It's a Hard Life**+

'It's a Hard Life' tells a story of 'street' life in Ukraine, for

this middle-aged woman once have may have had physical beauty

equivalent to an agency model or a beauty queen, but a hard life has

taken its toll. Notice the blending of colors between her scarf and

the painting, rear. Your ratings and critiques are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment/Please share your superior knowledge

to help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

The photo shows that life can be hard, its a

reality. Very nice colors this photo has,

together with the background.

This has been sitting in my 'to be uploaded -- someday' folder for months and months.

I'm glad you liked it.

Another, similar one is in my single photo folder.

Thanks.

John

My idiom, Ian, is the image, and the task if to try to make an 'interesting' image on the image plane -- something that will 'arrest' the viewer and the best way is to 'tell a story' I think.

Thanks for letting me know that this one has accomplished that goal.

Contrast her sad look with the idealized 'castle' (out of focus') view behind her in the painting with the sharpness of her apparent unhappiness (and she looked that way all the time).

But the colors of her and the painting are repeated, tying them all together.

That's what a 'street photographer' looks for and laments he can't find very often.

Thanks, Ian, for the comment.

John

I agree, she's so expressive, I just about stopped in my tracks when I spied her. She looks sooo sour . . . a reflection of a hard life, I think.

If she were in the West, at her age, she'd probably be still a young-looking and beautiful looking woman with a smile and a youthful figure and happy face.

Thanks for the observant comment.

John

1. "Notice the blending of colors between her scarf and the painting, rear"

Just to know, did you notice the colors while shooting, or did it pop up to you while reviewing the image?

2. About the "sad east european"/"happy and beautiful rich western" dicotomy... hmmm... yes, she has a sad face, but often I find more interesting a person who has some of the scars of time on his/her face than a 50 y/o woman dressed as she was 20.

Sadness is another issue, often due to extremely harsh life conditions, climate and "national psyche" in eastern Europe... have a look at the last two pictures I uploaded: I took them in southern Italy, my "home", there are the scars of time, but no sadness.

Often we tend to say "rich = happy", "poor = sad"... although money helps, I've seen several cases in which it didn't prove true.

BTW, an opinion on those pictures from you would be highly appreciated!

3. I don't know if you're having issues with disk space or whatever on photo.net, but try to upload higher quality jpegs!!!

4. I like this shot a lot. I wonder what would it be if the empty space (it's called negative space?) would be on the right side... but then maybe there was something distracting over there.