httpwww.photo.netphoto1664881585

What a great image for meditation, sitting on the bench at a museum, becoming Waldon Pond or for just sloughing off the dust of the day.

 

The title, however, ruined the entire experience of a great photo for me, no matter how it was made. It removed any bit of tranquility or possible irony, turning a 10++ event into naught. The birds and the skiff were not important details, until the title was added, and then they were utterly superfluous. Let the viewer process his or her own feelings about solitude; it's a great picture for doing so, but the title makes it didactic and preachy. I looked at some of this photographer's other images and have come to the same conclusion: he would do better with "Untitled"; otherwise use the medium of writing alone. ee cummings, Wm Blake, and a few others could mix words and art. This artist is not yet able to do so, without destroying his admirable photographic virtues.

This photo doesn't work for me, either as a photograph or as an abstract art work. In fact, it looks like a mistake, the kind of thing that might happen as one is loading film or accidentally trips the shutter. Its dissonant in the same way that clutter is. I see no planning in the composition. The dark man-hole cover (thanks for telling us what it was) dominates the frame from the lower left, and is just a "what is that?" The weight and placement of everything in the frame is out of kilter. The recognizability of everything else just adds to the confusion and feeling that it is a mistake. It could work perhaps rendered completely abstract but the bright tall building would need to be a diagonal within a diagonal. I know that art and photography is not necessarily meant to make us feel good but I like to find some meaning in images. What was its title: "Discordia"? That might make me revise my opinion, as long as I don't have to view the image. Amazing though, only a couple of us to whom this photograph doesn't appeal. Two last questions: Did this look good through the shutter, aside from the indeterminancy of planned blurring? What about bracketing for composition, to at least have some other choices? Pictures usually don't improve as prints.