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  • 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!

My World: Traveler or a Tourist?

fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
p1426849910.jpg


This, Fahim is a brilliant question and metaphor. We could also show blood coming from a picked finger or a thorn in a bare foot or a mother taking her child to school, but this says it all and more. A lot of what we treasure as unique is universal and just the lettering is unique.

One of the most significant images you have ever shared here.

Asher
Click to expand...

And there I was having a drink on a street stall watching the world ( literally ) go by!!

Thanks Asher.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
And often, to celebrate having slept on/under clean bed sheets , I would celebrate and paint the town green...

p1404754236-4.jpg

And I never found a shortage of clean sheets and/or intoxicating drinks. And I did not have to fly to any
island to find them. And neither Did I have to stay in five star hotels. I have stayed in seven star ones in my region though.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Where does he come from?, she asked my guide.

He told her. She looked slightly bewildered..where is that? she asked.

Not far from France, I told her. She understood France and America.

p1428231774-5.jpg
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Laos.

I stand in a crater. A man made crater.

I hear names. Distant names. From the past. From History.

Names like Xepon Valley, Ban Dong, Ban Bac, Delta Company, Semper Fidelis and on and on.
There is a big museum in Ban Dong. It celebrates a victory.

I close my eyes. Napalm. The village. The trail. I look to the skies. Hear the distant sounds of Kiowas and the cobras and the Hueys. Victor 319er to flydragon. Victor 319er to flydragon, do you copy, over. Loud and clear Victor 319er. Firemoth in position, repeat Firemoth in position...Flydragon!, Flydragon, Cobra 63zero is going down..repeat..oh! my God. Flydragon, Flydragon..Victor 319er, this is flydragon, rescue is up and running, do you copy? Victor 319er, do you copy?...static rushes over the coms link.

Rescue was too late for them and for them. Countless them and countless them. Living people all, wasted on both sides.

I stand in what was once a thriving small community. Only a few are left here now...

p1428394836-5.jpg

I look up. The skies are clear over the Ho Chi Minh Trail today.

I shake my head in disbelief. Will we ever learn. I get into my air-con suv. I need a Coke, I tell my driver.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Fahim,

This thread may contain your best pictures ever shared. Fabulous work!

BTW folks, Fahim and Ayesha lives and sense of being put a huge crack the simplistic notion, (of us in the West), of an isolated, even xenophobic, hard to penetrate desert kingdom of oil riches. Here, are two Saudis, one, a woman who climbs Mount Everest and the other, a man, brings to us diverse beautiful humanity, to be treasured for its own sake! Then, I remember that, after all, the science, philosophy and literature we pride ourselves in Europe came from, (in no small part) and were derivatives of Arab centers of learning! Hmm? Maybe we're xenophobic, ourselves!

I almost forget Fahim actually owns a camera or that his wife even knows how to put on an abaya.

Asher
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Sunset along the Mekong. Another town, another evening.

Hardly a place to sit along the riverside cafes. All wanted to capture the setting sun.

They pointed their cams west. I pointed mine east.

p1431007642-5.jpg
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
The tables are usually laid for two around here.

The past couple of weeks, the chair opposite mine has been unusually empty. I miss the occupant.
It is time for me to go home.

p1431526312-5.jpg

Thank you for being with me.
 
M

Martin Stephens

New member
re: women in woods

A bit too much hash around the subject to be a focused composition. Harsh light isn't helping, and the subject isn't in a remarkable gesture.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Martin Stephens said:
re: women in woods

A bit too much hash around the subject to be a focused composition. Harsh light isn't helping, and the subject isn't in a remarkable gesture.
Click to expand...

Martin Stephens said:
Re: field workers

A very nice story and interesting, but maybe with less pronounced processing would be more inviting?
Click to expand...

Hi Martin.

Really appreciate you stopping by. Grateful for your valuable feedback.
Shall keep it in mind next time round.

Kindest regards.
 
M

Michael_Stones

Member
This is not easy to say and meant not as criticism but pondering, Fahim. I trust you'll take it in a constructive spirit as per my intent. The fact is that after viewing the series three times now, I'm hard put to bring to mind the content of any photo except for the sleeping boy and the farm workers in a field, with details about the latter receding even as I write. 'Why is that?' I pondered.

The answer I think is an absence of feeling and meaning, neither passion nor anything that arouses my curiosity to look deeper into the photos. Sure, you provide meanings for some images through textual accompaniment but nothing that challenges (or confirms) what I know already. The people in most of the portraits look neither happy nor sad, neither animated nor distressed, nor particularly active because they're doing routine things in what looks to be routine ways. The same for the objects: they're not in motion, just passively there. Moreover, I don't connect you with the images - signs of delight or dismay about what's depicted goes missing in the photos. Observation without interpretation or discovery weakens one's attention.

This pondering applies more to me than you, Fahim. Like everyone here, I'm trying to figure out how to make my own photos more interesting. Perusal of your technically high quality images, which roundly deserve their praise, gave me some clues. Thanks for that.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Michael_Stones said:
This is not easy to say and meant not as criticism but pondering, Fahim. I trust you'll take it in a constructive spirit as per my intent. The fact is that after viewing the series three times now, I'm hard put to bring to mind the content of any photo except for the sleeping boy and the farm workers in a field, with details about the latter receding even as I write. 'Why is that?' I pondered.

The answer I think is an absence of feeling and meaning, neither passion nor anything that arouses my curiosity to look deeper into the photos. Sure, you provide meanings for some images through textual accompaniment but nothing that challenges (or confirms) what I know already. The people in most of the portraits look neither happy nor sad, neither animated nor distressed, nor particularly active because they're doing routine things in what looks to be routine ways. The same for the objects: they're not in motion, just passively there. Moreover, I don't connect you with the images - signs of delight or dismay about what's depicted goes missing in the photos. Observation without interpretation or discovery weakens one's attention.

This pondering applies more to me than you, Fahim. Like everyone here, I'm trying to figure out how to make my own photos more interesting. Perusal of your technically high quality images, which roundly deserve their praise, gave me some clues. Thanks for that.
Click to expand...

Michael, firstly a big thank you for your time to provide me with your impressions.

No, I shall never take constructive criticism but in the sincere spirit that it is given.

That these images do not provide any feeling or ' connect ' with the subject then is a failure on my part.
That there is something lacking to provide that ' feeling ' is important to me.

I have to figure out the why; and hopefully do better the next time around.

Once again, I am grateful for your input.

Kindest regards.

p.s one thing I missed to type. I photograph people doing routine, mundane things. Normal people doing normal activities. No deeper meaning is sought by me.

But that does not absolve me from the responsibility to bring more feeling into the image; as you so kindly and correctly pointed out.

Thanks, once again.
 
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