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imagenes de Mexico


imagenes de Mexico
Photo Information
Copyright: Prantik Mazumder (prantik) Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 133 W: 38 N: 221] (1124)
Genre: People
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-01-03
Categories: Daily Life
Photo Version: Original Version
Travelogue: Mexico
Date Submitted: 2007-03-27 8:27
Viewed: 1118
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 28
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
San Cristobal de las Casas


Some after-thought on this picture:

Among all my uploads, this particular picture generated the most polaraized reactions. I appreciate the criticisms and the praise equally. I haven't previously described what was on my mind when I uploaded this picture for two reasons. First, I am more interested in knowing how the viewers interpret my picture. Second, I did not have a coherent idea about what the picture meant at that point. I agree that it is an odd-ball picture and I was not sure about uploading it on TE until a good friend of mine strongly encouraged me. She described it as "an open picture that lets me make up stories" and she dreamt about it. So I tried my luck on TE.

Hugh and Animesh, two most eloquent and independent critics on this forum, also added original thoughts that helped me look at the picture differently. Here is *my* interpretation of the cropped woman. Indigeneous people of Chiapas believe that if you take their pictures, you capture and imprison their spirits in the camera. As I have taken many pictures of the indigenous people, I must have captured a few. To me, this woman is one of the spirits who lives in my camera and appears as an apparition once in a while. While I pressed the shutter she abruptly appeared and swiftly passed by like a sudden breeze. I could see her from the corner of my eyes, and before I could fully visualize her form she was there no more. Hence the cropped face, hence the lack of clarity, hence the general feeling of elusiveness. By the way, I don't really believe in the legend, it's just my interpretation :)



Theme: Chiapas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I spent a week in the state of Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico bordering Guatamela. It was the highlight of my trip. As Lonely Planet describes, Chiapas is Mexcio's most enigmatic state with wildly ethereal landscape, mysterious indigeneous cultures and customs, colonial and rebellious charm of San Cristobal de las Casas, majestic Mayan ruins of Palenque, and the political presence of the Zapatistas. Rural people of Chiapas, especially the indigeneous people, are among the poorest in Mexico. About one third of the population are direct descendants of the Mayans, and in rural areas many do not even speak Spanish. On January 1, 1994, the day of NAFTA's initiation, an armed revolutionary group, the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN), or popularly known as the Zapatistas, occupied San Cristobal and three other cities in Chiapas and started the anti-neolibralism "Zapatista uprising". The intent was not to overthrow any government, local or federal, but to focus the world attention to the plight of the poor indigeneous people of Chiapas and to protest the signing of NAFTA. The Mexican army evicted the rebels quickly from San Cristobal, and soon after EZLN declared unilateral cease fire. Since then, except for a few low level conficlts, the Zapatista movement kept a low profile and have been working on the grass root level to improve the standard of living of the indigeneous people of Chiapas.

Now, twelve years later, the omnipresence of Zapatistas is clearly palpable in the cobbled streets of San Cristobal. The city walls are full of revolutionary graffitis, the bars and cafes are adorned with Che Guevera, Emiliano Zapata posters, night life is dominated by rebellious reggae music. Since the uprising, the town has adopted a youthful zeal and has been attracting socially conscious people, especially students, volunteers, intellectuals and artists from various parts of Mexico and rest of the world. The city has become a gathering place for Zapatista sympathizers and a base for humanitarian organizations or groups or even individuals working on indigeneous issues.

I spent most of my time in the beautiful city of San Cristobal. Aside from soaking up all the youthful energy, I greatly cherished the sheer beauty of this charming highland town. I went to the Mercado Municipal (local bazaar) every morning for breakfast. It is an onslaught on all the senses, and I felt like I was in one of the bazaars in Calcutta. I made short trips to nearby villages inhabitated by the indigeneous Tzotziles and Tzeltales people of Mayan descent and could not help but develop a deep respect and admiration for the organic and community based cultures and sensibilities of these communities.
(Reference: Lonely Planet's Mexico, Wikipedia)
AnimeshRay, bombilla, scalerman, chc, Luko, alonsote, s10001in, quillo has marked this note useful
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To photographer123: styleprantik 3 03-28 10:05
To imtiyaz: subjectsprantik 2 03-28 10:04
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Critiques [Translate]

Hi prantic..
Baap re!!!!!!!!!!aabar sei hard style...I cant understand nothing..why,too much space in piller side?why, the girl cropped?..do you explain?:-(

Which is our subject pillar or girl or the two people...
What is our concept here :(

Hey Prantik,
I thought the same thing when I saw your photo, why the girl is cropped and she is an interesting subject and comes in first plan. But anyway, u got here good elements and good colors, the framing is excellent fitted.
Have a good day:)
Gordana

I like this alot, Prantik. The girl's obscurred hands seem to be "returned" to the photo in the activity of the two boys. What we can only intuit her doing seems to be exactly what they are doing. It's a kind of reordering of space. She seems to be looking at them even though she is looking away from them. And the fact that she is a woman, dressed in traditional indigenous clothing, and they are men, dressed in modern outfits, seems to transform this into some kind of cross-cultural-temporal-gender commentary. And, for some reason that defies explanation, that entire effect is achieved by your use of the bold orange and yellow wall (which lines up perfectly with the white and red wall across the street). Quite intriguing. A lot of tension. I would love to know how much of this was achieved through post cropping. Could you have possibly composed this in the camera like this? -Hugh

(Coming back to this, I think it all has to do with the way the lines split everything. The walls, the girl's rebozo. Formal lines seem to be indicating figurative lines of space/time and culture.)

Very, very brave shot. Not only courageous because you let go of the shutter right on her face, but also a brave one for composition. All our attention becomes drawn to the two diminutive figures struggling with the garbage bags, and the beautiful woman in front in a soft bokeh provides a gentle counterpoint.
[You are getting hard time from some fellow Bengalis, but I applaud your experiments in perspective]

oh wow! awesome shot Prantik...poetic, like a casual brush stroke on a canvas, dreamy and definitely extremely imaginative. Like it a lot and since i haven't added one in my favourites for a long time...this one goes right there. A composition as this reminds me once more why I am in TE.
Take care,
TFS,
Regards,
Durba

  • Great 
  • chc Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 348 W: 33 N: 145] (1468)
  • [2007-03-29 6:42]

Hi Prantic,
Good compo once again. The wall and the girl create simultaneously a frame for the scene in the background and its context. Great!
Christophe

  • Great 
  • Luko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2736 W: 515 N: 2915] (13701)
  • [2007-03-31 8:42]

Right, to be really honest, I'm not sure that this image calls for any story... but it stands up as a photographic/graphic/visual effort, I mean what I can praise here is the way the you've split the frame in different areas of color, especially the yellow/red then red/white continuity. For me, the right side woman is more of a colorful area than a legend.

This is more for me owing to contemporary plastician photography, playing with colors and areas than strctly speaking documentary/ Nat.Geo photography.

Sorry, I don't see any story unfolding in the frame, but a really good visual, abstract painting like, experience. No worries though, i'd be extremely happy to have taken this shot.

Another very fine shot from

Hi Prantik,

It is hard to say what the story is but this Photo is really very beautiful..
In fact very cleaver way of shooting.

-Regards,

I do like your photoes of Mexico extremely. Often look at them and try to understand the rules of composition you created here and consequently realise. Like each one of them but it seems hard to comment one by one and not repeat the same thoughts. Love the very special atmosphere of this shot - I know it's probably an usual street scene but I do feel as if somthing mysterious is going on. Love the feeling. Greetings T.

hello Prantic,

I love the composition , it is great !!!!!
the story of the photo is very strong by this photo, this is one for the cover of national geographic imo.
greetings, inn

-

Hola Prantik, me alegra conocer tus imagenes.... he recorrido tu galería
y me ha gustado, sobre todo los encuadres
de las composiciones, creo que eres especialmente
cuidadoso con ellos o que tienes un buen gusto natural que salen así,
lo cierto es que me ha llamado la atención.
Este concretamente me parece magnífico,
con varios planos que convergen en la escena central
del hombre y el muchacho con la bolsa negra.

Bueno compañero, felicidades por tus fotos
y espero que entiendas el español.

Un abrazo desde España.

Hasta pronto.

-

Hello Prantik:
I have just discovered your gallery thanks to Luko's recommendation. You have some amazing stuff.
If there was an extra rich green face that you could give once in a while then I would certainly give it to you here.
You have two scenes, one exacvtly paralel to the other one, there is a rere spiritual quality to this girl and the fact that she is cropped only make the effect stronger. Plus the colour of the wall and the way the wall occupies such a large proportion of the frame gives the photo a very graphical quality.
Bravo this is trully a very professional looking photo.
Regards
Daniel

I am new to this process...living in Oaxaca fro 3 months. I absolutely love your work. Please take a look at mine and let me know if I am capturing mexico in as well as you have. Buene Suerte.

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