stephen_lutz

This is a very interesting photo in some ways. It certainly catches the viewer's attention and makes one look closely at it. It seems out of kilter and surreal to me. The composition is rather disjointed, as if the girl is lookng over her shoulder at someone or something and the car is bearing down on her. The sailor seems detached from the scene, as if he is oblivious to both the car and the girl.

 

While the elements, car, girl and sailor are loosely tied together in the narrow sense that they are all on a pier and all in the same scene, they are not really interacting or relating to one another. This is why I say this photo has a dream like or surreal quality. The sailor is in his summer whites, the girl in her sun dress and the car (with an unseen driver) appears to be driving past the sailor and toward the girl. Hmmmm, I like the photo, but find rather too 'arty' for my taste in some ways. Still, I would be pleased if I had taken it. The title would be more apt as "The Lady ignores a Sailor," however.

...well, photographically (asethetically) it doesn't work for me. Mostly because he is looking down, and because there is no environmental texture to the shot. He's in the middle of the frame, and appears to be standing in a parking lot or by the side of the road. It looks like a "sneak" shot, taken when he wasn't looking. (I haven't thoroughly read the other comments, so perhaps I am mistaken.) This is such an obvious subject that it leaves me unmoved. I do hope, however, that the photographer gave the guy a buck or two for taking his picture. Once, when I was walking around downtown taking pictures of public art, a down-on-his luck guy on a bus stop bench said, "Hey! I got a photo op for you!" He pulled a "will work for food, god bless" sign out of a battered suitcase he was carrying and held it up. I said, "Hey, great! Let me give you a buck, is that about right?" He said, "It ain't right, but it will do." So, I put the buck back in my wallet, said, "Well, if it ain't right, I won't do it." and went back to shooting public art. Quite an interesting experience, for both of us I'm sure.