[SI] Imagination Critique
"Imagination"
"Your goal is to tell a full and complete story about your chosen subject in
a single photograph. Choice of subject is unrestricted. The story should
have an implied beginning, a current state and an inferred conclusion - all
in one picture. The primary storytelling tool you manipulate will not be
your camera, but rather the imaginations of your viewers."
Admittedly not an easy mandate. Nor was it intended to be. I expected most
to pass on it. Some did. A few others refused to be intimidated. Good for
you...
Mark Thomas
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66236100
This first one up is my favorite of the set. Graphically simple. Excellent
portrayal of mood. Easy to digest visually, yet still open to the viewer's
interpretation.
Most everyone should be able to instantly see and understand the basics of
the current state. Beyond that, the bookends are left for the viewer to
decipher. A car trip on a rainy day? He probably didn't really want to go.
At the moment he's fascinated only by the lights and motion. As for where
he's going? Kids are only passengers in life. They go where they're taken.
The grocery store? Grandma's house? The babysitter? At some point, all of
the above.
That the image is softened via PS is not a problem. PS borrows from the
real world where expensive softening and flare-producing filters may be
employed, usually dumbing down an expensive, multicoated, sharp lens. Or
the simple expedient of petroleum jelly on a clear glass filter works almost
equally well to halo the highlights. Regardless, the effect is crucial to
this image, as is the camera movement.
(Note that if the same technique is used in the darkroom during the
enlarging phase, it's the shadows that become flared - a decidedly macabre
effect. This because under the enlarger, light produces the shadow areas in
a print, not the highlight areas. Can PS mimic this effect also? Just
curious...)
Al Denelsbeck*
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66236132
To my mind, multiple interpretations possible here. The implied first one
is the somewhat unsettling recognition of Mr. Parker's previous, current and
eventual physical condition. Although judging by the birth date - and
likely the partially obscured final date as well - we may have already
physically arrived at eventual. Those leaves are awfully green.
But then there is the dismembered condition of The Thing Itself. Presumably
not originally manufactured as we see it, its implied beginning is thus
apparent. Current state is somewhat strange, to say the least. But its
inferred ending, however, is an open question. For all we know, Mr. Parker
may actually be miles away. Or mistakenly change a letter and he may have
never even existed at all, in which case the story changes completely.
Jim Kramer
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66236150
While for me this photograph may not directly hit the mandate, it is
nevertheless a very close second to Mark Thomas' excellent submission. This
is, in fact, one of the better portraits I have seen in the three years of
the SI.
Pensiveness (*real* pensiveness - not the Sears Photo Studios kind) is not a
quality often associated with children's images. At this age attention
spans and emotional states are measured in nanoseconds. But the first thing
I thought when this picture loaded was that I had once seen a similar
photograph of Albert Einstein - late in life, with his full-blown white
'do - showing the same "burdened by the weight of what he knew that the rest
of us didn't" look on his face. To capture such adult eyes in a child is
remarkable. More so when the highest shutter speed available is presumably
nowhere near a nanosecond.
Unfortunately for me, this very success also has the complementary effect of
causing the image to miss the mandate theme. While I know logically that
there must have been both an implied beginning and inferred conclusion, the
image is powerful enough that I have no desire to spoil its appreciation by
searching my imagination for them. I am content to savor the current state
as the entire story line. And that's not a bad thing.
Mardon Erbland
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66236164
In contrast to Jim's submission, this is a dead-on bulls-eye for the
mandate. Is there even one among you reading this who has not been in this
situation before? I think not. It happened to me only a couple of weeks
ago with the 5-year-old nephew of a good friend. And in a restaurant, too.
(Where else??)
This is a minor catastrophe so recognizable that the state of the situation
only two seconds earlier is instantly known to all, as is the illustrated
instinctive quick grab to right the glass *before* its contents can respond
to gravity (never works). The conclusion, panicked grabbing of anything
absorbent, controlled comments of "that's OK" and "accidents happen" filling
the air, kids crying when it's their glass, is far more empathetic than
sympathetic in nature. Been there, done that - and bought the tee shirt.
And will no doubt do so again real soon...
Edward Weston once said, "Anything that excites me for any reason, I will
photograph - not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the
commonplace unusual." Words worth considering for all of us as we hack
around in the SI.
A well thought out and executed submission.
Bob Flint
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66242205
An in-between image in the sense that a point somewhere between start and
finish has been selected. Meets the mandate, but not quite as strongly as
Mardon's submission.
It's pretty obvious that *something* is in the middle of being created. So
the beginning would be what? That it never existed before this current
moment? And the conclusion would be that at some point it will so exist in
its final form?
I think my problem here is that with spilled milk the common knowledge
factor is so high that virtually anyone can identify with the subject.
Everyone recognizes the entire story as told by that photo of the current
state of the spill. But here the common knowledge seems to be far less
common.
While there undoubtedly are some viewers who may instantly recognize what is
being created, I am not one of them. Unfortunately I couldn't tell if this
project is 5% along from the beginning or the end. While I know that it's
at an in-between point of completion, I don't have enough common knowledge
to imagine what happened an hour ago, or a day ago, or a week ago. I also
can't imagine what the very next step would be. So my ability "see" the
entire story is limited by my lack of knowledge regarding what I see in this
current state photo.
The obstacle here is therefore mine. Others may do better with this same
subject matter.
Rich Pos
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66242616
I like this one because the mandate is about filling things in with one's
imagination and this photograph is conspicuous for what it doesn't show.
This appeals to me as I don't always like in-your-face subjects. I also
enjoy main subjects treated more subtly, with connections and meanings the
viewer is expected to ferret out on his/her own.
This image doesn't show the immediate surroundings in their entirety. But
it does show just enough that we know what's there. It doesn't show people
in their entirety. Or at least the most important part - their faces. But
it does show enough to know what they're up to. Heck, it doesn't even show
the dog's face entirely. But we know exactly what he's doing. (Nothing
useful, but isn't that exactly what a dog's job description reads?)
My impression here is that the beginning, current moment and conclusion are
all the same. I know this is not what Rich has told us. I think
after-the-party relaxation was the reality. But had I not known that my
reaction would have been to imagine this to be an entire day doing nothing
more than sitting around the pool. Maybe a Saturday. Maybe a holiday. But
the impression of nothing in particular needing to be done for an entire day
is very strong.
Graham Fountain
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/66275539
Interesting to me the number of submissions for this mandate where children
are the main subject. Perhaps because they are so free with their emotions
it makes it easier to imagine what they are doing, and were doing, and will
be doing.
This photograph illustrates the mandate, but leaves a lot to the viewer to
figure out. The current state is easy. He's got something wrong - or just
interesting - happening with his hand. But what is it? Poked with that
stick? Poopy on the flowers? A first recognition of five digits? ("Hey
Mom! Guess what I have!")
And what happened after this moment is anyone's guess. Running crying to
mom for a band-aid? (Which as everyone knows cures *everything*.) Or a
hand wash? Putting the poopy in a pocket? (Seen this one before, too!)
Something happened before and after, we're just not sure what they were and
there are not enough hints to be any more specific.
Ken Nadvornick
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