Book boy Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

On the Dover to Calais ferry - we were nearer to Calais when I took this photo, so I'll put this down as France.
The usually quick crossing took more than three hours, and we were held in an exclusion zone off Calais while the French Airforce display team practiced for the 100th anniversary celebrations of Louis Bleriot's Channel crossing the following day.
People killed time by sleeping in the sun, reading books, or taking photos of complete strangers for no apparent reason.

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Critiques | Translate

papera (5326) 2009-08-07 13:30

hi ben,
good that you decided to kill time by shooting this one - I really like the distortion of the 24mm and the Tri-X tones. the boy seems to come out straight from the '60s, with his clothes and his existentialist, slightly annoyed look...
cris

casperduppy (1464) 2009-08-07 16:15

I really like this Ben, it is like a 'classic'.
A classic what, I hear you ask...
A classic snap-shot where nothing is fixed nor aligned nor directed.. It is all wrong! It is random with perfection! No-one is making face. Everyone has their own agenda, and each is so badly placed yet so well orientated. In some way like a prison, with the watch tower and high wall and machine nose and eyes spying on the lesser beings keeping them all in check. The courtyard of eventual controversy!

Fine shot! casper

macondo (13123) 2009-08-07 21:22

Hi Ben.
Nice contrasting tones in this b/w, and a good spontaneous sort of capture. I think the background is very eye-pleasing with the angles made by the white wall and the funnel or whatever it is. This fellow looks like a real reading wonk; I wonder if that's a guide book. Pity you missed the entirety of his feet, perhaps, with what appears to be their pigeon-toed angle. But that might have detracted from its apparent spontaneity.
The thing that most catches my attention, though, is the optical illusion of the strange being on the left - the woman in the white top with astoundingly long, wide-open trousered male legs.
Plenty to look at in this one.
Regards,
Andrew

Glint (3042) 2009-08-08 12:47

Hello Ben,
I like Casper's critique, it has style. The guy reading the book as acertain retro style too so this works well in black & white.
Bev

bantonbuju (48632) 2009-08-09 7:22

totally "usual" life shown in a melodic, poetic way...

a "book boy"... perfectly spotted...

there made a polish movie in 1960s - "cruise" - for generations it's became a sort of icon... this scene would fit the movie perfectly...

bw, j.