Welcome Paul!
At first I thought your website was scanning one long panorama in a market. It looks impressive. I enjoyed the visit and will return.
This picture is selected from that series. On it's own, it's not immediately recognized as men selling birds. In the USA, with the TV series The Sopranos this could be a scene where some mob men were exchanging something nefarious, like drugs or delivering cash. It's the fellow facing to the right, as if he is a lookout man. Of course your title undoes all this and shows what stupid ideas we get from TV.
In spite of the thin slice of the man on the left, this is a picture that carries a lot of deep and interesting human relationships: admiration of the birds and pleasure in working together. The power between the two men on the left overcomes the lack of completion of the first man. This is a unique photograph of people with a life in them. They breathe, think and relate to one another. It’s to me, therefore a remarkable presentation worthy of our close attention!
The picture has a remarkable rotational movement. This is really worth studying. The older white-haired gentlemen in the background (on the right), who might be thought of unneeded, starts the clockwise drive of movement of a left to right direction. The "lookout” swings the movement forward to be caught by the man on the right foreground and brought back through the birds to the sliver of the man on the left.
Now we can see a special power of the man at the left: he stops the movement. Maybe he's the one making the decision on the bird. In any case the unusual, at first glance, haphazard composition works and is compelling to be printed. It will be valued for many revisits and we'll get to know these characters, a little more each time.
I believe this is film. Is that true and then the format I guess is 35mm by the details and the frame shape. This has no © in the file details. It's a good idea to do so. We don't want such pictures to end up as "orphan files for people to use without paying you!
Thanks for sharing your work. This is a still shot that is, in one frame a movie. Congrats.
Asher
