Obscured While In the Brightness

This old woman is a beggar who is almost completely obscured by the

mostly blurred throngs rushing by who mostly don't 'see' her or take

notice of her, yet this photo captures her with almost razor sharpness

as she stands in an entrance to the Kyiv Metro in Ukraine. Your ratings

and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate this photo

harshly or very critically, please attach a helpful and constructive

comment; Please share your superior photographic knowledge so I can

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

I kind of regret that the old 'Large View' no longer is with us, as this photo shows better and better, the larger it gets, to my way of thinking, so one can see and compare the distant woman beggar with those who rush past her and/or obscure her (and contrast with her stillness).

 

John (Crosley)

 

Photo Copyright 2008, John Crosley, All Rights Reserved

Beautiful work. Perfect composition

Warm regards.cordiale saluto

alex from milano italy

This is a work of love -- one of those photos that a photographer posts knowing it will not 'sell' to the general photo.net public because it is not 'traditionally' anything.

 

The photo violates all sorts of rules; the principal rule is that the 'subject' is cgreatly obscured; she's hardly visible at all.

 

In fact, the subject here is almost an innuendo; as she is meant to be.

 

I had many original frames in which this woman was in clear view, and she had spotted me. I turned away and looked (and pointed) the other direction, somewhat nonchalantly.

 

I really decided that I did NOT want a clear view of her. She was being passed by so many people, even though Russians AND Ukrainians are famously generous to the many beggars on their streets and Metros -- life is hard for ordinary citizens - especially the senior citizens who were cheated out of their status of fully paid living through large pensions and all their needs taken care of by the now departed Soviet State. The Ukrainian (and Russian) governments, as the case may be, took over their pensions, but inflation soon robbed them of the far greater part of their pensions.

 

Twice series of bank failures wiped out what savings these older people had -- those who were very old -- not this woman, but the real old ones who were already senior when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and soon thereafter banks collapsed and currency collapsed.

 

Then again in the late 1990s the currency collapsed (and cost me a probable marriage as a fiancee rushed back to Moscow to protect her only property, a large, penthouse flat that now is worth a million or two), but was threatened with being wiped out when the Russian currency, the ruble, collapsed in the late 1990s and the banks again collapsed.

 

So, nearly everybody has a deep-seated distrust of banks, though they once again flourish in Ukraine, in part because they are buoyed by affiliations with Western Banks. For instance, Bank Aval, a Ukrainian bank, has an affiliation with a prosperous and ambitious Austrian bank, Raiffaisen Bank which seeks to dominate the region or at least be a major player, and they just would probably not abandon their depositors if there were any sort of devaluation (highly unlikely) as the currency is inflating, not deflating -- that is, it's mostly getting worth more in terms at least of dollars over the last four months, as the dollar as literally collapsed until the last week or so.

 

And those who are paid in dollars (including one photographer I met the night before last) appear to be hurting, though I cannot truly be sure, as people don't talk about their personal finances - and if they did in confidence, I couldn't write about them here, except in generalities.

 

So, with this woman, consigned as she is to apparent disability and poverty, she had many people rush by, but she also had more than a few takers, though mostly what I saw at this busy subway (underground passageway near a major department store) was people rushing by.

 

And that's what I sought to capture -- how these people rushing by defined this woman.

 

She is still and sharp almost as a razor as captured by my camera. We don't see all of her, but we know she's there and she's been there for a while. We know she's there because she's still while the world rushes by. She has nowhere to go until someone drops a few kopeks or hrivna (grivna) into her cup and she can hope for some sustenance.

 

I chose this particular frame because she is obscured in her bulkiness by the blurriness of the slender woman in the light top with the spaghetti straps with a figure -- a picture of relatively youthful femininity -- and a contrast that I hope you didn't miss.

 

Somehow, i can write about this for several minutes or more and its symbolism and the history of all this, but such a photo really only takes a second or five for me to take. If I have to wait a few minutes to create a distraction, so the woman with the cup is not aware she's being photographed and behaves 'naturally' it may take a bit longer - and how could she possibly be aware she's the object of my lens -- after all she cannot even 'see' me in the distance, let alone have an unobstructed view of me.

 

And that's what it's all about.

 

There's loneliness out there in that crowd.

 

The only question is how many lonely ones are there?

 

And if you're not lonely today, when is your turn?

 

Very few people die in their beds surrounded by loving relatives as we sometimes are told about the expected deaths of a few beloved 'Hollywood Stars' who have terminal this or that.

 

And even so, how many of those stories are 'for real' given that such stars often have publicists right up to their dying breath, beyond the funeral, and even as they cross the River Styx into the afterlife, who are eager to keep whatever myths there are alive about any particular star's being 'beloved' (in many instances). (It helps keep the 'brand' alive and the 'franchise' selling - and those records or films will then move more rapidly and make the publicist all that more sought after (or if retired) also revered.

 

One thing we can be sure of; this woman ain't got no publicist eager to keep her legend alive.

 

And as I have found out from colloquy with some of these women, some are ashamed even to tell their relatives that they 'work the streets', though they probably should not be -- after all, the relatives are being negligent in their humane duties if they let a fellow relative beg on the streets, then look down on them if they do, in my opinion.

 

One thing is sure; you don't post a photo like this hoping that it'll be made Photo of the Week, no matter how much a few souls like you will like it. It's strictly a photo for connoisseurs of esoterica and not for the mainstream viewers.

 

And a labor of love for those of us who chronicle the human condition to uncover the myriad 'statements' and 'truths' of our daily lives.

 

John (Crosley)

A camera is like a silent witness and tells reality as it is. Most of the time it conveys happiness and beauty, but in the hands of a gifted and perceptive soul it opens our eyes to harsh realities that powerfully stir our souls. I've been a fan of yours for quite some time now, and this picture is an example of why. I recently came back from NY and I also encountered those unfortunate souls that we dismiss in our everyday lives. This one was more aggressive and got into the subway train pleading for help because he was diagnosed with AIDS (or so he claims). By the looks of it he did not seem like one. He was a young Caucasian male in his late 20's wearing eyeglasses and commanding an intellectual air. His desperate plea was met with indifference and he got off at the next stop.

Well mostly the camera is a 'silent witness' and often times tells life 'like it is' but sometimes the camera also 'lies'. It depicts the surface only and in that it is a marvel, but sometimes the gritty truth lies deeply within.

 

When I practiced law, I often did personal injury law and the marvel was that so many who saw me who were in auto accidents who truly were injured and thus entitled to money when it was not their fault so often did not want to acknowledge their injuries because those injuries were not visible and wanted to 'tough it out' even though the injuries were substantially impairing their lifestyles.

 

They were the 'malingering well' -- the opposite of 'malingering' as the term is usually used. They were not well but they pretended or presented themselves to others as well. In other words they faked being well, and I think the world is full of a lot of people like that, and a good number of those are those who seek psychiatric care -- in part because of the obvious fear and disdain that many place on those who seek psychiatric care (must be dangerous or 'psycho'!!!, when in fact simple depression, anxiety or other problems can be interfering with life significantly).

 

This woman obviously is physically maimed (see her foot) and she uses crutches, so one presumes she is disabled, but many in Kyiv who are disabled would be useful workers in other societies, such as the US. It's a great waste that the beggars of Ukraine often are consigned to begging (such as the deaf) when there's little reason they couldn't be trained to do good, remunerative work-- and the time when that will happen is in the future . . . . sometime.

 

This is a second world country . . . and part of the interesting part of photographing here is that it's got one foot in the 21st Century and another in the '30s of the 20th C., depending on where and how you look. In a village here and there, you can still occasionally find a horse and cart going down a main street (not often . . . but it happens), while the high tech guys know as much about Microsoft and Adobe products as anybody else in the civilized world.

 

It's a nation of great contrasts.

 

Which is good for the photographer who dislikes blandness.

 

(me)

 

Your comments are ALWAYS appreciated.

 

John (Crosley)

Seen but ignored. It's too bad that works like this don't sell, this is the sign of how much in trouble the human being is... I must reply with a shot I took a few months ago, not one of my favorites but in-sync with this one in my opinion. All the best

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7254893

Today, as then, I am in Kyiv, and there's not a day goes by when I cannot take a photo of a beggar (and not be assaulted by psychos as happens in San Francisco, which I tend to avoid for reasons of safety.)

 

The trick is to find a different way to take a beggar shot; as most of the obvious ones are used to death, even by me.

 

This one is not meant ever 'to sell' - I doubt anyone ever wants to buy beggar photos. But I have some pretty good photos of down and outers - why not go see my two men sleeping in mirror fashion under the sign Saint-Germain-des-Pres on the Paris Metro, - looking like mirror images of one another - that is a shot that is my 'desktop' and my 'screensaver' often on one or another computer, I like it so much -- no matter the subject.

 

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I find beauty even in the most dire circumstances, sometimes.

 

My best to you.

 

John (Crosley)