Down for the Count

'Down for the Count' is submitted as a serious work of 'art' with an

attempt at serious compositional values. Please rate according to

its merit as a photograph and remember that 'impact' is one of the

values under aesthetics, although often overlooked. (Please do not

make this a plebiscite on whether or not you lie 'drunks', as that is

not the reason for its posting. 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

This photo does NOT represent a view that a 'street photographer' should be taking photos of drunken bums; though they often are part of the 'street' landscape.

 

If I wanted to take photos of drunken bums, just going north from my former California home to San Francisco would yield a surfeit of drunks and drug users, homeless to the core, and refusing overnight accommodations because they are required to be sober or at least refrain from their habits in order to occupy a free room. (Plus they get kicked out in early morning, and on the street in San Francisco one can sleep pretty late/they complain inmates of 'free housing for drunks' can be violent, so accepting a 'free bed' may mean being assaulted, or even killed while one sleeps.

 

One reason I spend lots of time in Ukraine is that as a 'street' photographer, life there is a little more 'raw'. A drunk just passes out on the sidewalk or street and people step over or around him, maybe cluck a little, but 'that's life'.

 

In California people assume if a photographer is in the 'rough' districts, one's there to take photos of bums/drunks/druggies. That's not what 'street' photography is about. It's about capturing life in all its variations, not just drunks, which are easy targets.

 

In Ukraine,one can take a photo of a beautiful woman one minute, a group of street vendors another and maybe also a drunk like this a third.

 

And this is posted for its 'artistic' considerations, even though it is a difficult subject to admire for its 'art'. Specifically, if was taken (and chosen for posting) because of its composition -- the arm stretched out, the large beer bottle occupying a complementary space to the right and even in the relatively 'empty' space above head and beer bottle, a snippet of street detritus.

 

Plus, in this photo,. one can see the wonderful pattern of the sidewalk/esplanade,, and then, around the drunk, how it has become soiled/washed out/worn. Perhaps that's just photographic 'luck' (of a curious kind), but the sidewalk pattern and its being washed out around the drunk's head, also contributes to the theme of this photo. In the background a jitney bus advertises for fast credit (a new addition to Ukraine--credit), and it's pretty new and shiny, just like the sidewalk tiles nearer to the bus.

 

But as one gets closer to the bum and especially his head, everything gets dirty, spotted, and grungy -- just look at the sidewalk and how it accentuates the scene (or how the sidewalk around the drunk and beer bottle degenerates,, just as the man's presence has degenerated the general scene.)

 

It's one of those things one sees when one starts to look closer at a photograph (thanks Micki F. for helping me develop that insight) --the change from bright and new (pavement and patterned sidewalk tiles), to degeneracy (drunk and spotted, dirty, indistinct sidewalk tiles and detritus.)

 

This is MORE than a photo of a drunk, though it is that too.

 

And look at his body; just how did he happen to get into this circumstance, draped all over like that around that contraption?

 

One can only wonder.

 

Perhaps he got up, and backed into that contraption and fell on his ass, his bottle flew away and he just thought to himself in his stupor 'hell with it -- I'll just lay here -- it's warm enough.'

 

Is that how it happened?

 

Ukraine has a greater drinking problem than the US -- kids can drink as soon as they can pay for a bottle of beer (pivo, pronounced piver), and heavy drinking is part of the Russian/Ukraine culture.

 

But the US has a great number of drunks -- they just get shunted off into special districts because somehow they're 'unworthy' of being mixed in with normal people/not so in Ukraine.

 

And in the US the kids, forbidden from legally possessing alcohol, become binge drinkers the minute they get their hands on alcohol -- downing all the evidence instead of Ukraine where kids stand around with open bottles. Even a bum in the US knows to carry his bottle in a sack/it's 'unseemly' not to in the genteel American culture, and illegal. Not so in Ukraine.

 

This guy did disappear, so probably the cops picked him up, but he was there a long time -- no one was in any hurry to take him away.

 

But somehow the drunks sleeping in public eventually just seem to 'go away' -- meaning someone is picking them up and they are eventually 'sleeping it off' somewhere, I know not where.

 

I've watched Ukrainian cops look at drunks passed out and not say a word or make a move (or call anyone on a walkie-talkie/police radio). But the drunks sleeping in public do disappear, so something is happening.

 

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

Please try to see that this photo was taken for its aesthetic considerations -- 'impact' being one of those considerations, and an attempt was made at good composition.

 

John (Crosley)

 

This image is copyright 2007, all rights reserved.

One more reason for taking and posting this photo -- though not prominent -- is the smiling sun on the bus advertisement (reclamen). (others may see it as a smiling flower, but the point is it's smiling and 'all is well' it seems to proclaim', but all is not well at all, is it?)

 

Juxtapositions like that just seem to sneak into my photos.

 

;~)

 

John (Crosley)

Very good street shot.

Excellent work with a really true story, John!

This is a very difficult shot to post -- it will have some people saying I take great shots of 'bums' (In Russian, one of two languages they speak in Ukraine, the word for bum is bumsha -- not really much different)

 

Fact is I take precious few of those shots -- they start sleeping in the street in Ukraine only in the middle of summer -- the other seasons are too cold, and they're indoors when they drink.

 

It's also a difficult subject matter -- who wants to see passed out guys, and I have several in my folder, but probbly no more.

 

But I just couldn't pass this one up for posting, because it was, in my view, well seen and taken.

 

I'm glad you agree.

 

Thanks for commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

I always like to see what photos you have chosen as those you like.

 

You're very ecumenical, and I think very fair.

 

I trust that when you rate and/or comment, I truly have a good one. Your participation here is a great guidepost for me, for which I thank you. (I didn't look at your rate yet, as the comment is more important).

 

I'm probably done posting bum photos for my lifetime, but the composition (and tones) of this one just said 'post me', and I expected a string of 3s and 4s. Boy am I surprised favorably.

 

Thanks again.

 

John (Crosley)

 

P.S. I looked at your rate -- I'm glad it impressed you so much. I don't think you've rated any other shot of mine so highly -- though I don't keep a record. This is a hard subject to post, so I thank you doubly for fairness.

 

JC

Very impressive documentary photograph. I have no more words with my poor english, but this image remembers me some scenes of my own town when I was a child, although the alcohol problems continue with other manifestations at the present days. Great work, John.

I am sorry you had to grow up with such scenes, but they are universal.

 

In America, the alcoholics or their friends are aggressive and taking good photo of them is extremely difficult, especally up close.

 

In many instances such individuals (or their friends) are criminals as well as aggressive and one might find oneself without one's cameras or even one's health for taking such a photo in a downtown area of the U.S.

 

I also remember such scenes from when I was a youth; then it was in Portland, Oregon principally among American Indians off reservation (no one wanted them for jobs, they weren't trained, their children were taken from them, they had no money and maybe, just maybe, no cultural (and genetic) heritage of alcohol imbibing -- and without genetic heritage a person may be supersentitive to alcohol's influence -- the theory is a Darwinian one -- Europeans whose ancestors imbibed had the most sensitive of them succumb to alcohol or at least not reproduce, whereas American Indians, with cultural heritage of no alcohol use, were not due the benefits of Darwinian 'natural selection'.

 

In Russia (and Ukraine where half the population of so is Russian), the tradition of heavy drinking is built into the culture. The Russians drink vodka, but Ukrainians mostly drink cheaper pivo (piver = beer), although as one young boy told me, they drink the major 3s -- vodka, pivo (beer) and champagne (which is pretty cheap, since it's just home country wine with sparkies, not something from France which there is just as expensive as it is here, and hard for most to stomach as the Ukrainians like their wine sweet generally.

 

I am told there even are fairy tales about drinking that small children learn in Russian culture, and Russians make up half of the population or more of Ukraine, and Russian used to be the official language though now school is taught in Ukrainian . . . mostly, but Russian often is spoken at university level. By the way, one can 'buy grades' at most schools in Ukraine because professors and teachers are so poorly paid.

 

Go figure.

 

Alcohol is both a benfit and a scourge.

 

If it were discovered today, it would be available only by precription, I am sure and there would be a trade similar to the drug trade in it. (Remember hearing about American bootleggers who made liquor in the southern states' woods to avoid paying taxes - revenoo?)

 

This is a difficult subject to photograph for a serious photographer, not some young photographer who has gone to 'skid row' (road) for an easy 'social comment'.

 

The point of this was to make the comment and make it in an 'aesthetically pleasing' manner (with two-seconds for framing and focusing, as who knew if he really was passed out and might awake and lash out at hearing the shutter release)

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

Excellent composition. I can see how it would be hard to photograph. I have yet to muster up the courage to do street photography here in Texas. Though people are for the most part friendly, I always feel as if I am invading their privacy even though they are in public.

I am fairly new to and learning serious photography and all your detailed descriptions of your work is an enormous help. I study them often.

In this photo I get the impression that he is at the end of the line. When the bus is back at the depot for the day they just swept out the trash and there he lies next to the trash can. Maybe now the street cleaners take him and the trash to clean up the streets.

What an excellent story you have derived from this photo; it surpasses even the best I could imagine.

 

I have been told many times my photos tell stories, and yours is the story I best like with this photo, about the bus having been cleaned out, he's out with the trash and the street cleaners should take him away too -- end of the line for him.

 

But who knows? He may just be on a bender and keep down an ordinary job some days; maybe in a factory or working inventory or doing something responsible and just be a binge drinker whose family has to haul him out of his mess several times a year or even less often. Alcoholics come in various stripes.

 

I was hired at AP in San Francisco when a guy who was a newsman there, Earl, made frequent trips to the darkroom, for reasons I did not then know. One day into his vacation, I fielded a call from his frantic wife that he had not come home. The staff assigned me the 'duty' of trying to track him down, telling me he was a drunk. I found him at the county jail in the drunk tank where he apparently had been sodomized.

 

Well, I bailed him out with money from the staff and when the bureau chief asked about it, said it was on personal time (it was) and it was personal business, since he was on vacation, and didn't tell the bureau chief, a real jerk, what I knew exactly, because he was looking to fire the guy and I was a new hire and the staff either would be good to me or not, depending on how well I 'stood with' them.

 

And I didn't want then to be a snitch, two weeks into a new job that might last a lifetime.

 

So, I didn't tell, and then moved on to another AP Bureau.

 

A year or so later, I found in the newspapers/wire service reports a report that the same man whose hysterical wife had called up screaming that her husband was missing (I would have been missing too, if I'd been married to her), had taken a swan dive off the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

He had been fired in the interim, and his life as a newsman had come to an end; he had apparently no more money, so he did the last thing depressed people do; he ended his life (with the Golden Gate flourish) and became another Golden Gate statistic.

 

Funny, but there are almost no Bay Bridge statistics -- mainly Golden Gate statistics, though the Bay Bridge is equally as prominent, just not as 'romantic'.

 

When your body hits the water at hundreds of miles an hour and gets torn apart, you're concussed and dead from the impact, or from drowning shortly thereafter while unconscious, it doesn't make much difference. I find little that's romantic about that.

 

There are periodic forways into trying to end the carnage from jumpers off the Golden Gate Bridge without interfering with the great views that pedestrians get while crossing over -- a San Francisco ritual of high standing.

 

There are cameras, etc., to try to spot jumpers and even a 'safety net' in place, but even erected barriers would only have thesse people trying to climb over.

 

In Japan, women who are depressed just walk into the sea, at least at one place, often taking their children to their deaths.

 

I often think that if Earl had had proper modern medical treatment together with antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and proper counseling (AP had a good medical plan) that he would not have ended up dead, and it was partly the AP's fault, and his death was more than a little work related. In this modern day and age, his widow would receive workers' compensation benefits.

 

At that time, she got zilch, so far as I know.

 

The employer had washed their hands of this guy without getting him to treatment.

 

What a sad end.

 

But this guy in this photo doesn't necessarily have to come to that sad end; he may do this once or several times a year, get rescued for a while, and only when he binge drinks have it happen again. I knew several people who got into accidents while terribly drunk but never had a drink between long-apart and very sporadic binges. To a one, they denied they were alcoholics, but I reminded them that if 'alcohol has caused a problem in your life' more than occasionally, you're an alcoholic.

 

They come in all stripes; not just the everyday falling down drunk.

 

As to photographing this, it was hard and easy. The composition was irresistible, and such drunks on the street only occur in summer here; in the winter they'd freeze to death. But drinking is the national sport, and far too many fall between the cracks without serious treatment.

 

As I recently wrote a friend about neighboring Russia, if you as a guest refuse a proffered drink of vodka, you're seen as 'Crazy', even if you are on the wagon.

 

Fortunately alcohol has never been a problem in my life; I don't drink as a rule and only if it's a small amount for social purposes, for which I'm thankful.

 

I met a woman the other day whose mother didn't have enough milk for her as a child; the mother watered her milk with beer. To this day this terribly bright and very beautiful woman craves beer; once she gets a taste of it, she finds it hard to stop. She just loves the taste (I don't).

 

Smart women in Ukraine learn that men who don't drink to excess can be better providers, and the such men age less quickly; which is one reason Americans are in greater demand over here than native Ukrainian men, at least the older men.

 

Americans are reputed to drink far less; and in the vast majority of cases, the American men who come to look for brides are not alcoholics, which reinforces the stereotype, all to the benefit of prospective American grooms.

 

As to photographing drunks; so long as they're on the street, from time to time I'll photograph one, if it's called for aesthetically, just as everything else.

 

But watch yourself in Texas, people often carry concealed weapons, and as I recall, it's encouraged.

 

Don't end up stopping a bullet. I did once, and it hurt horribly, plus I almost lost my leg.

 

Use discretion on the street. Even that passed out drunk may not be completely passed out, even if you've observed him for 20 minutes.

 

And they have very, very poor judgment.

 

My best to you, Mark; you have enriched this photo.

 

John (Crosley)

I have become criticized at times for 'writing too much' about my photographs.

 

Some argue I should write or say nothing, and for some sorts, that may be a valid criticism.

 

But my writing primarily is aimed both at replying to my many critics and many of them I consider them my friends; the other reason is that I write for the fledgling photographer who has no experience, especially at 'street photography' and needs guidance.

 

There are many moral, personal, ethical, technical and other issues that confront the street photographer which have not been generally gathered together in any cohesive manner that I am aware of, and it has been my task here to share my personal thoughts about this most rigorous part of photography.

 

There are few if any resources on can look at or buy to experience what I have written about from my personal perspective.

 

I don't have the last word, or necessarily even the right word, but at least I have had experiences and shared those experiences and my solutions (or lack thereof) with my readers together with a particular photo, so that those who follow me, such as yourself and I think many others, can gain by my experience (or lack thereof) and know that their personal 'angst' at taking 'street' photos is not something personal to them.

 

It's kind of like a lawyer who has been through a rigorous law school then going to the moview and seeing the movie 'The Paper Chase' with its redoubtable Professor Kingston (I think that's his name), the contracts professor who terrorized everyone and eventually ended up huckstering stocks for a particular brokerage firm (We don't just 'make' money, we EEEAAARRRRN it,' he implored in those commercials. it was a triumph of good casting to place that character in the Professor Kingston role because it told many law students and graduates (attorneys) that their angst had not just been personal though few if any had really written about it in a cohesive way.

 

Law school is terrorizing, especially first year law school.

 

Street photography also can be terrorizing to those who first try it.

 

I've tried to place here some ideas/solutions to commonly-met problems by the 'street photographer', so that I can be for the street photographer much like the writer who wrote 'The Paper Chase' -- a guy who can show you that you share so much with others who attempt the craft, and a craft (and an art) it is.

 

But I try not to terrorize like Professor Kingston -- there's no reason. The subjects themselves are terrorizing to empathic individuals who attempt to photograph them 'on the street'.

 

To anyone who is afraid to receive a disapproving glance from most people, street photography can be very terrifying, for there will be many disapproving glances, and even if the subjects don't disapprove, someone nearby may -- even to the point where occasionally the blurry outline of a hand will appear in front of a tele lens focusing far away, and it will be some self-appointed guarantor of someone else's purported privacy claims . . . even if that person would be most flattered to be the subject of one of those photos.

 

I want to become so famous, perhaps, that sometime all my subjects will be pleased to say 'I was a subject of a famous John Crosley photograph!!!' with great pride.

 

Celebrities will tell you that there is no such thing as 'bad' publicity; they thrive on ALL publicity (except perhaps Linsay Lohan or Britney Spears, who appear to be self-destructing).

 

And if all publicity is good publicity and if the famous head of the Federal Communications Commission is correct, that every person has their 15 minutes of fame, I offer one path for each of my subjects not only to have that 15 minutes (with eludes so many) but perhaps to make that endure long past their (and my) lifetime. (The FCC head was Newton Minnow, and his quotation is the famous mantra of the communications age.)

 

So, at some time, people may be able to say to their grandchildren, 'I was featured here, in this famous photograph by John Crosley (or you, or Balaji, or Edmo, or Frederic Pascual -- or (insert any street photographer's name of note here), and I'm proud to be made part of history.

 

Cartier-Bresson famously sometimes held his Leica under his serviette (napkin for American speakers), so potential subjects wouldn't see it. I have heavy, large equipment, but I do use telephotos sometimes, or wide angle lenses that are so wide they include people and things whom it is assumed are far to far to one side or the other to be part of my capture.

 

Or I'll be 'staring into the distance' as I actually am preparing to aim at someone right in front of me, then take that shot and continue (or resume) staring into the distance, even as they walk away . . . . confused. 'Did he take our photographs . . . . or not . . . . ?' Of course, I probably did.

 

But it just avoids arguments or explanations or other behavior. I have enough chances to show my captures to my subjects and often take that chance . . . my passersby subjects often can be the best critics, and I often review my photos on the 'street' with total strangers who are truly interested and don't want to make trouble.

 

'Street' photography involves developing personal skills which few possess at first, and a certain empathic (or emphathetic) way of both seeing strangers and capturing their behavior, as well as dealing with them individually when the inevitable interaction occurs . . . from time to time.

 

It's a fine line to walk, and the 'street photographer' must be adroit in his ability to interact with others on the street, but hopefully all for the good cause of fine 'street' art, and a legacy of our generation to pass on to the next.

 

it's that legacy that may justify more than anything what we street photographers do.

 

Henri Cartier-Bresson will be remembered probably forever as the father of this art, and justifiably so.

 

I hope to continue that tradition, though I am an older man -- almost as old as Cartier-Bresson when he retired, but I feel like I'm just starting and that I'm just starting to 'see' things and meaningful relations 'on the street'.

 

My ability chances every day, usually from subject to subject and even in choice of subjects and where and when I point my camera.

 

I try to do what others have not done. When it rains or snows,I'll be out with my cameras, because most photographers are fair weather photographers, and the same with dusk, predawn hours, or even nighttime.

 

It's a fine, fun craft, and I happen to love it.

 

I hope some of my readers and followers will too.

 

This service is not the best place for the craft of 'street photography', but at least it's a place and there are no (or none to my knowwledge) that is(are) better, where one can get critiqued and expose one's skills on a very regular, even daily or hourly basis, and for that it deserves credit.

 

Ultimately the street photographer or any able photographer who attempts 'street' must cater to not just the taste of afficionados of 'street' but to all tastes, and this is a good forum for that exposure to begin.

 

And there are some very able critics of this craft, so that if you develop skill, you will also attract a 'following'. I started out with nothing and didn't know how to request a critique. But I got views and viewers and as time passed I got lots of each.

 

You possibly can do the same if you choose to.

 

One thing about 'street' -- it gets both better and easier the more you do it, but the better you get, the more you see that you've missed.

 

it's kind of like the person who says he's 'smart' and you know he's not so smart. The truly smart one says, 'well, I would be smart if I knew thus and so . . . but I don't . . . 'and that's the truly smart man.

 

In 'street' it's about the same thing. If you're good, there's someone better, even on this service or elsewhere, who you may not hold a candle to . . . but variety is the spice of life, and what you can do, maybe they can't (or won't or don't have the time to.)

 

You have to find your niche in this part of the craft/art of photography.

 

Thanks to you for making your observation about my commnets.

 

John (Crosley)

The words under the smiling sun on the jitney bus (marshrutka -- pronounced mashootka), are 'easy credit'.

 

Creditors have found that Ukrainians pay their bills uncommonly well, and there presently is an explosion of credit in Ukraine. A discharge from spendthrift ways through a bankruptcy discharge does not seem to be available, so Ukrainians work extra hard to pay off their credit; I even know of one woman who did some prostitution work just to pay off her husband's credit bills from overspending, but was not generally a woman one considers a 'prostitute'. She just loved her man, and would do almost anything for him, despite his profligacy.

 

Credit is relatively new to the Ukraine scene, and the credit terms are outrageously high by almost any standard, so those willing to extend credit without extensive credit reporting facilities such as TRW, Equifax, etc., are taking, on paper at least, a greater risk, offset by the willingness of Ukrainians to pay their debt and not 'stiff' their creditors.

 

Whether there will be a different way of overspending debtors (and those who have fallen on hard times) treating their creditors, remains something to be seen.

 

Banks failed not so recently -- less than 10 years ago, and only the last two or three years has seen a resurgence of banking in Ukraine. Before that, people would not trust banks in which to place their money. Without deposits, no lending. But before, as in Russia, banks had placed depositors dollars on speculative stock investments, which was permitted under local law, just as failed Russian banks also did, and almost all of those banks did fail.

 

Ukrainians pay their large bills and purchase houses, etc., in US dollars. On ever major shopping place there is a place to exchange their local currency for US dollars (only new looking dollars, without any tears, markings, or wear, are allowed without a significant discharge for 'dirty' money or being rejected outright.)

 

The rate to exchange dollars to Hrivna (Grivna) is usually less than a percentage point to a percentage point of the money exchanged, with it tending to be the smaller amounts . . . if one shops for money changers, which are ubiquitous, and exist in the oddest places, always with just a little window through which to pass the cash. US cash is carefully scrutinized for the smallest tear (rejected usually), any markings such as ink stains (almost always rejected), handwriting on the bill (also almost always rejected), and so forth. It also is routinely placed under an ultraviolet light to detect copier fraud and reveal addditional security measures. Foreigners, and especially Americans who know their dollars at 100% good no matter what condition they're in, frequently are confounded when their money, proffered for change, is shoved back at them with the word 'nyeto' (no!) spoken to them by the money changer as the bill (say $100) is shoved back at them. For Ukrainians who have 'bad money' -- soiled or torn American dollars, the banks charge a minimum 5% discount, and many banks require the changer to wait weeks to months while the bill itself is exchanged through international banking circles to the US Federal Reserve (info good to 6 months ago -- it may have been streamlined since).

 

Credit cards are gaining some increased acceptance, but few Ukrainians have credit cards, even if they have a substantial salary, unless they travel abroad.

 

As a result, few local businesses accept credit cards.

 

The business of redeeming American Express 'travelers cheques' or other private 'currency' is greatly discouraged, and will never become widespread, since credit cards have come into greater usse. There are bankomats everwhere, but with instructions in Cryllic on most.

 

I hope this helps any visitor or student of Ukrainian economics.

 

John (Crosley)

First let me say I am flattered by your appreciation of my comment. It is hard for me to delve into the field of "street photography" with so many others in the photography field to focus on. Myself being 48 and only stopped taking snapshots a couple years ago have so much to learn. I find myself trying to learn it all. That in itself is my biggest problem. So much to learn and so little time. If I am not leaning about shutter speed/f/stop/ISO, I'm learning how to blend layers in PS or High Dynamic Range shooting and processing or the best way to convert color to black and white. It is a lot easier to take a landscape photo on a nature trail than to "shoot" some rough looking gentleman sitting in front of a liquor store. No matter how great the shot would be.

I wonder how you focused into doing what you have done. I also wonder where I want to take my photography. So plenty of time and little resources tells me to start with nature/landscape. Maybe in twenty years I could be an Adams or a Weston. If only I could just focus. Luckily for me my mom is an accomplished water color artist, dad and grandfather did photography. So its in my blood. Is is ever.

All your comments have helped me immensely. I still go to your portfolio and read your comments on the structure of your photos. You are a mentor weather you know it or not. Hopefully some the information will stick in my brain and will be brought out at a later date in the correct context.

Thanks again,

Mark

I don't just write to say 'I've written something' -- my ego doesn't need that much feeding.

 

I learn as I shoot, and sometimes 'street' is an unappreciated or underappreciated art, so I try to take pains to describe how many of my photos come about just for a guy like yourself, and the feedback is a great way of telling me I'm succeeding.

 

I'm grearly appreciative that you're profiting from seeing my photos and reading my work.

 

I once was taking geometry -- in the 8th grade. I loved it and excelled.

 

At the same time I was tutoring geometry to a high school senior who just didn't 'get it'. (her grades, weighted by a bunch of 'F's and 'D's soared to a B average because of it, and she finally 'got it'.

 

That's what it's all about.

 

Best to you, Mark.

 

John (Crosley)

Some photos I take are chosen because of elements that appeal to me, but sometimes for reasons I cannot articulate.

 

I think that applies to viewers and raters also.

 

There is an element of repetition (or two) in this photo.

 

One element is the repetition of the black and white pattern.

 

The man's shirt is plaid and is one black and white pattern.

 

A black and white pattern, which somewhat 'mirrors' or repeats the idea of a black and white pattern, is shown on the side of the jitney bus in the black and white flower on the side of the marshrutka (pronounced mashootka generally as Russians and Ukrainians often speak differently than they spell out of some sort of 'laziness' in their speech or just plain indifference.)

 

There also is a 'pattern' in the sidewalk elements, foreground which is similar to the radiating spokes of the flower on the jitney bus, although that is less prominent to a more distant viewer or one looking less close up.

 

Another element is the 'V' shape or triangle formed by the fallen man's left arm, his head and what might easily be another extension of his, the lone beer bottle -- a bottle of the local country's 'finest' -- not so good, but it gets people pretty drunk pretty fast. A large number of people are seen on the streets with a bottle of this particular brew (obolone -- phonetic spelling) in their hand, including teenagers, including teenagers from an early age -- 13 to 17 and even younger occasionally.

 

The 'V' shape has three elements or 'points' to it, which are the same thing as a triangle, and one only has to fill in the lines with one's mind to see a most dynamic shape in the lower half of this photo -- the 'V' or triangle points -- and a triangle is a most dynamic shape.

 

In that way, that 'V' shape or the triangle it implies helps transform this very static photo into something far more 'dynamic'.

 

A few thoughts.

 

What are your views?

 

I'm interested.

 

John (Crosley)

John, are you good at chess? I know what makes good chess players is their ability to see many moves ahead. Did you see all that geometry before you shot. I guess if you took a class once it must be natural. I didn't look that far ahead, but then I have never taken a geometry class. I do see the "V" in the line of buses and the man laying there. Mostly I see balance and good contrast. I know that since I have been more serious in my photography that I do see things differently. I tend to see more the way light cast shadows. I also comprise photos in my head where ever I go. Maybe with more training and a few math classes I'll improve.

Much of what I 'see' is inchoate (not fully realized in my conscious senses).

 

However, in creating my presentation: Photographers Watch Your Background, I developed an ability to understand how it was I was naturally putting some photos together, and so I consciously could then 'see' such situations develop or 'create' them as part of a conscious act, rather than acting on what was my more subsconscious level. In other words, I taught myself how it was I was thinking when I took each shot, with the help of thousands of Photo.net critiques, then I set about recreating that attitude in a more organized manner.

 

The results are what you see before you.

 

I did not consciously see a 'V' but I saw an interesting shape and consciously lined up the background -- otherwise he's just a passed out bum on the street.

 

I try to 'see' things that are interesting, and of course, some things I take have no such elements, and those I discard. I take lots of photos and part of my success is that I'm my own best photo editor, I think, honed in part by the feedback from thousands of PN critiques and now 7,000+ ratings (I think, I'll go back and check).

 

So, not everything is conscious still, but I'm adding 'conscious parts' to what it is I see, then still relying on my intuition, which is very highly developed in many areas, because I have a lifetime of experience (and learned by other people's experiences when I learned, then practiced, law.)

 

It's not an easy thing to 'learn' -- to shoot sreet, and I highly recommend my 'Presentation' to you so see how it is I 'see' presented in a pretty organized fashion (and that Presentation is a 'work in progress').

 

Thanks for the intelligent comment.

 

John (Crosley)