Forum Folk, Here are my thoughts and feelings about the PhotoForum member's gallery/exhibit space now on display at <http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html>: Christiane Roh - Market day, Place de la Palud http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/roh.html I like this photograph. I like the brightness and therefore the implied vitality of the marketeer and her wares contrasting with the gray building behind. The action was stopped at a point in time that adds true interest into the scene: the payment and the wrapping of goods. Roh has caught The Exchange! This is perfect timing. Roh has delivered to us an image that tells a story. But the part I like most is the glimpse into an unknown (to me) culture. I suspect the concept of the street market is quite old in Lausanne, but it has been kept up-to-date by the use of green plastic carrying cases for the vegetables, as well as environmentally unsound (but inexpensive) plastic carrying bags. The old customs meet the new realities, even in Switzerland. The most intriguing thing for me, however, is: where do the street venders get their fresh vegetables in March? David Small - Salute http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/small.html This is another photograph that I like a lot. It is my favorite of the week. This shot transcends street photography (and above the street photography) and begins to enter the world of art. The well defined figures in the foreground are kept the lower third of the image, allowing the size of the building in the background to be emphasized. The dark shadows of the building in the back contrast the relative lightness of the people, adding a grimy tension between the parts of the photo. This contrast, along with the raised helmet on the guy on the left, adds an emotion to the scene reminiscent of scenes photographed almost a century ago. Small, as they say in Wyoming, "Ya done good." Jeff Spirer - Sacrifice http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/spirer.html I like this image. It is the kind of thing rich people put on their walls. It has no immediate symbolic value, no story, no identity. It is pure abstract interplay of shape, color and texture. Somewhere Spirer found and exquisitely framed this masterpiece. Peeter Vissak - http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/vissak.html The background is a bit distracting, but I love the way the light is captured on the ice crystals covering the foreground branches. As the eye scans the photograph from left to right, there is initially light on both sides of the branch, but some unseen shadow gradually eliminates the light on the right side of the branch. Very cool, indeed. The snow texture in the midground also adds interest and emphasis to the very cold nature that Vissak has captured. Greg Fraser - Coffee House http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/fraser.html What a great shot! Fraser proves what we all know: It ain’t the paintbrush that makes the picture, it is the artist. From here, you can’t tell that it is a "wickedly cold day," but you can tell that this is a cozy place to be. The coffee cup in the foreground, the people all sitting in pairs, the heating ducts in the ceiling, the slight indistinctness of white seen through all the windows, all these elements add up to "cozy." The camera is strange, however. All faces seem blurred, save one. And that one face seems to be the most youthful female in the image. King/Arthur - In/Out/Beside http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/kingarthur.html This one is too manipulated for me. The stark white shirt in the foreground pulls the eye without letting go and there just isn’t enough interesting material to pull the eye away. Well, the young lass on the right is cute, but not enough to get away from the white foreground blob. Alan Zinn - Greeters, Toronto http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/zinn.html While interesting, this photograph is too distorted for me. It makes me uneasy to look at it very long. Too much tension here, especially if the emphasis is to be on the bronze. Christopher Strevens - Waiting for the Bus http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/strevens.html This is another interesting photo that just doesn’t quite click with me. While there is much to like in the expression of the subject, and the graffiti on the walls, it is the right hand that just does not seem to fit. It is almost grotesque in the captured moment. And it is too prominent to be overlooked. Emily L. Ferguson - Sculpting the ice http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/ferguson.html This one confused me when I first looked at it. For some reason I could not see the face of the sculptor in the image until I pulled the picture into Photoshop and enlarged the portion of the picture where I thought the face should be. Now it is obvious, but my mind just could not pull it out of all of the black without some help. That was odd. Even now, however, the starkness of the black seems to contrast too much with the brightness of the face and jacket. It is still unsettling. My buddy, Dewey the PJ, frequently carries a slave strobe around on a lightweight tripod in order to add just a bit of sidelight or background light to subjects that are poorly lit other than the camera flash. Perhaps more definition of the gloves and the chainsaw from the inky background would have made this easier for my mind to interpret the first time around. Andrew Davidhazy - Figure http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/davidhazy.html First there was the Sabattier effect, and now, rising from the figurative ashes of Polaroid Type 667 paper negatives, we have the Davidhazy Phoenix Process. In this case, Davidhazy has taken an almost trite figure portrait and allowed it to rise almost to an object of art. I like the result. The gritty, grainy texture derived from the process should add an earthiness to any photograph, and that is a quality that I usually find emotionally stimulating. In a nude study, this process seems to add a bit of mysterious intimacy that definitely enhances theme. The Phoenix Process sounds fascinating. I especially like the idea that previzualization of the final photograph is unlikely. So each image is a surprise. From the description of the process, it seems that three photographs of the same subject would likely yield three different outcomes, but probably all would be interesting. But I haven’t shot film in years, so it is a process lost to me. I wonder how you could duplicate not only the process, but the slight randomness of the process, in Photoshop? Very good work, folks. Thanks for sharing your photographs and your feelings. And thanks also to Andy and his staff who put the page together for us. Oh, one question for the staff: how is the order of images in the exhibit chosen? It does not seem to be the order of submission. And it seems that more often than not, my favorite images for the week are in the first three presented. Is this a mere coincidence? peace, rand
