'The Barbershop'

This is an old-fashioned American barbershop recorded lately, on a late

afternoon when customers were scarce. Viewing 'large' is

recommended as photo is rich in detail. Taken in nostalgic district of

Portland, Oregon. Your ratings and critiques are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful

comment; please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

i like the old fashion style and suggestions that reminds this shot. ciao Elena

Regrettably, this is only a little 'old-fashioned'.

 

In a genuine 'old-fashioned' barber shop there would have been 'girlie' magazines everywhere, no matter how young the children who came.

 

Real barber shops were places for 'men' and 'males' only, no matter what the age, with 'rough talk' but also racist talk too. Talk of words now forbidden for people of the black race and now forbidden jokes; no loss there at all. (no relationship of that remark to these two men).

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

and the way you choose to compose it is really interesting. I like very much the pose of the sitting man (and the headline of the newspaper he is reading could give the title to this photo). What I like most is that with this work we get a bird’s eye view not only on this interesting shop (man, barber), but also on our times (present - the clock on the wall, past - chairs and future - traffic), and then into the reflection till the door closes. Thank you John, regards, Giuseppe P. (BTW, maybe the sitting man is a bit too close to the edge and the left side is a bit too much overexposed due to the particular circumstances of the shot)

That is one heck of a picture. It looks great. nice contrast and details. and a great feeling to it.

I like your choice of doing this picture B&W.

Congrats on your great work

Alex

You are absolutely right about the complexity, from the checker tiles on the floor to the mirrors, to the (three) barber chairs, the two barbers, the attitude of the barbers who really couldn't seem to care about someone entering, etc., and the one who is absorbed in 'U.S. News (and World Report)' it is a most complex photo, which does not at all show well in thumbnail, so I had to enveigle people to 'open it up' a little with a promise they would be rewarded, and I have kept my promise, I think.

 

This is exactly what I saw when I entered, and that is partly why I chose this particular barber shop in the first place after driving past once. I saw these guys through the front door as I drove past, parked on the side (my car is outside), and these guys could have cared less that I walked in the door.

 

I said 'don't move' I'm gonna take your photo and then get my hair cut, and they didn't, even though I carried my Nikon D300 and huge lens, and frankly if I'd set off a howitzer in there I still don't think they would have paid much attention -- maybe if I'd robbed the till, but I doubt there was much money in there.

 

I did the same when I exited too, and the results can be seen on another service as my barber stretches and holds his neck . . . . certainly not from overexertion in giving me my haircut I might add.

 

But they were amenable to being photographed and laid back (no objections) and that is valuable to me as a photographer . . . and their shop harkens back to an earlier time . . . maybe to the '30s or earlier or maybe a little later (nothing from the period 1942 to 1945 though as there was a war being fought and men were scarce -- barbers were needed to fight the Axis, to keep the military''s hair cut, and much of the nation was involved in military service or support service).

 

With girlie magazines, without the shorts, and athletic shoes, this might have been taken in another time entirely. If I were a movie location scout, I'd scout this place in an instance, though I suppose it's just easier for movie set carpenters to build one on a sound stage than fight traffic sounds on Sandy Bouldvard outside, isn't that right Josh?

 

Using curves or shadow/highlight tool or one of the adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw, I easily could have exposed the outside properly in this capture and shown the auto outside and traffic but didn't want to. I wanted it overexposed and for viewers to see 'the barber shop' and not 'modern day traffic' outside. It was intentional, the 'overexposure' in this rendering, and also curable (somewhat).

 

I had wished I had a slightly wider angle lens, but it's a fool's mission to carry too many cameras and my 17~55 with 17 mm at widest was used here. I could have used about 14 mm or so from a 12~24 mm lens to keep the right leg a little better spaced, but overall I'm quite happy with this -- no, as the Brits would say, snockered.

 

You see, if you have supporters, a complex street photo can 'pay off'.

 

This also shows that I've been watching the film from U-Tube 'The Impassioned Eye' about the aged Henri Cartier-Bresson and his captures (he looks absolutely 'merry' the 'mercurial' old guy, and so pleased with himself, at least on film . . . . when reports are that he was a downright terror to photographers and friends sometimes who didn't meet his sometimes rigorous and arbitrary demands. and at other times absolutely jocular.

 

Perhaps his widow, Martine Franck (who was an elegant photographer AND lady) would weigh in, or maybe PN member and acquaintance Miles Morgan who knows much of the Cartier-Bresson history).

 

I had not photographed 'scenes' for quite some time, in such a way, but decided to have a go after the previous night having watched 'The Impassioned Eye'.

 

If you look at my photo in my B&W portfolio 'Three States of Awareness'', you'll see a photo that looks to me like it might have been taken by Cartier-Bresson and understand why I abandoned photography after seeing Cartier-Bresson's giant traveling museum exhibit in 1969 in San Francisco -- how could I ever compete?

 

And who wanted to be a disciple to a man I previously had never heard of but who took photos similar to mine but better as well as hundreds and hundreds of them from all over the world?

 

He was a genius; and I understood I was not, photographically.

 

Thanks Giuseppe.

 

Your critiques are almost always exceedingly helpful, and I see them as quite honest too. I seem always to learn something from your helpful observations and thank you for those.

 

John (Crosley)

This was a no-brainer to convert to B&W because I'm converting so much to B&W these days, and the floor tile, already being in B&W made it all the easier.

 

Consider the middle barber chair, the bases of the first and second chair, all white porcelain, notice the white roll of paper towels and then look at the brightness of the mirror's reflection then the mirror's reflection of the reflection of the front window (complex hunh?).

 

This is one of my more complex photos, as noted above, with all sorts of complex patterns and themes . . . repetition being one of them.

 

How many mirrors . . . how many reflections . . . how many barber chairs . . . how many barbers . . . how many tiles and rows of tiles . . . . and so on . . . ?

 

That's just a start, and for such a photo black and white reveals the patterns and repetition best, I know from experience -- Cartier-Bresson wanted to and did shoot color then tried to destroy his color work because he could not master it (I think I do better with color, but mine is different . . . it's hard to coordinate color when you're encompassing a broad 'scene' rather than narrowing focus as I have so often in the past.

 

I have precious few 'scene' photos in color that have worked out, and many of my successful 'color' photos were taken with a telephoto (though certainly not all - and some with a VERY wide angle lens so the photo is surrounded almost by the nearby color -- see the father waiting for his wife and child to take the blue train from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, as they watch out the window and he stands on the platform -- the train is overwhelmingly blue . . . and it centers the entire photo.

 

Other photos come to mind (I'm working on the final stages of a personal book for galleries tonight so I'm very aware of both color and B&W). The book will be finished before the sun rises.

 

(But it's for private publishing and not for distribution . . . . done from a template . . . just for evaluative purposes . . . nobody makes money from book authoring unless it's a second or third book or they're already famous or involved with famous things/people)

 

I'm looking for galleries, and the book is to 'open doors' I hope as my mentor/curator showed me how.

 

I hope it works.

 

He's got a Lucie, so I think he knows the ropes.

 

(Here's to you Michele)

 

Alex, pardon the private message - more than just members read these blurbs, I think, and I wanted to pass on a message.

 

I thank you for letting me know your impression. I was surprised by only moderate ratings initially,but for a photo like this, it hardly matters to me.

 

Photo.net has some very worthy raters who let me know their opinions lately on a very regular basis, and most of them I hold in high esteem for their sound judgment. (and I don't mate-rate -- I seldom rate at all)

 

Thanks Alex.

 

John (Crosley)

That the barber, right, had a U.S. News or other 'proper' magazine but that we could see in the mirror that he actually was perusing a 'girlie' magazine.

 

Now that would be a great photo to study.

 

In another time that really would have been possible . . . although the cover probably would have been visible, I estimate, and in former times barbers didn't even try to hide the covers of 'girlie' magazines, and their shops were strewn with hair and girlie magazines.

 

That's how I first learned anatomy . . . . though all the photos were airbrushed . . . . and later I was surprised to learn the fact of 'public hair' because none of the models had that feature or for that matter, any genitals at all.

 

Oh, and it wasn't just the only place where an eight-year old could get an anatomy lesson. One could stand for hours looking at such magazines at the local Rexall Drug Store . . . . and no one minded at all or chased me or my other curious friends away.

 

Times were simpler then.

 

Now they'd be arrested and have to wear ankle bracelets the rest of their lives, and be barred from living in most urban areas -- exiled to rural areas far away from where any juveniles lived. After all it's a 'sex crime' isn't it and all are of equal severity, but then nobody (or few anyway) saw much harm in it, and I am unaware of any friends who grew up with warped sexuality from such early exposure.

 

Are such drastic punishments really the right solution, and if they are now, why weren't they seen as the 'right solution' then?

 

What has changed?

 

Why this comment?

 

In my youth, barber shops were synonymous with 'girlie magazines' - in almost uncountable numbers. Even Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield got their starts in the 'girlie' trade,Marilyn in a world famous calendar that has endured and Jayne in a famous underground 'blue' video.

 

How are Schwarzeneggar and/or Stallone any different or Paris Hilton,then, except for Hilton's explicitness (and cunning for eventually getting half the profits from her 'stolen' 'sex video')?

 

;~))

 

John (Crosley)

The photo is snappy but has far too much contrast. About "old fashioned barber shops if this is your idea of one....In your youth is not in my youth. If you are equating "girlie magazines" to barber shops of the 30s and 40s (as you imply) your documentary is ......unless a Betty Grable Pin Up was a girlie magazine. And the only "rough talk" that I ever heard was the men telling me the barber was going to cut off my ears. And there were just as many barber shops in the war as otherwise. Nevertheless your commets are interesting as always. Again the photo is snappy but has too much contrast -a lot too much.

Good slice of life photo. The chairs and floors are the standard barbershop style of the fifties before unisex took hold.

 

Could have done without the wide angle crotch shot though :) However, I see one very important thing missing for an authentic barbershop photo. Where is the big tall glass jar with blue Barbicide for soaking combs? And no shaving cream machine! Poseurs! Why isn't he reading the Police Gazette instead of US News and World Report?

 

http://www.barbicide.com/

 

http://www.skylighters.org/puslideshow/pgslideshow.html (Police Gazette had a glamour shot on the cover and more than a few within, along with stories about violent crimes and boxing and wrestling.)

 

 

I missed a similar shot the other day on First Ave in NYC. The barber was sleeping in the chair at end of day near the back of the shop, and I had a nice clear view that would have caught the work area as well. But the light outside was too bright and the reflections would have made it unusable.

 

Great image with those few exceptions, none of which were your fault!

 

 

Great shot John...like your work.

Sometimes the price of a good photo is a bad haircut or a not so passable one with some hairs left sticking out over your ears that someone (I am not saying whom) forgot to cut with his scissors.

 

Shaving cream was provided but maybe from a foam bottle, but when I asked that the 'blade be changed' in the interest of hygiene (don't want AIDS or hepatitis from some prior customer) I suddenly found that the shaving cream was being wiped from my head and out came the electric trimmer razor . . . even in Bangkok they'll change a razor blade . . . even if you just ask.

 

Hygiene with the shave? Well, if you want . . . . 'some people want it, I was told, and wasn't even told of my options before being slathered with shaving cream.

 

And with the extra hairs that were missed from the top of the ear trim (and the excess hairs that were cut only on one side, I cannot recommend this shop, as an honest man, though they were very good photo subjects.

 

I knew an attorney once who worked in private practice but once was a deputy District Attorney in San Jose (Santa Clara County, California) who shared office space with me. She had the temerity to sue one of my clients, though we shared space, on behalf of our secretary . . . and her motto, she said, was 'you serve them where you find them.'

 

Well, with slight modifications, that's my motto. "You shoot them where you find them, and if they've got shorts on and their legs spread out on the barber chair, that's what gets recorded . . . no phony decorum here. This is slice of reality and no expurgation.

 

If it shows an open crotch, then so be it.

 

As you noted about mirrors (and thus reflections), I did move to the right so I would not be taking my own photograph as a reflection, and also could have used a slightly wider angle lens, but 'made do'.

 

And rather well, I think.

 

I think the checkerboard floor predates the '50s, but then who knows? When was linoleum invented, as this may be original stuff?

 

Police Gazette? Barbisol?

 

I haven't seen those two things in years.

 

And these guys certainly don't seem to care about tradition or much else that I could understand and weren't fastidious or fussy about what they were doing and were quite preoccupied . . . by whatever was preoccupying them, certainly not me, at least very much.

 

I'd give this place four stars for period ambiance, and quite a lot fewer for the quality of barbering, but then if you want good photos you gotta make compromises.

 

I'm going to Europe in a few days, and looks like I'll have to get a trim to cure my trim here when I get there ;~))

 

Otherwise if someone sees my left side, then my right side, they'll wonder why my left side has hair so much shorter to the left and in front of my ear . . . . a problem I've never had even once in my life after a barber visit and a reason I never let my mother cut my hair.

 

Would she were alive; I could have taken a chance with her this time.

 

Ray, if there was a reflection problem was it because you were on the street looking through a window, or because of mirrors, etc., inside the barber shop?

 

You didn't explain.

 

I actually went in here and got shorn . . . maybe just like one of those Australian sheep right after the Australian 'winter' you see being shorn in those documentaries right after they've been herded by those crazy Australian dogs that herd by even walking on sheep backs -- it was a pretty quick cut -- not high on aesthetics, but truly an 'experience' to be remembered, by this photo and another (posted on another service -- worth the price and the partially bare price above and in front of my left ear.

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

 

Yes, I was on the street looking in. The sign with the "scandinavian barber" on it would have been a nice frame, but the reflection in the window was too bright. And if I opened the door, he would have wanted to give me a haircut as well as waking up. Classic Catch-22.

Here's a solution.

 

Go in, as I once did, and say,

 

"I was wondering what your hours are - just when do you work and when are your busiest periods as I have time for a haircut in a few days -- not now, but maybe, say, Thursday . . . or Friday . . . how is your availability then in the afternoons? "

 

Then you've opened the door, taken your photo, are seen as a customer who will pay money and got the goods.

 

And you can return and get a Scandinavian haircut later as you wish.

 

;~))

 

John (Crosley)

A classic Crosley, where the images are distorted in the most delightful way...Marjorie

I haven't had a chance to read the entire thread (it looks very interesting, so I will come back later) but just wanted to say I love this photo. It's so fun and I love that the guy is reading the Voter's guide. Thanks for sharing - Lex

What more than: smile, fine shot!

with regards

I thought a 'Classic Crosley' was one of those old cars made by the Crosley Automobile company headed by Powell Crosley (or did he have a brother?) -- very small autos which later were converted into absolutely great dune buggies. America's first small car.

 

;~))

 

So, now I'm making 'classics' hunh?

 

Maybe I'm old enough to be a classic myself. Let's see, with classic in autos, it's anything that's what?. . . . 20 or 30 years, old, and by that definition, I'm probably . . . no definitely .. . . antique.

 

Don't mind the ribbing. I enjoyed your compliment . . . .

 

Zooms at wide angles almost always produce distortion, but here it did work out pretty well, didn't it?

 

(if it didn't I probably wouldn't have posted it.)

 

Thanks for a delightful comment.

 

John (Crosley)

Thanks for the nice compliment. I try and try and sometimes I do something good (not all my postings are wonderful, of course) I leave it to the judges . . . and even on this shot, I got a 3/4.

 

Go figure.

 

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. (I don't thank people for the size of their ratings -- that's a personal matter, and they can rate however they honestly believe with never a retributive ratings from me -- and no mate-rating either.)

 

John (Crosley)

The photo is 'fun' and then again the comments are 'fun' in their own right -- they're not 'fluff' entirely and may actually tell you something more than 'great photo; and 'attaboy'. You may actually learn here about social mores from another time.

 

Or at least that's how I delude myself.

 

Thanks for the comment; I treasure comments like yours.

 

John (Crosley)

A smile from you is worth its weight in precious metals x 10.

 

Thanks so much.

 

John (Crosley)

 

This shot is excellent. Great job.

Thanks a Million.

 

It looks pretty awful in thumbnail, so I'm surprised many opened it to have a look. This is a 'thumbnail first' site, and if a photo doesn't look good first in thunbnail its chances are lessened, 'unless' it gets on a Top Rated Photo list, which I presume this one is, just for the number of comments, at least now.

 

Thanks again.

 

John (Crosley)