Is That a Modern-Day Toulouse-Lautrec on the Left?**+ *

A 'street' tango dancer (Will dance for money in the hat) takes a

break and examines her nails) while a 'little person', left' looks

on a little longingly, and brings back memories of the 'midget'

painter Toulouse-Lautrec hanging around the Moulin Rouge nightclub

with the beautiful dancers, whom he eventually painted -- becoming a

famous artist in his own right. 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

I like this shot! It's filled up with adventure and stuff for my imagination. Tango street sceenes are among my favourites. Your composition works very well. May be you could have cropped it somewhat tighter? See attached suggestion.

Here is the attachement:

Thanks for the contribution. I've only been in Argentina (pronounced Ar Hentina) a short time and tango scenes are not trite but 'overly trite' and I tried to do one better and something completely 'original'.

 

Every artist or would-be artist and photographer, even those of note, has a tango theme in much of his/her/their/its work, usually with the stretched out legs of the female tango dancer at the end of the dance, and I'm trying to avoid that, though one may work its way into my folder before my soon departure.

 

(and soon return, no doubt, as this place is pretty wonderful and prices are oh, so cheap, it's like Paris when a dollar would buy 10 French francs and more recently when a euro was .82 dollars. I had dinnner -- lamb loin chops, potatoes, flan (creme caramel) two coca colas (large) in a super-elite restaurant, all for nine dollars tonight, though you can spend $20 or $30 if you try and want to try the (mostly excellent) Argentine wines -- excellent when the restaurant chooses them to accompany their food as they don't want their restaurant to look or taste bad.)

 

I do like your cropping suggestion; I felt hidebound against such a crop to maintain the ovel of the wall decoration, which I didn't want to crop, and I'm experimenting with not cropping so much on my 'street photos' -- having been accused of very aggressive cropping.

 

In fact, your cropping suggestion is what I would have done (save for the oval and my new 'experiment').

 

Best wishes and thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

Hi John.

I like the idea of your photo; and as I have never been to Argentina, I find it interesting.

I don't entirely agree with the cropping suggestion. If to crop it at all - then I would leave only the dancer and the little man in a tight crop to emphasise their difference in height, clothes, posture... Then maybe a slightly different angle of shot (a bit to the right of the photographer) would have been of benefit.

But, again, as someone who has never been there, I would have really liked to see the dancer in the context of the street. So, maybe, a bit wider angle, another perspective (Do you have another similar shot?).

To summarize, I see two motifs: 1) a tall dancer and a little man; 2) a dancer in the context of the street. Both interesting. But I would prefer to see only one motif in a photo.

Good luck,

- Dima

Impossible. The color knocks me out. Was she aware? The parallel between her and the relief is also fantastic. Such colors. And shadows. Really impressive.

Every photo involves decisions; some are easy to make and natural and almost every photographer would make the same one, the decisions are so obvious; in this case there are many decisions one could make, some not so obvious and many contradictory ones.

 

I happen to like also the 'balance, or inbalance', if you will, of the wall decoration, the woman dancer and the little man, and the use of her shadow, for 'threes', a theme in my photography -- here almost unrecognizable, and this photo will end up in my 'Threes' presentation, I think.

 

So, I have made cropping choices, and others would make theirs, and I took numerous other photos, not of the dancer and the little man, as there was little time, and they were unaware, but of the dancers and their partners who were always being photographed, and they were good captures which were more aesthetic.

 

The fact that there are several comments suggests that I made an interesting capture -- worthy of discussion.

 

Thank you for your contribution and following along. Keep visiting -- there'll be more, both in this genre and many more in many genres.

 

John (Crosley)

She was aware I was there photographing her dancing, as she was there dancing for Pesos ($ is the Peso sign), but entirely unaware of the little man and her juxtaposition to him ;-) and that I was photographing them together. I was crouched or on a small chair/stool in the front (see my position at knee level) with a super-wide angle 12~24 mm lens on a digital camera (D200) so it was impossible she didn't see me, but she was unaware he was in the capture, and she was unaware that I was photographing her examining her nails -- how could that be of interest I am sure she would have wondered.

 

Toulouse-Lautrec made an entire career and reputation painting beautiful women as he scooted throughout the Moulin Rouge (?) nightclub backstage in Paris among the beautiful women, doubtless always heartbroken he was not of full height, as certainly was this man, left, and there she is contemplating her nails instead of him -- how cruel to him -- and all he gets is to sneak a peek.

 

I think this also would look good in black and white -- and perhaps the message might convey better in black and white because the brilliant colors overpower the scene, no matter how beautiful they are -- and they are beautiful. I made a special trip to the Caminita section of La Boca, Buenos Aires just to photograph this dancer and her partner and another set of dancers there, before moving on that day (having been there before.)

 

John (Crosley)

I have a presentation on 'Threes' elsewhere and this photo is bound to be included.

 

In fact, this photo has two pairs of 'threes', though not so easily enunciated.

 

The 'midget', the dancer, and the dancer's shadow are one set of 'threes'.

 

A second set of threes is included in the bas relief on the wall, three persons depicting the past in the 'Caminita' section of 'La Boca' -- a portion of Buenos Aires, Argentina -- one of its earlier parts, next to the Rio Plata (River Plata) where settlers first came before Yellow Fever sent them farther inland (and upriver to less -- then -- swampy land). This land is completely drained now, though very, very poor in the areas surrounding this touristy district.

 

This Caminita district is famous for its multi-colored buildings, so colored (it is said) because dockworkers, after painting boats, painted their houses with whatever small leftovers there were from that day's use, regardless of amount and color -- the results: a patchwork on their houses, and now, an institution and a heritage.

 

John (Crosley)

Da plane, da plane!

 

This indeed could be a scene straight out of fantasy island.

 

Life imitates art once again.

The Star of Moulin Rouge, (which I felt to be an over - rated film), Nicole Kidman, used to be a neighbor or mine, so neighbors tell me, as I never saw her; she and her former husband, Tom Cruise had several homes around the world, and that was their beach house where they took the two kids to be not bothered by the pappparazzi, and I would NOT have photographed them if I saw them, no matter what the rewards.

 

My photos tell stories, not tattletale stories.

 

If I were in the business, I would make a wonderful National Enquirer photographer, but I'm just not that sort of sleaze, and my driving is just too good to be tailgating celebrities and bothering them.

 

But Ben, I didn't see Mr. Rourke, so your theory about this being 'Fantasy Island' falls through.

 

This is a slice of real life, no matter how much it mimics the real life of Toulouse-Lautrec and even the oddball film adaptation.

 

My heart's out to the emotions of this poor 'little fella' as he eats his heart out for a real 'sympatico' look from her.

 

I do have another photo of him and her watching each other from a distance, but it has to be blown up 'very large' and probably two have to be seen together; I think Photo.net is the wrong forum for that.

 

Maybe look for an addendum to this thread, with large-size posts appended for a look-see and you'll see this wasn't just a happenstance shot.

 

Thanks again for stopping by, Ben.

 

By the way, 'da plane lands in the lagoon.

 

John (Crosley)

Perhaps, John, you are Mr. Rourke.

I'm Ricardo Montalban, the Latin Lover, all bronzed, or maybe Khan (whom he played in the second of the Star Treck movies about Khan, the intergalactic warrior). And this poor little fellow is Tattoo, the unfortunate Hector Villechaize, whose life, I think did not really amount to much after 'Fantasy Island'.

 

I'd have loved to be Ricardo Montalban, at least for his good looks -- such a man has a 'step up' in life and if he's tall, a second step up in life and things come easily to such people -- I'm neither, though I don't have things against me as some (so I'm not complaining), but I wish I knew what I know now when I was much younger, because I'm just getting into the groove of things and if I had such knowledge and finesse when I was 20 or 30 years younger, I'd have been unstoppable I think.

 

Those lucky enough to have fathers (or father figures) to teach them such things, are very lucky indeed; I had to make do with doing the opposite of my father in many circumstances, and did very well by that, thankfully.

 

The Bushes, Kennedys and others surely had it made over others, with money and fathers with a huge range of influence, knowledge, pull, Rolodexes, and favors to call in -- their sons were a shoe-in to make it in some way or another.

 

The true wonder is a guy like Bill Clinton -- whose photo is in several restaurants I have eaten in here in Argentina (along with Hillary's in others, standing with the waiters -- Peron style), who made it up all the way to President from Hope Arkansas, product of a broken home. Now that's achievement -- and a touch of class in my book, regardless of politics.

 

BJ or no BJ and 'white lie' or none. After all he didn't start a war on lies.

 

And that's far better than his successor, who so far has been spared the ignominy of impeachment.

 

John ©

To be impeached one must surely be capable of comprehending ones discretions? Well, that would be the irony at least.

 

PS. Rock on Khan. IMHO that was THE Star Trek movie (no, I'm not a Trekkie).

Ben,

 

Impeachment does not require 'scienter' or knowledge of one's indiscretions. It is, after all, a political act, and the most terrible if the impeachment succeeds, but less terrible than what Jefferson prescribed, which is a series of revolutions when the government failed the people (it is not doing so well now, but the people seem mighty complacent, perhaps because there's no draft and the dead are being 'hidden' as well as the wounded; some mighty good 'public relations' and 'spin' designed to keep the press at bay.)

 

And Rock on Khan.

 

John (Crosley)

Mama mia

It helps to have a broad general knowledge when shooting 'street'.

 

How else to take such a photo, if one had no knowledge of the movie or the real life events of Toulouse Lautrec (the midget artist who immortalized the Moulin Rouge nightclub)?

 

Many themes throughout my photos could only be developed because I related them to a theme from philosophy, politics, literature, drama, a saying, a poem, a song, etc., That's how I make my photographs -- or at least how I caption them.

 

John (Crosley)

John,

thanks for your suggestion to see this shot. I like the wider crop, as the oval on the wall is so much part of the scene. Her distracted face whilst standing provocatively is in wonderful contrast to the wrapt attention of her admirer.

 

Interesting that you mention Toulous-Lautrec, as the tango shot of two men dancing in your series reminded me of his painting of two women waltzing. Great series of shots, that I'd love to have taken. If I ever get the chance to visit Argentina I'll definitely look them up!

How interesting that another shot I posted -0- two men dancing inspires you to send me photo of painting of Toulouse-Lautrec of two women dancing -- and where else but at the Moulin Rouge -- of course!

 

I was inspired (not more than 15-20 minutes) by this tableau and the dancers here, as it was colorful and there was action - plenty of it, plus the light was pretty darn strong and the colors were good. What more could one hope for.

 

I think I did pretty well, getting three portfolio shots from one setting -- I seldom will do such a thing. I usually would pass the other two over, no matter how good, as I highly value diversity in my portfolio, even over posting, say, ten scenes from one setting (or sitting).

 

Thanks for the very nice and informative comment.

 

Let me know before you go to Argentina.

 

John (Crosley)