Ukraine Noir (The Streets of Ukraine)

Freedom from Communism and then the 'Orange Revolution' brought lots

of freedom to Ukraine, but for old people like this pensioner,

walking with cane at night, it brings precious little else, since the

buying power of his pension has been drastically diminished, and he

undoubtedly leads a very spare existence; in the background is one of

numerous casinos that dot the business centers and main streets of

almost every Ukrainian city -- this particular city is

(Dnepropetrovsk -- Dne pro pe trovsk). Your ratings and critiques

for this intentionally noir (black) photo 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 me improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John [this is a variation on 'film noir' or 'cinema noir' a

type of film making in which 'darkness' predominates]

I like it!

Bob, we have sometimes very different tastes/and share some underlying core values. There certainly was no guarantee 'anyone' would like this, let alone one of the 'stars' of Photo.net.

Thanks so much.

John (Crosley)

I understood my own photo . . . and why I had taken it, chosen it for Photoshopping, and even why I worked it up so 'darkly' as I did here, and one evening when browsing my folios, looking for 'lost gems' I said to myself, 'I wonder if anyone will appreciate this one . . . for me it's a lost gem . . . and I wonder if anyone would share that feeling?'

After all, I felt just 'blah' about it for two or three months after taking it and working it up . . . (that's an icy walk there in the foreground, although the snow was either blown away or possibly just melted).

Now I understand this photo, and finally have appreciation for it.

I'm no cinematographer, but if I were, I would enjoy making a movie with scenes like this one, and filled with sounds of the night, like the sounds of this man's shoes and the rubberized tip of the cane hitting the pavement while the ringing of slot machines and other slot machine sounds came from inside the casino (yes, that's an open door, despite the cold . . . I didn't get mixed up --- it probably got too smokey inside if that's possible in a casino. And, this being Ukraine and all, probably an occasional smashing of a beer bottle in the distance from some group of youths . . . because that's what they do, periodically . . . Lady Bird Johnson certainly never came to Ukraine . . . people intentionally break beer bottles, often right in front of police (or drop them) and I've only once seen anyone arrested for anything (and he ran about 100 miles an hour while the special police ran just as fast after him).

'Beautify America' was Lady Bird Johnson's campaign to dejunkify America. Because of her we now have only a few billboards, country roads which used to have roadsides that sparkled from broken glass from soda bottles and beer bottles (mostly broken beer bottles tossed from vehicles), now are sparkling clean for the most part, and in general, America is a very clean country. There are zoning laws in most areas (not Houston, Texas, though -- they can probably put a refinery right next to your trillion dollar mansion if you don't pay the right person . . . or own the oil company yourself, or better, right next to your child's school . . . I understand, and in Houston the air is pretty bad -- for America). China however is no place for anyone with asthma or bronchitis or who doesn't want to get bronchitis -- I understand half its populace has breathing problems from coal burning . . . which is starting to drift across the Pacific to (of all places) California, Oregon, and Washington, but Oregon and Washington have rain which 'scrubs' the air, while California's air often has not been 'rained out' so much, or so it has been told to me.

In the US, Los Angeles's air, once almost the thickness of soup, is almost sparkling clean much of the time . . . and mostly free of ozone . . . the vast majority of the time.

But Ukraine?

It needs dejunkifying. It's air, for the most part, is OK outside of certain industrial cities, including one nearby where there's a 'lead smelter' and the only really 'dotty' person I know grew up next to that smelter . . . anyone thinking 'Mad Hatter' from 'Alice In Wonderland'?

Ukraine needs a leader or leader's wife like Lady Bird Johnson, as do most former Communist Countries/Republics, who will urge the citizens to clean it up and keep it clean, although what I have seen of Poland is looking much better, though it's been Western' for a very long time -- the longest of any former Soviet satellite.

However, this can be said about the Ukrainians. They pick up their broken beer bottles very quickly. If there's a rock concert and every 15 through 60 year old has a beer bottle and many of them get broken (even stomped on), there soon after the concert appears a small posse of workers and babushkij who will either pick up the empties for the deposit or sweep away the detritus, and the next day, nobody will no anything unusual happened -- no green slivers of glass to pierce young feet, though it would be a feat of daredevildom to go barefoot almost anywhere in Ukraine because of broken bottles and other walkway (and vacant lot) hazards, so far as I can tell, except possibly in parts of Kiev, some parts of which look very much like parts of Europe, though the people there remain pretty impoverished in general (with pockets of great wealth).

So, tap . . . tap . . . tap (smash of beer bottle) . . . tap . . . tap . . . (ringing of casino's slot machine winner bell) . . . tap . . . tap . . . into the night.

John (Crosley)

I forgot the squeaks from his shoes. . . .

John (Crosley)