Insignificant Photo

Photographer’s Note

Abandoned by society and forced to live in the dumps, this lonely pair has made the landfill their home. Unlike some families that live in the area, these two live in a house in the middle of the fray. Constructed from trash and surrounded by litter, the shack looks as if it will fall apart at any moment.

Curioso, leiju has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

eladen (239) 2005-07-14 14:43

This photo is amazing. It's one of the ones here on TE that is hard for me to grasp. Great clarity and color, though I agree that the people are almost hidden - as though an afterthought.

oochappan (22032) 2005-07-14 21:00

Hi Mark
I follow your thread here as you must see this subject as a serie to sense it fully, indeed, the fine empathy that you can feel in the serie takes you along in your message from this world even sometimes forgetting the photo, a quality given only to a few, trespassing a "dump".

sohrab (7423) 2005-07-15 2:25

you photograph justifies the title..
they indeed seem significant in this mess..
i think the reason why your 'social' photographs are not getting much attention is because most people are used to seeing such photographs in black and white..
however.. continue with your favoured medium..
you've by now really got a hang of compositions etc, but i think what you need to do now is blend into the scene.. from a documentary point of view, you're doing a great job.. but if you can make the subjects speak to us ( without the necessarily looking at us) then your work will transcend the rest..
you should apply this also to 'war photography'.. that's what i wanted to do at one time.. i just feel that the quality of war photographs has fallen drastically over the years... it's all about blook , dead bodies and wailing now.. and very few can really make you FEEL the pangs of war..
so often on NG, they show the stories of 2 war photographers (forgotten their names) 1 vietnamese and the other , american, who were moving with their troops on either sides.. their photographs were not about blood etc.. infact i still remmeber this photograph of these vietnamese soldiers sitting together rading letters they got from home, feeling joy for the first time in a long time.. thats' more powerful for me than the blood and stuff that i see today..
even don mccullin.. supposedly the greatest war photographer...
their photographs speak. you should try for the same
take care :)

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jcandeli (40) 2005-07-15 8:33

Wow. I am in awe of this scene. I am facinated by the filth. I can't stop looking around at it and trying to comprihend how it must be to sleep and eat here.

The photo is powerful but I think the people do not stand out enough. I keep looking at them and yet it is hard for me to focus on them. Maybe the DOF is slightly too shallow or the lighting not contrasted enough with them. Otherwise I think it is great.

*** I tried a workshop but it looks a little unnatural. Maybe with a RAW file to work from it would look better. I will post the workshop anyway.

JP

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rbcy1974 (20746) 2005-07-18 9:38

Hi Mark,
Thank you for this series, I am piggibacking on your experience to learn, I hope you dont mind :)
I really liked sohrab's comment.
I agree. I think that the picutre is well composed, nice colours and all, but the people don't look human enough. I wonder if taking them up fron with all the mess behind them would have worked better. In any case it is a good photograph, but from you I am used to much better. Knowing that. I realise the stress that comes from really wanting to get something right, maybe it kills creativity a bit.
Regards
Daniel

arturo (31) 2006-09-19 15:41

Hi Mark,

this is more like the "New World" i have seen so far...it's a quite gross image...probably only my point and shot camera is worth more than what this guys owed during his entire life...all irrelevant and not to compare but i feel bad looking at this image...cheers, arturo

kwazireal (179) 2007-12-13 12:00

This image speak, alright. One man in some sort of uniform, and apparently better-dressed than these surrounding would permit, seated next to what appears to be a child, not necessarily related to him...in the dumps.

My take: there is probably more wrong with this image than the supposed story that accompanies it.

Whatever this is supposed to evoke, it fails at. These people should move themselves and their possessions out of the dump. Anyhow, this is a picture of a lot of crap, which, what else would you expect to find in the dumps; people should not be there, of course, but what could the photographer do about that? What did he do about that? Took a picture? Wow....

Makes you wonder why a photographer from the United States, in Nicaragua, would go into the dumps of Managua in the first place...to capitalize on someone's misfortune? ...for points on TE?

What am I supposed to do about this? Not much, from here.

Powerful? No. Voyeuristic, certainly. A lot of crap, for sure!