Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/02

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Subject: [Leica] Re: My attitude about Colo(u)r
From: firkin at balhpl01.ncable.net.au (firkin)
Date: Wed Feb 2 18:54:04 2005
References: <00bf01c50949$cbac3390$6401a8c0@ccapr.com>

Hey, I agree with BD: I must me improving ;-) 

Cheers 

B. D. Colen writes: 

> It is one of the best photos you've ever posted - and anyone who told
> you it was a bad posting doesn't know a photograph from a cave painting!
> I don?t know how I missed that one, but it is fabulous. And all that
> color says is "night time with some artificial lighting." It's no where
> near as "off" as the shot under discussion. 
> 
> As to the point of posting - I've always figured we post so that we can
> get some feedback - positive, negative, and hopefully constructive -
> from somewhere other than from the mirror. While we may not agree with
> the comments, ultimately any that are honest may end up being helpful. 
> 
> But as to the guy in the caf? - as I said early on, I see it as a miss
> and not a hit. A guy sits at a table looking down. So? Compare that to
> Bill Clough's classic, "Madison," where a guy looking down also occupies
> the right hand side of the frame. In Clough's image, as in this one, we
> can't see that the guy is looking at a newspaper. But in Clough's photo
> the left hand side of the frame is occupied by an angelic Shirley Temple
> look-alike glancing off to the left, out of the frame. So one looks at
> that image and immediately wonders, 'WHAT is going on here?' The caf?
> man photo, color aside, lacks anything to make one - well to make me, at
> least - want to ask that question. And without the question, there's
> nothing there. 
> 
> But let's suppose for a moment that we could see the newspaper. Again,
> we have to ask why we care about this particular guy reading the
> newspaper? Is there something else in the photo that provides some
> interest, some humor, some irony, some pathos? As I think I wrote
> before, had there been a sign somewhere behind the guy with words to the
> effect of "No Newspaper Reading Allowed," that would give us something.
> But as a photo of a guy reading a newspaper in an orange caf?.... 
> 
> B. D.
 

In reply to: Message from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] My attitude about Colo(u)r)