Break Down (Street Seller - Southern Italy - 2008)

Thank you for your comments, critiques and suggestions, G,

 

This is a tighter crop from a previously posted version of this work. Thank you for your patience and to Andrea for his helpful suggestions. Giuseppe

From "Crisis..." to "Break Down..."... Well, in this configuration, and concerning the aesthetic point of view, the photo is more equilibrated... Now I don't see, or I don't feel, with the same intensity, the crisis... The crisis is, now, more dissimulated in the "much better" composition... This "Break Down..." is less aggressive... But where is the "truth"? I think that the "truth", the reality, the humanity shame, is much more visible in the "Crisis... " version. Why? Because the crisis IS not only in the man but also in scene, in the context, in the composition... The "Crisis..." version is, in my opinion, more powerful. For me this is a good question. Curious, you change the name from "Crisis..." to "Break Down..."... My english is bad, like my photos... So, this is ONLY my opinion... Best regards.

Perfect, emotinal street. Very good composed. Best regards my friend.

Great, sad photo impossible to ignore.

 

 

Regards.

José the time you spent on this work is really much appreciated: thank you for your interesting comment. I hope that some more PN friends will leave their opinions before I write down my own comment on my decision to crop the original photo (that I post above for comparison). Thank you again, Giuseppe

Preferisco la versione "tagliata", ottimo risultato. Ciao.

Great photo and I like the on cropped version! For that version a 6/6.

With regards

 

Hi Giuseppe, this version is, perhaps with a better composition, but after I have read the Jose Barreto comment I think he is right. I think today people only see the tecnic in a photography and forget other things like the thinks can make us to think. Sorry for my english.

your comments on this photo have been so much helpful and welcome I don't know how to thank you. Initially I had planned and shot this one with the "crisis" theme already in my head (as soon as I saw this desperate man). Crisis, a very "actual" word. As soon as I posted the "crisis" version I was astonished by the number of anonymous 3/3 - 4/4 received, and thought that there was something wrong in the shot. Eventually I decided to retire the post and re-compose the work. Break Down was the result. The title I chose was - imho - more appropriate to the single person drama put in evidence by the new framing. Your comments have greatly helped me in understanding my own work and I thank you by heart. One of these days I will post the Crisis version again hoping that my affectionate 3/3 4/4 raters will decide to get out from anonimity and clearly explain their point of you: I am not offended by their aesthetic/thematic judgement, but by the lack of any explanation. Thank you so much again, Giuseppe

No problem with the 3/3 rates. The problem is not in the numbers but in the absence of explanations... Why 3/3... or 4/4? This obvious question deserves an answer. I was professor and I know very well the importance of a response to a question. Getting answers, information, is a great help in the individual growing process. But I know that people feels that keeping information, without share, is like keeping power. So, if I share information with other then I'm in great danger, because after that sharing process the "other" grows and, by that way, it starts to be one real threat to my sovereignty. Humans love apartheids, divisions, groups, sectors… Is that an offense?! No! It is the truth!... And everything provides "substance" to build divisions, apartheids... There are many "things" in that "everything" and photography, with all its essential subjects, is one of these "things". So, why 3/3 in my photo? Because your photo is bad. Why is bad? The answer to that question is an enormous silence... And this silence is, in all aspects, very convenient. Giuseppe, forgive me the primitive english...