• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Evidence of Recession

T

Tom Robbins

Member
The financial downturn has affected everyone on the planet, to one degree or another. I've tried to take photos that illustrate the consequences in the Midwest United States. One obvious manifestation is the reduction of traffic along the rails, and a subsequent idling of freight cars. As a result, these cars must be parked somewhere, so they are usually queued up along the side rails.

One example:


119224848.jpg

Parked Cars
​

The stuff leaking from the cars in the foreground is known as silica sand, and is primarily mined from St. Peter sandstone quarried along the north bank of the Illinois River. At one time, it was the primary source of material for the manufacture of glass for the US automotive industry. The size of the spill shows that nothing moves very quickly hereabouts these days.

Any suggestions or comments about this theme or this particular photo would be appreciated.

Thanks, as always,

Tom
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
I like your project concept, Tom. Yes, it's been done and done...but not by you. Pursuing it from a rural location will be a challenge, as this image illustrates. (It's a beautiful image that represents such a scene -perfectly-. Really excellent camera work.) The challenge it illustrates, however, is that the cues to your subject are subtle and must be narrated. Now, that's absolutely fine with me. Frankly, I enjoy good narrative accompanying documentary photography. But anyone expecting self-evident symbolism may be disappointed and critical. (Forget 'em.)

Let's see more on this theme, Tom.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

119224848.jpg

Parked Cars
​


Ken Tanaka said:
(It's a beautiful image that represents such a scene -perfectly-. Really excellent (It's a beautiful image that represents such a scene -perfectly-. Really excellent camera work.)
Click to expand...

Ken,

Let me start with you parenthesis! You describe the work well and Tom does really earn this positive comment. It's not merely well lit and beautiful, but there's more to glean as one spends more time, even without a good title. One might ask what is happening, that time has stopped. As you rightly infer, presentation of a photograph can benefit from a whole series of parameters, title and text being just a few, but the value of a series being, perhaps, one of the most important.

Who, anyway, wants obviously "self-evident" symbolism? We can also bring to the image our own references and with discussion, work out the range of meanings in a social setting. That's where galleries are so valuable as we can visit and discuss together the impact of the photograph and a body of work on each of us. This privilege of real time discussion cannot occur in the theater, ballet or a concert without upsetting everyone else!

I find that this picture has the elements needed to attract and engage us. For it to be more than that, I don't think the picture needs to be changed, just needs siblings!

Asher
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nigel Allan

Nigel Allan

Member
I do not think it is self-evident from the imagery that this is evidence of the recession but I do think it is a lovely image in itself. Nice colours, shapes and detail, nicely balanced and evocative, but if the idea is to convey the recession I don't think it is strong enough as it stands.

As Asher says, if shown as part of a series which tell the rest of the story and expands your theme this would work but otherwise it needs your detailed explanation of the silica sand as 'evidence' that the trains haven't moved in quite a while.

But even then you could perhaps use a shorter punchier explanation as if you were showing this on the front page of a newspaper along the lines of "As recession bites, cargo trains come to a standstill" or "The wheels of industry in the Midwest stop turning due to recession".

I think this would work better than a long narrative

Just my two cents, but lovely shot and I wish I had taken it.
 
M

Michael Fontana

pro member
Nigel Allan said:
I do not think it is self-evident from the imagery that this is evidence of the recession but I do think it is a lovely image in itself. ..........
Click to expand...

Yep, I can't see it either, but that might ne a cultural difference.

Alphonse Bertillion, kinda inventor of passport photography, once statet, that we only see things in or with photography, if we know' em ahead. It's not the literal translation, but might give a idea...
 
T

Tom Robbins

Member
All,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. I believe the suggestion that the photo, on its own, does not support the theme is absolutely correct. It may serve as an illustration of an overambitious photo, where the picture was worth somewhat less than the proverbial thousand words needed for its assigned theme.

I remember reading long ago that if a photo requires more than one or two sentences to describe, then something is wrong with the photo. John Shaw may have been the writer. In this case, the theme cast too wide a net. Lesson understood!

Thank you all again,

Tom
 
Nigel Allan

Nigel Allan

Member
Doesn't stop it being a gorgeous picture Tom. It may well be stretching it calling it evidence of recession but as an image it is stunning and I repeat, I wish I had taken it

Maybe you should just rename it 'Parked train carriages in the Midwest'


I just clicked on your pbase link quickly and you have some lovely work there. Your graciousness is humbling
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Tom, this is a lovely lovely picture. To me the light, the tracks the building and the freight cars scream
sadness...maybe worse. For sure you have captured and presented to us a picture of ' things bad, desolate'.

The narrative only adds to the drama you have portrayed. A lonely figure ( or a few ) in the rain huddled
together near the cars would be just wow!

My hats off to you.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom Robbins said:
I remember reading long ago that if a photo requires more than one or two sentences to describe, then something is wrong with the photo. John Shaw may have been the writer. In this case, the theme cast too wide a net. Lesson understood!
Click to expand...

Tom,

Ignore such wide sweeping assertions. Much photographic work requires little if any introduction as we'ver seen all the pieces, one way or another, in various contexts before. So generally, it's the arrangement and relative weights that convert the title to a focused meaning. In other instances, like in this case, one would have to know that there was such a thing as a transport system, economic downturns, loss of local business, layoffs and then despair. If someone can fully describe this in two sentences, then they could be appointed to a Chair in Philosophy in Oxford, Cambridge, The Sorbonne, Harvard, Yale or Princtown specializing in logic. However, such language experts would take two years to craft just the first sentence!

This picture is good because it attracts the eye by being pleasantly lit by the falling golden sun and then we are drawn in to engage with the long train cars. Only then do we enter into the puzzle of what the details might mean. This picture requires intelligence and a background in our cultural make-up and system of commerce and employment. Doing this justice requires we spend time. This is not for the kodak moment, the Dr. Pepper rush of the gulp of a Pizza Hut special, it requires involvement and time.

Two sentences? Nonsense!

Asher

Asher
 
M

Mike Shimwell

New member
Asher Kelman said:
Tom,

Ignore such wide sweeping assertions. Much photographic work requires little if any introduction as we'ver seen all the pieces, one way or another, in various contexts before. So generally, it's the arrangement and relative weights that convert the title to a focused meaning. In other instances, like in this case, one would have to know that there was such a thing as a transport system, economic downturns, loss of local business, layoffs and then despair. If someone can fully describe this in two sentences, then they could be appointed to a Chair in Philosophy in Oxford, Cambridge, The Sorbonne, Harvard, Yale or Princtown specializing in logic. However, such language experts would take two years to craft just the first sentence!

This picture is good because it attracts the eye by being pleasantly lit by the falling golden sun and then we are drawn in to engage with the long train cars. Only then do we enter into the puzzle of what the details might mean. This picture requires intelligence and a background in our cultural make-up and system of commerce and employment. Doing this justice requires we spend time. This is not for the kodak moment, the Dr. Pepper rush of the gulp of a Pizza Hut special, it requires involvement and time.

Two sentences? Nonsense!

Asher

Asher
Click to expand...


I absolutely agree with this and Ken's initial comment. This is a lovely and superbly executed photograph. It illustrates the story that your words tell, and that is good. It cannot tell the story in isolation - that would be open to a number of interpretations, beyond the immediate 'Wow, what a lovely picture' (which it is).

This series might interest some in considering the use of photographs as evidence, illustration or propoganda. It starts at the bottom, in the irritating way of blogs:)

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top