The Wedding Kiss (Choices . . . Choices)

This young bride and groom have been married for minutes only and

are stopped for their 'Wedding Kiss' atop Odessa, Ukraine's

spectacular harbor view park, when the groom's cell phone rings.

 

Choices . . . choices. Does he make the right choice . . . and what

does it forfend for the marriage? Your ratings and critiques are

invited and most welcome. (If you rate harshly or very negatively,

please submit a helpful and constructive comment, keeping in mind

that this is a 'street photograph)/Please share your superior

photographic knowledge. (Please remember your sense of humor when

rating this photo). Thanks! Enjoy! John

This couple had been involved in a passionate kiss . . . complete with an exchange of tongues and open mouths, but then the cell phone rang. What to do? What would you do? And how would you have reacted? (In the distance, the Odessa hotel, on a quai (pier) in the harbor breakwater on the Black Sea -- Chernoye More).

this is so funny i had to give it a 7

nice narrative shot.

very well captured.

I anticipated this occurrence.

 

I followed this couple from the far end of the hilltop park to the top of steps (see my previous Single Photo post of man at top of steps under street light).

 

They were being videoed by a woman videographer with a late-model, high-end 3-CCD Canon machine -- a $3,000 plus model.

 

At the end, and at the top of the stairs, here, they started to hold each other and the videographer went around them, circling and then holding her camera high circled again.

 

Then they began kissing, passionately.

 

I had been photographing them and watching them as they went the length of the hilltop park and noticed the guy had been on his cell phone when not being videoed, and wondered if he'd allow the cell phone to interfere with such a 'treasured moment' and was prepared.

 

Sure enough, when they went into passionate, truly passionate embrace and the videographer had done her thing and was retired, there he was really Frenching her and suddenly his phone rang.

 

The result: this photo.

 

Moral: Be prepared.

 

Member Pogue Mahone (not his true name) once told me that 95% or so of 'street photography' is the photographer's 'visualization' and the photograph is the realization of that visualization.

 

I think he is right, in this instance.

 

Coupled with some luck.

 

(Thanks Pogue for stating it so succinctly, if I have paraphrased you properly).

 

John (Crosley)

This was a rainy, dull, lifeless, dreary day without contrast. It called for some Photoshopping, particularly on the man's and woman's face, the cell phone and their clothes. Usually I don't Photoshop, but this photo depended on your seeing his expression, and it had to be 'brought out' by Photoshop, so that's what I did. Probably, however, no more than any good darkroom printer would have done.

 

Apologies to the purists.

 

John (Crosley)

 

It seems the one time in a man's life when he might not want to answer his mobile (cell) phone, it might be during the Wedding Kiss after his wedding ceremony and before the reception. Somehow, this guy just couldn't resist.

 

I showed this photo to many people in Ukraine from the LCD on the back of my camera, and it received universal approval. That sort of approval means a lot to me; probably more than a raft of PN ratings because it speaks to the universality of this image.

 

John

Nice photo, John, though perhaps there are three subjects here: the bride and groom, the two characters in the background who are exchanging a look and the view. Still, as you say, this is a street photograph and you cannot control the situation, but the best street photos seem to me to be the ones in which the nexus of events contribute to one aesthetic or emotional theme / event. Have you looked at the work of Bruno Trematore?

I am not entirely certain that your thesis is exactly so; I would have argued it differently two months ago, but Doug Hawks was writing about Elliott Erwitt's 'Snaps' and of the wonderful photos in that book, many have extraneous 'subjects' and/or bystanders in them and you have to 'hunt' for what makes the photo good. Before, I might not have posted this photo or I would have zoomed in, but now I feel much more comfortable showing the whole scene.

 

It's much more how I used to photograph in my early days. You have to look to see the pained look on his face as he is 'torn' between his 'love' and his 'addiction'. The others give the photo context and say that it's taken 'somewhere' and that somewhere is a place, not just some abstract place, but a real place in the world. Henri Cartier-Bresson's photos, which I've been viewing more lately (after a hiatus of 35 years) often show the entire background), though more appealingly than this, admittedly.

 

So, I'll just let this one stand on its own and say I wouldn't have posted it differently -- the harbor view is important to the 'ceremonial' aspect of the view, and this is a former Communist country. You may not know it, but in those countries, church weddings were much less commmon and marriage halls were the way it was done, even in recent times. The grooms and brides marched down the aisles of the marriage halls on a strict schedule, the hall was cleared for new ones -- each Saturday and Sunday the halls were filled to jamming, and as soon as the marriage chamber emptied into a mini-reception room, it filled again from another room, kind of like conveyor belt, with mini-receptions lasting 15 minutes, then people clearing out for some decrepit restaurant or another. Nowadays some people go to fancy restaurants if they can afford it, but there's much going on in the 'civil weddings' of the former Soviet Union. (My experience is from neighboring Russia, not Ukraine, but I hear they are almost identical).

 

John

Bruno also is a fan of Cartier Bresson, I think. I would agree that cropping is not the answer here. It's very interesting to note how the character of the photographer comes out in street shots though. There's no doubt that it's a very difficult subject area in which to succeed, and few do as well as you have here. The capture of a single, unambiguous human emotion succeeds most often, I think, which is probably what holds this together. I enjoyed your other shots too, some are absolutely excellent with great ideas of patterning and juxtaposition from random events.

Thanks for the re-analysis.

 

Street Photography is a difficult area for some, but not for me, I think, because it somehow brings out the hunter in me; I think in terms of 'bagging a good shot' or 'I got one' and showing it off'.

 

A shot like this is prized, and I'm eager to show it because it 'tells something' even if it is a false tell.

 

For instance, maybe he's only getting a message from his limo driver or the restaurant that the food will be served in 1/2 hour or his mother congratulating him. That would be OK, but the picture stands on its own without such potentially exculpatory facts.

 

Fact is, given his previous behavior with the phone, it's probably his business partner or employees, who haven't learned to work on their own, harassing him on the worst possible moment.

 

You are right, I do try to juxtapose in many of my 'street shots' and try for geometric compositions'.

 

Bringing sense and sensibility from randomnness is what 'street shooting' is to me; not just echoing the confusion of the street.

 

John

Definitely a funny moment! As comical as the couple is, I also wonder about the guy in the background. The way he is positioned suggests he could be relieving himself!!! Probably not, but I have a wickedly bad imagination. And if I ever get married....no cell phones!

This tickles me, real urban modern life shot...

If you enjoy this photograph, you might truly enjoy the inspirer of it; someone whose freedom with a camera in 'larger' scenes such as this, and his success at doing so, allowed me the sense to 'know' that this would be a successful photo while not doing my usual close-up zooming -- in essence taking a more distant shot or look as I did in my earlier days.

 

That book is: 'Snaps' by Elliott Erwitt, one of the members of the Magnum Group of photographers founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and others, recommended after he got out of the army by Robert Capa (Erwitt: A Russian himself, grew up a little in Paris but went to Hollywood High and a lifetime photographer of great note -- and great humour. I hope I have been able to capture the humour of the moment in this photograph.)

 

John

In answer to a previous part of your question: Yes, I am very familiar with the work of Bruno Trematore -- I have posted a question to him in a recent photo, regarding German law, and I hope he sees it and answers (my photo of a German saleswoman has a colloquy about whether a German subject legally can veto being photographed and the effect on German 'street' photographers).

 

Bruno has sent me 'presentations' and I have commented on them, and I enjoy his photography very much, particularly the last photographs I saw which had some top notch photographs.

 

John

Perhaps it's a mobile (their word for a cell phone) that has some of those little video games .......;-))

I'm not a mate-rater and in fact seldom rate (and then primarily to add a photo to my highest-rated gallery, which I recommend a view of, as it may be different), so when I view the raters of this photo and find that 60% of them are members, I find that particularly satisfying, since none of them owes me any favors.

 

Moreover, members are more likely than others to recognize originality in a photo and to have been exposed to repetitive types of photography within the various galleries on PN.

 

So, when I have a photo rated that gets a high percentage of raters who are 'members' of Photo.net, I am particularly pleased, as in this case.

 

(This photo originally had 12 or 13 ratings, but because of an attack by the 'bot' it was lowered by about half, until raters stepped in, and the bot's low ratings kept it low on the Top Rated Photo pages for a long while until it was re-displayed when the bot ratings were removed -- automatically -- no complaint was necessary. I note this because of all the discussion in the 'site feedback' forum about the attack of the 'bots' when in fact Brian M. says there is just one, and he programs to get rid of that person's hacking, and to show that it is done efficiently and automatically without complaints from the member.)

 

With thanks again to the members (and others who rated and commented)

 

John

exelent capture. did he ask for help :)

He should have. He should have got a knee to the groin.

 

John ;-))

 

I now have used a phone similar to the one this man is holding -- a Ukrainian mobile phone -- which has digital coverage throughout the country -- something that would put the US 'cellular' system to shame (although that country's wired system is an antiquated Soviet remnant worthy of being almost discarded, except it is so much cheaper).

 

Such mobile phones (as they are known in Ukraine and through Europe, as opposed to 'cell'(ular) phones as they are known in the US, have a messaging capability designed to cut the high costs of sending information associated with such phones.

 

A Hrivna (pronounced Grivna) is the Ukrainian currency unit, and a mobile phone is not billed monthly but by an inserted, encoded 'chip' which can be recharged for a fee. (No one has checking accounts and very few have credit cards -- so there really is no way to pay bills if the phones were billed monthly -- essentially for most things, 'credit' does not exist.)

 

So, there are stores and kiosks where one buys the recharge for the chips once they are discharged with a price of about 15 Hrvna for 15 minutes or a Hrvna (not exactly) for a minute. A Hrvna for some time has been roughly 5 to the dollar or 20 cents. So a minute of calling costs about 20 cents.

 

How much cheaper to compose an entire message, using little number keys (and an elaborate system of making words -- English on some phones as well as Russian -- from those numbers) then sending the message for one Hrvna instead of making the call and then spending 5 or 20 Hrvna talking at many times the cost of a message -- and a message can be encoded to be delivered or available for delivery for short or long time periods.

 

So, this man appears to be reading an SMS message on his mobile phone (instead of kissing his bride which he was doing when his phone rang.) And this new knowledge on my part detracts in no way from the underlying understanding of the photo -- it means the same no matter what what you call the phone or whether he was looking at an SMS message, looking at caller 'id', or simply wondering whether to answer the damn thing.

 

Did you notice he even has wrinkles on his forehead either from reading the message, the message's content, or from his present dilemma?

 

John

He could even be 'composing' an SMS message on his 'mobile' phone, something Ukrainians and Russians do with great alacrity.

 

Imagine the bride's feelings and what it means for their relationship (unless he's sending away for her new BMW or Mercedes delivery -- which I doubt since it never did arrive).

 

John (Christmas 2005)

Great John,.. Are they still maried ?

The way things go in Ukraine, she's probably both pregnant with one child and has another; he's probably got one or two girlfriends on the side, and that probably was one messaging him.

 

I met one guy who told me, as so many Ukrainiam men do 'I love my wife, she's a wonderful woman and she gave me a great child', but when it finally comes out, it's revealed that this man has 'affairs of the heart' as so many of them do. . . . It's kind of a Ukrainian men thing and the women seem to participate in it.

 

The women are beautiful and seem to participate in their 'conquests', and may actively seek to wrench a man away from a married couple possibly to prove herself and possibly for the security of a prosperous man to provide for her -- and a loving man, no doubt too, as love is everywhere in Ukraine, with couples kissing openly all the time, especially when it starts to warm up, as there are small, cramped living quarters, so lovers are driven outdoors. Anyone who doesn't like a PDA (public display of affection) had best stay away from Ukraine in the Spring (the first warmish day was yesterday as rivulets of snow washed away the high piles from an unusually harsh and late Winter (it's Spring by the Ukrainian seasonal calendar, but not so you could tell it.

 

Julia Timoshenko, the political candicate who was sacked as 'President?' by the current leader for mismanagement, was the chief beneficiary as her rock concert in Dnepropetrovsk preceded by her speech was greatly attended Sunday by hordes of young people greeting the first warm day since Lord Knows When, and not necessarily because of her televised image (she's very pretty though . . . very pretty . . . an icon for the prettiest of Ukrainian women, but egad does she talk long and overmuch to my ear which doesn't understand her.)

 

So, maybe this guy is a paragon of parental and husbandly virtue . . . who knows? All the above is speculation . . . and if he has kids, he probably loves them to death and spoils them unmercifully.

 

Ukraine once was part of the U.S.S.R. (Russia in vernacular) and singer Sting was so impressed with their love of children he wrote the words 'and the Russians love their children too' to emphasise the commonality between the nuclear East and the nuclear West. (In fact the Russians absolutely SPOIL their children, and Ukraines too, -- soon enough the children will face an ultraharsh life, unless things change -- in Russia they are changing in Moscow area at least -- less in Ukraine and apparently the rest of Russia (but with more hope for the rest of Russia.)

 

John (keeping things up to date)

its a intresting photo :)

it seems at the bad time his girlfriend called him .... :)

 

you have a good imaginary photoes, and i like them.

 

Regards,

 

 

Of course there are many possible innocent explanations -- perhaps the limousine is coming, or his father is sending congratulations or so forth, but 'in the middle of the videotaped wedding kiss?'

 

I never gave this marriage much chance, but then one never knows.

 

One cannot judge a book by a cover and one moment is not a good forecast of a future.

 

(Although I was in Reno once in a casino where my job had me staying at a hotel/casino and a married coupe was fighting because the man was putting all their wedding money onto the gambling tables as his bride cried loudly and literally tried to drag him away, while he insisted he was going to get lucky if he just played a while longer. That was one marriage I think didn't last as long as it took the pair to get home.

 

But you never can tell, can you?

 

But it made a great photo -0- for my fertile imagination -- and I just couldn't resist.

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)