April Photography Competition: Strangers

[soulfluxzero]

1.cybertect - lunch
well seen and realised, the composition really exaggerates the detatchment between the people, linked only by the communal bench.
2.Robster970 - airport
really strange and atmospheric photo, the etheral colours and ambiguous relationship between the couple is fantastically captured.
3.Refused as fuck - Entry 1
another mysterious shot; love the curtain of snow and quirky use of the 'no dogs' symbol.

and the photo comp wouldn't be the same without some sort of monthly controversy i guess...

 

[hiccup]

1) cybertect - lunch (the only photo that seemed to show people as strangers to each other, rather than just to the photographer. And the pigeon makes the shot)

2) big eejit - winter sunbathers

3) Refused as fuck - Blaydon Races

also really liked Nina - in memory, kage - the concern of strangers, hocus eye - small jump for man and pavlik - what you looking at

 

[kage]

1 - Pavlik - What you looking at?
2 - Soulfluxzero - Night market
3 - Cybertect - Lunch

Props to Airport, Night watchman and In memory.

 

[alef]

OK, I'll have a go at counting this up (more interesting than the dull chores I'm avoiding)...

 

[alef]

It's a landslide for cybertect's stunning shot:

Congrats, very well deserved!

40 cybertect - lunch
10 dansumption - French artists in Sheffield
9 soulfluxzero - night watchman
8 alef - Strangers on a bench
8 johey24 - Holding on
8 Robster970 - airport
8 soulfluxzero - through shot glass
7 johey24 - Shadows in the Forbidden City
7 Pavlik - What you looking at
6 kage - The concern of strangers
6 Nina---In-Memory
5 mort - Strangers
5 neonwilderness - Manchester Piccadilly
5 Refused as fuck - Blaydon Races
5 Refused as fuck - Entry 1
4 johey24 - Diary Entry in a Strange Land
3 Bors Sprinkler - Jagtvej 69
3 hiccup - travelling without moving
3 Johnny Canuck2 - Khalsa's Angels
3 neonwilderness - BOX
3 riggers---Trying-to-get-out-of-this-mess
2 big eejit - Winter sunbathers
2 dansumption - Anonymous Wehrmacht
1 chooch - Invasion of the...
1 e19896 - two one
1 e19896 - WE LOST WE ARE FUCKED
1 hiccup - Carnivalesque
1 janeb - Ramp
1 Paulie Tandoori - 3 on 393
1 tom_craggs - Your face or mine
1 Valve - Apart

 

[lighterthief]

Woot, grats Cybertect

 

[cybertect]

Blimey!

Thanks peeps

I'd also like to thank my agent, my parents, my cats...

[descends into a blubbing wreck and is hustled off stage by a couple of heavy-set guys in suits as the gallery rapidly fades in music and cuts to shots of the audience]

 

[alef]

And here's your place in the winners' gallery:
http://www.urban75.org/photos/comp/200804.html

 

[Robster970]

I think a win has been on the cards for a while imo - well done - great picture.

 

[hiccup]

Nice one cybertect

 

[johey24]

Well deserved. Biggest margin in the year I've been here, I think.

 

[chooch]

OK, I'll have a go at counting this up (more interesting than the dull chores I'm avoiding)...

Whoops. i was gonna do that.

Congratulations cybertect. Well deserved.

 

[Pavlik]

Blimey!

Thanks peeps

nice one

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

good stuff cybertect

 

[dansumption]

Well done cybertect, very well deserved.

A couple of people mentioned that they didn't think my French Artists in Sheffield photo fitted the topic of "strangers". I disagree (but then, I would do). The biggest feeling I get from looking at this photo is one of loneliness. Take a look at the pose and body language of the people in it: although it's packed with bodies, they are all grouped into ones and twos, disconnected from everyone else there. And in fact the woman at the centre of the photo is studiously avoiding the amorous approach from the guy to the left of her. (It may sound as though I'm reading too much into this scene, but I was there and that's exactly how it happened).

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Dan

As you may remember I voted for your picture. I think it has lots of painterly qualities, not in the sense of brush stroke qualities but the composition of many figures in a small space and the muted colours as of a painting under ageing varnish. The moody quality of light appeals to me - I do a lot of low light photography. with the flash switched off myself.

Also there is a man standing up in near the middle at the back. Behind his head is a circular shape. This you will doubtless know is a device used by some religious painters to imply a halo without actually painting one. Of course in this case it is a clock. So you score on traditional iconography as well. Was this accident or intent?

 

[dansumption]

Purely accidental - I took the photo at 1am, after I had been drinking since 4pm, so my eyes weren't entirely under my own command. The only thing I really noticed, and the thing which made me take this photo, was the woman in orange and the incredible way in which the lighting fell upon her top. I really felt at the time that the scene had that "painterly quality", and although there are many problems with it (e.g. photographed 3 stops under-exposed at 3200ISO) I think this is still borne out. The halo is an added bonus, although I have second thoughts about whether to keep it, for its iconographic qualities, or photoshop it out, for its distracting qualities.