~ GATE TO THE SOUL ~ Photo

Photographer’s Note

A girl from the small village Arjasa on Eastern Java. She is not yet 4 years old but soon she will be starting in school.

Hopefully her family will also be able to let her join the private English course in Asembagus which is about 15 km away from the village.

The school where the course takes place opened last year by one single woman.

I have found a Danish company who is willing to sponsor desks and chairs to the school.....I just need to find out about the transportation.....any ideas are more than welcome.

Philippe, edouard_lauer, Dpbours, everlasting has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Vato_Law (11660) 2009-03-22 13:01

Hello Tina.
powerful b&w portrait with a beautiful side light iluminating her cute face.
But here it's those big eyes facing you that IMO makes the success of the photo.
Lovely work.
Cheers.
Paulo

Philippe (11745) 2009-03-22 13:31

Hi, Tina. A good B&W portrait. The little girl has fantastic black eyes looking confidently into the lens. The exposure is spot on and the short DOF makes the nice face stand out very well against the background.
Have a nice evening,
Philippe
PS: Sorry, I haven't got any solution to propose for the transport...

bantonbuju (48446) 2009-03-22 13:51

absolutely top of the notch portrait... selecting one major detail is the key to the success - you picked up the eyes, no other choice here obviously but you used the "theme" perfectly...

personally, i'd just crop a bit differently leaving more space at the bottom...

best wishes, j.

edouard_lauer (1063) 2009-03-22 14:10

Hi Tina,

what expressive eyes and a look filled with hope that she might being let go to school. Your photo is filled with lot of emotions and I hope you'll find transportation for the desks and the chairs.

Cheers and hope to hear if you succeed or not,
Edi

faubry (32237) 2009-03-22 14:50

powerful glance... superb bW portrait,cute and tenderness.
congratulations
francine

pisces (770) 2009-03-23 1:14

Hi my friend!
Those eyes sure are the gate to her soul! Beautiful B/W this one! Those big dark eyes look straight into the very heart of you!
Absolutely striking and perfectly captured!
Beautiful!
Maria :-)

Dpbours (218) 2009-03-23 2:36

Hi Tina,

Transport is always the bottleneck for projects like these. Best is to look for city-bonds or church-links and hitchhike your stuff in a sea container with stuff from them.
Getting a container full of stuff is one thing, knowing about the import rules of the country is another one. Be careful that you are not taxed on the items, since what you see as a precious gift will be seen by the government as the destruction of their internal market and false competition. And they are right economically. You are dumping excess material on their market.

And if you would count the cost of transport and all the efforts made, quite often it is worth just collecting money and pay a local technical school to build them over there. Money flows back to the local economy, you create work and the desks are 'culturally appropriate', ie. in line with what people are used to over there.

I would ask the company to keep the desks and sponsor you with knowledge and money. Fly over there with one of their designers and have them working together with local craftsmen.

Greetings!
Dennis

everlasting (10898) 2009-03-26 14:01

Hi Tina, very creamy B&W rendition. Lovely portrait, glad to see another of your images here. Good luck with your project I am afraid I cannot offer any advice, but I think Denise has good tips.

figenya (1172) 2009-06-24 5:00

Hi Tina,

attractive eyes, excellent shot. I liked it:)

Figen