Re: [Leica] Four new PAWs

[Kevin H <kevin@2image.com>]

Karen,

I enjoyed your website.  I have not heard of the term photoethnography 
before.  As an anthropologist it is a great use of your photographical 
talent.  I like your use of  ( what I call ) geometry.  Nice diagonals, 
the eye flows nicely through much of your work.  I admire your street 
ability.

Here's my opinion on some of your shots.  I'm not educated as an art 
critic, I'm just some guy who likes to look at and take pictures. And 
trying to figure out how to improve my own skills.

Week 1:  The dog -- classic, nicely framed by the two men. Good use of 
depth of field.
Week 3: Construction worker.  Great framing with the buildings and 
foreground girder.  Great geometry.
Week 8.  Again, well framed.  The subject demands some space, and you 
gave it to him.
Week 9:  Try BW for the old man.  Maybe a tighter shot, or more of his 
yard sale items?  Background is distracting. -- the lemonade/mortuary is 
cute -- but not much to it except, hey, there's a lemonade stand  at a 
mortuary!.
Week 12 Interesting  with respect to the  story .  

Week 6 -- Fantastic.  I am an Arbus fan, and this works very well in 
that respect.  The bunched up jacket, chairs leaning against him, and 
the nice diagonal created by the sun -- perfect. His embrace is a bit 
too loving, his eyes are a  bit too intense . . . no this isn't a casual 
snapshot, there is quite a story here. And yes it is 'troubling' but  in 
a comical way.  People make judgements of 'what is 'normal' -- and you 
are playing with that.   I wouldn't criticize a viewer if he or she 
found it ' troubling' -- that's the impact of the image.   And I can 
look at the image, laugh and think -- there's a strange one, but I'm not 
really making a judgement of this man personally, just exploring the 
image.  Maybe he's a normal guy and was giving you a show --  or maybe 
he loves her like a daughter and bakes her birthday cakes every year 
(Call me prejudice, but that would be, err, troubling.).  Either way, a 
great image.


I find reading Martin's comments were helpful in pointing out elements I 
missed and other approaches.

Martin Howard wrote:

> The other one (basket) has a slightly disturbing/busy background.  I 
> find my eyes scooting over towards the pile of wood all the time, when 
> they should be looking at that lovely range of tones in the basket. 

Agreed -- I find the basket and square wash board interesting --  I 
would like to  see those two elements isolated.

> The shot of the woman at the bottom of the page is the kind of shot 
> that I would take too and that I've come to discover doesn't work.  

Her expression isn't helping the image.  Looks like a snapshotsmile.

> I disagree with you on the Meinecke guy shot: I prefer the left one, 
> because his face is not in such a contorted angle 

> but the right shot is better framed.  A third shot combining the best 
> qualities of these two would be the winner. 

I'll go with the one on the right.  Better framing. Better posture.  I 
like the way his head is framed by his arms, the position of the welding 
tank and lift frame is better, clothing hangs nicer,  better diagonal 
movement and  the foot is chopped on the right image.


Good stuff!

Kevin.



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