The Accidental Tourist Photo

Photographer’s Note

A very rare straight portrait for me. As I've discussed elsewhere, the genre that I find most difficult.

This woman has spent her whole life living in the same Ruthinian village, and has also lived in four countries. She was born into the Hungarian province of Slovakia in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and grew up in Maseryk's independant Czechoslovakia. During the war Slovakia's Ruthian region was transferred back to Hungarian control after the Nazi invasion, and after the war, rather than reverting to Czechoslovakia, was ceded to Ukraine in the Soviet Union. Since 1991 she has lived in the independant republic of Ukraine. Interstingly, the Ruthinian dialect which she speaks is closer to Ukrainian than the languages of any of the other countries under whose administration she has lived, so, in a way, she's probably found her natural home (if she's still alive 7 years later).

Scanned from a 35mm slide. I know a lot of you would suggest a tighter crop, but I wanted to leave enough background to suggest the pastoral setting. There's probably a bit too much cropped of the bottom, but she was holding a white towel, which was too much of a distraction.

Aegean, elihesamian, jrj, supereira, ChrisJ, christina, sunny, eleparc, cetrocomix, michel_r, Amphitrite has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

clodreno (0) 2004-10-11 4:14

You should do it more. I like it a lot. Portrait can be difficult or extrely easy, depending on what the subject has to say. This woman tells me a lot, and you did well.
B&W is also appropriate, I love it even though I never do it anymore..Nice image Richard.
Actually the crop is very good like this.

snuggleaphagus (4140) 2004-10-11 4:18

It appears like the weight of wrinkles prevent her from smiling more.

I REALLY like the crop.
This too perfect.

maciekda (19599) 2004-10-11 4:18

yes, I agree with Claude, you should do it more. this portrait is really good, well composed, interesting face. the only flaw here is overall softness of the picture - the face should be sharper. anyway, it is a good work

Aegean (2567) 2004-10-11 4:25

A lovely classic portrait Richard! The face expression of the old lady is great and, IMHO, reveals all the experiences she had in her not so easy life! And most important she is still smiling with the kind of smile which tells..."hey...you know nothing about real life" :-)

elihesamian (26091) 2004-10-11 4:51

Lovely mother/portrait shot with nice story/biography about her,...well cropped,good in B&W with notice to subject & story,...it's normally that she has many stories in her life,many unique happening that she saw,...it's very interesting for me.

Thanks for posting,Richard,I like it alot.

jrj (34779) 2004-10-11 5:00

For me the cropping works well. I think a good placement of the grand lady. BW a good choice too. But I had liked some more sharpness - but the scanning process always a bit tricky I think...

supereira (9576) 2004-10-11 5:48

Good DOF.B&W a good choice.Very good composition and light.Very good portrait.

centurion (0) 2004-10-11 5:54

She is the typical "Babushka" Richard. Interesting her passing thru the local history and border changes. Good portrait here of this old women.

Darren (6819) 2004-10-11 6:52

I don't think you need a tighter crop here at all, I think this is very well balanced. I like the b&w conversion as well. I just wish it was sharper. Good shot.

ChrisJ (70443) 2004-10-11 7:13

I would go for a tighter head & shoulders vertical shot for this portrait. Could be a little sharper, but compo & tonal range are excellent.

avis2avis (4244) 2004-10-11 8:16

Hi Richard, I guess all has been said about this shot already. Not much else to add. But just this ... you got a nice shot here. I like the BW tones.

christina (2040) 2004-10-11 8:16

Richard,
I think this is a very good portrait! I like the crop, DOF, and the note is very enlightening!Good job!!

Spoony (3539) 2004-10-11 9:12

Four countries??? She should be a open mind... ;)
I like this kind of photos.... agreable to me.
Great shot Richard.

sunny (3068) 2004-10-11 9:51

Very good portrait in B&W, Richard! I like her wrinkled face with the softly smiling eyes. Very well done!

sn00zie (2384) 2004-10-11 12:55

a lovely capture Richard.. you should definitely do it more often :)

eleparc (24059) 2004-10-11 18:32

nice try Richard! i like how you offcentered her to the right (my favorite compo;-)) lol).. slight lack of focus though... did you try to sharpen it through PS?

How come you visited all those countries? business? or leisure?

ma-tibou (4566) 2004-10-12 7:54

Bonjour rchard, joli portrait les détails des traits du visage ressortent bien , bon choix le B&N.
amitié.
désolée à sec demain.

Skorj (581) 2004-10-12 9:28

Brilliant subject, well engaged, and really well framed.

Your scan though is a bit iffy, I assume both your camera and lens are better than this.

I also think she deserves a better, more imaginative title than a cliched film name? What was her name for example? What did she do?

cetrocomix (309) 2004-11-02 12:04

Hello Richard! Good thing you arrived on my page because I had also missed yours up to now (but I'm quite new in TE) and I find it's really worth to discover it. I've seen a lot of pictures of quality and I like the diversity of places and themes you offer. I'll discover it day after day. But first watching at the thumbnails I stopped at this portrait that I really like, different of what we usually see. I enjoy a lot black and white in this case, with colors it wouldn't have been the same. Perfect composition for me. Incredible the story of that woman that stayed all her life in her village but has been in so many countries. The title of "accidental tourist" is just excellent for me. Such kind of picture should be in a book of history and, told like that, could help many kids to study history with more fun.

michel_r (1114) 2004-11-03 16:19

The crop seems pretty good to me. She is standing firmly in the picture.
Laughing eyes and also looking very strong, but she's been travelling (or rather the world's been travelling so much around her). Very good portrait, very nice note and very good title.

grenoblegirl (75) 2006-10-14 21:11

A very touching photo and story. Excellent work. I especially like it in black and white. It takes away from the backgroud to moves the focus to the woman.

Magritte (418) 2007-04-20 10:21

Très belle photo, et quel regard! Félicitations!

cgale (62) 2007-04-20 10:49

Hi Richard,
I saw this photo on the TE splash page, and it just grabbed me. I'm usually not very interested in portraiture, but this is fantastic. The image expresses so much. I actually really like the crop - it gives the photo more depth, and the BW is an excellent choice.
Thanks for sharing this! ~Christina

Amphitrite (1592) 2008-01-31 1:52

Hello Richard,

This portrait tells more than your notes.
Dolefully smile and the wrinkles on her face are very well captured. Nice BW shot.

Well done. Thanks for sharing,
PINAR

Ber (7576) 2009-02-08 10:41

Hi Richard
Very nice portrait of this old woman. Great story!
regards