Midnight Supper (What Models Do After Work)

Midnight Supper -- What models do after work, is a 'scene' from one

of life's numerous daily scenarios -- a true 'street photo' although

not taken 'on the street'. Your good faith 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

Another great background capture John. I really like this one because I am sure the conversation was as captivating as the scenery. Thanks for the share.JH

Nina, the model in the foreground, who hails from Chernobyl (nuclear Nina), speaks almost exclusively Russian and Ukrainian, and I speak almost no Russian, so the conversation was a struggle, but we have much else about which we struggle very little -- like the couple in the back -- as we are rapidly getting acquainted. She is my pa druga, so to speak and very gariachi.

 

And younger than my elder daughter. But the grandmothers here, though my age, and even younger appear to be much, much older -- I'm older than Clinton and my hair hasn't turned gray yet (except in small patches at the temples).

 

I cannot convince anyone of my age -- people hereabouts underguess it by 20 years generally or at least 10 to 15 years. By the time a woman equals my supposed age, time has eaten her alive, as it's a rough life in Ukraine.

 

Conversely, in America, I was constantly in demand (on paper) through Match.com, but never got along with any of the woman I met when they found I had a prior young and beautiful wife.

 

And many of the women would break dates at the last minute or suddenly 'run' at the last minute -- the heart of indecision. I simply had enough of that. Nina (and all her sorority so to speak here) keep their promises, arrive on time, behave properly and appropriately, are not attracted to biker types with tattoos and are not forever choosing 'dangerous guys' --- they like 'nice guys' -- in fact lust for them, and don't understand American woman at all and wonder what makes them tick.

 

But unlike American women, Ukrainian women don't at 36 look like they're 25 -- they look like they're 46 or older, victim of scarce incomes, sometimes 12-hour days, endless responsibilities, lack of automobiles and automated machinery for household chores (vacuum? what's that? dishwashing machine? an unheard of luxury. There are clothes washers sometimes but seldom clothes dryers and so forth. But one young woman here looked at a photo I took of Parisian women and asked 'why are they dressed so shabbily?' Women here dress to kill, every day, with everyone wearing high heels every day, even on their winter boots and makeup just to go to the store for eggs, from Ukraine to Romania to greater Russia -- it's the Eastern Europe, slav mentality.)

 

And Nina is about the same age as my cancer-stricken wife (finally determined to be divorced, I think, and for two years it appears), when I first met her (though my daughter 7 years ago was that much younger).

 

But Nina knows how to act in public, and rather than say she's a 'model' which she is at 46 kilograms (and losing weight fast due to a self-imposed regime of diet and great exercise) she calls herself a homemaker with two kids to raise.

 

The couple in back with a model-looking young woman were all over themselves, frequently down in the banquette so just the girl/woman crawling over the man was visible by the back of her white top -- an interesting spectacle, but an awful photo because they just weren't recognizable.

 

I took over 70 photos of Nina, with a really wide angle lens, a Nikkor 12~24 mm getting exposure just right at 6,400 ISO adjusted using 'easy exposure' and Nikon D2Xs's highest exposure, in color and then converted and applied filters to eliminate the fuzzies, though color did help the photo, as I adjusted the ISO perfectly through camera raw, before converting this to B&W.

 

The original looked almost red, due to low color temperature, and failure of Nikon's Auto color temp control to accommodate, but Camera Raw control saved me.

 

(NEF format allows reformatting the color to capture its 'trueness' or any other color temperature -- true color temperature was more like 2,550 Kelvin, which is beyond the range of Nikon's auto color temperature control.)

 

Nina was 5 when Chernobyl blew up and lived 120 kilometers away, so any jokes about glowing in the dark are private and she does not take them well, although, well, she does glow in the dark.

 

I actually had to wait for the couple, background, to come up for air, and for Nina to be absolutely still, as she had a tendency in these almost one second exposures to move slightly, blink, stick out her tongue and otherwise not realize what I was doing; and my lack of facility in Russian/Ukrainian made it hard to impress the importance of a slow shutter speed on her (she knew what I was photographing, however.)

 

Nina has supergood Ukrainian looks and a svelte face and body -- a real head turner, but prefers to define herself through her two young girls, one of whom also is starting as a model.

 

But it was the background for which the shot was made; I don't take shots of erstwhile girlfriends and post them on the Internet for any reason, particularly in this folder/and besides Nina is primarily interested in me and I am only responding (as any red-blooded male would.)

 

And the male in the background was 'really getting worked over', and he also was responding as any red-blooded male would. There was an opening of a fashion house (Gucci I think) nearby to this restaurant which is a Kiev 24-hour affair, set below ground with banquettes, excellent cuisine and hookahs at every table (and everyone now cigarette smoking -- once cigarettes were a rarity among Ukraine women -- even three years ago, and now they're a 'fashion item' -- the Ugly Americans and British American Tobacco have struck again with their cancer/heart disease coffin nails. There now are warnings on packs of cigarettes -- probably at the tobacco company's urgings -- since they know it doesn't deter smoking at all and it could save them in Court should they ever be sued for the inevitable deaths that will ensue.

 

And Nina almost left because of the smoking. Both she and I are horribly allergic to smoke of any form, but we stuck it out as the room cleared post-midnight; there was no other restaurant we knew of open in Kiev at that hour, and I needed energy food; a need she was not about to deny me.

 

Please have a look at my Presentation in making: 'Photographers: Watch Your Background' to see how I first inchoately developed this style of shooting, and how writing about it and illustrating it helped me consciously to create it as a replicable and teachable style.

 

Look, for instance, at the three beach portraits there of a bald headed guy -- dry as toast, except for the frisbee playing girl behind him in the otherwise three nearly identical portraits.

 

There's much to be said about incorporating your background. This photo was little noticed when posted and just now has begun to attract attention. I hope this is not the last.

 

Thanks for noticing.

 

John (Crosley)

Dear John,

 

Thank you you very very much that you've taken the time to respond in such a joyful and large manner at my picture. It is always a delight to read your words, it has been a while so I drink them to the fullest, haha!

 

You're right about my work. The pictures that are more experimental are telling always my personal stories. They come really from my heart and soul and my experiences in life. I don't find it necessary to tell everyone what it is all about, because I hope that the viewer can make a story for themselves (maybe with te same ingredients though :-). Nevertheless they are all so personal and for me it's looking through a diary when I see them.

 

This picture is more about a man who is born again in life then from a historical point of view. Some people live they lifes without looking around the corner, staying on the same path for all those years..... So did this guy, now it's time to bring it a step further and leave all of the securities behind... It's difficult for me to write it in an other language, because it's a little more subtile then this, haha. I hope you can read between the lines :-). Thank you again that you've stopped by John! Warm greeting from Holland,

 

I love this one of your hand John! This picture tells also a story, you sit and see new things every minute, great!!!!

 

Bianca

 

 

For those who are not aware, Bianca is responding to a recent critique of one of her posted works: She is one of the most talented artists/illustrators/photographers on Photo.net and I urge anyone who wants to see 'true' talent to click through to her portfolio: it's stupendous work. I had commented about the same, and she responded accordingly.

 

Bianca, it's all to easy to recognize true talent and just say 'I saw wonderful talent; it far surpasses my own, and it's in another genre. I tip my hat to your great superiority. Each vision you create is truly that -- a vision. My words are not something I make up. I would be delighted to display your works if I had a gallery or even in a home setting if they were for sale (and I could afford them) so wonderful are they, which brings me to the ultimate point -- if you're not creating them for sale, you're missing a large point.

 

However personal they are, they have 'saleability' written all over them for the fine art market, in my personal view and I suggest you get the to an agent or shop your work around if you have not.

 

Any of your works are clearly superior (and apart from) anything I ever will attempt to do, so I can say these words freely.

 

I am a great fan, not because I even know who you are, or even your age or personal biography (no, I haven't read it, isn't that hubris on my part?) but because I think I can spot talent and you have a surfeit.

 

If you ever do start selling your work, let me know, will you please.

 

I'm a fan from the first view.

 

John (Crosley)

 

(and if you ever need kind words about your work from a photographer, just write me or otherwise contact me, I'll make your cheeks red)

 

JC

 

 

Hahaha, you already did John!!!! My cheeks are still red :-):-)

 

Yes, I sell my work for a couple of months now. But it is very low profile. I am still working on my own website, which will be running in a few weeks, because I am participating in two major photo festivals in Holland this year. In september I have my first solo exhibition for a month in a true gallery, so the prices will be up in the future, haha...... I think everything will fall in to places, because I have never felt the urge to make stuff like this. It is a true addiction!!! And it is such a wonderful feeling that people like yourself are liking it..... I am very grateful. Thank you again for your lovely words. They make my day!!!! Greetz

But when they are well-deserved they are easy to write.

 

What is impossible for me to write is false words of praise.

 

Your paths and mine never naturally would cross is my guess, yet I am a great admirer of the little work of yours I have seen.

 

I used to 'hate' the work of Picasso, before I genuinely understood it, and then I became a big fan; yours is not easily understood, but it is a little less straining on conventioin than his and can be understood, I am sure, on many levels and is pleasing aesthetically, without knowing or your revealing its many secrets, which undoubtedly the gallery people will be trying to pry from you.

 

Your last missive to me was, shall we say, pregnant with ideas. And I'll leave it at that. I'd like to be notified of your exhibition; a simple placement on a computerized calendar might be enough for this and future exhibitions.

 

Good art does not know the age or sex of who created it, generally, though they might be revealed by its themes and the abilities shown in creating it.

 

I'm happy to turn your cheeks red.

 

Soon enough that may turn impossible as you realize your place and if you keep up your output.

 

You should consider PhotoParis 2007, also, while it's still early enough -- it's a large expo of fine photography; and I think yours deserves the exposure your get there. I was there for 2007 in Oct.-Nov.

 

You'll find many kindred spiritws there, I think, and my sort of photography is hardly represented at all and then only historically -- e.g. Doiseau, Cartier-Bresson, Romy, etc.

 

With kind regards,

 

John (Crosley)