'I'm Sorry, Old Woman, -- Time to Move Over'

An elderly woman beggar, crying over her plight, becomes part of a

larger message as she unwittingly sits in front of a photograph of a

seemingly benevolent store front window model. 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 photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Nice pic and makes you think of our unbalance's, in this world.

I feel sorry for the woman above.....in a short time positions will be inverse.

 

The picture is truly dramatic.......great photographer! Ciao Franco

This picture is very strong since its a story telling one , great composition and exposure , keep up the good work

Yes, there are many 'unbalances' as we as humans see them, but in the greater scheme of things, isn't this just what happens in nature? The 'Eskimos' -- the former name for the Inuit people of the north, just know when to move on as they age and become a burden on their society, so they just move out onto the snow, ice, and cold to die a quick, quiet death . . . in Ukraine things are more drawn out.

 

If she were a man in that country, she could have been dead probably 20 years sooner, from a diet full of fat, too much vodka, small hopes for the future, work accidents and smoking. She's 'lucky' to have lived so long (though in fact she may have been younger than I, for all that is known, for sometimes 'old' people really are not so 'old' as they look in Ukraine -- small incomes take a HUGE toll on people. I have known 40-year-olds who looked 70 because they smoked, or, in particular, one woman who worked in a U.S. perchlorethylene (cleaning fluid) plant who had more wrinkles than George Burns just before he left this mortal coil.

 

(Notice her long skirt is hiked up and her stockings rolled down so one could see the sores/swelling on her legs (more to take pity on her).

 

Thanks for the comments, I was sure this would get a slew of 3/3s, and have been surprised/never underestimate the PN raters.

 

John (Crosley)

Yes, the whole point of the photo is that 'positions will be reversed' in a short time.

 

Or, time marches on, and the young always replace the old, and we each have our 'glory day' no matter how much we may (at that time) rankle at our status at not having the privileges that go with say, age -- such things as power, status (sometimes), wealth, etc., which often are age-dependent, (unless you're a 'Paris Hilton type -- a complete anomaly -- the greatest argument alive for the U.S. NOT repealing the inheritance tax.' (copyright 2006, John S. Crosley).

 

I'm frankly surprised at the acumen of the PN viewers who have commented (and rated) as this is not a spectacular photo from a 'print' view, but has a special message which it appears is very strong.

 

In fact, as I photographed, this woman spied me and leaned over even more than usual, which revealed the fingernails of the poster/photomodel giving this photo even more of a poignant touch. Of course I dropped a copious amount of money -- by Ukrainian standards) in her cup (concealed in this photo).

 

As I remarked in another photo, taken of one her cohorts (there are only three of four such people in the area) that the other woman woman protested her photo's being taken because she didn't want her children to know she was begging, but I thought just the opposite, she should be ashamed of her children FOR NOT SUPPORTING HER. Likewise for this woman if she has grown children who don't contribute to her support -- there's no shame in begging if a meager pension won't carry you along.

 

(An aside: I was (am) married to a Russian woman whose family has great character, who had an extremely aged and sick aunt who had high authority/respect under the failed Soviet regime and was a pensioner with almost no money for food, her meager pension all eaten by inflation, who lived communally in a room in a shared flat in Central Moscow, and who had almost nothing to eat at all, just potatoes and a few onions which she kept in her part of a small, shared refrigerator with her flatmates.

 

(I only met her when my then-fiancee and took me to meet her great aunt, a woman who had had four or five heart attacks--infarcts-- and we loaded ourselves with three or four kilos --2.2 pounds per kilo --of bananas and other fresh fruit to leave with the old lady.

 

At five a.m. the following morning, we got a telephone call from the old woman at our Moscow flat. 'Please, she begged, could I just have one banana, from the fruit you 'accidentally' left at my room?' begged the confused old aunt, not realising the fruit had been left for her as a present. 'I've been sitting up all night, staring at that fruit, and I can hardly stand the torture, I'm so hungry,' she explained.

 

Now that's integrity.

 

The old aunt was too sick from heart attacks and coronary/respiratory insufficiency to go out and beg, but she would have been well within her rights to have done so, and there would have been no shame on her/only on her family if they had known of begging, and could have provided for her.

 

(pardon the aside -- it's a great story, isn't it?) (The old woman's great nephew, as I understand it, is now a Putin aide, currently, though I never have met him and never will; Putin was not in power then.)

 

John (Crosley)

Yes, this is a story-telling photo, and that's probably its only reason for existing.

 

This was taken at night, and to do so I had to stand in the street -- the busiest street/boulevard in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine a city of about 1.5 million people, (and more than a few drunk drivers, though not really that much traffic if truth be known, since few own cars, but those who do race them down that street, drunk, sometimes at 70-80 mph, so I had to listen carefully for auto tires and racing car engines.)

 

This aged and ailing woman saw me in the street (I was turned around looking away and suddenly turned toward her but she spied me anyway), and she looked down even more, but in doing so, she revealed the rest of the hand of the photomodel, adding more of a poignant touch to this photo -- suggesting even more clearly that the young, beautiful photomodel was 'easing her out of the picture' -- so to speak (or write).

 

And you comment that this is a good picture (technically good, I think); well I have a surprise for you. This started out as one of the worst photos I have ever posted; but it had promise.

 

It was a color photo with horrible color balance with light of varying color from varying sources, confusing the color sensors of my camera and unfixable through any available photo editing software without spending weeks of time on it.

 

As is usual in such cases, I converted to B&W. My rule is -- if color is not essential or doesn't help, then convert to B&W, especially if there's story to tell, and that was very helpful in this case.

 

But beside converting to B&W, I also had to clone out a long line of reflection from a passing car's taillight (this was a long exposure -- a second or more). I was shooting handheld with a VR II lens, which kept the background steady and luckily she didn't move, and I'm a steady holder, (VR II helps greatly).

 

(vibration reduction second edition).

 

Then there were security wires through parts of the window which ran through and interfered with the photomodel's white coat/belt, etc., and those had to be cloned out, which actually did not take long. Other miscellaneous reflections that interfered had to be dealt with.

 

Finally, I thought, because of the huge difference in exposure values between the old woman and the photomodel, I would use shadow/highlight filter to even the out, but it was a huge failure -- so I reverted to use of 'curves' to bring this exposure into the 'viewable' range. It was then successful.

 

All this sounds like a great amount of work, and a year ago, I could not have done it, but it didn't take so long, and the photo's message was worth it.

 

When I saw on my viewfinder the model's fingernails almost inching the old woman out of the frame, I understood that this was a photo worth saving.

 

Thanks for the kind comment.

 

John (Crosley)

This photo has six ratings as I write this -- it was a 'stinker' if one viewed it first on the camera or in Photoshop before the renderings, above and is carried only by the 'message' -- the hand and the bent over old woman.

 

Today I posted a photo I thought might be worthy of 'Photo of the Week' (I never will get that honor and don't lust after it) -- but it was technically a very good photo, but got only mediocre ratings, though all who saw it on my viewfinder screen agreed it was a stunning capture.

 

But this photo, once its very bad technical hurdles were overcome, appears to be doing very well, and that speaks (for once) very well for the Photo.net raters -- unexpectedly so, for I had expected a string of 3/3s for this photo -- live and learn; but I wouldn't have taken it down for anything, since it fits my 'style' of photography and my mindset.

 

And it already has received some first-class comments, which shows some viewers DO look at the photos they rate (in answer to a frequent criticism voiced in the site feedback forum).

 

John (Crosley)

How much of the success of this photo is due to a well-written caption?

 

I think this particular photo speaks for itself and may have rated well without any caption at all, but I think I wrote a good enough caption for it, suggesting the empathy one might find in the photo, and sometimes a caption may reveal something viewers do not see unless their thoughts are jogged.

 

Another possible caption: 'Easing Her Out of the Frame'

 

And variations.

 

Sometimes a well-written caption can literally 'save' a capture that might otherwise be misunderstood (See my color photo 'Don't Look Back, I Think

We're Being Followed' with a man and his barely seen son walking along a building with a school of salmon (above and behind) appearing to 'follow' them, as in a 'Larson' cartoon.

 

I think caption writing does have some worth, at least in marginal circumstances.

 

For what it's worth.

 

John (Crosley)

Like the contrast in this image, excellent street photography; although I didn't like the caption as I found it too harsh (purely personal opinion).

 

Regards...

John, do you lead an alternate life that could be considered Tolkienesque? ;)

 

Not that you'd confirm such.

 

Nice photo BTW, although I se it as the old woman being offered comfort without her realising it - or some such.

What a surprise to me that this photo has been so well received!

 

So often what I consider 'good street photography' goes underheralded on Photo.net -- maybe it just has to have a great big message with it, such as this.

 

It didn't start out thusly, but when the old woman bent over, the hand was revealed more, including those fingernails.

 

Caption-writing is an art -- I've had objections to my captions before, and one can't please all the people all the time, but that's the price for going into the kitchen to 'bake something', one has to be able to 'take the heat' if someone doesn't like the preparation.

 

Pulok, now that you've made it an issue, I am interested, what would you consider an appropriate (and possibly 'snappy' caption) that maybe calls attention to the fact that in this large photo there's an old lady crying on her cane, stockings pulled down, skirt hiked up to reveal swollen legs, and a hand from a photomodel just barely seeming to touch her?

 

I gave it my best shot (as I see it, being in Dnepropetrovsk and living among the people some portion of my life these days) and I'm curious about yours. Life is tough in this former Soviet country, although I learned some good news from a Fulbright scholar last night who is studying the economy, which I'll distill in some further comments, along the line.

 

So, Pulok, how would you caption it, short and snappy, making sure no one misses the point (whatever you think the point is)?

 

:-))

 

John (Crosley)

I see this photo through the eyes of one who has lived life in Dnepropetrovsk, and watched the old people (in this and other Ukrainian cities), pensions depleted, pick through the trash for a living, and even watching a woman (In Odessa) gleam with admiration after having found a half-full milk bottle and smelling it, deemed it fresh and chugged its contents -- all from crawling around in one of their big, blue plastic curbside trash collection containers.

 

Life is tough, here.

 

I do like your point of view, though, and perhaps mine is a little jaded.

 

I see life in a more Darwinian point of view, perhaps because I'm caught in a point where my mind is more in synch with the young woman, above, which is the circle in which I move generally, whereas my body is more in synch with the woman, below -- though I'd never 'stoop' (to use an apt description) to begging, no matter what.

 

 

Ben, you ask:

'John, do you lead an alternate life that could be considered Tolkienesque? ;) '

 

And my answer to the question which you seem to say I would not ever answer is: maybe, if I understood the question.

 

Certainly my last few posts would give some indication of unusualness, from a bucking bronco rider, a cowboy clown running from a rampaging bull, a woman ringside at a rodeo, to a Parisian airport to a Dnepropetrovsk boulevard (all taken and posted in serial order).

 

Does Tolkienesque mean peripatetic, or as though I had some sort of alternate universe -- I live a life as though I had some sort of that, I understand, though my ticket here cost only $78.10 plus bus fair from Kiev -- about $15.00, more or less, and the view here (not of the ocean, like from my house by the Pacific, is of the world's most gorgeous women -- what was a little-known secret until I just wrote this).

 

And they're proud of it and go to great lengths, especially in summer, to make sure everyone knows it. No false sense of modesty.

 

Q. 'Do you think you're pretty?'

 

A. 'Yes, I'm a beautiful woman/girl'

 

Quite different from the Western way of thinking, but they have more to be proud of, than say the women in my section of California, but at about 35 or so, they begin to turn into women like this chrone, and it's inexplicable to most (though I've written about it, and it's no longer an unexplained phenomenon -- and no, they don't all go marry American men, though those that do, keep their looks often into their '60s, defying hometown odds.).

 

But Tolkienesque is beyond me, because I never read him, never read even a synopsis of his work and never ventured toward the movies. Tolkien is a complete vacuum (void) in an otherwise full life.

 

Maybe you would explain in more than a few words, and I can try to answer then.

 

My candidness might (or might not) surprise you.

 

John (Crosley)

I edited this photo without blowing it up 'large' and there were some editing marks left.

 

I'll re-edit it and within 24 hours post the 'cleaned-up' version.

 

I want my work to look good, too.

 

Who ever thought this photo would get more than 3/3s? I thought it was just a 'vanity photo' -- a posting for me only.

 

John (Crosley)

Sorry John, I was being deliberately cryptic, Tolkien wrote about Elves amongst other creatures. I'm just putting 2 & 2 together to come up with 5.

Alice in Wonderland style.

 

Unless you were thinking of Photo.net elves (and how would they ever have any relationship to me or my postings anyway?), I am befuddled by any relationship between Tolkien (and his elves) and my posting.

 

'Who?' I actually seem to recall the caterpillar said as he puffed on his houkah in 'Alice in Wonderland' . . . . (Do I have it right . . . I don't have access here to any backup references and am going stricly from memory so be forgiving of me?)

 

And of course, that begs the question -- what WERE you smoking, anyway?

 

Please pass the houkah. . . .

 

It will go well with tonight's shashlik (and the beautiful women of Dnepropetrovsk, strutting their stuff, for an audience of approving and ever-appreciative menfolk).

 

;-))

 

John (Crosley)

PN Elves.

 

Anyhow, it matters not.

 

You've mentioned a couple of times how you would never be picked for POW, being an Elf would probably satisfy that conundrum.

my point was that caption is harsh, not about it's length etc. But It's true that caption is very close to the reality.

 

Regards...

Really like this one, John. Very well composed with a strong message of opposites.

Your 'connection' -- me to 'elf' is something I never considered, not that I have no interest; I'm an avid supporter of Photo.net (just look at my contributions to the supply side of things).

 

No, I seriously think that my sort of photography has little truck -- or at least until recently 'had little truck' with the elves who pick the most wonderful photo for discussion purposes.

 

if they had, they would have picked one of my earliest posted photos -- especially the first one I posted -- my best photo ever, which is what tipped me off.

 

It is true that this week's POW conceivably is something I could have shot, had I been in those circumstances, but that takes nothing away from the wonderful Photographer of the Week, whom I admire heartily. He obviously is as dedicated as they come, judging from the sorts of posts he makes; including one from a shopping center in the middle of the night, I recall, and Tim H. is exceptionally talented.

 

In fact, POW criteria seem to be a little more all-inclusive now, which is something I endorse greatly. I think the criteria that a photo had to score 6/6 or better was a major impediment to the 'street' photographer or 'documentary' photographer from ever being considered, as such high-scoring shots often end up being trite/cliched shots which are just tooo obvious (there are exceptions).

 

Street photography (if you don't mind the belaboring . . . you'll get it anyway if you read on) in my mind is about trying to photograph not just aesthetically, but in another way than many.

 

If one defines intelligence as 'the ability to identify significant relationships' the 'street photographer's' task (as I see it) is to identify 'visually significant relationships' or to make it appear, through the lens that there are significant relationships (whether or not they really exist) in an artful/amusing/clever/interesting or otherwise pleasing manner.

 

(I didn't think that definition through other than just to write it as it flowed through my head, so don't hold me to it.)

 

So, 'street photography' is an entirely different animal than landscape photography, travel photography, portrait photography, commercial photography, nude photography, etc., and extremely hard for many people to judge.

 

I noticed from postings that some of the ablest 'street photographers' and one able critic who seldom appears now but was a featured critic -- appeared (and not by happenstance) to be attorneys or have had law school training even if not then licensed to practice law. Think 'Pogue Mahone' and 'Bailey Seals' and if Bailey Seals is not an attorney, he surely writes about obligations as though he were one, and a capable one.

 

Why attorneys? They have at least a doctoral education equivalent, almost all have passed the bar (California once let some practice who did not take the bar, practice law, though that practice long seems passed, but it still does not require even taking law school to take the bar; in fact I knew one woman who studied with an attorney as a prequalifier to taking the bar. And she passed, and long was quite successful as an attorney -- though missing some very important things -- and later the attorney she studied under became a California judge, then a federal judge, but wound up getting impeached -- for tipping the Mafia to an impending search warrant -- and then she fled to Brazil (to avoid testifying against him).

 

Anyway, almost all one learns in law school is how to discern intelligent distinctions -- in fact the persons who do the best in law school are biologists and botanists as undergrads -- people whose undergraduate degrees involved dividing things up into smaller things and parts -- think genus, phylum, species, etc., which is just what attorneys do, only with ideas and concepts that would dull the sharpest mind.

 

And, attorneys, used to winning through the use of overwhelming intelligence and persuasiveness, are left useless when armed with a camera -- it's hard to persuade with a camera, since a 'capture is a capture' unless it's manipulated heavily through Photoshop, but the one 'creative' way for such well-educated people is to do 'street photography' in which one recognizes and then 'captures' intelligent relationships (again, whether they represent 'real' or 'imagined' relationships').

 

I have no knowledge of Balaji's profession, and 'street photography is not the sole bailiwick of frustrated attorneys -- I was one before I went to law school. I know of several wonderful 'street photographers' who have never had a 'legal' thought in their lives (double entendre intended).

 

It just seems that in order to be a good 'street photographer, one must understand 'significant relationships, but not all photographers or would-be PN photo critics can understand such relationships so many posted efforts at street photography (unless they hit you over the head) fall flat with the raters, for reasons that lie with the critics, rather than the photographers, and earn the scorn of some 'street photographers'.

 

Hence, my observation that my work would never be chosen for POW, and why I never lusted after it.

 

I had better things to do; like go out and try to take photos involving some modicum of intelligence. I live near the beach and haven't taken a beach photo or sunset seriously since I joined Photo.net, it seems -- that's territory that's heavily covered here. I think I could compete in that arena, but why bother; I can do some things others can't and do them well.

 

So much for meandering thoughts.

 

'Street photography' is no better or privileged than any other sort of photography -- it's just what I am more interested in, than, say taking photos of old, dilapidated buildings with bathtubs half-filled with moldy, cruddy rainwater, filled with nude girlfriends which often appear in 'fine art' photography magazines with high price tags attached as part of 'limited editions', and somehow are peddled as being 'highbrow'.

 

A cliche by any name . . . .

 

People where I am think I'm funny.

 

I recently passed through a nearby, but smaller city which people here don't hold in such high regard and took a photo of their men's latrine (a cruddy, three-holer without seats, just three holes in the ground, ancient style with six foot pads, separated by ceramic modesty panels, all very filthy) at that city's local bus stop.

 

I answer the locals when they ask if I'm a tourist, with 'yes, I'm a tourist (in the local lingo) and then say in my recent 'touristic travels' I have a made a wonderful photo of (name of neighboring town), and then show them on my viewfinder screen the photo (very well lighted) of that three-stall, three-hole, indoor latrine, all to gales of laughter.

 

I have a lot of fun with my photography.

 

That's all anyone should ever ask.

 

Maybe that is my 'elfen' humour.

 

John (Crosley)

I'll read that as you couldn't really think of a better caption . . . though the idea as presented by others that the poster woman is giving solace to the 'cane' woman has some validity and appeal to me too.

 

I do go for the juxtaposition, though, and think about their meanings later.

 

Old/young, talented/not talented/smiling/unsmiling (look at my first posted photo of balloons with smiles and a sour-faced balloon vendor), etc. -- all are grist for the juxtaposition photograph.

 

Meanings will attach whenever you place opposites in a photograph in some way that makes them seem to interrelate.

 

Yes, I agree, it's pretty close to reality, and in Ukraine more than the U.S., where women hold their good looks through their forties and even into their sixties.

 

***** a stoy with some relevance *****

 

I heard a story from the woman I married of another, much older woman in her home town in Russia who was in a pen-pal relationship with an American man man she never met in person. (non-romantic). She was burned out, old-looking, and very poor, according to descriptions, but she had a pen-pal relationship that was satisfying to her and him.

 

They wrote back and forth.

 

He began to send her $600 a month (which she didn't ask for, as that would have been 'great shame' for a Russian--it's 'great shame' for a Russian heritage individual to ask anyone but a relative or lifelong friend for money.

 

Anyone who is Russian or Russian heritage who asks for money from an American or European is involved in a scam -- avoid such people like the plague -- they're next going to be involved in a car accident, or their mother will have terminal cancer the doctors won't treat ('but it's curable if I could just gather $4,327.32 within a week for the operation', is the way the scams often are worded . . . or plane tickets are needed so the loved one in an e-mail relationship who has 'fallen in love with you through your e-mails (a nice trick if yuo can imagine) can 'come visit you in America' and then she's in a 'car accident' on the way to the airport as related breathlessly by a 'girlfriend' [cohort] or her 'ticket was stolen' and if you'll just wire some money . . . at the last minute just as your loins are swelling in anticipation of this woman who aches to meet you as well -- she says so in her e-mails, never mind she never has actually set eye on you. (many such 'scammers' are men, too, and one who went to prison was an American man in San Diego with a Russian wife, who had people in Russia picking up the money wired by Western Union for the bogus travel agencies, bogus tickets, bogus operations, bogus auto accident damages, etc. etc. etc. -- even bogus visas are commonly e-mailed to e-mail 'boyfriends' of such 'scammers as 'proof' that woman has a 'visa' and can come to America (but almost to a one they are forgeries, and a quick call to the embassy will reveal the truth of its authenticity.)

 

So, this haggard woman, tired before her time, was blessed with $600 a month in a city where teachers made $11/month (that's right $11 USD per month) and a doctor for life, $25 a month, and she was suddenly rich beyond all reason, and the money kept flowing in monthly. Relatively speaking, she was rich.

 

She bought things, went to restaurants, lived a life of leisure and finally began going to health spas.

 

(She had once been an attractive young woman, but as in much of Russia age had taken its early toll -- too much work and too many potatoes).

 

Well, lo and behold, this once haggard woman, with her pen-pal fortune of $600 per month (and now becoming famous for her good fortune in her formerly industrial city in Russia), once again had become a (slightly aged) beauty, and pretty well-off too, all for writing letters to a kindly man in America who literally had no idea of the enormous bounty his unbidden $600/month had brought. He had picked the figure out of the air, thinking 'times are tough in Russia, I'll send her a 'small sum' and $600 sounds small, but generous enough -- he over-estimated by a factor of about 10 times. She had hit the lottery, essentially.

 

But in the process, she had once again become very close to the ravishing young woman she once had been -- dressed nicely and trimmed nicely through daily health spa treatments and exercises.

 

It is possible what looks like an 'old chrone' in a photo of a Russian female (or male) is actually not very old at all and in this photo, though the swelling in her legs suggests her health is not all that wonderful, I am not sure the woman is all that old at all, despite appearances.

 

I always wonder, when I see Russian and Ukrainian people who are looking very old and 'run down' -- what they'd look like if they had aged in the United States or Europe . . . (or had been blessed to have that $600/month fortune that male pen pal unwittingly (as to purchasing power) had generously bestowed on his correspondent there in that industrial hellhole in Russia).

 

John (Crosley)

I'm out of stories.

 

I'm glad you liked this one.

 

It was a hard one to resurrect, but well worth it, it turns out.

 

John (Crosley)

I just re-read your comment, in view of our colloquy, and NOW I get it.

 

No, and I'm being honest and not evasive in any way.

 

I once was a member of a critics group which was so secret we didn't even e-mail each other (so as to remain completely untainted in our opinions) except to nominate photos to which we then contributed critiques on same to the site as we ourselves decided to make -- it was a product of a little bit of 'protest' against the old rating system, but it also was 'funded' and I am uncertain of the 'funding' source (or even if existed at all); it might have been Administration, or a single member -- I never asked and I never cared. Membership was by nomination and I was honored to be with a great bunch of people whom I all hold in very high regard.

 

And it was great fun, all made somewhat obsolete by the new rating system, plus it was a great deal of work, although some of our product was absolutely delightful resulting usually in an unusually high level of critique, often very well written, resulting in substantial numbers of well-written critiques that suddenly would 'spring up' on this member's photo or that on the TRP -- all started by the 'nomination of any group member (and to which others would voluntarily also critique if they felt the photo met certain criteria of critiqueabiity, and if they had the time and interest.)

 

There were literally no formal rules other than that a good photo had been overlooked and had somehow got buried in the rating system, or, less commonly, a worthy photo had gotten far overrated and maybe it was time to let the wind out of some sails.

 

No, I'm not Tolkeinesque.

 

Sorry to be so slow on the uptake, but you were more than a little obscure.

 

Maybe you should ask Mary Ball -- DC Weddings the same question. . . .

 

Any member of that mostly-defunct critique group (the names of which I shall not disclose) are all members in high regard, both as photographers and writers/critics, and might well themselves now or someday be elfin for all I know, since I have had no personal communication with any of them.

 

I think 'lack of community' was one of the reasons the group eventually fell apart, but avoiding 'community' was a way of keeping the critiques free-spririted and untainted -- absolutely neutral and communal, with any member's suggested critique subject having equal weight as others' based on merit only with absolutely NO politicking.

 

Other than the nominations, which almost always consisted of a posted URL identifying the photo critique request, the communication between members usually consisted of references to prior posted critiques of group members who first posted to that particular photo in question. In a sense, it was very utopian, and like many utopian things, it failed for practical reasons --- time problems, coordination, lack of community spirit, (especially the latter, I think.)

 

Tant pis to have seen it go, frankly. (It is not formally buried, or at least I have not been notified of its funeral.)

 

John (Crosley)

Intrigue abounds.

 

I do agree to an extent with your observations about street photographers, but I think rather than intelligence, the most precious commodity for a street photographer is social awareness, or being 'street wise'. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive, and are possibly symbiotic: there are different forms of intelligence.

Perhaps to the point that I might even incorporate my understanding of what you have written into my own 'formal' definition of street photography, whenever I get around to writing it.

 

Doing 'street photography' when one is 'hot' is like having the razor's edge -- it's almost like being able to see in another dimension -- everything takes on new looks and meanings during those times.

 

And when not, I have my familiar crutches -- the juxtaposition shot is one that seldom fails -- with murals, posters, street signs, etc., providing ready fodder.

 

One has to have a sense of irony, I think to shoot 'street', at least as I do and a certain level of education as well, for many of my 'street' shots relate to themes one can understand only if one has the education to understand why a certain shot may be satirical or a takeoff on a theme one learns in, say, university.

 

And of course, for raters who never were exposed in the first place to that material, those allusions simply go over their heads.

 

Which is why 'street' shooting is photography's poor stepchild here on Photo.net and why I think so many good 'street' shooters no longer contribute, or only contribute for a limited time, then move on, frustrated with the system and the reaction their photos get.

 

But I'm cool with it all, because I understand, and I get a VERY large exposure, and I shoot a wide variety of shots as well as pure street, and with all its 'views' and 'links' and someone asks me 'who' I am, or 'what my photography looks like' I just give them my name (no business card or web site needed) and say "enter my name in Google.com (English version please) and click the link to 'Photos by John Crosley' and remember some photos are the best taken in 'one hour' or 'one day' as opposed to lifetime bests and the site is 'for fun' not to prove how good a photographer I am.'

 

And I meet people again, and indeed they actually have gone to the site, and even skeptical ones find a new affinity for me and will talk about certain photos they liked especially well, which I find remarkable -- many really study the photographs -- they don't try to fake it -- and it's clear they really have enjoyed them, which pleases me exceedingly much.

 

For all its faults (which are diminishing with time) Photo.net offers me very much, and I hope I give much in return.

 

Thanks for the feedback and the colloquy -- I consider you a virtual 'friend' though I've never laid eyes on you.

 

poka (as they say hereabouts)

 

John (Crosley)