like this photo.  It is not easily defined or repeatable.  There is a real art to what might be called "the snapshot aesthetic" and it pretty much runs counter to that which is deemed the most popular on PN and elsewhere.  It's not bright, it's not colorful, it's not pretty (in the conventional sense), and you can't get the effect by pushing a slider or mastering Photoshop.  It's a moment.  An unrepeatable human moment with an odd balance, an interesting human being, and a story we shall never know. 

And because of that, and its thoroughness and articulateness I won't comment other than to say your comment is transcendent and should be required reading possibly in a text or compendium of how to appreciate a photograph that is not conventional.

I shoot what interests me, then trim, trim, and trim more some of the uninteresting  things away, especially the trite and cliched, and that leaves me with what I hope are 'interesting' if unconventional photos, and if you are interested in 'interesting' photos, or those that interest at least a certain aesthetic or sort of individual,, then this may be a good stopping off place.

I have a half to a million photos, the choice every week or so of picking one for critrique is a heavy one, but as Fred G. said in a previous great critique, just putting our name to a photo gives it our imprimatur,, and that I do from time to time after I've weeded out the cliches, etc.

Your gift to me today was to leave these wonderful critiques, and for that I'm extremely thankful.  They do you greater honor even than they do me.

john

John (Crosley)