The Pay Telephone (B&W Ed.)

This is a pay telephone I encountered recently in an semi-urban

ghetto area in the U.S. Your ratings and critiques are invited and

most welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please make a

helpful and constructive comment; please share your superior

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Really beautiful work, John!

Thanks Ruud,

 

This comes in color also.

 

An accolade from you -- an extremely able and successful photographer -- carries extra weight.

 

See Photocritiq.com for the color version.

 

It might be even more to your 'color' tastes.

 

John (Crosley)

This is great, John! Very well seen and excellently executed!

Thanks for words of encouragement.

 

It didn't do as well as I expected when I put it up for review, but that's the name of the game.

 

Sometimes it takes time for an image to 'work'.

 

I like it very much myself (I am not always 'in love' with all my images.)

 

Best to you,

 

John (Crosley)

This picture seems like a study of contrasts. It's the abstract (mural) vs the real (phone booth). Every artistic work carries a message. No message is a message in itself. The range of tones is great and one wonders what the painting on the mural represents. Could it be the depiction of chaos? an industrial jungle? perhaps its creator is the only one that knows of its significance. The phone booth placed against this work seems like a projection of our subconscious thoughts - a yearning to find an answer to the riddle of the mural. We want it to "talk" to us and reveal its meaning.

I'd venture to say this is Mexican-American graffito, or at least made by a graffiti artist, and that in some ways this is Mayan in origin and quintessentially Mexican-Central American (you might have some insight into that).

 

In any case, look at Mayan stone carvings and see if you see some connection.

 

Of course, photographing someone else's 'art' is outside my preferences; where's the 'artist'in me if I do that.

 

But making the phone booth seem to be some sort of contiuation or counterpoint to the background art -- that's my own 'artistic' contribution, and it's here in black and white (elsewhere in color and the wall mural is in shades of blue in that posted photo. (I don't post references on this service to that service out of respect to both site owners.)

 

Best to you and by the way, great speculation on the meanings -- far greater than I could ever get into without pretty great reflection; are you also a philosopher (or poet)?

 

John (Crosley)

You are right. I see some slight "Mayan" influence in this. I am not a philosopher nor poet, just an opinionated observer.

Great tones, and composition. I hope that the creator has just one own instruction to put that phone together with just one technician without any disturbance, yes, it looks like a jungle.

If you go to LA, you'll find similar work to this in various works of graffiti in poorer neighborhoods, often considered emblematic of Mexico/Central America.

 

I have a minor bit of work I've done in what used to be called 'Watts' or South Central L.A. where I can be found sometimes when I'm in the US.

 

I have a newfound interest in Los Angees, a city I once avoided because its manmade pollution was so great I could not breathe. Now city air often is very breathable, and I am happy to go there sometimes now.

 

My best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

Thanks for your comment; indeed it does look like a jungle, doesn't it?

 

I think that's what the creator wanted. One can see 'palm fronds' and a bird's feet, but not 'realistic' feet -- more 'ritual feet' from some costume or another.

 

A jungle is by nature pretty disorganized looking and that 'feel' is conveyed here in the background.

 

By placing the phone where I did in the photo, I tried to bring some proportion and symmetry to this, as well as 'mirroring' because the black and white of the phone with its parallel lines contrasts with and still 'mirrors' the jungle-like appearance of the background art work and 'repeats' the element of strong black and white lines which this photo consists of.

 

My best to you, and thanks for commenting.

 

John (Crosley)