A 'Bad Everything Day'

This tearful young woman, judging herself a failure in life and

having a cry on a public street, inadvertently has placed herself in

front of a poster for a hair shampoo, featuring one of Ukraine's most

impossibly beautiful women models, complete with gorgeous hair and

impeccably beautiful teeth. Your rating 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 (or at least be touched)! John

I love it! Way to capture the moment!

Or at least I think I have met her and photographed her previously.

 

That's the poster woman, a tall blonde who showed up one day for a model audition last summer or so in Kyiv when I was auditioning models there.

 

She was a little 'heavy' in a traditional sense at least for models, but very, very beautiful, -- just not superthin, and well within the guidelines for a very attractive woman, but heavier than most stick thin commercial models.

 

In fact, if one were rejecting the bone-thin models of present, she would in fact be a 'poster' girl for good nutrition, if I am not mistaken about the model, and I do not think I am.

 

She also was very nice.

 

By contrast, the woman, left, was in complete disarray, from hair and jagged teeth (what's left of them), to her personality, making a scene in public through shouting, appearing drunk and/or disoriented, and crying.

 

For my purposes if she's going to make a 'scene' in public, she couldn't have chosen a better place to alight, even if temporarily.

 

Soon, she staggered along.

 

I was far away, with my tele zoom lens, recording all this and not even attracting attention (she got it all). (except for the gypsy mom and her child who targeted me and who had to be threatened with violence from me to keep from getting too close because given a chance, they'd rip off my watch, my cameras, lenses and anything else they could get their hands on.

 

I've been targeted before, and the only thing that works is karate or its threat, just shouting won't do, as they're used to it, and work on intimidation -- the belief that most people will NOT make a scene.

 

So, within minutes there were TWO scenes.

 

(1)One from this tearful woman, and

 

(2) soon from me against the gypsy mom and her kid trying to rip me off (a scene I've seen repeated many times in Europe, sometimes succeeding -- on others. It works like this: a very smiling kid gets close enough to stick hand in pocket, grab wallet or all the cash inside, strips watch off, while mother pushes in with fake baby (doll in swaddling to discourage defensive measures because victim is afraid of hurting the 'supposed' baby that really is a fake).

 

It's an ages old trick for the unwary traveler who sticks out and has expensive things (such as cameras, and I also that day had a laptop in its case just back from repair).

 

Gypsies like to be called Romany people. That's fine, it's an ages old Romany people trick to rip people off. Whatever the name it's one of the world's most blatant organized methods of theft.

 

John (Crosley)

 

Copyright notice'; This photo is copyright 2008, John Crosley, all rights reserved.

Lots goes into capturing 'the moment'.

 

I spied this woman, crying, several quartos (blocks) back and since she was going my direction, vowed to keep an eye out for her, for possibly using her emotions in a photo. I do things like that, and I kept apace with her as she went through the afternoon throngs, fairly noisily and staggering a little.

 

After a while, she alighted here. I took several photos and even engaged 'C' drive (continuous servo, which used to be called 'motor drive' when there was film to speed throuh the camera rapidly).

 

I caught her here with her mouth open, so you could see her jagged teeth and contrast them with the model's absolutely perfect teeth (I say above how I met the model and her teeth were about perfect; these photo teeth doubtless were photoshopped, but her 'real' teeth hardly needed any Photoshop whitening.

 

This, at its barest, is a study in contasts.

 

And sometimes one 'catches a moment' in a split second.

 

Many of my photos are like that.

 

This one was about 10-15 minutes in building, before I stepped in for the real capture - a series, with this the best of the bunch in my estimation (others might differ, but I had to consider 'variety' in my own portfolio, as her posture in other photos mimicked posture of other distressed women in other photos I've taken, EXCEPT HERE, where it's entirely original.

 

I set out that day thinking, I've lost interest, and can't take one of my trademark 'contrast' street photos.

 

I guess I was wrong.

 

Thanks for the encouraging comment.

 

John (Crosley)

Your image compels me to ask:

 

Are your comments regarding the person in the foreground speculation or did she tell you that she was as you describe?

 

Please don't take me as a heckler John, I am a fan. Without your explanation this image could easily be someone mid-sneeze, yawn or whatever. 90% of the image is someone else's work. You have captured a compelling element...and maybe that is why we all look. It might be an interesting experiment for you to post an image similar to this one...without explanation...and see what happens.

 

Either way...I will be one of the viewers.

 

Cheers.

You could hear her crying at 200 feet.

 

No sneezes.

 

Glad you're a fan.

 

I have a succession of images (blow this up and look at her face -- all her face shots show distress, each and every one, and they're either just like this or distressed, just different in facial orientation.

 

I followed her when I first saw her on the street, crying, not then so loudly, but it caught my attention. I wan't necessarily going to photograph her and gave her considerale distance (a quarter of a block, but who could resist -- she was a spectacle?).

 

I absolutely could testify as to what I wrote; no doubt in my mind.

 

I'm a very acute observer, but this didn't require any of that. Even your dog could have figured this one out (if you have a dog.)

 

Best wishes to you and thanks for watching my work -0- I always wonder where my viewers are from (I met with a friend/model today who said she spoke recently with a man in Australia -- she works for a marriage agency, and he said he is a photographer with street aspiration and knows my work, and since she knows me, well . . . )

 

Small world.

 

I never guess about what I write; I either get it right, or I don't write it (or I absolutely will write qualifiers such as 'seems to be holding herself in low esteem', but this required no such qualifier -- one of the few such I've written that hasn't, where I didn't personally speak with the individual.

 

But people don't cry like that and behave like she did when they have high esteem -- and it wasn't crying from 'sorrow' over a family loss, either, or anything like that (write me and I can explain that in great detail if you doubt me.)

 

I once was a journalist for a a worldwide news organization with very high standards, and if you wrote anything exaggerated or false you were severely reprimanded the first time, if you were lucky; the second time you were fired outright, assuming each time was an 'accident'.

 

I still have that ethic in my writing. I never was reprimanded, except for being conservative in my writing, but not by much.

 

And I ended up being suggested as the eventual head of that (what was then) the world's largest news gathering organization -- the worldwide boss said he would groom me for that position himself. But they were real cheap -- it was supposed to be an 'honor' to work for them - so just as Hemingway and Walter Cronkhite did before me, I left.

 

When I write it, it is gonnna be true, or it will have a qualifier 'suggesting' or otherwise equivocating about what I write.

 

(that needed to be said at some time, and I'm glad you gave me the chance to write it -- thanks)

 

John (Crosley)

George,

 

The hands here are also clues.

 

If she were mid-sneeze, one hand would go to the mouth/nose. It's on the head, indicating stress/headache or some such. She's crying and under much emotional stress.

 

The other hand is -- get this -- begging -- very unsuccessfully -- no one would get near her.

 

So, the hands tell the story, also.

 

You don't need my word for it if you can read the clues.

 

There might be other possible explanations in a world of conspiracy theories, but this ain't one of them.

 

But I'm glad you brought the subject up.

 

John (Crosley)

This image is copyrighted, John Crosley author (photographer, all rights reserved, 2008. As with all images of mine it will be timely registered with the appropriate patent/trademark/intellectual property offices to give it international copyright registration protection.

 

Infringement will bring about triple damages, an award of all my attorney fees, plus punitive damages to me, its author (photographer).

 

John (Crosley)

A long history but...a good picture.

I didn't know you were on this service.

 

I'm happy to see a comment from you here.

 

I had expected this to be a simple photo with few explanations -- sometimes I am just wrong.

 

Go figure.

 

You are always welcome here. You don't have to be an admirer -- you can be as critical as you wish, or as analytical.

 

Best to you and thanks for commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

I agree with you about the hands. Yes, she is begging, perhaps for attention and sympathy. As the background of the beautiful model looms behind her overshadowing her suffering with a perfect smile, so is the analogy of this scene depicting a cruel world in which the physical takes precedence over the emotional. Sadly we are judged by looks, at least upon making the first impression.

 

I personally have experienced the "touch" of the gypsies, but in both instances they were unsuccessful in getting my belongings. One time it was in Madrid on teh Gran Via full of people walking, the other in plain daylight in Rome by the Forum. Looks are indeed deceitful. They think that I am the demure and naive tourist who is an easy prey. If they only knew.

In looking over comments prior to George's comment above, challenging the 'veracity' of this image, I kind of got suckered into defending its authenticity or the authenticity of her obvious emotions -- as opposed to his 'supposed sneeze', because in fact I already had addressed that issue in prior comments and should in fact have referred him to prior comments and asked him if he had read and digested them (since it was obvious he had not, or just wanted to make his point anyway).

 

Anyway, the point about the hands was indeed a good one, and you make an even better one -- that she was 'begging' 'perhaps for attention and sympathy' which was indeed what she was doing, in my view, and I have never seen a true 'beggar' act as she did - there is no way in the world someone would approach a woman in her condition to give such a person money for fear she would turn on them or otherwise be dangerous to them or others (or even herself). She was too wrapped up in her own emotions, and I remember my thoughts when I saw her at a bus stop a couple of blocks away, wondering if there are just so many people in this world on a given day, or certain people always, who are doomed to be very, very unhappy and unfortunate, for, indeed, this woman was (and I am certain remains) unfortunate.

 

I'm afraid life does not have much for her (look at the condition of her teeth, and she can't be even thirty or more than a year or so past that).

 

I know, in America, she'd be late '40s or 50 or more, but a poorly cared for Ukrainian woman can look 50 when she turns 29, or so, if she has a bad life and no care, professional or otherwise.

 

Life's hard in Ukraine for the unfortunates, which is one reason I photograph (t)here.

 

You might see such unfortunates in San Francisco also, but they'd try to knife or shoot you or chase you if you took their photo -- there's different attitudes about the poor and unfortunates in Ukraine.

 

In San Francisco, if you have a camera and a car and drive around, as I occasionally do, people will yell at me 'you shooting bums?' and indeed generally I am not . . . because (1) it's dangerous unless you're part of the scene, and (2) the photos won't be very authentic unless they're from a disguised stakeout vehicle or other disguise -- much as shooting ducks from a 'blind' is more successful at getting at the quackers with a shotgun . . . the same applies to the 'bums' of San Francisco with a camera.

 

Just driving or walking around places like the Tenderloin with a camera can be dangerous -- many unfortunates're mean, ornery and often are vets, parolees or ex-cons who have maybe killed for a living, or could if pushed and they're off their meds, which is often why they're on the streets.

 

Contrariwise, people on the streets in Ukraine may be there for less severe problems -- evictions, passing through town, just being 'poor' and not 'bad' or 'bad people', as well as the more serious problems of schizophrenia and alcoholism (there is a lot of alcoholism, but it's also pretty well tolerated.

 

Alcohol is the poor man's Xanax here; it's generally dispensed as beer and sometimes as vodka from just about everywhere, and anyone can buy it if they can get the money atop the counter.

 

Kids 13 or 14 can sometimes be seen drinking beers if they can get their hands on the cash.

 

I've talked with 14-year-old girls (and their boyfriends) having a brewskie at a public event -- rock concert -- in the center of town, right in front of police, and no one really cared (told them it wouldn't go over too well in America, and if they really wanted to go to America they probably should decide if they really wanted to drink a lot at their age . . . )

 

(I occasionally open a brewskie myself and a half day later find the goldarn thing with two swigs taken out of it, smelling up the joint, turned very stale and lifeless . . . I'm just not a drinker at all, though I have a good tolerance.)

 

Life is different (t)here, in Ukraine, (I write it (t)here, because when peope read this, I might or might not be in Ukraine, as I move in and out of the country with some regularity).

 

I soon will be getting a book of my work published (privately) for presentation to galleries and just saw my Photoshopper (master level without the credential) out the door. I won't be distributing copies of these several hundred dollar books, but the photos that are expected to be in them are found in three presentations in my Presentation column, two black and white (one old without about 18 old photos and one new with about 46 and another with about 46 color photos or so. Why don't you take a look, if you haven't discovered it, and run 'slideshow' on it. (I do all my Photo.net photoshopping myself.)

 

I may run a few photos from Photocritiq.com also in it, and one certainly will be in it -- the red-backed man with the shadow cast on the red-hulled boat. That's a certainty. ('Doppleganger', and I invite you over to see that in my portfolio there.)

 

I mix some works here with there, and others there will neve be posted here out of respect for that site, just as I respect this site by not double posting everything I post here.

 

(Note that site's unusual spelling -- don't trust to memory, or you'll get all fouled up -- a drawback for some people who are good spellers.)

 

Now, Adan, I thought this was a perfectly good and respectable photo, and one of my really good background poster shots, but it got only four ratings and mediocre ratings at that before you came along -- I was quite surprised actually.

 

It's also a stunning color capture, because the poster is all blues (background) and yellow (hair and a little in the skin) -- good color choices.

 

You also are very right, and I comment you, for making the point about this being a 'cruel world' where 'the beautiful model looms behind her overshadowing her suffering with a perfect smile' making this 'the analogy of this scene' 'depicting a cruel world in which the physical takes precedence over the emotional' and noting 'adly we are judged by looks, at least upon making the first impression.'

 

I say that's great if you're a guy looking at women, at least from my point of view -- I'm hard-wired that way, but I do know better and do know that looks are only skin deep; I've been forced to throw out (literally) misbehaving models or those with bad attitudes, after speaking with them on audition -- even the best ones, and occasionally in prior times (before I had a girlfriend), a beautiful young woman (not model) would 'offer herself to me' as though it were a 'favor' and frankly I would turn her (it) down, because it was a heartless act - devoid of feeling . . . maybe akin to 'payback' for a nice meal.

 

I don't do 'payback' sex . . . not even for the most young and beautiful woman . . . and there are women here who will do such things . . . I have found . . . much to my surprise . . . and continue to be surprised at how I, a very unlikely looking fellow (see how I got it back on track?) and rather 'large' to say it mildly, never would have to want for female companionship, and never break the 30-year-old barrier, if I didn't want to, and if indeed that were a barrier (for the feminists out there, I point out that when I was about 41, my girlfriend was about 56, but I never asked her what her age was; it didn't matter; she was GREAT, and probably still is, and if she had been willing (instead of gunshy) I might indeed have married her . . . as we were getting close to having to decide that when she suddenly broke it off . . . .

 

That made me decide . . . . gradually . . . . if I'm gonna spend my time . . . . over years, with someone who is wonderful and nice, and she's gonna behave like that suddenly, and later cry for several years because sending me away was the 'worst decision she ever made in her life' (source on request -- e-mail only), then I might as well have brilliant, young, sexy women, for companions instead of someone headed for the retirement rolls, especially if they don't engage in such behavior (and none have since).

 

The only reason I'm not married to my last wife is her sudden onset brain cancer, (and her blaming me for 'causing' it), and the only girlfriend I've had since, I'm still with.

 

I actually tried dating many American women on Internet dating, only to be recipient of numerous last minute calls 'postingponing' our get-acquainted date 'I'm just not ready for it yet' and then to get a regretful call a week later, 'you're not mad are you?' 'can we meet next week?' 'I'm really sorry I did that to you.'

 

The answer now is 'hell no'. (One woman flew all the way across the country to 'meet me' ony to fly away the next morning, feeling we weren't a match -- what a waste.)

 

She wanted a 'story' - not me - a resume instead of flesh and blood.

 

Not so, my girlfriend whom I met firsthand, is smart as all get out - probably an IQ the size of a nuclear physicist's (without the high schooling), the face of a cover girl, the body of a model (which she is), and the graciousness that I've always looked for in a woman, with incredible kindness and understanding to boot.

 

She also worships the ground on which I walk, I feel, and I reward her with great attention (regrettably she never will live in America or marry me).

 

Russian/Ukrainian women have different standards for men/their men are extremely good looking (to match the women, but their men often mistreat or don't know how properly to treat a woman, not having good examples from their culture in many cases (too much drinking, too many adulterous girlfriends, etc.)

 

So, a man who is bright, kind and pays attention to a woman (not someone who is rich, as I am NOT), is seen as a person who is someone to hang around with . . . . . and all those men who visit Ukrainian marriage agencies looking for brides (not those who just write, but those who actually visit), often are well

Thanks for the heads up and congratulations on the future publication of your book. I will check out your other presentations.

 

Don't be surprised about the ratings. I know you believe in the system but I don't. I gave up relying too much on them. Case in point is you John. I've told you this before. How can someone of your talent be scoring so low? Not only on this picture but many others as well. Ratings play like a popularity contest. That is why I have become more "discriminating" and comment on the few that I know. I'd like to get to know the photographer before I say something.

 

You are right about living in two different worlds. The more differences we see the richer we become. I've been fortunate to have grown up in several different cultures and I incorporate the best of each one of them in my life. Life is a big classroom, isn't it?

 

 

If only I were in my 20s, and knew what I know now . . . .

 

That's the excitement of Obama.

 

He doesn't make many mistakes.

 

He has my undergraduate schooling, which is first class with a time-tested curriculum, except I feel he probably truly understood it before waiting 30 years, as I did, alas.

 

Whether or not he frustrates Hillary to death as he appears to be doing, with his charisma or beats McCaine, he represents the future, he presents himself as 'knowing' more than almost anyone and being one of the most self-controlled individuals ever to hit the hustings.

 

I haven't a political bone in my body - who likes rubber chicken -- or to make goo goo eyes at someone's baby, or even to confort one's 'message for a crowd' and to 'count delegates' -- not me, but this guy has something special, and he is multi-cultural. (see, I did get to the point?)

 

He's richer for it, I think. Besides cross-parentage, he's Hawaiian (Aloha spirit), toughened by Chicago politics, and not afraid to speak out on issues that are important (Iraq), no matter the consequences, without hedging.

 

Don't see too many political geniuses in a lifetime -- Kennedy was one, Clinton another (however flawed), and certainly Obama a third. Cake goes to Roosevelt, however, no matter how much Republicans continue to hate him and how much Bush tried to undue the still-hated New Deal.

 

Of course, universal health care must have universal enrollment or it will fail, Hillary is right, but it's just not popular, and I hope Obama knows it, and he's being facetious and I hope not gullible, or we're in for a hard time.

 

McCaine, with all his 'straight talk' doesn't really appear to have been 'scared straight' by his 'Keating Five' experience and is surrounded by lobbyists all the time (his staff is almost exclusively lobbyists, still doing their business from his campaign bus. Give this to him, he's older than I am, and he's still going strong and uses saltier language than I do, (I seldom do), and almost all the time.

 

Here's to learning by experience (and critique).

 

And special thanks to you for your critique on this photo - right on the money and well written.

 

John (Crosley)

I really "love" these shots because they are so powerful although the downside is you can read too much in them. In the Paris subway I've made many of these myself (in fact I'm just back) and I can never resist these opportunities myself. On the upside it's a good way to illustrate an all too familiar social problem. Pity so many people ignore the real problem. Regards, Ton

I only am posting these kind of shots -- poster and background shots incorporating photos -- mainly now if they meet a 'higher test' than originally, but my standard for most of these shots has been pretty high (see a year ago, with the color photo of guy in yellow, staring at camera, with huge baby also looking at camera behind him, from a poster -- a telling allegory for a young father, or any man, and life's responsibilities.

 

And if you flip through my folders, you hardly can miss some of the best photos I've ever shot -- including some great ones, on the Paris Metro, as well as other Paris shots.

 

In fact, some of the absolutely greatest photos I've ever taken have been such shots on the Paris Metro (where officially such photography is forbidden, something I've also written about extensively here, and you may want to patrol these comments to find where, as there is no index or maybe write Adan W. to ask him, as he has a rather encyclopedic knowledge of these comments lately, I think, and that's when such comments were made most recently).

 

I think especially highly of two shots (one was not a poster shot), taken in the Paris Metro on two successive days/nights: one was of two men sleeping end-to-end under the station sign 'St. Germain des Pres' -- in my mind a rather stunning shot because of its symmetry with each man having his hand between his legs, their postures the same, and every other aspect mirroring each other, while the bench (and they) was placed symmetrically beneath the St. Germain des Pres main metro stop sign.

 

Another, not heralded shot, shows a woman in a poster taking an auto (self) portrait advertising an exhibition of such shots, and another woman, seated on a bench beneath and to the right, doing just like the self-portrait woman was doing.

 

The self-portrait woman had one hand to her eye, as seen in mirror reversal in the photo; the seated woman (as I willed her to do -- that shows the power of my will -- watch out women), reached into her handbag and took out her 'eyes' -- her contact lenses and inserted them.

 

And I took photos, with each woman, hand to eyes, the 'real, live' woman and the self-portrait woman.

 

In my mind, it's one of those great photos you'd never get unless you were at the top of your game, and those few days in Paris I was at the top of my game.

 

(I was today, also, for a while at the top of my game, and those times I just can't explain -- but sometimes, like in Paris or the Paris Metro, you get great stuff to work with, so it doesn't just require being at the top of your game but it also helps to have great material nearby. It's hard to get great street shots in the middle of an Iowa corn or bean field.

 

I now know for a certainty that if you give me a camera and some time to make something happen, and also don't give me directions about 'what you want' other than a really good and maybe 'great' photo, if I have the equipment, and am in a likely place for same, I can produce it . . . almost without fail . . . and that's a highly interesting place to be.

 

That is the place I wanted to teach others how to get into when I started my Presentation: 'Photographers: Watch Your Background', which now is hundreds of photos long and still unfinished (because of site software insufficiencies).

 

I commend it to you, unless you've already been there.

 

I even make a wistful trip there from now and again, as do a fairly large number of people, so far as my e-mail and comments seem to reveal.

 

And it appears it has helped a great number of people with their shooting.

 

You don't need such help, and some of my shots there are hardly worthy, but 'creating' such a 'Presentation' for me was a learning experience that helped make me into a better photographer -- because I was able, after helping create much of it, to articulate and dissect how it was I was creating various photos naturally, so I could not only explain it to others subsequently, but I also could explain it to myself, then take myself through the task step by step, modifying steps if I chose, rather than relying on overwhelming intellectual 'power' to 'see' shots and 'intuit' them, and now really knowing what it was I was doing, but liking the results nonetheless.

 

I'm glad you stopped by to comment on this particular photo. It encountered resistance at first; I thought it was quite good, views now are climbing, and I think will continue to climb throughout its life, as it's very viewable, despite an unpopular 'story'.

 

'Bad' stories can be a 'turn-off' and 'sink' a photo sometimes, as those 'Hollywood-ending' people who produce US movies know only too well.

 

They almost never throw us an unhappy or ambiguous ending, like those French filmmakers do -- (I very often like those French films . . . I'm able to handle a certain ambiguity in my life -- but not the 'moral ambiguity that the CIA advertises it seeks in its new recruits . . . . '

 

I do see life as a series of gradations of gray (and in color also), rather than just in pure blacks and whites, despite what some of my photos may suggest; if someone has that conclusion about me (thinks I see 'things' mainly in black and white), they have misinterpreted me from my photos and also misinterpreted my photos.

 

Very often, also, life is quite contradictory; and a photo may also, on the one hand stand for one point and then contradict that very point through another's view of that same photo or another element of that photo.

 

Life's not always capable of sending us clear signals.

 

I do admire folks like Barack Obama, who seem to get clear signals about things (like opposing the Iraq war from early on, though it might have cost him his political career, but he, almost alone, did so, while Hillary voted for the war and tried to prove she could be 'one of the boys'). In that way, O'Bama and his judgment about things appears almost heroic to me, even if he turns out to be wrong (universal health care MUST be mandatory for instance, and Hillary's right, dead right, and even may lose the candidacy for being right and because Obama's a political genius (she has had two in her life, one to follow around and one to possibly deny her the candidacy.)

 

I went to Viet Nam and came back quite confused; I didn't get such clear signals as others did. It's harder to be clear when they're shooting at you and people you're with, even if you didn't know why we were there, and now we know (it's now an admitted fact) that the 'Gulf of Tonkin incident' that precipitated the Viet-Nam war did not really happen, and defense secretary from that time, Robert McNamara, devoted much of his later life apologizing for the mistakes the US made in pursuing that war (a good man, apparently, doing a Japanese-like thing and actually 'taking responsibility' -- something the present administration is never going to do).

 

I came back from Viet Nam convinced of one thing: I was photographing over there, and the draft was after me: I was not going to go there to fight that stupid war because I was a coward, and I saw no purpose in it -- it was a completely unexplainable war (we were going to stop the Communist dominoes from toppling a string of SE Asian countries as 'godless Communism worked its way inexorably around the glove (damn them Commies anyway)? For what? And for whom? The corrupt South Vietnamese?

 

None of us was smart enough to predict that for the most part modern Communism would just 'fall apart' from its own inefficiencies.

 

What a great justice!

 

It just fell apart.

 

But it left a vacuum when it fell apart.

 

One of the world's great health systems - the Soviet system which would have cared for this women (see how I circled around?), would have been cared for by the Communists, and rather well at that, if sparsely.

 

Now there's nothing, and even a mediocre medical problem can be a disaster in a country with a bare-bones medical care system for its people that has fallen apart from what once was part of the world's finer ones.

 

Shame.

 

The rise of Capitalism began when the Cold War stopped and brought with it the above hair care products and billboard advertising same, but it left her literally . . . .

 

out in the Cold.

 

I think under Communism she would have been cared for rather well; now she's just someone who's fallen through the cracks and can't pull her own weight.

 

(No, I'm not nostalgic for Comminism, it was a despicable system, but it did have advantages, just like any system that may be horrific --- trains ran on time under Mussolini,for instance, it has been said, and I think they did.

 

(thanks for the comment and enduring my discursive response).

 

John (Crosley)

It's a wonderful photograph. I am a frequent visitor to Russia, and I often notice the contrast between the gorgeous models on huge posters and the misery of everyday life just below.

Of course this is not Russia, but its neighbor, Ukraine, but they are both parts of the former Soviet Union and, for the most part share a common language and in many cases the same blood. Russia spent much effort under Catherine the Great and also under Stalin to 'colonize' and incorporate Ukraine into Russia, only to cede part of Russia to Ukraine somewhat before the Soviet Union fell apart.

 

I have lived in Russia and feel that Ukraine is much friendlier and safer -- the Ukrainian people somewhat more spirited and generous in general, but the plight of both is similar, though Russia has high inflation from rising wealth -- prices are going up, and I understand 'meat still is for holidays' for most people. I frequently ask my models what they have eaten, and it's potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner punctuated by 'spaghetti' -- their term for pasta.

 

In essence the people are similar -- almost identical -- and their plight is extremely similar, even if the two countries have political paths that are diverging, with Ukraine priding itself that people do not have to show their papers whenever they move about (except to buy a train/airplane ticket), so it's pretty much a free country by Western standards compared to the more rigidly controlled Russia.

 

Visas are not necessary for US citizens who intend to stay less than 90 days in Ukraine; not so in Russia -- a major impediment to 'on the spur' travel to Russia.

 

But the daily plight of the people is similar. There seems to be a difference in spirit, with Russia recovering from days of terror by the Russian Mafia; and taxis and other private cars that literally aimed at pedestrians - something I have not seen in Ukraine, but it's been a few years since I lived in Russia when such awful behavior was quite common.

 

Women or men and those with children, on crossing an ordinary street in Ryazan, Russia where I spent much time, would anxiously look two blocks down for a moving automobile before they crossed the street. If an auto did come toward them (I often was a passenger, as each auto was a 'taxi',) the auto drive often aimed at the pedestrians to 'give them a scare'. Truth. I have never seen such behavior in Ukraine, where the people are more benign.

 

Indeed the Ukrainians seem to have some sort of 'national inferiority complex' which is written about at high levels, and people naturally assume (1) all politicians lie, (2) governments from whatever system will be corrupt, and (3) newspapers are always full of lies, so that even if they tune to the Western media which is trustworthy such as the BBC for the most part, most feel that the news is dictated by other than sound news judgment.

 

As a former Associated Press reporter who NEVER was told what to write or send on wires, and would have quit if told so, I have a very tough time convincing Ukrainians that was so -- they just assume the media is corrupt along with government, and don't know how to behave without a corrupt government.

 

But their pro-Western government is making strides. In short, Russia was a kleptocracy (regime based on stealing) and the Ukrainians share a similar distrust, born of Soviet and Tsarist times, with a common history of corruption in their own country, but countered (in part) by the Orange Revolution, which left things less corrupt (based on accounts only, I have seldom run into corruption except at a minor level -- such as employees demanding fees be paid them instead of their bosses for things like excess baggage, on airplanes and buses then pocketing the money).

 

So, in some ways stealing is in the system, and it's an absurd manager who lets the employees handle the money; one person sells, another takes the cash, except in supermarkets where they're watched very closely, especially by customers. And if you put something down of value, it soon will be gone.

 

Life is tough if you gotta eat potatoes three meals a day; the dacha is all-important to Russia and and Ukrainians because of their truck gardens -- it's a chance to get away AND grow some very good food; gardens are almost universal throughout Ukraine, and with some wonderful vegetables we'd call 'heritage' vegetables' here in the United States.

 

Imagine also finding 'Oregon Giant' green beans in a Moscow farmer's market, complete with 'strings' which have been bred out of American beans. Brings back fond memories of childhood and the family garden.

 

Not everyone in Ukraine is poor and the young people seem to 'get it' more than the older people, and the parents seem to encourage the young people's instincts to 'get ahead', at least in the cities and with education, though 'buying grades' by students is commonplace in Ukraine, and I assume in Russia, also.

 

Never trust a Ukrainian school transcript from a higher level; those high marks may be figments.

 

This woman depicted just has fallen to the bottom of the barrel; she's an alcoholic and probably quite mentally ill and there's no safety net in Ukraine If you fall through the net, you may quite easily die, although Russians and Ukrainians are quite generous to the poor -- Muscovites are monumentally generous to beggars, for instance -- legendarily so.

 

But for begging, some people would just die, but these days everybody is building everything in Moscow, fueled by an oil-based economy, while the economy in Ukraine is growing fast, but not fueled by oil, and slower growing but pretty stable in its growth.

 

It's just that it's got a long ways to go, compared say, to neighboring Poland, which broke away from the Soviets long ago.

 

I like living in Ukraine (as an American) when I do; I split time between both countries. Americans are very highly respected in Ukraine (especially American men), and living in America is an unheard of goal for many Ukrainians, just as in Russia, though less so lately.

 

I hope this is in general a good guide for anyone who wants to compare cultures; it is more than responsive to your brief comment.

 

Writing helps me sort things out, sometimes -- forcing myself to answer questions frequently results in my discovering things I am not able to articulate without writing for consumption, so even if this is superfluous for you, it's good for me, because it helps me hone my intellectual skills.

 

Thanks for the observation on the photo; it is representative of the grittier part of not one but two similar cultures.

 

John (Crosley)

Great work..... Best regards hsp

Somehow this one didn't 'catch on' as I expected.

 

I'm glad to have your approval.

 

Thanks hamed.

 

John (Crosley)