A Children's' Story

Enter stage right

That disembodied head is so jarring, and I keep coming back to it.  It's like a magician's illusion, where perhaps the rest of the body lies beneath the cloth, and the head floats off on its own.

Well done Jack, of course the head coming out of the frame is cool but just the arrangement of stuff that follow after that is even cool. The bamboo shade partially tilted, the gas meter, the bike partially clad is a striped color cover and even the fender of a bike to our left, nifty!

So many things, colors, patterns and textures in this tiny portion of the world Jack. Does your presence make them aligned in this unique way?

Regards,

ricardo  

Frankly I don't understand a thing and can't figure out what the head is doing there. Funny, though.

Thanks for taking the time to comment on this picture.

 

Mark - I was focused on the bike when this kid approached. He saw I was about to take the picture and hesitated. I waved him on and snapped the picture just as he entered the scene - a tad earlier than I intended. But that smiling, disembodied face in the resulting picture got a smile out of me in turn. It's an odd picture and no great shakes but I was interested to see if there would be any reaction to it.

 

Tony - Thanks. I'm always fascinated by interesting juxtapositions and with the tightness of space in the city there are always strange combinations to be seen. Obviously the thing that caught my eye in the first place was that bicycle's coat of many colors but it's that smiling face that marks the picture as different.

 

Ricardo - That's an interesting question and one that I've often thought about myself. I believe in many ways it's the intent and focus of the photographer (street photographer) that calls forth the picture. That's my story, my experience, and I'm sticking to it.

 

Jose - Thanks for your interesting comment. There really is nothing to understand here. It's the odd juxtaposition of elements that I found amusing. Any assigned meaning must necessarily be one's own projection.

 

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Jack, I was thinking that it is another world you have captured here, one that we could step into if we were there--but then I saw your title and realized that all stories give that illusion if they are successful.

 

This one definitely succeeds.  I want to know how it comes out in the end.

 

--Lannie

You've provided the Elements of the Story - it is for us to interpret it within our own 'minds' eye' and POV.  Or like a Puzzle that has 'magic' pieces that will fit no matter what way we scramble them. It would not be nearly as effective an image without the young person's head.

Thanks for stopping by. The vital thing for any picture is that it must catch your interest. I say the same thing about education in my all too frequent rants about the system: If the teacher can't somehow manage to catch the student's interest, all is lost. You might as well close up shop. Somehow this simple fact has eluded our school planners as they search for the magic testing system or standardized tweak to whip bored and disaffected students into line. Give me teachers and photographers with a little imagination.