International Day of Women

A young woman celebrates International Day of Women this March in

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine with a freshly-lit cigarette, as her

boyfriend, a balloon vendor, looks on, somewhat suspiciously.

Cigarette smokingby women, a known health hazard, recently was

virtually unknown in Ukraine, but heavy marketing efforts in Ukraine

have dramatically increased smoking rates by young, attractive women

who are attracted especially to 'thin' cigarettes as fashion

accessories and tobacco company claims that cigarette smoking

(falsely) is just a lifestyle choice. Your ratings and comments 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 inprove my photograph. Thanks! Enjoy!

John

That's 'hot dog' in the background tent kiosk spelled in 'cryllic' alphabet--Russian language, However the 'hot dogs' are made of 'meat' that's practically strained and full of fat and not very appealing to the Western taste.

And, even more than their western counterparts, Russian/Ukrainian hot dogs are made of what American schoolchildren have long called 'mystery meat' -- probably lips, ears, brains, and testicles. . . . '

Mustard anyone?

M M M M M . . . . . ! ! ! ! !

John (Crosley)

The topic of cigarettes in eastern Europe is very interesting. I made two business trips to Budapest, Hungary in 1993. Their economy had just been liberated and everything western including Marlboro cigarettes were in fashion.

At that time among factory workers, during meal breaks it was common practice for a person to place a pack of cigarettes in the middle of table and share them. By today's standards in this country, that would get somebody tossed out of a restarant or workplace.

The red and purple saturation are good and the skin tone looks realistic for winter.

Your comments on cigarettes in Eastern Europe are very interesting -- the Marlboro Man (one of whom died of lung cancer) is one of - if not THE - most valuable advertising symbols in the world.

It is ironic that on this widely-recognized (elsewhere, not in the US) day of celebrating the status of women she should be puffing on a coffin nail - having successfully been manipulated, without her knowledge, into thinking that smoking somehow is fashionable, as an increasing number of young Ukraine women think, and it costs money which is in VERY short supply.

So, there she is, celebrating her high status as a women (on one day only which is ironic in itself) with a cigarette, when WHO statistics indicate less than 10% of Ukrainian women 4 years ago used cigarettes, and the number is increasing among young, beautiful women (to my dismay personally, as well as to their life expectancies).

And it's such an irony that they celebrate ONE day of deference in a male-domonated society, when in America half the law school students (more than half) are women and same with entering attorneys and bar admittees, which says more about the status of women in the U.S. than anything, I think for the future.

And it was a heavily overcast, cold winter-type day (Spring as they count it, but winter by the calendar) as she smoked and celebrated with very flat lighting, so color saturation was excellent.

And more interesting to me was that this is a most overlooked photo -- and a most interesting one, with the guy peeking over the top of the balloons -- I think it adds a special touch to the photo (only one in which he's doing it, making it more than a portrait with balloons).

It seems completely to have been overlooked and I think it's one of my better, more interesting captures.

But that's Photo.net. It'll surprise you many times.

Feel free to jump in any time and offer an observation and/or a reminiscence; it's what makes these pages richer.

John (Crosley)